Gabon has been inching toward chaos since the presidential election last Wednesday. There were two people vying for the top job. President Ali Bongo Ondimba was being challenged by Jean Ping. When the results were announced, it was declared that Bongo had won by a 1% lead.
Ping has challenged the result and has called for a supervised recount. The day after the election results were tabulated, the headquarters of the opposition party were trashed, people were assaulted and arrested and the place was burned. Demonstrators filled the streets of the capital city, Libreville, demanding a recount. Some were killed and an estimated 1000 were arrested. France has reported that some of the 14 000 French citizens that reside in Gabon are currently unaccounted for. In retaliation, angry citizens have set fire to the parliament buildings. Ping has called for a general strike, but shopkeepers in Libreville have largely ignored the request. The Union of African States has offered to send people to help broker a solution to the dispute. To add to the current uncertainty, the Minister of Justice has resigned. He has implied that the election results do not reflect reality. The BBC has offered some clues as to whether there has been vote rigging.
Further Reading: Reuters New York Times BBC News
0 Comments
Thousands of Venezuelans marched in the capital city of Caracas calling for a referendum to oust President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro was elected as president when long time president Hugo Chavez passed away. Since then allegations of mismanagement of the economy and a huge financial hit due to the crash in oil prices have sent the country into crisis mode. Some of the actions taken by the Maduro government have further enraged the populace. Today when people converging on the capital reached the city limits they were met by police who refused to let the buses pass. The passengers, undeterred, walked. When too many busses came, the police gave up and allowed them to enter. The demonstration was peaceful, but authorities sprayed the crowds with tear gas and used stun grenades. Twenty people were arrested. Food shortages, ballooning crime and increasing oppression are three large areas of discontent. A man who arrived in Miami spoke with NBC News: "We're hungry in Venezuela. We can't stand it anymore," said Antonio, 56. "We're dying because of criminality and shortages. We need just one thing: the recall referendum to fire Maduro."NBC News Venezuela is currently a socialist country with price controls on many commodities. This has led to low prices for many foodstuffs, but cartels have purchased large amounts of food cheaply and taken it out of the country leaving many shelves bare of necessities. In an effort to stop the export of subsidized goods the Maduro government closed the border to Columbia which then left many people with no food to buy at any price. There have been allegations that powerful people in the government have participated in the scheme to buy the subsidized food and sell it at a profit. Currently the inflation rate for Venezuela is 181% and the general interest rate is 19%. Venezuela has the world’s largest known reserves of petroleum and normally sends its product to be refined and sold in the US, mostly through CitGo outlets. To add to the food and money shortages of the ordinary people, criminal gangs are making the country increasingly dangerous. The UK government travel advisory warns their citizens to be vigilant and to stay away from the Columbian border, keeping a distance of at least 80 miles. The site warns that drug traffickers are active in the area and illegal armed groups are operating. The danger of kidnapping is high. It goes on to state that violent crime is common throughout the country, advises that travellers take out comprehensive medical insurance and to be prepared for unexpected power outages which may also cut off water supplies. Venezuela is currently coping with an epidemic of Zika. Further Reading: NBC News CNN UK Government An epidemic has been growing among the drug users in British Columbia. Deaths from overdoses have been climbing exponentially as the drug fentanyl has infiltrated the market. Vancouver’s safe injection site, Insite, conducted testing on drugs. Clients coming to the site to use drugs more safely were offered the opportunity to test their substances for fentanyl. Drugs tests over a four week period this summer showed that 86% carried the possibly lethal chemical. Those that tests for heroin showed a 90% incidence of contamination with fentanyl. Vancouver has two supervised drug injection sites, the only two in the country. This latest increased danger to those who inject illicit drugs has activists calling for more sites to be set up across the country. The government has declared that the climbing number of deaths from overdoses to be a public health emergency. In the first six months in BC there have been 371 deaths due to overdoses. 60% of the deaths involved fentanyl. In a move to try to help, health care workers have made available for the asking, overdose kits. While Insite deals mainly with injection drug users, fentanyl is also being blamed for other drug deaths. It has been found in cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy and unknown mixtures. Contrary to what many may think, illicit drug use is not limited to “down and outers” but may be found in all walks and income levels. Some of the dead have been only occasional drug takers. Underlining this is the death of superstar Prince in June from taking fentanyl. A grieving father of a 17 year old in Vancouver spoke about the death of his son when he took a pill laced with the deadly substance. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is about 100 times stronger than heroin and 80 times stronger than morphine. It has legitimate uses in surgery and the control of severe pain. The drug can be synthesized by criminal chemists in black laboratories. It has been alleged that the source currently is Asia and that it is being imported by organized criminals. If you or a loved one takes street drugs of any kind, it is most important to know your dealer. Even then, what was safe before may not be safe today. The web site Know Your Source may give you some safety tips, but the only truly safe way is to never take street drugs. Further Reading: CBC News Vancouver Sun CTV News Wikipedia Know your source Over 300 pigs imported for slaughter in Hong Kong have been found to have been tainted with salbutamol and clenbuterol, a banned substance. The drugs are supposed to be used to treat asthma, but can encourage quick growth in animals as well as encourage lean growth. They are sometimes consumed by sport cheats to gain advantage over ‘clean’ athletes. Hong Kong imports over 90% of the pork consumed. Only 6% is produced in the former colony. Two hundred registered farms on mainland China supply the animals for slaughter. This amounts to about 4000 pig per day. There is a testing system in place, but it seems to have failed the consumers. The government testing agency states that the animals are killed only after they have been tested and cleared, while the slaughter houses state that if they do not hear from the testing agency they kill the animals. The suggestion that animals be tested and held for 24 hours before slaughter in order to ensure that all test results are in order was not well received. The added cost to the consumer was given as one reason. Another reason given was that it would not be healthy for the pigs to remain in crowded conditions before being killed. There is an investigation as to whether the pigs were administered the drugs while on their way to market as the levels were “unusually high”. The HK secretary for food and health castigated the inspection division and in a press conference put the blame squarely on them. The HK government stated that they would reimburse the merchants for the tainted meat. Food scandals are an ongoing problem in the PRC. The site The Daily Meal has passed on what they saw as the top four food scandals of 2015. Perhaps the scandals will be fewer in 2016 due to new laws passed last October.
South China Morning Post The Daily Meal The Green Revolution made is possible for agriculture to increase yields exponentially, saving millions of people from starvation. Part of the Green Revolution of the 60s and 70s was the introduction of widespread irrigation that allowed crops to be grown in areas previously thought too dry.
In the American west, a huge underground aquifer known as the Ogallala Aquifer or the High Plains Aquifer, has provided water to eight states and supported extensive farming activities. Land once considered too dry to farm has become a major producer of grains to the world. The US crops in 2014 were valued at around USD 125 billion. While the money associated with the sale of agricultural products is an important addition to the US economy, many people in developing countries depend on the generosity of that government in the form of food aid. That aid may be tapering off over the next few years as drought and the drawing down of water sources becomes more acute. The Ogallala Aquifer is becoming depleted. It is estimated that the reservoir may have filled 15 000 years ago. Some of it is replenished in the rainy season, but states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas lack enough rainfall to balance the water withdrawal. The US Department of Agriculture is taking steps to educate and support those in the dry land states to slow the depletion of the resource. The depletion of ground water is not confined to the USA. Aquifers in S. America and N. Europe and Russia are in good shape. Those in Mexico, North Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Upper Ganges Valley and the N. China Plain are being drawn down faster than they are being replenished. A find of fossil water in Libya has allowed for extensive agriculture in what was once desert. Using fossil water is much like mining for a valuable ore. It will not be replenished. With the combination of a rapidly increasing population that is expected to reach 9 billion by 2040, the demands on water supplies will continue to increase whether it is for agriculture, energy production, drinking. [Fossil water or paleowater is groundwater that has remained sealed in an aquifer for a long period of time. Water can rest underground in “fossil aquifers” for thousands or even millions of years.18 Oct 2010] Further reading: Scientific American Wikipedia USDA Science Daily |
Barbara McPherson
Blogger, gardener, farmer. Working toward food security and a 30 foot
diet. Addicted to reading. Love this planet, especially my little corner
on Vancouver Island, Canada Archives
October 2016
Categories
All
|