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Mosaic: Egypt’s Bread War

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Posted on Mar 21, 2008
MIR Egypt bread shortage
linktv.org

Some Arab countries’ economies are getting a boost from the rise in oil prices, but you wouldn’t know it from the shortages of staples like bread— a major cause for concern in Egypt, where long lines and soaring costs are sparking serious unrest.

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By truthseeker33, March 22, 2008 at 5:37 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Yes, part of the problem is mismanagement, corruption
and uncontrolled population explosion. But this
has been in Egypt for a long time.  What happened recently, is that in the recent past, the Egyptian
government encourgaged importation most of the wheat
which because of foreign governments subsidies was
cheaper than the Egyptian wheat which the government
discouraged its plantation and asked the farmers to
plant more export crops.
But then came the fiasco of bio-fuels and the price
of wheat has been tripled in the last five years which caught the Egyptian government in a tight
and very difficult situation. I am really worried.
Yes, I agree a long range solution is a tough birth
control policy and I hope the current mess will discourage any opposition to it which is strong because of religious beliefs both Moslem and Christian.

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By Nap, March 21, 2008 at 9:39 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

“Arabs will endure much but to deny them the bread is asking for trouble”

Yes, tell us some thing we don’t know.

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By Fadel Abdallah, March 21, 2008 at 4:48 pm #

Randyaha, I agree with the reasons you give for Egypt’s problems. But I would like to add that the U.S. gives Egypt annually more than 2 billions in military aid which benefits only the military establishment in Egypt. More so, one might ask the question, “Why does Egypt need all this military aid when it has signed a peace agreement with Israel?” Couldn’t that money be better used for economic development instead?

As an aside, possibly jokingly, to control the population growth, why don’t Egyptians practice preventive birth control, which was even sanctioned by the Prophet of Islam?! Or possibly, after each newly wed couple have their first child, the man should be castrated. (Laughingly)

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By P. T., March 21, 2008 at 1:30 pm #

MERIP Reports has some interesting articles on Egypt’s increasingly militant labor movement.  Click http://www.merip.org

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By randyha, March 21, 2008 at 10:29 am #

There are several issues with Egypts bread problem, such as population explosion (1 out of 4 Arabs is from Egypt and the fact that a big part of Ancient Egypt’s agricultural land has disappeared to make room for hotels and cities on the banks of the Nile. But the most important factor is corruption. Most Egyptian officials are corrupt and Hosni Mubarak and his cabal have financially drained the country .

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