handmade.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
handmade.social is for all handmade artisans to create accounts for their Etsy and other handmade business shops.

Server stats:

36
active users

#famine

0 posts0 participants0 posts today

Not to be alarmist...well, maybe, but a #famine will be incoming for the United States. Famines under capitalism tend to take the form of "there's food, we promise, it just happens to be too expensive for you to afford", so...you've technically been under famine conditions for a little while, but it's about to get a whole lot worse. Your latest administration has completely slashed agricultural subsidies, drained a reservoir in California, and levied tariffs on the three countries it imports the most food from. This is a good time to remember that many revolutions are preceded by famines, and it's time for you to start preparing and start organizing with anyone you can, before you're starving — which, again, I'm sorry to say, it's going to happen.

Talk openly about it; this is the time you can do it safely, and that window is going to be short. Find anyone, literally anyone, who is willing to talk back about the possibility of organizing together. It can be as simple as a mutual aid group, to try to afford bulk food more cheaply together when this happens, but we here, the people of the imperialized world, your fellow workers, are hoping that you will do more, and fight to end both famine and fascism in your country once and for all, no matter what it takes.

Getting rid of all the agriculture workers is going to recreate many of the ‘Great Leap Forward’ conditions in China where Mao took everyone doing agriculture and growing food, and put them on steel and industrial works instead…and you can’t imagine how people starved for YEARS. So many died. It was a living nightmare. Some ate their own children to survive.
A good account is in the biography Wild Swans by Jung Chang. Highly recommended reading.
#agriculture #foodsecurity #food #famine

Judge orders #Trump to pay millions in #USAID funds

The judge gives the govt 1 day to resume #ForeignAid payments after a contentious hearing in which a #DOJ lawyer couldn’t say whether funds had been unfrozen as ordered.

The Trump admin on Tues was ordered to pay hundreds of millions in foreign assistance funds that have been in limbo despite the judge’s directive that #aid resume. Trump’s broad pause in aid has led to #chaos globally & dire warnings about escalating #famine & disease.

BBC: 'People will starve' because of US aid cut to Sudan

"The freezing of US humanitarian assistance has forced the closure of almost 80% of the emergency food kitchens set up to help people left destitute by Sudan's civil war, the BBC has learned....
It is estimated that nearly two million people struggling to survive have been affected."

bbc.com/news/articles/cy7x87ev

www.bbc.comSudan conflict: USAID cut hits people 'screaming from hunger'Nearly two million people who have relied on community kitchens for food have lost this lifeline.
Replied in thread

@Cat

This is not just something that happens to the crops. It happens to us. As crops start failing, and they will, there will be spikes in prices and ultimately famines due to populations not served. When people aren't getting what they need, they don't sit passively by. There will be unrest. It will get ugly fast. We can plan for some shortfalls if they happen intermittently. But as they become more the norm, that's a big problem.

Our oligarchs imagine that they personally will always have the most money, so first access to things that run short. And they're comfortable with large numbers of others suffering and dying . So we shouldn't get too complacent and assume that things will somehow work out. That isn't the plan they have.

We need to restore democracy and federal institutions that operate in the best interest of the people. And we need to focus on stopping climate change, by seriously retooling the parts of our economy that are egging it on. The oligarchs see climate change as a business opportunity, a chance to sell to desperate people at jacked up prices. They're not interested in stopping it, just being in control of what people will cry out for and pay money for.

#Infrastructure in British #India:
"Natural drainage of Bengal was disturbed due to construction of a network of #railway embankments resulting in formation of poorly drained “compartments” in different areas of Bengal. This led to excessive silting, damaged crop production, increased chance of flooding and created stagnant water pockets that were apt for water-borne diseases like cholera and malaria."

Excerpt from: learn.culturalindia.net/bengal

#famine #starvation #agriculture #rice #Bangladesh #Churchill #wwii #transport #railways #railTransport#crops #colonialism #BritishEmpire #BritishRule

Cultural India · The Bengal Famine of 1943 – Causes, Effects, DeathsThe Bengal famine of 1943 was one of the most devastating famines in history and claimed approximately 2.1-3 million lives.

#GiftArticle

Trump’s order to halt most #ForeignAid has intensified #humanitarian crises & raised questions about the #UnitedStates’ reliability as a global leader.

In #famine-stricken #Sudan, soup kitchens that feed hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in a #WarZone have shut down.

In #Thailand, #war #refugees w/life-threatening #diseases have been turned away by hospitals & carted off on makeshift stretchers.

#TheCrueltyIsThePoint #Nationalism #geopolitics
nytimes.com/2025/01/31/world/a

The New York Times · How the World Is Reeling From Trump’s Aid FreezeBy Sui-Lee Wee

When I first read the news that Israel was using phosphorus bombs, I did not believe it. I thought it was fake news. There is no way that Israel would do that.

Then I started searching and found out that it was true.

Israel really decided to leave all humane actions behind and level itself with the worst dictators and war criminals in the world over the last 90 years.

I have to face that I used to be a supporter of Israel

hrw.org/news/2024/06/05/lebano
#Israel #Gaza #WarCriminals #Shocking #Famine

In April, a multi-vehicle #WCK convoy was bombed by #Israel, killing seven of the organization’s #workers. The attack sparked global condemnation but did little to end Israel’s blocking of #humanitarian aid.
...
[In November] Israel bombed a humanitarian vehicle in #Gaza on Saturday, reportedly killing three aid workers with #WorldCentralKitchen and #Palestinian bystanders who tried to come to help after an initial strike.
...
“The vehicle carried rice and other food supplies,” Tamer Sammour, an eyewitness, told the #news outlet.

A charred vehicle belonging to the World Central Kitchen that was targeted by an Israeli #airstrike in #KhanYounis, southern Gaza, was found with food aid still in its boot. The attack claimed the lives of three World Central Kitchen aid workers

truthout.org/articles/israel-b

Truthout · Israel Bombs Another World Central Kitchen Vehicle in Gaza, Killing 5The strike continues Israel’s pattern of blocking and targeting humanitarian aid.

Nowhere on Earth are so many children in crisis than in Sudan. Nearly 5 million children have lost almost everything. "It's an invisible crisis," UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher says. "25 million Sudanese, more than half the country, need help now." Here's more from @BBCNews. "We are so exhausted. We need help," said Mama Nour, a shelter founder who started her own life in an orphanage. "We want to smell the fresh air. We want to feel there are still people in the world who care about us, the people of Sudan."

flip.it/TApDMw

flip.itSudan civil war: Nowhere else on Earth are so many children on the runThe BBC's Lyse Doucet writes about the horrific effects of the 19-month civil war in Sudan.
Continued thread

As hunger spread among residents, Stalin spearheaded a disinformation campaign to hide the truth from other Soviet citizens and the world. The famine provided a pretext for a campaign of repression and persecution against #Ukrainian #culture.

So many died that officials had to send people to resettle the area, setting off demographic shifts that continue to this day.