Link to report on Phillipine typhoon - great damage, 1 dead - communications down...

[old mark]

http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/10/18/15731576.html


This is from the Toronto Sun in Canada - I guess the US media isn't concerned with it.

mark

[malaise]

1. BBc has good coverage

This is a major disaster and it is now heading for China. Hong Kong better watch out

[aquart]

2. Is this Megi?

Weather Underground five-day tracking has it hitting mainland China as a Cat 2.

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/wp201015_5day.html#a_topad

[old mark]

3. Yes...the Phillipines calls it "Juan"....nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. A provincial people

Don't care. Disaster abroad didn't happen and don't sell.

Yes I am that cynical.

[old mark]

5. You are NOT cynical - If those Chilean miners that the RWers are saying were saved

by "miracles" were in the US looking for work, they would be deported.

This country's "news" industry is a sad joke.

I bet you heard all about Justin Bieber's assault charge, though...


mark

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Don't forget junior seau

Crashing....

[old mark]

10. See? We only get the really important stuff...nt

[FirstLight]

6. so hey, what about the rice...?

The article said much of the fields are still in the maturing and reproducing stages, and they are at the peak of harvest...

so will the phillipine people be the only ones affected by food shortages? where else do they send their rice? I think there will be a lot of hungry people in the region this winter, which could lead to other issues...

[pampango]

8. The Philippines is one of the biggest rice importing countries in the world.

They will have to import even more now that a large part of their inadequate rice crop has been destroyed, so rice prices will go up in the region. That will undoubtedly cause, as you say, a lot of hungry people this winter.

[Hannah Bell]

12. however, they could produce enough; the fact that they don't has more to do with their US satellite

status than anything else.

Marcos' 'Masagana 99' made RP rice exporter, self-sufficient

By Amy R. Remo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:56:00 04/26/2008

MANILA, Philippines--For a brief spell during Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship, the Philippines became self-sufficient in rice, reversing a trend of buying overseas to fill in shortages in the staple since colonial times.

The country exported rice from 1977 to 1978 following the success of Marcos' "Masagana 99" program--a blueprint to harvest a "bountiful" 99 cavans of rice (4,900 kilos)--per hectare.

Rep. Salvador "Sonny" Escudero, the last agriculture minister during the Marcos dictatorship, recalled that during this period, the Philippines had exported to Indonesia and even contributed to the regional buffer stockpile.

"The secret with Masagana 99 was the very liberal credit and extension work. We provided farmers with full credit support. We were in full control of our agricultural technicians, whom we regularly educated," he said.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080426-132782/Marcos-Masagana-99-made-RP-rice-exporter-self-sufficient.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, old mark.

[old mark]

11. I have relatives who were born in the Phills, and some interest in the Manila area...

And those people really have enough shit to deal with without typhoons...


mark

[Uncle Joe]

13. I was fortunate enough to stay at Subic Bay for a few months

and I almost got married over there.

The Philippines is a beautiful nation with wonderful people but there was a lot of poverty, and I agree, they did already have enough shit to deal with.

Joe