July 7, 2012 SouthAmerica: With More Freshwater than the US and Canada Combined Brazil... With More Freshwater than the US and Canada Combined Brazil... http://www.brazzil.com/component/co...t-learned-to-share-its-treasure.html#comments Ricardo: Brazil should never privatize its freshwater system in any way, and I gave the solution for Brazil to develop its freshwater system on my article "The Smartest Thing China Could Do Right Now: Invest US$ 200 Billion in Brazil". The author of the above article said: âIt is unlikely that the Brazilian government would accept any move to privatize water, and current President Dilma Rousseff's populist stance suggests that water commodification has no place in Brazil for the time being.â It's obvious to me that the author of the above article is in favor of privatization of the water system in Brazil, and place it on the hands of a few major corporations for them to rape the people as they did in Bolivia a few years ago. He describe the current policy in Brazil as: âpopulist stance suggests that water commodification has no place in Brazil for the time being.â That means that this fool thinks that in the future the corporations are going to muscle in and get their way at the expense of the population in Brazil. He also said on this article: âIn one of history's most radical water policy decisions, Cardoso's National Water Act of 1997 categorically defined all Brazilian waters as public property. As a result, Brazil has both abundant renewable freshwater resources and the administrative ability to control them.â It was not a radical water policy decision as the author mentioned on his article. And in my opinion former president Cardoso was 100 percent right to define all Brazilian waters as public property. Here are the links to my article: Brazzil Magazine â October 2007 "The Smartest Thing China Could Do Right Now: Invest US$ 200 Billion in Brazil" Written by Ricardo C. Amaral Monday, 01 October 2007 - Part 1 of 4 http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/184-october-2007/9977.html Friday, 05 October 2007 - Part 2 of 4 http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/184-october-2007/9979.html Thursday, 11 October 2007 - Part 3 of 4 http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/184-october-2007/9983.html Tuesday, 16 October 2007 - Part 4 of 4 http://www.brazzil.com/component/content/article/184-october-2007/9985.html ***** I also posted a copy of the entire 4 parts article on my blog at: "The Smartest Thing China Could Do Right Now: Invest US$ 200 Billion in Brazil" Written by Ricardo C. Amaral http://chinadirectinvestmentinbrazil.blogspot.com/ If you want to learn about the subject of freshwater regarding Brazil then read the following items that are part of my long article about economic development in Brazil: 1) Global freshwater supply 2) Freshwater usage 3) The Guarani Aquifer 4) Privatization - the wrong strategy for Brazil regarding freshwater resources 5) Freshwater policy in Brazil 6) A new global trend .
Bolivia Water Wars <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aTKn17uZRAE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Extracted from The Corporation documentary about the 2000 Cochabamba water wars. The Bolivian people took to the streets after the water giant, Betchel, took over the public water infrastructure. The privatization of the water in Bolivia was a condition of loan from the World Bank. ***** Excellent documentary about the "World Water Wars" Blue Gold - World Water Wars. (Full Film) â November 20, 2011 <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gSxaVcJ1sDA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Wars of the future will be fought over water as they are over oil today, as the source of human survival enters the global marketplace and political arena. Corporate giants, private investors, and corrupt governments vie for control of our dwindling supply, prompting protests, lawsuits, and revolutions from citizens fighting for the right to survive. Past civilizations have collapsed from poor water management. Can the human race survive? .
July 7, 2012 SouthAmerica: When you guys move stuff to Chit Chat it is because you don't want people to see it. Just watch what is going to happen to the number of viewers of this thread, right now only 171 viewers saw the thread "World Water Wars". .
July 9, 2012 SouthAmerica: Whoever moved this thread from the economics forum to Chit Chat don't have a clue about what economics is all about. This subject is way above his head.... anyway.... ***** Bloomberg Businessweek â July 5, 2012 âDrought Stalks the Global Food Supplyâ By Allan Bjerga When rain doesnât fall in Iowa, itâs not just Des Moines that starts fretting. Food buyers from Addis Ababa to Beijing all are touched by the fate of the corn crop in the U.S., the worldâs breadbasket in an era when crop shortages mean riots. This year they have reason to be concerned. Stockpiles of corn in the U.S. Tumbled 48 percent between March and June, the biggest drop since 1996, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said last week. And that was before drought hit the Midwest. Chicago last month saw its first 100F June day since 1988, the year parched ground caused $78 billion in crop damage. The percentage of the corn crop with top-quality ratings was 48 percent as of July 1; it was 69 percent a year ago. And with little rain in the forecast, farmers can only hope to preserve what crops they can while watching corn futures rise 33 percent since June15, to $6.75 a bushel. This yearâs dryness is intensifying just as the plants reach their most sensitive development stage. If ample rain doesnât fall by mid-July, U.S. farmers may face catastrophe, says Matthew Rosencrans, a National Weather Service meteorologist who specializes in drought. Food prices actually have fallen in recent months. World nutrition costs in May were 13 percent lower than their April 2011 peak, in part because of a global grain crop that was nearly 7 percent larger than the previous year. U.S. corn acreage is at its highest since 1937, and favorable weather is boosting staple-foods production in the European Union. Ample rice supplies may also lower food-supply risks, while a potential El Niño weather pattern later this year may help northern-hemisphere crops, says Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist with the United Nationsâ Food & Agriculture Organization in Rome. Still, a failed crop in the U.S., the worldâs biggest exporter of corn and wheat, would raise food costs and stifle the U.S. farm boom that has been built on growing overseas shipments. If prices keep rising, that could mean trouble elsewhere around the globe, where failed crops can mean failed states. In 2010 a drought that withered Russiaâs wheat crop sent consumer prices in North Africa and the Middle East skyward, contributing to unrest that fed the Arab Spring. More than 60 food riots occurred worldwide between 2007 and 2009, when rapidly rising commodity prices wreaked havoc on family budgets, especially in poorer countries, where 70 percent of a householdâs income may go to food. An extended U.S. drought would have a âtremendousâ impact on world food prices, as a higher cost for one dollar-denominated export crop cascaded into others, Abbassian says. âThe world looks to the U.S. as the safest source of supply,â he says. âEveryone watches the U.S. because they can rely on it. Without it, the world would starve.â The U.S. isnât the only place with problems. Early-season dryness again threatens to wither Russiaâs wheat, and the worst start to Indiaâs monsoon season in three years is endangering crops, raising the specter of a return to the export restrictions in the region that drove prices up sharply five years ago. Adding to the uncertainty are government policies that have intentionally kept world crop reserves at levels lower than they were traditionally, says David Anderson, an agricultural economist at Texas A&M University. Unlike the 1980s, when many governments bought up supplies during boom years to store for poor harvests, inventories are being kept intentionally leaner so farmers will be more responsive to market forces. âItâs just-in-time inventory for farming,â he says. The system works fine, adds Anderson, as long as the weather cooperates. Increasingly, in a global food supply chain where Iowaâs weather affects Indiaâs prices, it seems that lean inventories pose serious risks. Longer term, the solution may lie in developing alternative regional sources of food production to augment supplies when a major grower, be it the U.S., Russia, Brazil, or some other country, goes down. President Barack Obama, in his first address on global food security last May, announced $3 billion in pledges from companies including Cargill and Syngenta, for farm development in Africa over the next decade. âFifty years ago, Africa was an exporter of food,â Obama said. âThere is no reason why Africa should not be feeding itself and exporting food again.â Until then, the world is watching the U.S. Corn Belt. A USDA crop production estimate that considers the drought in its calculations will be released July 11. Implicit in the numbers will be the forecast for famine. The bottom line: With U.S. stockpiles of corn down 48 percent, concerns are mounting that this yearâs crop wonât meet the worldâs needs. Source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-05/drought-stalks-the-global-food-supply .
July 12, 2012 SouthAmerica: Agrarian reform is a very complex problem in South America, including in Brazil. And we don't want to turn South America into another Zimbabwe. Escobar: Democraship exported from S.America to Mideast â July 12, 2012 <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gZ5f-3ks8oI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> In his first major interview since he was ousted, Paraguay's former president Fernando Lugo has told RT he was forced out - after the opposition threatened widespread violence if he didn't go. .
July 12, 2012 Max E. Pad reply to South America: You seem to be under the impression that when we run out of water, we are actually going to pay you for yours..... Big mistake on your part, when/if we run into a shortage of water, we will simply roll over Brazil, take control of your water supply and be back home in time for dinner, and there isnt a damn thing that Brazil can do to stop us..... How do you like them apples?
July 12, 2012 SouthAmerica: Reply to Max E. Pad I know a very large number of Americans has a complete lack of common sense: and you don't need to look any further than American foreign policy in general to see it. You said: "if we run into a shortage of water, we will simply roll over Brazil, take control of your water supply..." That's a very dumb statement when you consider that Canada, a country with a very large freshwater supply and a very small population is located right next door to the United States. .