Tuesday, 1 February 2011

Egypt Riots: Food Supply Issues










With the current riots in Egypt, there are increasing concerns with the countries food supply. They do not have a large agricultural sector which they can then fall back on, and with lots of people flooding particular areas (such as Cairo), food supplies are running low and suppliers are struggling in the damaged infrastructure.
It is mainly with the supply of raw materials where issues are arising. People are still able to work in factories and things, but the raw materials such as wheat and oil just cannot reach them. Add to to this the continuous closing of banks and trading is slowly stopping in the country.
Caused by political unrest, the protests are calling for the President to step down from power after 30 years of ruling the country. However, to try and hold onto power many extreme measures have been put in place - Internet services have been all but stopped and curfews put in place to name just a few. However, it is the bank closures which are doing the most long term damage, as food importers cannot pay for the imports, meaning that no new supplies are entering the country, meaning that there are going to be long term impacts after the demonstrations are over.
I feel that the protesters have got the higher moral ground in that they are standing up for helping the poor and stopping corruption. However, even if they do succeed, I think that there will be repercussions long after the current government has gone.

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