Emad Mekay : CAIRO, Jan 9, 2011 (IPS) At least three Algerians have died and hundreds have been injured in four days of protests over housing shortages, rising food prices and failing economic policies that only three months ago won praise by the International Monetary Fund and other Western financial institutions.
The protests in Algeria come as similar demonstrations continue unabated in the neighbouring North African nation Tunisia, also hailed previously as an economic success story by Western banks and investors.
At least four Tunisians have died during the ongoing protests against the poor economic performance of Western-backed autocratic ruler President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.
The protests in both Arab countries were initially ignored by the Western media and Western governments but as the protests escalated Washington began to take note.
A Middle East advisor to former U.S. president George W. Bush and leading neo-conservative Elliott Abrams said on his blog at the Council on Foreign Relations that Tunisia was an "unimportant" country, but expressed concern that the fallout from the demonstrations could be dangerous for other Arab nations.
The spillover from Tunisia was quick to come in neighbouring Algeria, a country that provides Europe with 20 percent of its gas needs and is the world’s sixth largest natural gas producer after Russia, the United States, Canada, Iran, and Norway.
The unrest in Algeria, saw thousands of young people hurl stones at the police, set tires on fire, storm mail offices and government banks, and demand better living conditions and a greater share of the country’s oil wealth.
The unrest was widely reported in the Arab region and was seen as a symptom of growing impatience with regimes considered in the West to be "moderate" for toeing Western policy lines but that are in fact dictatorial and brutal towards their own people.
"The protests in Tunisia are a warning message to all Arab rulers," wrote columnist Fahmy Howeidi in several Arab newspapers, just days before the unrest spilled over to Algeria.
"The revolution of the hungry and the deprived couldn’t be ignored any more…The message from Tunisia is that tyranny can extend the life of a regime but it cannot keep it alive forever. All Arab countries suffer similar conditions to the ones that started the Tunisian protests," Howeidi said.
Now the Algeria and Tunisia "uprisings", as they are being called in the region, are front page stories in many independent Arab newspapers including Masrawy, a popular portal and AlMesryoon, an online daily newspaper in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populated country, as well as top pan-Arab news portals such as Aljazeera.net and Alarabiya.net. Even Yahoo’s Arabic version couldn’t ignore it for long.
Like other Arab countries, the regime of President Abdelaziz Bouteflica in Algeria is perceived as corrupt and inept despite high oil revenues. Algeria, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), saw its oil income rise sharply in 2010 as a result of higher oil and gas prices, but the benefits didn’t trickle to the disenfranchised Algerians.
Similarly, Tunisia’s President Ben Ali has worked to develop the touristic coastline, leaving the majority of Tunisians mired in poverty and unemployment.
Both countries see conspicuous display of wealth by the rich, spread of bribery to obtain government benefits such as housing, as well as nepotism – issues that have inflamed public sentiments for years.
Many of Algeria’s 36 million people find it hard to get by on daily basis, with many complaining about the difficulties of finding housing and providing for their families.
Algeria’s state-owned energy giant Sonatrach was hit in 2010 with a major corruption scandal after several senior officials and members of their families were found to have illegally tampered with contract awards for personal gain.
More specifically, the trigger for this week’s riots in Algeria came at the beginning of the month when staple food prices such as flour, cooking oil, milk and sugar averaged a 30 percent increase in the four days prior to the break-out of the protests.
Algerians, who had admiringly watched Tunisians shrug off their decades- long image of meekness during weeks of protests, also took to the streets venting their frustration at several government offices, mail offices and some banks.
Algerian Trade Minister Mustafa Benbada was forced Saturday to act to bring down rising food prices. He announced that the government will cut food prices by 14 percent, the official Algerian News Agency said.
Several blogs from Algeria said the protesters were still upset at the corruption, the widening gap between the rich and the poor and the abuse by the Western-backed ruling autocratic regime. Protests continued in several cities in Algeria.
"All over the Arab world, we are left to be eaten by the wolves," said one Algerian blogger named Bousaad.
"Algeria has turned into a jungle where the beastly eats the weak," a blogger named Rabei wrote Sunday. "The gap between the rich and the poor is getting larger by the hour."
"The Arab nation is looking to you, young people, who are carrying out the protests for change," said another blogger, Sawan.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54067
Showing posts with label food riots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food riots. Show all posts
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Sunday, 5 September 2010
POVERTY: Mozambique riots underline persistent poverty
Sep 2, 2010
Johannes Myburgh,
Hundreds of commuters briskly walk the streets of Mafalala, an impoverished neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Mozambican capital, trying to get to work before police and protesters clash again.
Police patrol during riots in Mozambique's capital Maputo September 1, 2010. Police fired rubber bullets and teargas as they clashed with demonstrators who burned tyres and blocked roads in protests on Wednesday against rising prices in the capital of impoverished Mozambique, witnesses said. Domestic worker Mercela Manuel, 34, talks with a friend as they cross the road together, glancing furtively about.
The street has been cleared of the burnt tyres that protesters used to block the road Wednesday, but remnants of the charred debris remain on the sidewalk.
Protesters staged a second day of strikes and demonstrations Thursday over food price increases in Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in the world.
The violence has so far left seven people dead and 288 wounded, the government says.
But Manuel says she still has to go to work so she can feed her three children.
"The cost of life is expensive. Very expensive. It’s difficult to live," she says.
Her wage of 54 dollars (42 euros) already makes it difficult to afford the 12 dollars (9 euros) she pays for the family’s bread each month.
Manuel's husband sends extra money from his job at a mine in South Africa, she says: but it is not enough.
Clashes between police and protesters broke out Wednesday and Thursday, as crowds in impoverished neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Maputo took to the streets.
They were protesting a 17-percent increase in the price of bread, as well as fuel, water and electricity rises.
Protesters looted 23 shops and damaged 12 buses, completely destroying one, government spokesman Alberto Nkutumula told journalists after an emergency cabinet meeting Wednesday.
Despite posting impressive economic growth figures since the end of a 16-year civil war in 1992 Mozambique still has a per capita income of just 794 dollars (620 euros) a year.
Yet there is little the government can do about inflation: prices in the import-dependent country have risen on the back of a South African rand whose value has appreciated 43 percent against the Mozambican metical since this time last year.
The protests represent a crisis for the government of President Armando Guebuza.
Guebuza was swept into a second term with a 75-percent victory in elections last year, as his Frelimo party increased its overall majority.
But they have been unable to stop the currency's slide or the steep rise in prices.
And a household survey due later this year is expected to show that poverty has not been reduced, Marcelo Mosse, head of the Centre for Public Integrity, told AFP.
"The survey still has not been published because authorities are supposedly massaging the figures," he said.
"Most Mozambicans know that external factors influence the price increases, but they do not see a change in the government's behaviour of spending patterns," he said.
"What we need now is a political gesture from government to reduce expenditures." “It is very important and I sincerely hope that such support and contribution will continue for the peace and security in the region. The peace and security of Darfur and Sudan has very important implications for peace and security in the region,” he told reporters in Vienna.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article638154.ece/Mozambique-riots-underline-persistent-poverty
Johannes Myburgh,
Hundreds of commuters briskly walk the streets of Mafalala, an impoverished neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Mozambican capital, trying to get to work before police and protesters clash again.
Police patrol during riots in Mozambique's capital Maputo September 1, 2010. Police fired rubber bullets and teargas as they clashed with demonstrators who burned tyres and blocked roads in protests on Wednesday against rising prices in the capital of impoverished Mozambique, witnesses said. Domestic worker Mercela Manuel, 34, talks with a friend as they cross the road together, glancing furtively about.
The street has been cleared of the burnt tyres that protesters used to block the road Wednesday, but remnants of the charred debris remain on the sidewalk.
Protesters staged a second day of strikes and demonstrations Thursday over food price increases in Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in the world.
The violence has so far left seven people dead and 288 wounded, the government says.
But Manuel says she still has to go to work so she can feed her three children.
"The cost of life is expensive. Very expensive. It’s difficult to live," she says.
Her wage of 54 dollars (42 euros) already makes it difficult to afford the 12 dollars (9 euros) she pays for the family’s bread each month.
Manuel's husband sends extra money from his job at a mine in South Africa, she says: but it is not enough.
Clashes between police and protesters broke out Wednesday and Thursday, as crowds in impoverished neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Maputo took to the streets.
They were protesting a 17-percent increase in the price of bread, as well as fuel, water and electricity rises.
Protesters looted 23 shops and damaged 12 buses, completely destroying one, government spokesman Alberto Nkutumula told journalists after an emergency cabinet meeting Wednesday.
Despite posting impressive economic growth figures since the end of a 16-year civil war in 1992 Mozambique still has a per capita income of just 794 dollars (620 euros) a year.
Yet there is little the government can do about inflation: prices in the import-dependent country have risen on the back of a South African rand whose value has appreciated 43 percent against the Mozambican metical since this time last year.
The protests represent a crisis for the government of President Armando Guebuza.
Guebuza was swept into a second term with a 75-percent victory in elections last year, as his Frelimo party increased its overall majority.
But they have been unable to stop the currency's slide or the steep rise in prices.
And a household survey due later this year is expected to show that poverty has not been reduced, Marcelo Mosse, head of the Centre for Public Integrity, told AFP.
"The survey still has not been published because authorities are supposedly massaging the figures," he said.
"Most Mozambicans know that external factors influence the price increases, but they do not see a change in the government's behaviour of spending patterns," he said.
"What we need now is a political gesture from government to reduce expenditures." “It is very important and I sincerely hope that such support and contribution will continue for the peace and security in the region. The peace and security of Darfur and Sudan has very important implications for peace and security in the region,” he told reporters in Vienna.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article638154.ece/Mozambique-riots-underline-persistent-poverty
Sunday, 15 August 2010
MALNUTRITION: Food riots in Pak, as desperate homeless and hungry survivors attack aid convoys
14th August, 2010 (ANI)
Food riots have erupted in several flood-affected areas in Pakistan's Punjab province, where starving people are attacking vehicles carrying relief goods.The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) officials said that their convoy had been attacked and vehicles looted in Muzaffargarh district. Similar attacks were reported on vehicles of the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) and IOM.PPAF coordinator Mohammad Kamran said that their organisation has suspended the work, as the situation has turned dangerous because of widespread hunger and thirst, The Dawn reports. Meanwhile, a local resident, Malik Asif, said that people had been without food and water for four days, and meals sent by the district government were not enough. He claimed that he had stood in a queue on Thursday for two hours, but could not get anything. The floods, triggered by torrential monsoon downpours just over two weeks ago, have claimed the lives of over 1,600 people and disrupted the lives of 14 million people, eight percent of the population.The entire country has been inundated, but the misery does not seem to end as fresh downpours threaten to bring more destruction.The Pakistan government, overwhelmed by the disaster, has been accused of being too slow to respond to the crisis with victims relying on the military and international aid agencies for help. (ANI)
http://www.karachinews.net/story/672169
Food riots have erupted in several flood-affected areas in Pakistan's Punjab province, where starving people are attacking vehicles carrying relief goods.The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) officials said that their convoy had been attacked and vehicles looted in Muzaffargarh district. Similar attacks were reported on vehicles of the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) and IOM.PPAF coordinator Mohammad Kamran said that their organisation has suspended the work, as the situation has turned dangerous because of widespread hunger and thirst, The Dawn reports. Meanwhile, a local resident, Malik Asif, said that people had been without food and water for four days, and meals sent by the district government were not enough. He claimed that he had stood in a queue on Thursday for two hours, but could not get anything. The floods, triggered by torrential monsoon downpours just over two weeks ago, have claimed the lives of over 1,600 people and disrupted the lives of 14 million people, eight percent of the population.The entire country has been inundated, but the misery does not seem to end as fresh downpours threaten to bring more destruction.The Pakistan government, overwhelmed by the disaster, has been accused of being too slow to respond to the crisis with victims relying on the military and international aid agencies for help. (ANI)
http://www.karachinews.net/story/672169
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