export model

"if farmers in the great rift valley ever doubted they were intricately tied to the global economy, they know now that they are. because of a volcanic eruption more than 5,000 miles away kenyan horticulture. whiich as the top foreign exchange earner is a critical piece of the national economy, is losing $3 million a day and shedding jobs."

" there is no diversionary market," mr. mbithi said. "flowers and courgettes are not something the average kenyan would buy."

from the new york times 4-20-2010

the kenyan horticultural export model is falling apart because thay can't fly their produce out to the only market they have, europe. all that wilting produce will go to feed cattle or just rot because one critical part of the machinery has failed. but it wasn't always like this. kenya has a diverse climate that is not all suitable for growing crops for export. "the country also had a strong two-tier farming culture, hundreds of large estates ( built by the british to export coffee, tea, and maize, but now owned by kenya's black elites) and an army of some ten million smallholders working tiny one and two acre plots of maize or sorghum and raising goats and chickens." [the end of food by paul roberts p. 147]. the green revolution held some promise of improving the lot of smallholders until the 1970s and the onset of rising petroleum prices, which, in turn, raised the cost of the fertilizers that powered the green revolution. the kenyan government tried to intervene by putting subsidies in place for fertilizers and instituting price supports. all this was financed by foreign borrowing and when the debt became too big to be serviced in stepped the globalitarians from the imf and world bank who insisted on kenya opening its markets and finding its "competitive advantage" niche. some prospered as being evidenced by the losses now being sustained by the export sector...but not everyone...and, perhaps, no-one will in the long term. "kenya can produce baby corn and green beans competitively, at least until jet-fuel prices rise much higher. yet such advantages aren't equally distributed across the country, but are generally held by a specific region or economic sector; in this case, large producers and exporters operating in the best growing areas. small farmers in the arid and semi-arid are simply not able to participate in the global food economy...because kenya has few barriers to imported maize, its farmers compete with producers in more developed countries whose low-cost output is unbeatable. nearly half of all kenyan farmer lack the productivity to grow maize as cheaply as their counterparts in south africa or faraway brazil who are taking mora nad more of the kenyan market as kenya's own production falls behind its massive population growth." [the end of food p.170]. so the promise of the green revolution led to the destruction of traditional farming because the debyt incured by the kenyan goverment allowed it to be leveraged open to cheap imported food. the elites that prospered by using their control of the best land to engineer an export economy are now finding that they are vulnerable too and there is no cultural base to return to in order to restore food security. we are all connected to this and we are all subject to having our illusions of security disabused. we need to think hard about the way we do things...and even harder about consequences.

drama, comedy, or farce?

the bbc said this morning that drama schools in the united kingdom are giving politicians and bureaucrats ( the home office and the military are on their client lists as well as politicians...no specific names for any of them...seems businessmen are going in for acting classes too ) lessons in lying with sincerity...stoking up their believability...not a tremendous surprise...politicians here have always been drama queens and the epitome was the eight year reign of that cretin reagan with his vicious wife and a deadly remix of nixonite cast-offs...even hitler had an opera coach to help him with his "natural" ability for oratory...politics sham and posturing...who would've thought? the cadre of professional manipulators is adding a new weapon in its battle to manufacture desire and ensure the "consent of the ruled" doesn't stray from the elite's agenda...the opening of the documentary "hitler: seducer of a nation" is footage of the first nazi rally in berlin after hitler became chancellor...it's voiced over by a p r professional who marvels at the technique that was used, from the stage setting and ritual to the fact that hitler kept the crowd waiting to build tension and used long pauses in the beginning of his speech to gauge the mood of the crowd and tailor his speech to it...the pro says something ot the effect ( i'm working from memory here)of "we are only now beginning to use these methods"...not a promising sort of testimonial to current political thinking among the media types...goebbels must be smiling in propaganda hell.