I haven't been reading the papers much lately, and people don't really to read them anyway to know that we have a crisis in our hands. We are rationing our staple food for goodness' sake!!!! People line up in the hopes that they will be able to buy jacked-up rice in order to feed their families!!! They're even thinking of putting ink on people just to know if they have already bought rice!!! Meanwhile, fast food outlets now sell half-servings of rice so as not to waste more uneaten rice. And, of course, being the smart people our politicians are, like in any other crisis, whether brought on by calamity or force majeure, they will hoard supplies so that they will wait for the laws of economics to apply -- less supply, more demand equals higher prices. I'm one of the fortunate few that gets rice supply from my grandparents' farm (magsasaka po ang mga ninuno ko, hindi po panginoong maylupa). I could not, however, help in raising my eyebrows at the irony of it all. Two major ironies:
First Irony:
The Philippines is an agricultural country. Need I say more?
Second Irony:
For a long time now, people have been telling this government to give support in the agricultural sector, obviously because we are an agricultural country. But because money talks, what has this government done? It has instead given priority to extractive industries. For example, found in Mindsalip Zamboanga is the hundreds of hectares of palay that feed the communities and nearby towns. What do they do there? They opened it up to mining. This is also equally true to other areas. Aside from mining, oil palm plantations and other plantations also push the rice industry out, apart from other staple foods. Money really talks.
Now, the government is scrambling to say that there is no food crisis. They are giving billions to support the agriculture sector, etc. etc., to cover up their screwed policies and economic beliefs. Well, it's a little late, isn't it? People are hungry. People are poor. And people are dying. Just because a few don't know when to say "enough" and get their fat asses out of their high chairs. Two adjectives: greedy and gluttonous.
First Irony:
The Philippines is an agricultural country. Need I say more?
Second Irony:
For a long time now, people have been telling this government to give support in the agricultural sector, obviously because we are an agricultural country. But because money talks, what has this government done? It has instead given priority to extractive industries. For example, found in Mindsalip Zamboanga is the hundreds of hectares of palay that feed the communities and nearby towns. What do they do there? They opened it up to mining. This is also equally true to other areas. Aside from mining, oil palm plantations and other plantations also push the rice industry out, apart from other staple foods. Money really talks.
Now, the government is scrambling to say that there is no food crisis. They are giving billions to support the agriculture sector, etc. etc., to cover up their screwed policies and economic beliefs. Well, it's a little late, isn't it? People are hungry. People are poor. And people are dying. Just because a few don't know when to say "enough" and get their fat asses out of their high chairs. Two adjectives: greedy and gluttonous.
