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Poverty rate hits 15.1 percent, highest since 1993
WASHINGTON — The US poverty rate rose in 2010 to 15.1 percent, the highest since 1993, according to census data showing a record number of Americans classified as poor and highlighting a struggling economy after the end of the Great Recession.The Census Bureau report released Tuesday showed a sharp increase in the poverty rate from 14.3 percent in 2009, and a fourth consecutive rise in the number of people below the poverty line, to 46.2 million.
The number of Read more…
The Geopolitics of Water in the Nile River Basin
Prof. Majeed A. Rahman writes: In Africa, access to water is one of the most critical aspects of human survival. Today, about one third of the total population lack access to water. Constituting 300 million people and about 313 million people lack proper sanitation. (World Water Council 2006). As result, many riparian countries surrounding the Nile river basin have expressed direct stake in the water resources hitherto seldom expressed in the past. In this paper, I argue that due to the lack of consensus over the use of the Nile basin regarding whether or not “water sharing” or “benefit sharing” has a tendency to escalate the situation in to transboundary conflict involving emerging dominant states such as the tension between Ethiopia-Egypt over the Nile river basin. At the same time, this paper further contributes to the Collier- Hoeffler conflict model in order to analyze the transboundary challenges, and Egypt’s position as the hegemonic power in the horn of Africa contested by Ethiopia. Collier- Hoeffler model is used to predict the occurrence of conflicts as a result of empirical economic variables in African states given the sporadic civil strife in many parts of Africa. In order to Read more…
The Coming Food Shocks: Background
The food crisis of 2008 was never resolved; it was merely put on hold by a global financial meltdown. Now, any serious discussion on a sustained economic recovery should take for granted that food prices will once again spike, bringing about a cascade of geopolitical consequences.
The sheer number of upward pressures on food prices makes it difficult to imagine a scenario that doesn’t have them spiking rather dramatically over the next few decades. This will result in not only an increase in global poverty, devastating some of the most vulnerable populations in the world, but it will also put stress on the new social contract that has emerged in certain rising powers- particularly the development-for-autocracy consensus in Read more…
Poverty spikes to record highs in US
The number of American people living in poverty has soared to record-high levels, with African Americans suffering the bulk of the economic hardship in the US, reports say. Read more…
Ethiopia will soon arise to protest
WINDS OF CHANGE CONTINUES BLOWING Major developments in 6 African countries and other Arab nations. And Ethiopians fate!
Today, the drama of utmost importance is underway in different parts of the world, specially, in the North African countries. After its beginning in Tunisia, the flammable and miserable peoples voices is fast circulating from country to country. The basic demands of peoples of these nations is clear; the quest for better living conditions, jobs, respect of human and democratic rights and so on.
What makes special the current movement in Africa and the Arab world is women’s and children’s gather out in the streets to oppose the rotten regime of their country. More of less the peaceful demonstration were carried out with fruitful results in Egypt and Tunisia. On the other way, in LIBYA and Lebanon the governments use machine guns to disperse protesters. A people went out bare handed shot by government mercenaries. Though, the protesters are still going on. as the Tunisian protests were still escalating,
What we are observing in North Africa and Middle East are the results of unfolded dramas left on the society for decades. The Bahrain and Libyan Governments uses their special forces to disperse the protesters. They come up against the protesters by hiring foreign mercenaries to fire against the peaceful demonstrators.
Let’s see the blowing winds of change in these Countries
TUNISIA: When the demonstrations started on 17 December, It wasn’t expected. Just before the December protests began, WikiLeaks released internal U.S. State Department communications in Read more…
Tens of thousands march against Yemen’s president
By AHMED AL-HAJ
Associated Press
SANAA, Yemen (AP) – Thousands of people marching for the ouster of Yemen’s U.S.-allied president clashed Tuesday with police and government supporters, and at least three demonstrators were injured in a fifth straight day of Egypt-inspired protests.
Police tried to disperse the demonstrators using tear gas, batons and stun guns, but about 3,000 protesters defiantly continued their march from Sanaa University toward the city center, chanting slogans against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, including “Down with the president’s thugs!”
The procession gained momentum with hundreds of students and rights activists joining along the way.
The unrest comes as ties between the U.S. and Saleh have been Read more…
Algeria shuts down internet and Facebook as protest mounts
Internet providers were shut down and Facebook accounts deleted across Algeria on Saturday as thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators were arrested in violent street demonstrations.
Plastic bullets and tear gas were used to try and disperse large crowds in major cities and towns, with 30,000 riot police taking to the streets in Algiers alone.
There were also reports of journalists being targeted by state-sponsored thugs to stop reports of the disturbances being broadcast to the outside world.
But it was the government attack on the internet which was of particular significance to those calling for an end to President Abdelaziz Boutifleka’s repressive regime.
Protesters mobilising through the internet were largely credited with bringing Read more…
World hunger threat Shown By Arab Protests:Economist
DAKAR: Uprisings across the Arab world are just a foretaste of the instability facing other poor states unless a global food crisis is tackled, leading development economist Jeffrey Sachs said on Saturday.
Popular anger at rising food prices has been an explosive ingredient in the mix of grievances that triggered the fall of leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, and is now putting the heat on authorities in Algeria and Jordan.
Sachs, a long-time adviser of governments and world agencies on the fight against poverty, said the root causes applied right across an already unstable belt of states stretching from Iraq through the Sahara to the shores of Read more…
Thousands protest in Jordan for third week
Suha Philip Ma’ayeh
AMMAN // For the third consecutive on Friday, Jordanians poured into the streets after noon prayers to protest against soaring prices and call for a change in government.
The Islamist led opposition, professional associations and leftist activists marched yesterday from Al Huesseini Mosque to the capital’s center. They held banners that read “Corruption and normalisation are two faces of the same coin,” called for a “national unity government” and called for the prime minister Samir Rifai to step down.
Police estimated 3,500 people took part in the protest, one of several demonstrations held this month despite two recent government aid packages to mitigate the impact of soaring prices. The measures included a 20-dinar (Dh100) monthly salary increase for state workers and in pension, while the previous aid package increased subsidies for some commodities, including fuel and food staples such as rice and sugar.
Another 2,500 people also took to the streets in six other cities across the country after the noon prayers yesterday. Those protests also called for Mr Rifai’s ouster. Read more…
Falling off the American Dream treadmill – Real median U.S. household income falls under $50,000. Poverty rate has grown exponentially since 2000, during the housing bubble.
The U.S. Census Bureau recently released troubling data on the status of American families. The first disturbing point was that 43.6 million Americans now fall under the poverty category. This works out to 1 out of 7 Americans. The growth has come from many people falling off the middle class treadmill. While the echoes of recovery blast through Wall Street the grim reality for most people is that there is a greater and greater divide occurring. The top 1 percent still has significant control over financial resources and wealth disparity is as high as it was during the 1920s. While many American families wait in lines outside of Wal-Marts so their food assistance debit cards refill to buy food, those calling a recovery are usually those who have been protected via bailouts since the recession started.
The data on poverty is grim and disturbing:
Source: Census
This data takes into full account the deeper blow of the recession. The supposed recovery is nowhere Read more…
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