Different Culture

The article i read for this post is about rice farmers in Africa and how they are very dependent on world food prices to decide how much money they will make. The problem is, that it costs them more to produce the rice because they do not get the government subsidies like many more developed countries. Prices now are fairly high, and rice farmers are taking advantage of that, but many of them borrowed a lot of money to be able to expand their production fields, and if prices don't stay high, they could all end up broke because they won't be able to pay off what they borrowed. The worry over world food supplies caused some countries to panic over food supplies because the price was rising, and their was no local production to replace the imports; so the government offered subsidized farming equipment, seed, and fertilizer to start local production. The higher prices also meant that the local farmers could now compete with the more efficient farms in Asia, allowing them to make a profit.

read the whole article here

Overcoming a struggle

Imagine if you lived in a remote part of Alaska, where many of the people didn't even have running water, and things at the store cost you twice as much as they cost here. This is the reality for the residents of Akiachak, Alaska. It is a small Eskimoe town of about 700 people that many issues that they must deal with. The cost of living in the town is very high because it is so remote, so it is more expensive to get the things you need, like food or gasoline. Also, some residents have been unable to vote because the ballots and polling stations don't have translations for the native language, Yup’ik, and have gone to court in a lawsuit to get the state to provide ballots that have Yup'ik translations on them. They recently had a rarity for the town; an Obama campaign member visited their town to shake hands and talk, which doesn't happen very often in the town.

Barry, Dan. "Remote and Struggling but Still a Bit of America." New York Times. 5 October
2008. 2 February 2009.

Earthquake

In early May of 2008 there was an earthquake that measured as an 8 on the richter scale and killed close to 70,000 people. Many chinese people believe that much could have been done to help prevent all the death and destruction that the quake caused, but chinese seimologist say that they still don't know how to predict natural disasters such as earthquakes. People that spread rumors over the internet have been arrested for saying that the government knows how to predict earthquakes and did know of this one. In the area that was effected, resiedents say there were warnings in the days befor the quake, such as the draining of ponds, frogs invading towns, and cows falling against their enclosures. This was one of the most devastating natural disasters of 2008, which was supposed to be a lucky year, and made many people in China wonder if their government really does know these things or if the simply do not care

Finally finished The Winner

The end of this book is good. First off, the police discover the identity of Jackson because he killed his sister and Matt Riggs called his old boss at the FBI and told them the situation, but they can't catch him and he escapes. When LuAnn sent her daughter away with charlie for a couple days to keep her safe from charlie, she didn't know that someone would be following her. So Jackson knows exactly where LuAnn's daughter is and goes and captures her until he can lure LuAnn to him using her daughter and kill LuAnn. But Jackson's plan goes wrong when the FBI shows up and he ends up fleeing into the woods where he is eventually killed by Matt Riggs. I liked this book, and i would reccomend it to anyone looking for their next book.

I swear im almost done with the winner

A lot has happend since my last post. LuAnn finally figured out who the man was that had followed her one day, the investigative journalist, and decided to meet with him. During this meeting she tells him the truth but then warns him that Jackson is going to be looking for him. He takes the warning but thinks that he doesn't have that much to worry about, which is a mistake because he ends up dead. LuAnn also sends charlie off with her daughter because she is scared for their safety and is left on her own to deal with Jakson. Then recruits Matt Riggs to help her because she finally found out what he used to do for a living and that he is in the witness protection program. I don't know if LuAnn can get away from Jackson this time, but i want to read ahead to see what happens.

Even More of The Winner

After being saved by the man contracted to build her fence, Matt Riggs, LuAnn goes to his house to talk to him and tells him to forget the whole thing. He has a hard time with this being an ex-cop, and still wants to help her and go to the police; and she tries to talk him out of it and he agrees to do so for the time being. Charlie goes into the town and tries to find out some information on the man that had followed LuAnn, but finds that he used fake names and adresses to rent the car. Also, Jackson finally finds out that LuAnn has returned to the US after 15 years against his orders and that someone has been trying to illegally find information on her. So he decides that he must go down to Virginia to investigate the mess that she has created. Alot of things happend in this set of chapters and i want to read more to find out what effect these things will have on LuAnn's future.

More of The Winner

The reporter that has been looking to uncover LuAnn Tyler waited out front of LuAnn's house and confronted her by telling LuAnn her real name, which she hadn't heard in over 10 years of hiding from anyone else except Charlie, or Robert as LuAnn learns his real name. When she hears this while she is in her car, she immediateley speeds away and is followed by the reporter and eventually rammed when the man, and ex-cop, she contracted to build a security fence around her property comes and saves her from him. The man returned to the estate, he finds LuAnn has not yet arrived. When she does, she denies that she was being chased even though she clearly was, and that intrigues Riggs, the fence man. After the chase, you also learn more about the reporter who was chasing LuAnn. He moved out of his house into a more secretive place and the car he crashed while chasing LuAnn was a rental. You also learn that he is very good at his job, he's been doing it for 30 years and won a pulitzer. Im excited to read on and see how LuAnn reacts to being discovered.