Foreign aid or neo-imperialism?

Funds from Chinese and oil-rich Arab countries are being funneled into some of the world's poorest countries to buy and/or lease farmland. Over the past two years, more than 8 million acres have changed control from the have-not nations of Sudan, Ethopia, Congo, Pakistan and others to the cash-rich haves.

 

While money pouring into a poor country might seem to be a good thing, these are government-to-government transactions where politicians are less than eager to share the wealth. The new owners grow staple crops or biofuels on the land and ship the output home.

 

The deals are usually shrouded in secrecy. One Cambodian observer noted that one contract to lease thousands of acres of rice land contained fewer details than a house rental agreement.

But, maybe the new capital will result in higher production, more employment for locals and a better economic outlook for the nations on the receiving end.

That's the somewhat ambivalent view by a reporter in the May 21 issue of The Economist. To read more, click here: http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=478044&story_id=13697274

Going to battle on horseback seemed like a time warp for Col. Mark Mitchell, a Special Forces soldier who did just that in 2001. Mitchell is one of the key figures in a new book, Horse Soldiers, by author Doug Stanton. The book tells the story of how American troops rode their mounts into Afghanistan after 9-11 to hunt the Taliban down. An article about the book appears in the June edition of Mid-Atlantic Horse, a supplement on the first Saturday of every month to Lancaster Farming.

If you're concerned about rabies or losing a finger, don't do this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--WwQTx-Ii8