May 05, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1429

The world leaders are at it. The world leaders who probably have never had a salary less than eight digits or even nine digits and have never been hungry are championing the cause of the world’s poor. They belong to the exclusive club that tries its utmost to confuse issues.

President Bush got into the act and defended his sick policy of bio-fuel where the farmers have been encouraged to sell to companies specially formed for the purpose of converting corn into green fuel.

He bemoaned that the enemies are not willing to sell oil to the USA and that these enemies were to be sorted out. In sorting out Iraq, and now Iran not to mention Hugo Chavez he found that he had instead of getting oil had got a lot of flak and made enemies. When an individual or a country makes conceited efforts to selfishly acquire assets that belong to another individual and or country by any means, this comes out as an unintended consequence.

In New York, the world’s self-appointed consciences are advocating what is required to meet the current crises. As often happens the ‘facts’ revolve around the current crises and not how to get rid of the problems. The symptoms are attacked rather than the causes.

The World Bank with all its ‘reforms’ is nothing but a body doing the bidding of their masters. The WB and the leading countries would be responsible for this kind of mess-up. They are all very worried. They want to pledge money to ensure that the food gets to the hungry on a one-time basis and to put money into the pockets of the farmers so that the fertilisers-chemical- are purchased by the farmers. When they ought to be aware that the chemical fertilisers have lost out and the soils have become toxic and cannot provide that kind of productivity increases.

Each year, the prices have gone up and in the case of Pakistan these have on from the initial price of Rs7 per bag to last known price of Rs4000+ per bag of 50 kg. The raw material is with the fossil fuel companies and they have posted a three month profit of $16billion thanks to the involvement of the US administration. Since the oil cartel is very much the cartel of the rich and the members of the exclusive club, they are doing what they are doing. They talk of free markets. When did any one agree to a free market that is mean and repressive.

Go back to the last crises in the late sixties when Barbara Ward headed a committee of enlightened individuals and our Sartaj Aziz was also there. They came to the conclusion that something drastic has to be done for the productivity of lands in third world to be encouraged. The committee’s recommendations would be dealt with separately but let me give you the consequences of not following her and the committee’s advice.

The committee had suggested that the food security institute should be created and that it should be superior body to the current Security Council. Wise advice and she had also suggested that a new organization now called the International Fund for Agricultural development [IFAD] should be set up which should be headed by a third world individual. This happened in 1973 and by 1999 the first world had ganged up together to highjack the organisation.

A Swede heads it and Sweden is not a third world country. There is this fetish that only those who give money to a cause are responsible to head every world institution. An American heads the World Food Program from the beginning and this is for the purpose of ensuring that the grain farmers of mid-west are looked after. Sartaj Aziz was one of the first vice- presidents of the body. It has lost its way now. The US was adamant that it would look after the food security of the world. The recommendations of the committee were slashed and changed and what were accepted were the recommendations that would be in line with and suitable to the USA.

Sooner or later all this was to come to a head. Borlaug also came along at that time. He suggested this chemical route. Countries lapped it up and allowed the fertiliser cartel to develop. Examine its production arrangements and the international fertiliser organization is at Atlanta.

The current UN Secretary- General is still green on these matters and seeks solutions to the problems of the third world through the UN agencies and these meetings are called at the desires of the powerful or the crises that then requires patch work to repair the difficulties created by the likes of Geoffery Sachs, Kofi Annan’s advisor on poverty reduction and how to tell odd things with a straight face.

His book ‘The End of Poverty’ I ordered from Canada and I could not believe how he eliminated poverty [save it for another day]. The food crises will go on because the diagnosis is incorrect and because the prescription is incorrect. It is not as if the stomach is selective and wants food on a one time or a one season basis. It is a recurring requirement. Let me repeat that it is a recurring requirement. So?

The policies that have to be followed are to enhance the productivity of the farmers. Not to use this for political ends. It also means taking stock of the free markets and the perversions that have been brought in through the WTO. So the resource base has to be tackled?

What is Pakistan up to? It has lost three million hectares of its lands to urbanization not to help the poor but to get the rich to speculate on the lands and then to ensure that they pay no taxed for the capital gains that have been made.

With population increasing and the resource base decreasing and productivity stagnant how are you going to meet the future demands? Ashfaq may have an answer, Shaukat Aziz certainly has it and he will suggest that either Dedi or Arif Habibs or Kalias have an answer. Throw some money at them.

What the country and the people require is different. Each country’s requirements are different and the way out is to get into policy matters that require thoughtful actions [as against activities at UN where I could have told you what the speeches would be]. The resource base has to go.

The collective policies have a collective impact on the economy and very cancerous growth has to be removed. Elections remove these cancerous beginnings. That is the beauty of the system. There is an automatic cure. So, it is with the economic system.