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October 2006
It Could Happen Here
by Gregory Meyerson and Michael Joseph Roberto
September 2006
Did Mao Really
Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?
by Joseph Ball
What Maoism Has
Contributed
by Samir Amin
May 2006
Universal Rights
and Wrongs: Roper v. Simmons, Torture and Judge Posner
by Michael E.
Tigar
August 2005
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) on the
Successful Attack on the Fortified Army Base in Kalikot on August 7th-8th,
2005
July 2005
Internal Debate within the Communist Party
of Nepal (Maoist)
June 2005
Nepal—The
Most Significant Popular Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the World
Today
by Randhir Singh
Debate Over the Future of the AFL-CIO: More
Heat than Light
by Bill Fletcher,
Jr.
May 2005
Hands off
Assata Campaign
Statement from the Black
Radical Congress
Will Miller: The
Life of an Activist-Educator
by Ron Jacobs
André Gunder Frank
(1929-2005)
by Theotonio dos
Santos
April 2005
A Note on the
Death of André Gunder Frank (1929-2005)
by Samir Amin
March 2005
Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Royal
Dictatorship and the Need For a Democratic Republic in Nepal
February 2005
The Future of Organized Labor in the U.S.:
Reinventing Trade Unionism for the 21st Century
by Kate Bronfenbrenner,
Donna Dewitt, Bill Fletcher, Jr., et al.
January 2005
On December 24, 2004, Maoists in China Get
Three Year Prison Sentences for Leafleting
May 2004
William H. Hinton
(1919 –2004)
by John Mage
April 2004
Can the Working
Class Change the World?
by Michael D.
Yates
December 2003
A Turn for the
Worse in the United States: Criminalizing Dissent
by Lynne A. Williams,
Esq.
September 2003
Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Failure of the
Peace Talks in Nepal
August 2003
Remembering W.E.B. Du Bois
by Bill Fletcher,
Jr.
June 2003
Gilbert Achcar Interviewed by David
Barsamian
May 2003
Fidel Castro: May
Day 2003
March 2003
Understanding the U.S. War State
by John McMurtry
February 2003
Women’s
Leadership and the Revolution in Nepal
by Com. Parvati
November 2002
The Face of
Empire
by William K. Tabb
September 2002
A Communication from the Revolutionaries in
Nepal on the Current (September 2002) Situation in the Civil War
Comparisons
Between Recent U.S.-Backed Coups: Caracas and Kathmandu
by Wayne Madsen
May 2002
A Struggle Within
the Chinese Communist Party
Letter of the
Fourteen
Letter of Ma Bin
and Han Yaxi
April 2002
Goldilocks Meets
a Bear: How Bad Will the U.S. Recession Be?
by Fred Moseley
Hypocrisy and Human Rights
by H. E. Mr. Felipe
Pérez Roque
January 2002
Birthpangs of Democracy in Nepal:
Commentary from Dr. Baburam Bhattarai
November 2001
Terrorism and
Human Rights
by Michael E.
Tigar
September 2001
Terror Attacks of
September 11, 2001
Statement from the Black
Radical Congress
August 2001
Will We Awaken
and Find That No One Is Left
by Bill Fletcher,
Jr.
July 2001
A Tale of Two
Conferences
by Bill Fletcher,
Jr.
June 2001
The Letter of Dr.
Baburam Bhattarai on the Palace Massacre in Nepal
April 2001
Statement on the
Rebellion in Cincinnati and Continued Police Terror
Statement from the Black
Radical Congress
African Leaders
Hide Political Woes Behind Homophobia
Statement from the Black
Radical Congress
March 2001
Communists Return
to Power in Moldova: Hope for a Communist Democracy in the Former Soviet
Union?
by John Mage
Contemporary Police Brutality and
Misconduct: A Continuation of the Legacy of Racial Violence
Statement from the Black
Radical Congress
February 2001
A Silent Coup
d’État: Only in America
by Edward Greer
U.S. Wouldn't Tolerate Our Election in
Nicaragua
by Robert W.
McChesney
Media Giants Have
a Pal at the FCC
by Robert W.
McChesney
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Reflections
More than three billion people in the world condemned to premature death from hunger and thirst.
THAT is not an exaggerated figure, but rather a cautious one. I have meditated a lot on that in the wake of President Bush's meeting with U.S. automobile manufacturers.
The sinister idea of converting food into fuel was definitively established as an economic line in U.S. foreign policy last Monday, March 26.
A cable from the AP, the U.S. news agency that reaches all corners of the world, states verbatim:
"WASHINGTON, March 26 (AP). President Bush touted the benefits of 'flexible fuel' vehicles running on ethanol and biodiesel on Monday, meeting with automakers to boost support for his energy plans.
"Bush said a commitment by the leaders of the domestic auto industry to double their production of flex-fuel vehicles could help motorists shift away from gasoline and reduce the nation's reliance on imported oil.
'"That's a major technological breakthrough for the country,' Bush said after inspecting three alternative vehicles. If the nation wants to reduce gasoline use, he said "the consumer has got to be in a position to make a rational choice."
"The president urged Congress to 'move expeditiously' on legislation the administration recently proposed to require the use of 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels by 2017 and seek higher fuel economy standards for automobiles.
"Bush met with General Motors Corp. chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner, Ford Motor Co. chief executive Alan Mulally and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group chief executive Tom LaSorda.
"They discussed support for flex-fuel vehicles, attempts to develop ethanol from alternative sources like switchgrass and wood chips and the administration's proposal to reduce gas consumption by 20 percent in 10 years.
"The discussions came amid rising gasoline prices. The latest Lundberg Survey found the nationwide average for gasoline has risen 6 cents per gallon in the past two weeks to $2.61."
I believe that reducing and moreover recycling all motors that run on electricity and fuel is an elemental and urgent need for all humanity. The tragedy does not lie in reducing those energy costs but in the idea of converting food into fuel.
It is known very precisely today that one ton of corn can only produce 413 liters of ethanol on average, according to densities. That is equivalent to 109 gallons.
The average price of corn in U.S. ports has risen to $167 per ton. Thus, 320 million tons of corn would be required to produce 35 billion gallons of ethanol.
According to FAO figures, the U.S. corn harvest rose to 280.2 million tons in the year 2005.
Although the president is talking of producing fuel derived from grass or wood shavings, anyone can understand that these are phrases totally lacking in realism. Let's be clear: 35 billion gallons translates into 35 followed by nine zeros!
Afterwards will come beautiful examples of what experienced and well-organized U.S. farmers can achieve in terms of human productivity by hectare: corn converted into ethanol; the chaff from that corn converted into animal feed containing 26% protein; cattle dung used as raw material for gas production. Of course, this is after voluminous investments only within the reach of the most powerful enterprises, in which everything has to be moved on the basis of electricity and fuel consumption. Apply that recipe to the countries of the Third World and you will see that people among the hungry masses of the Earth will no longer eat corn. Or something worse: lend funding to poor countries to produce ethanol based on corn or any other food and not a single tree will be left to defend humanity from climate change.
Other countries in the rich world are planning to use not only corn but also wheat, sunflower seeds, rapeseed and other foods for fuel production. For the Europeans, for example, it would become a business to import all of the world's soybeans with the aim of reducing the fuel costs for their automobiles and feeding their animals with the chaff from that legume, particularly rich in all types of essential amino acids.
In Cuba, alcohol used to be produced as a byproduct of the sugar industry after having made three extractions of sugar from cane juice. Climate change is already affecting our sugar production. Lengthy periods of drought alternating with record rainfall, that barely make it possible to produce sugar with an adequate yield during the 100 days of our very moderate winter; hence, there is less sugar per ton of cane or less cane per hectare due to prolonged drought in the months of planting and cultivation.
I understand that in Venezuela they would be using alcohol not for export but to improve the environmental quality of their own fuel. For that reason, apart from the excellent Brazilian technology for producing alcohol, in Cuba the use of such a technology for the direct production of alcohol from sugar cane juice is no more than a dream or the whim of those carried away by that idea. In our country, land handed over to the direct production of alcohol could be much useful for food production for the people and for environmental protection.
All the countries of the world, rich and poor, without any exception, could save millions and millions of dollars in investment and fuel simply by changing all the incandescent light bulbs for fluorescent ones, an exercise that Cuba has carried out in all homes throughout the country. That would provide a breathing space to resist climate change without killing the poor masses through hunger.
As can be observed, I am not using adjectives to qualify the system and the lords of the earth. That task can be excellently undertaken by news experts and honest social, economic and political scientists abounding in the world who are constantly delving into to the present and future of our species. A computer and the growing number of Internet networks are sufficient for that.
Today, we are seeing for the first time a really globalized economy and a dominant power in the economic, political and military terrain that in no way resembles that of Imperial Rome.
Some people will be asking themselves why I am talking of hunger and thirst. My response to that: it is not about the other side of the coin, but about several sides of something else, like a die with six sides, or a polyhedron with many more sides.
I refer in this case to an official news agency, founded in 1945 and generally well-informed about economic and social questions in the world: TELAM. It said, and I quote:
"In just 18 years, close to 2 billion people will be living in countries and regions where water will be a distant memory. Two-thirds of the world's population could be living in places where that scarcity produces social and economic tensions of such a magnitude that it could lead nations to wars for the precious 'blue gold.'
"Over the last 100 years, the use of water has increased at a rate twice as fast as that of population growth.
"According to statistics from the World Water Council, it is estimated that by 2015, the number of inhabitants affected by this grave situation will rise by 3.5 billion people.
"The United Nations celebrated World Water Day on March 23, and called to begin confronting, that very day, the international scarcity of water, under the coordination of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with the goal of highlighting the increasing importance of water scarcity on a global scale, and the need for greater integration and cooperation that would make it possible to guarantee sustained and efficient management of water resources.
"Many regions on the planet are suffering from severe water shortages, living with less than 500 cubic meters per person per year. The number of regions suffering from chronic scarcity of this vital element is increasingly growing.
"The principal consequences of water scarcity are an insufficient amount of the precious liquid for producing food, the impossibility of industrial, urban and tourism development and health problems."
That was the TELEAM cable.
In this case I will refrain from mentioning other important facts, like the melting ice in Greenland and the Antarctic, damage to the ozone layer and the growing volume of mercury in many species of fish for common consumption.
There are other issues that could be addressed, but with these lines I am just trying to comment on President Bush's meeting with the principal executives of U.S. automakers.
March 28, 2007
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