Nothing could be as much a mirror of poor people’s food plight as Thai farmers reportedly conducting armed vigils in their rice fields at night to prevent thieves from reaping the crop.

As a measure against nocturnal rice thefts, Thai authorities introduced a 6 p.m. curfew on combine harvesters, vehicles used to harvest the crop.

In Thailand, as in many parts of Asia, the price of rice has gone up dramatically in recent months tempting greedy and corrupt dealers to use any means available to get a hold of the pricey grain for either sell or hoarding. In fact, the hoarding of rice has been blamed for the price spirals forcing governments to impose buying rations.

According to the Asia Development Bank (ADB), approximately 1 billion Asians need assistance to cope with soaring food prices and shortages.

The purchasing power of many of Asia’s poor has been seriously eroded reversing previous gains made in fighting poverty.

The International Herald Tribune describes rice, a staple food for half of the global population, as one of the “world’s most politically fragile crop.”

Like the price of rice, general food prices are on the rise in many parts of the world, forcing poor people to protest — sometimes violently — against governments.

Food riots have erupted in countries such as Haiti, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Senegal and Somalia, among others, threatening national stability or exacerbating conflict. Poor people, particularly children and those living with diseases, face the risk of malnutrition or death due to inadequate diets.

“It’s the worst crisis of its kind in more than 30 years,” Jeffrey Sachs, and economist and UN special adviser recently told The New York Times. “It’s a big deal and it’s obviously threatening a lot of governments. There are a number of governments on the ropes, and I think there’s more political fallout to come.”

Experts say that food reserves are at their lowest in 35 years, and there is a systemic imbalance between the forces of supply and demand that cannot be fixed in the short term. UN statistics show that global food prices have risen by 65 percent since 2002 to levels increasingly beyond the reach of the poor.

The current food quagmire has been festering over the years with little to no media attention.

“In the seven of the last eight years consumption has exceeded production, which can happen only if we draw down our stocks. The carryover, the grain in the bin when a new harvest begins, is the seminal indicator of food security, and it’s now down to 54 days consumption, not much than is needed to fill the supply line,” says Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute.

Nearly 1.7 billion people in Asia — three times the population of Europe — live on less than US$2 a day, and to them the spiraling food prices are like a shockwave.

“The world’s food import bill will rise in 2007 to $745 billion, up 21% from last year, the FAO estimated in its biannual Food Outlook. In developing countries, costs will go up by a quarter to nearly $233 billion,” reports Time Magazine.

Asia’s poor are particularly vulnerable to rising food prices for staples such as rice because 60 percent of their spending goes toward food and the figure rises to 75 percent if transport costs are included, according to the ADB.

Many countries in the region have resorted to banning food exports and imposing price controls; however, the ADB warns that this could worsen the crisis, as farmers will stop growing crops that bring a negative return on investment.

An assortment of causes have been cited for the ongoing food crisis from climate change, population growth, increased consumption of meat in Asia, particularly India and China, a ballooning oil price, focus on bio-fuels to greed and corruption.

According to experts, the transportation of specific commodities over long distances chews up a lot of oil, which in a context of a skyrocketing oil price is responsible for the food price hikes.

Also, the fact that many people in Asia and other parts of the world now eat like North Americans is also an underlying factor for the upward spiral of food prices. The more people eat meat, the less food will be available to satiate empty bellies of the poor because grains meant for human beings go to fattening chickens and animals for meat. Continued growth in meat output is dependent on feeding grain to animals, creating competition for grain between affluent meat-eaters and the world’s poor, says the World Watch Institute.

In addition, the increased commercialization of agriculture has negatively impacted the productivity of small farmers. Consequently, small farmers opt to abandon the land, and trek to urban areas in search of proverbial greener pastures.

According to a United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) report between 2000 and 2030, Asia’s urban population is expected to increase from 1.36 billion to 2.64 billion, putting pressure on urban areas which are already incapable of meeting everyone’s food needs.

As the Asian food story reveals, to avert a global food crisis requires a multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional approach that employs short term and long-term measures.

In the short term, bilateral and multi-lateral agencies can lend monetary support and food aid to help seriously affected countries cope with the food crisis. While government subsidies can help the poor to withstand the food crisis, it is not a sustainable strategy in the long-term.

National governments will need to invest in agricultural systems in a manner that keeps small farmers engaged in the production of food with a guarantee of support, fair compensation and improved access to market information.

The ADB recommends that farmers need to have access to reliable and affordable seed, fertilizers, pesticides and credit.

In the long-term, agricultural research, improvement of irrigation systems and the development of new technologies, including improved seed and crop varieties suited to specific climatic conditions, are essential to improving yields.

The use of low cost technologies such as drip kits and treadle pumps can also help farmers to make optimum use of land and water in the face of global warming. Labor-saving technologies that will adapt agriculture to new conditions generated by rural-to-urban migration can help to compensate for the depletion of labor.

As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon succinctly put it, the longer-term challenge is to boost agricultural development, particularly in Africa and other regions most affected.

With increased political will, fair trade and investments into agricultural systems, hopefully rice farmers in Thailand will, once again, have nights filled with sleep unafraid of waking up to a bare rice field harvested by some unscrupulous characters bent on making a quick dollar.

“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word “crisis.” One brush stroke stands for danger, the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of danger–but recognize the opportunity.”

~ John Kennedy, 35th President of the United States

 ”If you’re a man, get cut today”

Male circumcision (the cutting of the foreskin from the male penis) is increasingly gaining currency among medical researchers as an alternative method to reduce HIV-infection.

But will this solution really work? 

Researchers say that if all men in sub-Saharan Africa — the worst HIV/AIDS affected region in the world — were circumcised over the next decade, roughly two million new infections and 300 000 deaths could be averted. 

An additional 3.7 million new HIV infections and 2.7 million deaths could be avoided in 20 years.

Put simply, while the benefit of male circumcision to an individual man is immediate, a large scale impact of the intervention will be realized in two decades. 

AIDS risk lowered by 60% 

In fact, evidence from observational studies in sub-Saharan Africa has shown that circumcised men have a lower risk of acquiring HIV infection than uncircumcised men. A study in South Africa showed that male circumcision might reduce by about 60 percent the risk of men contracting HIV through sexual intercourse with women. 

The study focused on 3000 HIV-negative, uncircumcised men ages 18 to 24 living in a South African township. Of these, half were randomly selected for circumcision while the other half remained uncircumcised and served as a control group. 

For every 10 uncircumcised men who contracted HIV, about three circumcised men contracted the virus. Researchers believed the findings were so significant they deemed it was unethical to proceed without offering the option to all males in the study. 

The argument is that the inner surface of the penile foreskin contains Langerhans cells, which have HIV receptors, and is also vulnerable to disruptions during intercourse. Second, an intact foreskin exposes a man to a greater risk of ulcerative sexually transmitted infections, which in themselves are a risk factor for HIV acquisition.

Furthermore, the virus’ chances of survival might be higher in a warm, wet environment like the one under the foreskin. 

How will it affect society? 

The evidence that circumcision may protect against HIV infection is now considered strong enough that further trials evaluating the efficacy of circumcision as part of an HIV prevention program have been advocated.

This could herald a new era in HIV-prevention methods. But the question remains: what are the societal implications of such a solution? 

Male circumcision has been practiced extensively in some sub-Saharan communities in rites of passage ceremonies from boyhood to manhood. The gruesome circumstances under which such practices occur may be exacerbated in the light of this new evidence. Other communities have not practiced it at all. 

However, qualitative studies in the Botswana, Haiti, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe revealed positive attitudes toward male circumcision in populations that do not traditionally practice it.

From 45 to 85 percent of uncircumcised men in surveys expressed interest in the procedure if it is safe and affordable. In spite of the interest in male circumcision, it is not a magic bullet in the fight against HIV-infection. To be effective, circumcision has to be promoted alongside condom use and faithfulness, long-established approaches in the fight against HIV. 

Education and money will be essential 

Some men may be tempted to engage in unprotected sex because they perceive they are protected by male circumcision. And some women may get a false sense of security when having sex with a circumcised man. 

In itself, male circumcision provides little or no protection against urethral STDs such as gonorrhea and chlamydia and certainly cannot prevent unwanted pregnancies. This issue will need to be strongly emphasized in social campaigns. 

To be successful, male circumcision will have to be complemented by a massive investment into education and counseling programs. There will be need for widespread and culturally sensitive dissemination of information that outlines the benefits and potential complications of male circumcision. 

Another danger is that male circumcision can be risky or fatal if conducted by untrained personnel. There’s no doubt that with increased knowledge of male circumcision as a barrier against HIV, many men will try to perform it on their own.

There will be obviously costs involved in getting circumcised which some people will try to circumvent. Circumcising large numbers of adult men will be a major undertaking. If circumcision is not performed correctly it will increase the risk of infection.

A major surgical system infrastructure needs to be developed. Who will fund this and how long will it take? Also, most health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa are in a shambles and ill-equipped to perform widespread male circumcision.

In addition, there’s also lack of social acceptability of circumcision in many of the sub-Saharan communities that have not traditionally practiced it. Besides the safety and acceptability issues, perhaps the greatest drawback is the financial means required to undertake circumcision whole scale.

Male circumcision will come with high costs through social mobilization efforts and upgrading of medical facilities. The more the men get circumcised, the more the success — and that’s tough ground. 

Imagine the social marketing message: If you’re a man, get cut today.

“Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense.”

~ Arnold Bennett, British Author

“Success starts with a dream, a thought; but that’s only the first step. Writing it down is the second step. Doing specific things to bring it about is the third step.”

~ Anonymous