‘Eat Your Words, Mr. Bush!’

The outrage in India over President Bush’s recent comments, which appeared to blame that country’s growing middle class for rising food prices, shows no sign of subsiding.

Reacting to President Bush’s comments and those from European Union officials, Sitaram Yechury writes for India’s Hindustan Times:

“Apart from being as ridiculous as the proverbial story of the blind man describing an elephant, these comments are brazen admissions by the industrialized West that their levels of prosperity are dependent on poverty and malnutrition in the developing world. Having plundered for centuries by way of colonialism, they now seek to continue to fatten themselves through a similar kind of plunder during the current phase of imperialist globalization, the hallmark of which is a sharp escalation of inequality.”

Yechury then outlines how the average Indian continues to live, when compared to people in the wealthy West:

“It’s ironic that such comments come when 78 percent of Indians still live on less than ¢47 [20 rupees] a day. According to official data, 136,324 farmers have committed “distress suicide” between 1997 and 2005. The daily per-capita consumption of cereal has declined from 468 grams in 1990-91 to 412 grams in 2005-06. The consumption of pulses, the main source of protein, declined from 42 grams (72 grams in 1956-57) to 33 grams during this period.”

By Sitaram Yechury

May 8, 2008

India – Hindustan Times – Original Article (English)

George W. Bush’s proclivity to tread on the absurd is amazing. Recently, he sought to blame the Indian people for the global food crisis by saying, “[India’s] middle-class is bigger than our entire population … When you start getting wealth, you demand better food … and prices … go up.”

Many believe his “insights” concerning food grain were inspired by his trusted lieutenant, Condoleezza Rice. And rely he did – on the intemperate comments Rice made a day earlier: “Improvement in the diets of people, for instance, in China and India” is contributing to the global food crisis.

Not to be left behind, the European Union has turned out to be more than loyal to the king. E.U. Agricultural Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel recently asked the world not to “overlook the elephant standing right in front of them.” This, we are told, “is the huge increase in demand from emerging countries like China and India. These countries are eating more meat. It takes about 8.8 pounds [four kilos] of cereal to produce 2.2 ponds [1 kilo] of pork, and about 4.4 pounds [2 kilos] of cereal to make 2.2 pounds [1 kilo] of poultry. So a dietary shift toward meat in countries with populations of over a billion people has an enormous impact on commodity markets.”

Apart from being as ridiculous as the proverbial story of the blind man describing an elephant, these comments are brazen admissions by the industrialized West that their levels of prosperity are dependent on poverty and malnutrition in the developing world. Having plundered for centuries by way of colonialism, they now seek to continue to fatten themselves through a similar kind of plunder during the current phase of imperialist globalization, the hallmark of which is a sharp escalation of inequality.

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing foreign press coverage of the unfolding global food crisis as it pertains to the United States.