BREAD BASKET

Anadi Naik

Once upon a time, as the story goes, a villager went to a doctor for his headache. After listening to the villager about his symptoms the doctor gave him some laxatives. It was difficult for the man to understand the connection between headache and constipation until the pills did their work. Likewise, it is difficult for many to understand that a lot of maladies that are happening around the world are directly connected to Russia’s attacks on Ukraine. A war between two countries is always disruptive not only for the parties involved but for the community of nations.

Because of Russia’s transgression, the United States and NATO Countries have applied economic boycott against Russia. So its oil cannot reach the world market. Countries that used to get oil on easy credits from Russia cannot get any oil. They also lack the cash to buy oil in the open market. Like Russian oil, Russian wheat fed a lot of countries in the Middle East and Africa. On the one hand, they have to honor the embargo. On the other hand, they need flour to make bread which they do not have.

Citizens, lacking food grains at home and in the market blame their government. Angry masses ransack government buildings, burn buses and trucks and become violent. Individual governments have little to do with shortages of gas or grain. But the frustrated masses need someone to blame for their misfortune. They blame their government.  The astronomical rise in the price of commodities eats up their purchasing power. Almost every country is suffering from inflation.  Economic stagnation has become a reality.

For the last two years, COVID – 19 has created havoc everywhere.  China, the most populous country, has been forced to shut itself over and over. Its economic activities have stopped in many areas. Both imports and export have suffered. China’s relentless economic activities in the past fueled the world market. Its overheated economy helped create jobs and opportunities in neighboring countries. When economic activities slowed there, unemployment rose exponentially everywhere.

One can now safely say that COVID-19 unemployment and inflation are the results of our dangerous way of living. In the United States so far more than a million people have died in the pandemic. Yet, there is a segment of the population that does not admit that vaccines can save lives. It strongly propagates anti-vaccine theology. The death of a million people is like losing a big city or city. Yet, the loss of so many human beings does not make any impact. Many hang on to their belief no matter what. Theirs is an alternative world where alternative reality reigns. Like COVID-19 unemployment and inflation also bring new problems. Hunger and shortage breed social discord, crime, and lawlessness. They in turn bring political instability.

In recent weeks in South Asia Pakistan and Sri Lanka have changed Prime ministers. Those noble actions followed days of street fights and political maneuvering. In Sri Lanka, the jury is still out on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. With an overwhelming majority in the Parliament, he was going strong. The president had his finger on every lever of power.

However, a citizen’s movement against corruption and nepotism upended everything. First, the family members of the Rajapaksa clan were forced out of the cabinet. Now, the president’s fate is hanging in the balance. The country has no foreign cash reserve. Its petrol pumps are dry.  It cannot buy any food as it has no money… And the world can’t close its eyes to the fact that an entire country is going hungry.

After Afghanistan and Ukraine Sri Lanka has become a new problem and it must be helped. India is monitoring the situation. It has been reported that it is bringing in food, medicine, and petroleum. Because of the embargo on Russian wheat and the destruction of Ukrainian farmland and farming the world would lose the production of a  huge quantity of food next year, Luckily, India is willing to foot the bill. Now it has earned a new title to its name: BREAD BASKET OF THE WORLD.

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