On “Grain markets soar on worldwide crop downgrades”

We can expect over the next six months food riots in the Middle East and other countries that are dependent on importing grain from North America and Australia.

Jennifer H
1 August 2012

***

A well researched article, but it might be useful to mention the added problem of corn crops being diverted to bio-fuel.

Some economists are predicting that the high cost of animal feed resulting from the drought, aggravated by speculation, will lead to widespread slaughter of herds that are too expensive to keep. Meat prices would dip in the short term due to the glut and then rise sharply. Prices of grain and by-products needed for human consumption are already rising and can be expected to stay high.

High food prices world wide on top of existing crisis could well be the trigger for massive unrest.

Mike M
UK
1 August 2012

On “What Danny Boyle’s Olympic pageant does and does not say about Britain”

A recent letter from a reader praised the WSWS' serious attitude towards all forms of art, no matter how high or low. I think congratulations in that vein are in order with respect to Chris Marsden's review of the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

I must confess that I watched the ceremony with a sort of ironic detachment, with the audio muted for the most part. I saw Isambard Kingdom Brunel dancing and queen Elizabeth jumping out of a helicopter, chortled a bit, and moved on, without a thought to the underlying conceptions that motivated the ceremony. Leave it to the WSWS to remind me that works of art, no matter how corny, have an objective significance of their own.

Tom A
1 August 2012

On “Oliver Stone’s Savages and the war on drugs”

The war on drugs, i.e., marijuana, was started by the cotton industry in the 1930s when they demanded the US government banish the use of this resource as it was in direct competition with cotton. To this the president dutifully fulfilled his obligation…

It has a range of uses from rope to clothing and many other uses including paper, which could save millions of trees from destruction and help alleviate global warming. The rapid dropping of this banned substance coincided with WWII as they needed such materials as described, only to be declared illegal after the war.

Today crops can be grown without THC, (a chemical which allows oneself to escape reality) which could be utilised as a means of substituting a range of products, but under capitalism it is used to oppress the working class.

Those who turn to addictive substance will inevitably find the full force of the state bearing down upon them and may seek solace in the church as they try to beat the addiction, which is not caused by human nature the lack culture in society. Programs such as Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous have as their guiding light a belief in a higher power (God) or something along those lines.

The capitalist system is a society that cannot offer our younger generation the ability to be creative and assure them a decent future, is a system on the brink of collapse. I used to love the carnage in Stone’s films, even only a few years ago. How things have changed. Thank you, WSWS.

Julian H
Queensland, Australia
30 July 2012