Subalternate Reality

My first blog. I decided to get a WordPress blog because its seems like a fun thing to do, and a good way to share with people the interesting things I see happening around the world every single day. I used to have a Blogger but I got a bit disillusioned with it, I really don’t know why. Perhaps it was because all of my posts looked very unaesthetic, with large fonts and random glitches and the like.

Hopefully I will be able to manage WordPress a bit better. My blog, which I intend to be active in, will focus mainly on global poverty and other subaltern issues. It is important to examine how the convergence of politics and economics impact subaltern issues and I hope you enjoy by blog.

Al Jazeera reports that 20,000 textile workers clashed with police near Dhaka, demanding better wages to meet high food prices. The countries garment workers make less than subsistence wages and have thus felt the brunt of the global food crisis, which has caused riots in Haiti and instability throughout the world. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, predicted earlier this week that if food prices remain high, there will be dire consequences for people in many developing countries. Their are two primary reasons to the food crisis.

One, of course, can be linked to the rising price of fuel, which of course pushes prices up. The real culprit, or more precisely, the stronger factor, is the growth of biofuels, particularly in the United States. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany’s development minister recently argued that ‘it is unacceptable for the export of agrofuels to pose a threat to the supply situation of the very people already living in poverty’. One can hope that rationality will bare fruit and people will stop burning food just to create a biofuel which takes more energy to make than it produces. If not, this crisis is sure to spread.

Before I head off to bed, let me post a very interesting Al Jazeera video looking at patriarchy in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is suffering from the soaring food prices, which have led to protests and riots throughout the country, but it is also having some other issues…
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PrtWGDviE4I