Birth control at home and friendly ties with the world’s top rice exporters will help the Philippines survive soaring food prices, President Gloria Arroyo said yesterday.
Even though yields are growing above the population growth rate of 2.04 percent thanks to state investments in the farm sector, Manila is a way off self-sufficiency in the staple grain, she told a group of businesswomen.
One of the world’s largest rice importers, Manila has been hard-pressed to meet its import target this year of 2.7 million tonnes as prices have soared due to bad weather, the rise of the biofuels industry, urbanization, and strong global demand, among others.
“We are challenged to promote birth spacing because even if our rice production is growing more than our population we have been importing rice since the Spanish [colonial] times and we have not yet closed that gap,” Arroyo said.
Population control programs in this Roman Catholic country have often foundered in the past due to opposition from the church, which says artificial contraceptives promote sexual promiscuity and immorality.
Arroyo also gave herself a pat on the back for having anticipated the rice price crisis.
“The critical reaction is for exporting countries to husband their own stocks because prices are going up even in the exporting countries,” she said. “We have reached out to Vietnam and Thailand long before the shortage.”
Arroyo said “traditional relationships are a key element as sellers are forced to choose between hordes of willing buyers.”
She said “the buyers who bought early are the only ones with rice. Only those who come to the party early leave with party favors. Thank goodness the Philippines is one of them.”
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
RSS