John Oliver on “Unfair Trade.”
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As inflation pushes the price of beef beyond the reach of the poor, increased demand for rat meat has pushed up rodent prices. A kilogram of rat meat now costs 5,000 riel (69p) compared with 1,200 riel last year. Spicy field rat dishes with garlic are increasingly on the menu as beef costs 20,000 riel a kilo.
Officials said rats were fleeing to higher ground from flooded areas of the lower Mekong Delta, making it easier for villagers to catch them. “Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets, but they keep some for their family,” said Ly Marong, an agriculture official.
“Not only are our poor eating it, but there is also demand from Vietnamese living on the border with us.” He estimated that Cambodia supplied more than a tonne of live rats a day to Vietnam.
”Salil Shetty | The Hub
Salil Shetty of the UN Millennium Campaign discusses the importance of taking action to end poverty.
“ For the first time, hearings are planned in other African countries, with the idea that information gathered will be used as a lobbying tool as the United Nations gears up to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), targets set by world leaders to halve poverty by 2015. ”
agriculture remains a key stumbling block (see my book, Delivering on Doha). US Trade Representative Susan Schwab started the week by offering to lower the overall ceiling for trade-distorting US farm subsidies from $22 billion to $15 billion. But the offer has been derided as meaningless by Indian, Brazilian, and other developing country negotiators because US subsidy payments are currently well below that ceiling as a result of the recent surge in commodity prices. (USDA projects payments in two of the three trade-distorting categories (excluding de minimis) will be less than $2 billion in this fiscal year.) But the point of reform is to restrain how much the US government can subsidize farmers when prices fall.
As shown in the chart, if prices fall back to levels regularly seen in the first half of the decade, the US offer would constrain subsidy payments, at least for the most trade-distorting forms of support reflected in the lines labeled AMS. The previous US offer would not, however, have put significant constraints on the other two, somewhat less-distorting, categories of subsidies — the blue box and non-product-specific de minimis, but an additional $2 billion will have to come out of those categories, providing some discipline on them. (The other $5 billion is a symbolic cut that will most likely come out of the product-specific de minimis category, which is little used by the United States.) In sum, it is true but largely beside the point that the US offer would not lead to cuts in current subsidy payments. It is also true that the recent farm bill is out of step with the proposal and, if the agreement is approved, US farm policy will have to change. name
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Ironically, progress was more dramatic 25 years ago when there was little funding. The UNAIDS boss, Dr. Peter Piot, said with every two people on treatment worldwide, five people were becoming infected with HIV daily.
First Lady Janet Museveni explained it this way: “In the late 1980s and the early 90s, there was a sense of urgency to stop AIDS and we had many volunteers.
“At that time, there were no financial rewards. Then money started coming in and we lost volunteers when we institutionalised recruitment.”
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At the same time, a familiar tactic of starving the opposition is being played out. On Thursday, Mugabe’s government announced a ban on non-government organisations providing food aid in the countryside, accusing them of ‘political activity’ and leaving Zanu PF clear to use food to coerce votes.
The UN and the Food and Agriculture Organisation are warning that Zimbabweans are enduring unusually huge shortages of food supplies. Bread in particular is becoming scarce and the goverment’s grain silos are said to be empty. American and British officials said food was being used as a weapon, because with the charities banned millions of the poorest Zimbabweans have to turn to Mugabe. Only the government and Mugabe’s Zanu PF will now be distributing food and other aid.
The outspoken US ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, said on Friday that the authorities were now supplying food mostly to Mugabe supporters. In a video-conference from Harare, McGee said his embassy has evidence food was being offered to opposition members only if they hand over their ID cards.
”Gates Foundation plucks new CEO from Microsoft ranks
A well-known Microsoft Corp. executive was named to lead the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation into a period that will test how well it can effectively distribute an unprecedented amount of money.
Jeff Raikes, a 27-year Microsoft veteran, will become chief executive, the Seattle-based foundation said Monday. He will succeed Patty Stonesifer, who has overseen the philanthropic activities of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda Gates, since the 1990s.
