Food Shortages and Anarchy
We could very well be headed towards this scenario of anarchy…just look at the global situation and how what everyone keeps trying to deny is happening everywhere, including here in the U.S. (referring to the protests in WI over the teacher unions). The people are finding their voice and being heard now.
I expect that we will continue to see more ‘social unrest’ as the days, weeks and months go by…if this is indeed the case and we have already seen some serious spikes in prices for food and gas…what do you think more of this will look like for you and your family?
I urge everyone to store some food and water there is nothing crazy about that!
Connecting the dots to anarchy
Last year here in north Idaho, my garden failed. Miserably.
Not from lack of trying. But after having the “winter of no winter” (very little snow), we also had the “summer of no summer.” Well into the third week of June, the cold and rainy conditions made it nearly impossible for vegetables to grow.
It was a harsh lesson in some ways. Right now a garden’s failure is merely an inconvenience. But in times past, a garden’s failure could be catastrophic. After all, the French Revolution was triggered in large part because people were starving. Some say the recent riots in Egypt were fueled by surging wheat prices.
Keep this in mind for a moment as we review some recent headlines:
* A leading U.K. scientist warned about a threat of food riots around the world unless research into increasing crop yields is stepped up.
* A severe drought is threatening to destroy China’s wheat crop. Emergency measures to divert water for irrigation are leaving nearly 3 million people short of drinking water. “China’s grain situation is critical to the rest of the world – if they are forced to go out on the market to procure adequate supplies for their population, it could send huge shock waves through the world’s grain markets,” said Robert S. Zeigler.
* Global food prices have hit “dangerous levels” that could contribute to political instability, push millions of people into poverty and raise the cost of groceries. The USDA predicted last week U.S. corn farmers will have 675 million bushels of corn at the end of August, before next year’s harvest begins. That’s just an 18-day supply.
Are you prepared for societal upheaval many believe is inevitable? Take the first step with Gen. Honoré’s book, “Survival: How a Culture of Preparedness Can Save You and Your Family from Disasters”
Of course it’s not just food that’s an issue. What about debt?
* President Obama’s budget, released Monday, was conceived as a blueprint for future spending, but it also paints the bleakest picture yet of the current fiscal year, which is on track for a record federal deficit and will see the government’s overall debt surpass the size of the total U.S. economy.
* The chances of a government shutdown are on the rise.
* Silver is spiking.
* Like it or not, unemployment is at 17.3 percent, not the relatively soothing 9 percent we’re being spoon-fed by the mainstream media.
* Just four years ago, our budget deficit ($161 billion in 2007) was 10 percent of what it is today ($1.65 trillion).
British columnist Andrew Simms isn’t afraid to state the obvious: “This year is the 10th anniversary of the fuel protests [when protesters blockaded British oil refineries, bringing the supply of fuels to gas stations to a halt], when supermarket bosses sat with ministers and civil servants in Whitehall warning that there were just three days of food left. We were, in effect, nine meals from anarchy. Suddenly, the apocalyptic visions of novelists and filmmakers seemed less preposterous. Civilization’s veneer may be much thinner than we like to think.”
Are you connecting the dots yet? This is the elephant in the room that everyone refuses to see: We’re not as secure in this country as the government and mainstream media would like us to believe. There are sporadic news reports about dire possibilities, but few people are willing to connect the dots on the individual level. And yet it’s well-documented that America, too, has a mere three day supply of food in stores, thanks to just-in-time deliveries and the efficiency of modern-day transportation and manufacturing systems. America itself remains a mere nine meals from anarchy.
What this means, of course, is just what it says: After three days with no food, the veneer of civilization breaks down and people will commit just about any violence necessary to secure some food for themselves and their families. Remember Katrina?
Except for localized disasters, how long has it been since we’ve had food shortages in America? Certainly not in my lifetime. For too long, our complacent, secure nation has viewed resource troubles as someone else’s problem. There is a subtle underlying ethno-superiority when it comes to addressing scarcity. It’s always “those people” (in other countries) who suffer, not us. We’re Americans. We’re better. We have our benevolent government to save us.
Lulled by entitlements that have pervaded our nation in the past few decades, we believe we will always have food. So we sit. And wait. And fold our hands. And refuse to help ourselves. And stay vulnerable.
Read more: Connecting the dots to anarchy http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=265253#ixzz1EjDEzqZL
Meanwhile, a 50-pound bag of rice can still be bought for about $25 and a 50-pound bag of beans for less. A hundred pounds of rice and beans will last someone a long time. That kind of food security is affordable for nearly every citizen in this country, especially since food – right now – is still relatively cheap and available.
Yet anyone who preaches about keeping a full pantry is endlessly mocked and ridiculed as a right-wing extremist, a fear-monger and even a domestic terrorist. For centuries, a full pantry was simply a sensible precaution against the inevitable variations in weather and personal economic conditions. But America has developed a sense of arrogance and an “it can’t happen to me” attitude – coupled with an astounding ignorance of basic survival skills – that bodes ill for when disaster strikes. And history shows that sooner or later it will strike.
What worries me about this attitude is that when food shortages hit on a long-term basis or when unemployment spikes beyond the government’s ability to provide, hungry folks will listen to anyone who claims to have the ability to solve their problems and blame others for causing the hunger.
If money is worthless and food is hard to come by, how long before we react with fear and anger? How long before we’re willing to blame anyone and anything? How long before some charismatic leader assures us that he can solve all our problems? How long before violence erupts?
Can’t happen here? Don’t fool yourself. Hunger has no nationality. It doesn’t belong to any skin color, language or culture. Buy food now – because when the pantry is truly empty, it’s too late.
Read more: Connecting the dots to anarchy http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&
Again I would urge everyone to begin to store some foods and water. Enerfood and a Berkey water purifier would be great ways to start. Sprouting seeds are also wonderful and everyone should have them!
Chaos and death in Haiti
The story below is so sad and shows just how quickly disease can affect a disaster affected family, community and nation! I wish that the lack of aid and the corruption that is prohibiting what aid there is from getting to where it needs to go would somehow, miraculously become corrected!
Please pray for these people and learn from this situation. Do not think that, in the event of some disaster of this magnitude, our government could do better! In fact, history would suggest otherwise ibid, Katrina and the Gulf Coast Oil spill…
Sick desperate to get help as Haiti cholera outbreak kills 138
(CNN) –Chaos reigned north of Haiti’s capital Friday as hospitals overflowed with people rushing to get help from a fast-moving cholera outbreak that has killed at least 138 people.
Eric Lotz, Haiti’s national director for the nonprofit Operation Blessing, described a “horrific” scene outside St. Nicolas hospital, the main medical facility in the city of St. Marc, as patients and their family members fought to get care.
“There was bedlam outside the gate,” said Lotz. “Inside (the hospital), every square inch is covered with people.”
Some people waited 24 hours or more to get help outside the hospital, many of them on stretchers, said Terry Snow, Haiti director for the nonprofit Youth With a Mission.
Snow said he tried to take one man with cholera to various clinics, only to end up at St. Nicolas hospital and be told that it was full. The man died soon thereafter in the back of his truck, he said.
“It’s very chaotic,” Snow said of the scene in St. Marc and more rural agricultural areas nearby. “People are trying to figure out what to do. People are lost.”
Sandrellie Seraphin, who works for Partners in Health and the Clinton Foundation, visited the hospital Wednesday.
“It’s terrible,” she told CNN by phone, describing the crowds of people trying to get help. “There’s a great fear among the people” about the disease.
In addition to at least 138 people who have died, 1,526 people have been sickened in the outbreak, said Imogen Wall, the U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman in Haiti.
This comes after recent heavy rains spurred the banks of the Artibonite River to overflow and flood the area. Dammed in 1956 to create Lac de Peligre, the Artibonite River is Haiti’s dominant drainage system, according to the U.S. Library of Congress. All the cholera cases have been reported in the Lower Artibonite region, north of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Snow said that “constant miscommunication and confusion” have hindered aid efforts, though he expressed hope things may improve Friday as more help comes in.
On Friday, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive called the cholera outbreak “unprecedented” and said authorities were working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to understand what happened.
“We have to determine … where (the cholera) came from,” he said.
Cholera is caused by a bacterial infection of the intestine and, in severe cases, is characterized by diarrhea, vomiting and leg cramps, according to the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In such cases, rapid loss of body fluids can lead to dehydration and shock. “Without treatment, death can occur within hours,” the agency says.
A person can get cholera by drinking water or eating food contaminated with the bacteria. During epidemics, the source of the contamination is often the feces of an infected person, and infections can spread rapidly in areas where there is poor sewage treatment and a lack of clean drinking water, according to the CDC.
“If the environmental conditions are not right, and anybody who ingests that food or water can get ill,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. “This is the disease that can cause more severe dehydration than any other.”
All the reported cases in the Lower Artibonite involve severe diarrhea and vomiting, Wall said.
Ian Rawson, director of Hopital Albert Schweitzer Haiti near Verrettes, said patients began showing cholera-like symptoms Saturday. The pace picked up significantly Tuesday and beyond, though he said the situation was under control Friday at his 80-bed facility about 16 miles east of Saint Marc.
“So far, we’ve been able to manage it,” Rawson said, noting that new patients were now coming in via pick-up trucks about every 10 minutes.
Temperatures in the mid-90s exacerbated the dual concerns about dehydration and people contracting cholera by drinking tainted water. People lined roadsides in and around villages with buckets, according to Lotz, hoping that passerby might have clean water.
He said that his organization on Thursday helped install one water filtration unit, capable of providing 10,000 gallons of clean drinking water, and planned to install another two Friday. But some parts of the impoverished nation remained out of reach, he said. One village had been totally cut off by flood waters.
Haiti is still trying to bounce back from a catastrophic 7.0-magnitude earthquake on January 12 that destroyed much of the capital city. The U.N. mission in Haiti credited access to clean water and free medical facilities for preventing feared outbreaks of cholera and tuberculosis.
But Snow said he has noticed a rise in new illnesses — from skin infections to flu-like viruses — in the region since tens of thousands of people moved to the area after the earthquake and the opening of a new canal off the Artibonite River.
Whatever the cause, Lotz said the scene this week at hospitals in an and around St. Marc eerily resembled what happened in Port-au-Prince after the colossal quake.
“It’s the same scene, without the wounds, just the same numbers of people inundating the hospital,” said Lotz, who was in the Haitian capital last January.
CNN’s Azadeh Ansari and Alanne Orjoux contributed to this report.
Be prepared for any event. Berkey water systems can clean up your water and Enerfood can get you through some tough times!
