The price of rice is rising

Food crises are an enormous threat to stability. Now, Asian rice exporting nations are reducing the amounts of rice exported. For me, that just means a relatively incremental increase in the price of rice, maybe enough that I’ll finally switch to locally produced spelt as my grain to soak up sauces and fill stuffed peppers. But rice is a staple for people throughout the world, and although people in the country can find a way to subsist, what will the poor who live in cities do? What can we do?

I’m not an economist and I don’t know how these things work, but perhaps if those of us who have a choice switched from rice to a locally produced grain the pressure would, in the aggregate, be relieved. Or, at the very least, we could be grateful for every grain of rice we eat and re-use last night’s leftover rice instead of just tossing it out.

Don’t forget to shut your lights for an hour tonight. Read in the paper this morning that even the King of Sweden will be turning off the lights in the palace.

Check out my sock–Cat Bordhi rocks!

Responsibility in Turkey

A Turkish photographer has compiled a photo book on the various ethnic groups that make up the Turkish people and is travelling around the country with three other people to share it. Turkey’s official policy is one of monolithic patriotism (consider the denial of the Armenian genocide). The group has travelled throughout Turkey with their book, often encountering suspicion, to share the pictures and stories of the book with people around Turkey. Their goal is to show both the variety and the uniformity of the different cultures within Turkey, and they’re finding that people are astonished at the similarities.

Like I always say, folks is folks. Sometimes we all just need to be reminded.

Today’s knitted object – B’s socks, in Seawool. Super soft and warm. I think the stitch pattern is both interesting and masculine–K all on even rounds, K4, P4 on odd rounds.

What the farmer said

This morning I took the ferry over to the mainland and got a ride up the city with a farmer that I got to talking to on the boat. On our 45 minute car ride, we talked about agribusiness, economies of scale, consumer demand, and road construction. The highway between the port where the ferry docks and Stockholm is, for the first 25 minutes of the ride, a two-lane road through woods and farmland. Once every couple of years there is a nasty accident on the road that can hold up traffic for hours. Normally, though, the loudest complaints come from tourists who get caught in traffic jams to and from Gotland and Poland ferries.  A few years ago they started widening the road, cutting down the woods and encroaching on the fields. I’ve always thought of it as just ugly but this farmer sees it differently.

He said that you often find very productive farmland along roads. When you make roads wider to save people an average of 3 minutes on a 45 minute ride, you have to use up a disproportionate amount of productive arable land.  The construction of bypass roads around cities is not just an environmental problem in that encourages people to use their cars more because transportation becomes faster and encroaches on animal habitats, it reduces the world’s potential food supply. Given that there are increasing numbers of people to feed in this world, he sees unabashed road construction (N.B. a traditional sign of infrastructure health and wealth) as a waste of good, necessary farmland. Food for thought.

Healthy roots, physical, social, and/or spiritual, are as necessary for peace as they are for good crops and forests (this is me talking now). You don’t run around looking for trouble if you know who you are and what your place is in the world.

Today’s knitted object, you guessed it, more socks. These are knitted in Sisu, which might be the most durable sock yarn that I’ve used.

I’m off to visit relatives for a few days, so unless I can borrow their computer, no blogging for me until Monday.

The end of an era

Kosovo declared its independence today. Let’s hope cooler heads prevail, that the inevitable conflicts will be resolved politically, and that the Serbian minority within Kosovo doesn’t suffer.

Two knitted objects today, one picture. One is my darling green bouclé Sonnet (still no picture, I always wear this when B isn’t around to take my picture) and my green socks. These are in Colinette’s sock yarn. Beautiful colors, but I have to say it’s not the most durable pair of socks I have. On the other hand, for the time being they are my “going over to a friend’s house for coffee” socks, since they are so darn pretty (and in Sweden you remove your shoes at the door when you visit someone at home).

Australian sunshine

The Australian Prime Minister apologized today, on behalf of the nation, for the wrongs committed against the indigenous peoples of Australia. The road to peace is paved with the acceptance of responsibility.

Today’s knitted item, my first pair of toe-up socks, made about 3 years ago. Stripes are great for using up little bits of leftover yarn.