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  • #1

    Qat Fight...

    Well, it's another Thursday night here in the Middle East, and pretty well every security force in the region is on alert for signs of trouble after tomorrow's mid-day prayers. The security helicopters in this Kingdom started flying over my place performing surveillance on the nearby villages as dusk fell today, as there's talk of a major anti-government rally being organized for tomorrow. Further south just outside the Gulf, at the bottom of the Saudi peninsula, they were once again warming up today.


    ...Come senators, congressmen
    Please heed the call
    Don't stand in the doorway
    Don't block up the hall
    For he that gets hurt
    Will be he who has stalled
    There's a battle outside ragin'.
    It'll soon shake your windows
    And rattle your walls
    For the times they are a-changin'...
    -- Bob Dylan --






    San'ah - Thousands of Yemenis took to the streets as protestors and supporters of the current government held a "Day of Rage" rally on Thursday following President Ali Abdullah Saleh's promise not to run for re-election in 2013.

    Supporters of the government marched down its route starting from the old city of San'ah and ending in Yemen's Tahrir Square while displaying portraits of the country's president. They received logistical support and protection from the Yemen police and military.

    On the other hand, protestors held their street rally within the University District, located on the western side of the capital city of San'ah. They held up banners urging the President to step down as they chanted "down, down with the regime." One of the banners displayed during the anti-government demonstration read: "Thirty years of promises and thirty years of lies," according to the Associated Press
    Last edited by GRG55; February 03, 2011, 02:45 PM.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Qat Fight...

    Why Yemen's Revolution Has Failed So Far

    Thursday, Feb. 03, 2011

    Demonstrators marched peacefully through the Yemeni capital Sana'a on Thursday, quashing fears that the volatile situation in the south Arabian state would explode if the protests escalated into violence. Anti-government protesters had promised a Day of Rage, aimed at forcing President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, but by midday the protesters had already drifted home. Unlike in Tunisia and Egypt, Yemeni street protests have so far only managed to teeter on the edge of an uprising.

    Over 20,000 people marched in front of Sana'a University on Thursday, holding signs declaring: "Enough Saleh, Get Out!" But a couple of miles away, in the heart of the historic Old City, Saleh supporters were holding a smaller counter-demonstration. Saluting the President and accusing the opposition of disloyalty, thousands of pro-government protesters marched through the cobblestone streets to Tahrir Square (which shares its name with the plaza in Cairo) where the ruling party had erected tents for them...

    ...Covered in vast sandy deserts, lush green mountains and sultry coastal plains, Yemen is not like its neighbors in North Africa. Most of the Yemeni people live off the land in rural areas, disconnected from neighboring communities by harsh terrain — here, you can't mobilize the masses through Twitter...


    ...And although the streets of Sana'a were calm on Thursday, the situation could still get messy, especially if Egypt's Mubarak leaves and the people of Yemen get a second wind. "There may not be a middle class in Yemen, but there is a large, corrupt elite and everyone else," says Boucek. "The potential for things to go wrong is very high. It could get violent."

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    • #3
      Re: Qat Fight...

      Originally posted by GRG55 View Post
      "The potential for things to go wrong is very high. It could get violent."
      And we know how Time Magazine feels about violence.

      Don't we . . . .

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Qat Fight...

        Originally posted by don View Post
        And we know how Time Magazine feels about violence.

        Don't we . . . .
        Mubarak is front runner for the 2011 Man of the Year cover?

        [Of course we all know it should go to Uncle Ben for fueling [QE] and then sparking [QE2] the commodity/food inflation that he still denies has anything to do with Fed policy.]
        Last edited by GRG55; February 03, 2011, 11:46 PM.

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Qat Fight...

          Originally posted by GRG55 View Post
          Well, it's another Thursday night here in the Middle East, and pretty well every security force in the region is on alert for signs of trouble after tomorrow's mid-day prayers. The security helicopters in this Kingdom started flying over my place performing surveillance on the nearby villages as dusk fell today, as there's talk of a major anti-government rally being organized for tomorrow. Further south just outside the Gulf, at the bottom of the Saudi peninsula, they were once again warming up today.


          ...
          Bahrain’s King Orders Increase in Main Food Subsidies

          By Camilla Hall and Vivian Salama - Feb 3, 2011 9:38 AM MT

          Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa ordered an increase in food subsidies and social welfare payments as the government seeks to ease the burden of rising food prices.

          The government will increase subsidies on basic food items including flour and meat to 65.9 million dinars ($175 million) in this year’s budget, and to 67 million dinars in the next fiscal year, the official Bahrain News Agency reported today. The king also ordered that social assistance is increased to 20 million in the fiscal years.

          The government will increase subsidies on basic food items including flour and meat by 44 million dinars for the years 2011-2012, the official Bahrain News Agency reported today. The king also ordered an increase of 12 million dinars in social assistance.

          World food costs rose to a record in December on higher prices for sugar, grain and oilseeds, the UN reported Jan. 4, contributing to the uprising that ousted Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on Jan 14. In Egypt, hundreds of people have been killed in unrest against President Hosni Mubarak’s regime. There also have been protests in Algeria, Yemen and Jordan...

          ...The cost of Bahrain’s five-year credit default swaps rose 31 percent to 234 since Jan. 24...

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Qat Fight...

            And if you really want to know how to do subsidies...watch how the Kuwaiti's do it :-)
            Kuwait prepares USD 4 Billion Subsidy

            Kuwait Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah ordered the cabinet to provide a budget of $ 4 billion and free food for 14 months for its citizens.

            Action was made leader of the oil-rich countries such as the preparation for the fifth anniversary of Sheikh Sabah’s reign as well as anticipation of soaring food prices in the country. According to news agency KUNA, cash funds from the Emir of Kuwait that will be provided to 1.12 million indigenous citizens of each of 1,000 dinars ($ 3, 572).

            “The staple food is valid until March 31, 2012,” said Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs al-Rudhan Rudhan...

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Qat Fight...

              How many people on foods stamps in this country again? What's the rate of growth?

              [IMG][/IMG]

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: Qat Fight...

                That's right. Here in the US we know how to avoid riots. Sounds like leadership in other ME nations are getting wise as well.

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Qat Fight...

                  the widespread growth of subsidies for food should push ag prices even higher.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Qat Fight...

                    Originally posted by jk View Post
                    the widespread growth of subsidies for food should push ag prices even higher.
                    How about Phosphate?
                    http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report...t-unit_1501120
                    Of the world’s total 161 million tonne of rock phosphate produced in 2009, China mined 55 million tonne — an increase of 8.5% from 2008 — thereby becoming thethe largest producer of rock phosphate, according to US Geological Survey January 2010. The country also has the second-largest reserves at 3,700 million tonne, behind Morocco and Western Sahara, which has reserves totalling 5,700 million tonne.

                    http://www.news.com.au/business/brea...#ixzz1CobX76b8


                  • February 02, 2011
                    INSTABILITY in the Middle East and North Africa could disrupt supplies of phosphate rock and threaten global food security, say two Australian academics.


                    Phosphorus is an important component of fertiliser.
                    A high proportion of phosphate rock reserves are in the Middle East and Africa.
                    Professor Stuart White and Dr Dana Cordell from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney, are among researchers investigating a possible peak in phosphate rock production before the end of the century.
                    Speaking in the United States at the Sustainable Phosphorus Summit at Arizona State University, they said regional instability was an extra component in the potential gap between supply and demand in global phosphorus resources.
                    "Morocco alone controls the vast majority of the world's remaining high-quality phosphate rock," Prof White said in a statement.

                    "Even a temporary disruption to the supply of phosphate on the world market can have serious ramifications for nations' food security.
                    Prof White said that even before the peak in phosphorus production, there is a prospect of significant rises in prices and a consequent impact upon farmers and global crop yields.
                  ASU Summit
                  http://sols.asu.edu/frontiers/2011/program.php

                  Comment

                  • #11
                    Re: Qat Fight...

                    variation on a theme . . . .

                    Dictators of the world, I speak to you. You are about to lose your heads. So understand that you really need to look to the Koch Brothers if you want to hang onto those heads. If you form a grassroots rebellion now (ala the Tea Party of the Brothers Koch, but you should choose something similarly iconic in your own country, an event that, of course, doesn’t really have anything to do with the looting you are doing and, in fact, should mean symbolically the opposite of what you intend), and then instead of having to do a Mubarak-like thugs smashing up people and places thang, YOU can be the popular uprising – an uprising for MORE of your own policies!

                    Paid goons as protesters are much more convincing to the international media than paid goons on camel-back and as a mouthpiece for the Military-Industrial-Complex the media you own can look to FoxNews and Murdoch’s WSJ as a model of how to amplify the message of your popular uprising! Retain your power, retain your head.!

                    Astro-turf today, and your son inherits the throne tomorrow. Allow a real popular uprising, and you lose your head and your son is unemployed, perhaps headless as well.

                    Stacy Herbert






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