The Yankee Sage ›› A Blog On News, Politics, Culture, Religion, War & The Military

What Real Charity Looks Like

Posted by Chris van Avery on 16Mar11.

Dovetailing nicely with previous thoughts on the topic of charity, a blogger and mother of two Israeli soldiers gives us a story of what charity’s supposed to look like. Following the massacre of an Israeli family by an Iranian-backed terrorist organization, one man is taking up an extraordinary committment to be a ”good neighbor”:

Quietly, over the last few days, a man has been coming to the house bringing food and stocking the kitchen. His name is Rami Levy and he owns a chain of supermarkets. I’ve heard amazing stories about him in the past but this one beats all I have ever heard.

Every day, Rami Levi comes by the shiva house to the Fogel family and fills the cupboards and refrigerator himself with food for the family and guests. Today, one of the relatives thanked him for this incredible kindness and his response brought me to tears,”You will get used to my face,” he told this family in mourning, “I have committed myself that every week I will deliver food and stock your home until the youngest orphan turns 18 years old.”

The youngest orphan of this tragedy is a young 2 year old boy who woke in the night and ran to his parents. Thankfully, by then, the terrorists had left, leaving a scene of unimaginable horror behind. The little boy ran to his parents and began to shake them, trying to wake them. His sister and a neighbor found him there, crying.

What Rami Levy has done is commit to 16 years of kindness.

As the owner of a supermarket chain, it may indeed be a small thing to Mr. Levy. But it undoubtedly should serve as a big example to the rest of us.

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Food’s Dangerous Price Rise in Two Pictures

Posted by Chris van Avery on 03Mar11.

CNN posted a dramatic illustration of the price rise in key grains today that’s worth considering:

That’s just the recent price of two commodities globally. Check out what the price of food in general has done globally over the past 40 years.

The article then goes on to describe why the situation is likely to go from bad to worse.

Global food prices have been moving higher in recent months as demand from emerging nations increases, and bad weather in certain parts of the world has cut the supply of key agricultural commodities.

But the recent run-up in oil prices threatens to make the situation even worse, the FAO warned.

“Unexpected oil price spikes could further exacerbate an already precarious situation in food markets,” said FAO director David Hallam in a statement. “This adds even more uncertainty concerning the price outlook, just as plantings for crops in some of the major growing regions are about to start.”

Linkages are always the key. If you’re watching food and oil prices, inflation, growth, unemployment, etc…, independently of one another, you’re going to be missing the big picture.

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Why Food Prices Are a BIG Deal

Posted by Chris van Avery on 25Feb11.

Readers here will note that I’ve been keeping a close eye on food prices of late, and reports like this always get the hair standing up on the back of my neck:

Economist Joachim von Braun, director of the Center for Development Research in Bonn, Germany, says the world could be facing a new era of expensive food. “The best forecasting models for the long run, for the next few decades,” von Braun says, “are that we may have to face 50 percent increases in grain prices by 2030 and further increases, up to doubling trend prices, by the middle of the century.”

If current trends are any indication, these trends are likely to bring plenty of political instability in their wake. Experts note that rising food prices in countries like Egypt, where the average citizen spends some 40 percent of his or her annual income on food, have been a major factor in the political turmoil rocking the Middle East.

Rising prices in general can be a cause of concern, but skyrocketing food prices should provoke particular concern because they can contribute to stagflation, a situation where growth stagnates while inflation increases. Food in general is not a discretionary expense. You can adjust most spending habits, and to some extent you can adjust what kind of food you buy, but when underlying sources of food like grain get expensive, you’re now spending more of your income on food and less on activities that promote economic growth. Oil, too, can produce similar effects, and the price of oil has once again pushed above the $100/bbl mark.

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