You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Southeast Asia
Poor go hungry as rice mountain gathers dust
2004-08-18
By Matthew Moore, Herald Correspondent in Jakarta
August 18, 2004
About 1.7 million Indonesians have gone hungry for the past three weeks because a government ban has stopped the distribution of thousands of tonnes of rice donated to feed the country's poor. Some 8500 tonnes of rice have already been placed under government seal in Jakarta warehouses and a further 25,000 tonnes, including 4676 tonnes of rice from Australia, will be held under same ban when they arrive in coming weeks. Western countries donate the rice to the United Nations World Food Program, which has been selling it to the poorest families since 1998. But this year the program has been caught up in the Government's ban on imported rice imposed in January to shore up prices obtained by Indonesian farmers.
Starve your buying public to death and watch what happens to your farmers' market for domestically produced rice.
The deputy country director for the program, Terri "Back Seat" Toyota, said Jakarta had this year exempted several thousand tonnes of the rice as humanitarian aid, but her office had so far failed to negotiate a broader exemption. Last week the Government decided to extend the ban from August until the end of the year, a move some observers say is designed to attract support from farmers in the final round of presidential elections scheduled for December 20 no matter how many people it kills.
Posted by:Zenster

#3  uuummmmmmm government seal! I bet it's a big one for that job.
Posted by: Shamu   2004-08-18 6:25:26 PM  

#2  If it were my family going hungry we would "negotiate a broader exemption" in about a minute.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2004-08-18 10:14:40 AM  

#1  Same stuff went on during the patato famine. Some sick puppies. Maybe we should chip in an by these poor some guns and let them sort these stupid politicos out themselves.
Posted by: Flamebait93268   2004-08-18 2:14:12 AM  

00:00