Fun, Games and Free Rice for the Hungry

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, we got us a bigass disaster loomin'. The food crisis looks like it's gonna be long term and millions of people may die a slow, painful death by starvation. Countless others will be caught up in the civil strife that will shatter much of the developing world. The food crisis can be blamed on the confluence of a number of factors:

• Rising oil prices
• Unrestricted commodities market speculation
  
• The rise of the middle class in China and India
• Biofuel production and subsidization
• Extreme weather conditions
• Rapid population growth

Got money in mutual funds? You're probably invested in commodities and your portfolio is doing well thanks to record high profit taking on grains, oilseeds, rice and other food staples. Hedge fund traders are making out quite well these days and financial gurus are advising "investors" to go long on commodities.

Got 15 or 20 minutes? Play a fun vocabulary quiz and send a few grains of rice to some poor starving bastard in some hellhole where they might otherwise be eatin' dirt.


I played fer about 20 minutes an' managed to earn 3000 grains of rice. I ain't sure if that's enough fer more than one helpin'. Sounds like a lot but I figger maybe it's a cereal bowl full. Better than dirt, I reckon.

Itchin' to do more than play games? Wanna invest a few bucks into global security and feel good about feedin' hungry kids? Send some dough to World Vision. The food crisis is hittin' 'em hard. The high cost of food and fuel means the good fellers an' gals at World Vision are cutting back the number of people they can feed by 1,500,000. That's a million an' a half hungry folks who ain't gonna get any supper.

Wanna know my prediction? Over the next few weeks and months, we will see unprecedented violence and suffering all due to high food prices. Governments will fall. All other world issues will pale by comparison. Millions will be affected. Fingers of blame will be accurately pointed at commodities speculators, government-subsidized ethanol programs, meat-eaters, big oil, failure to act on climate change, failure to implement fair trade and failure to eliminate poverty.

JimBobby