"Nichts mehr davon, ich bitt euch. Zu essen gebt ihm, zu wohnen.
Habt ihr die Blöße bedeckt, gibt sich die Würde von selbst."
Friedrich Schiller
  May 2008 FOOD
for PEACE

Japan's Fukuda Moves Towards RIC Alliance; Pushes African Development and Doubling Rice Production.

In an anticipated development of what Lyndon LaRouche has identified as a strategic shift, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda moved to further align himself with the leading Eurasian nations of Russia, India, China (RIC). Following the May 14 RIC and BRIC meetings in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, LaRouche made the critical point that the RIC group has formed an active alliance against the British, and against the present government of the United States, while drawing in other regional powers, such as Japan, and Korea. This international fight has emerged increasingly around the food crisis.

At the May 28-30th International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV), Prime Minister Fakuda will announce his pledge to double aid and private investment to Africa by 2012. This pledge coincides with a similar drive by China and Russia to aid in African development.

He expressed his intention to double Official Development Assistance (ODA) during a meeting of the Overseas Economic Cooperation Council Tuesday morning. What is significant, is the increase of funds for development, whereas, much of the previously pledged 100 billion yen ($1 billion) had been slated for debt relief. Fukuda will pledge to allocate a "considerable portion" of $100 million that Tokyo had promised in April as emergency assistance to alleviate the effects of the global food crisis, including plans to double rice production in Africa in the next decade from 14 million tons produced in 2006.