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Behind the Scenes at a Food Riot

 

Behind the Scenes at a Food Riot

The excellent Avi Lewis, whose documentary with Naomi Klein -- The Take -- is well worth watching, has turned his attention to the struggles around rice in Haiti. Here, in seventeen minutes, is one of the best treatments of the recent food riots in Haiti, and their long history.


Update Find out more at the Haiti Action Committee

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Posted on 17 July, 2008 - 15:42

Submitted by Andrew (not verified) on 22 July, 2008 - 02:54.

Thanks for the timely video. I think you are spot on in your dissertation that neoliberal capitalism driven by materialism and consumerism is bound to fail and the recent food crisis is an all to real example of that. Or, at least that's how I interpret the recent events.
Keep up the awesome work and don't take crap from the Milton Friedman fans/spammers.

Submitted by Raj on 18 July, 2008 - 23:04.

My mate Dan just sent around this gloss on the video, including links to
Part 2
of the documentary segment.

Hey all,
Avi Lewis, who with Naomi Klein made The Take, did a two part thang on Haiti, for alJazeera, The Politics of Rice. Good look at Haiti's food riots, food economies, food insecurities and general insecurities. Terrible on gender. The only woman interviewed in the two part 25 minutes is Maxine Waters. Waters is great, but hey .... are there no women in Haiti? We see women: working, caring, carrying, teaching, hanging out, walking, riding, providing food, purchasing food, cooking food. Maybe land tenure and land ownership might involve women? Maybe food distribution? You'd think, hm, political economy of food might involve women. Maybe? Maybe women have something to say about food riots? Nah. Anyway, check it out.

Submitted by Luddhunter (not verified) on 21 July, 2008 - 01:55.

Raj,
Your incessant indignant demonization of capitalism as the cause of food shortages does not distract me or anyone else who understands markets from the fact that your economic arguments are Marxist drivel, and your cultural food practice critiques are statist utopian fantasies:

1. This propagandistic documentary you embed was produced by Al-Jazeera, not exactly a credible journal for discovering economic root causes of shortages. No surprise they blame the U.S. for the majority of the problem. However I agree that protectionism and subsidies damage economies, including Haiti's, and I think the US should eliminate farm subsidies.

2. On the CSPAN interview with Evan Kleiman (another collectivist with masturbatory polyannic visions), you imply that India was better off with a feudal system of food production and distribution, you concur with Kleiman that "corporate greed" is the reason for current shortages, you imply that we are worse off because people are "forced" to spend less time preparing food, because they don't get paid enough or don't have a 2-hr lunchbreak....that we are "joyless" when we eat now...no surprise you advocate "living wages", universal healthcare, mandatory 2 hour lunches, and other ridiculous radical leftist dreams.

Let me help you out:

1. Food shortages are caused by either actual crop failure or natural barriers restricting distibution, or centralized economic policy: intentional restriction of supply, or price controls (3rd party pricing, subsidies, tariffs, taxes, or excessive regulations). You know that the Haitian shortages are caused by bad central policy that includes Haitian bad policy, not just bad US policy).

2. India has 1 billion people now and a fast growing economy because of capitalism, and only needing 8 minutes to prepare a meal. People CHOOSE to prepare food for 8 minutes, they're not "forced", they simply want to build their wealth, health, and security by doing what they are good at. No shocker that your "Slow Food" program you advocate was born out of socialism, as you admit. Old ideology, discredited, and rightfully derided.

3. Your admitted anger over the food situation is not an argument for the economic sense of your analysis. If people are angry about it, maybe they should work to get rid of illiberal policies which create artificial shortages and surpluses.

Why don't you read a little of "Wealth of Nations" and compare it logically and historically to the promise of "The Communist Manifesto", as ask yourself if you want to teach your kids be latched mentally and physically to the big tits of government for their whole lives, or would you perhaps be prouder if they were independent self-starters?

Stop being a parasite, get off the wagon, and grab a rope and start pulling your weight.

If you want to debate, I'm inviting you to come on my podcast show on joeypanto.com.
Email me on joey@joeypanto.com if you are interested.

Submitted by Raj on 21 July, 2008 - 17:38.

Have you actually read the Wealth of Nations, or do you just own an Adam Smith necktie?

Submitted by Luddhunter (not verified) on 21 July, 2008 - 18:02.

I admit only reading the pin factory part, and only aspiring to an Adam Smith ensemble of necktie, boxer shorts, and when I'm old enough, Adam Smith adult diapers.

But I'll match St. Adam's Unseen Hand against St. Barack's Heavy Thumb any day when it comes to getting food to people.

Submitted by Raj on 29 July, 2008 - 06:12.

Props to you, Luddhunter, for being honest. I'd very much commend to you the bits of Adam Smith where he fulminates on the inequities of the joint stock corporation. You can find a good summary here if you've turned your copy of the Wealth of Nations into Adam Smith-themed toilet paper. If you like what you read, then you and I will find ourselves unlikely allies, finding Mr Smith's thoughts on the economy far more sophisticated and commendable than those of either of the Democratic or Republican presidential candidates.