Bread
11/02/12 06:33
The story of Joseph is well known to Sunday school children. Like many other narrative stories from Genesis and Exodus, it has an intriguing plot line that makes the story easy to tell. For decades the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics by Tim Rice has been performed to tell the story entirely in song. The musical has no spoken lyrics. The entire story is carried in the songs.
The basic story is relatively complex. Joseph is the eleventh of Jacob’s 12 sons, the first to be born to Rachel, who is the most beloved of the four mothers of Jacob’s children. A special coat that is a gift from his father demonstrates Joseph’s status among the brothers. His brothers don’t hide their animosity toward him. They plot to kill him, but at the last moment sell him into slavery at the last minute.
In Egypt, where Joseph is taken as a slave, his fortunes rise and fall and rise again as he makes his way into the role of manager of the household of the captain of Pharaoh’s guard, then is thrown into prison under false charges. His ability to interpret dreams gains him release from prison and eventually rose to become the administrator of the Pharaoh’s entire domain.
The key vision that gained him his freedom and position was the interpretation of one of Pharaoh’s dreams from which he accurately predicts seven years of plentiful harvests followed by seven years of famine for the entire region. Egypt’s careful saving of crops during the seven years of plenty makes it into the breadbasket of the entire region. People from distant lands are forced to come to Egypt in order to survive.
It is during this famine that Joseph is reunited with his family as they too are forced to beg for food from Egypt. Thus begins the journey that leads the people of Israel into slavery in Egypt and concludes with the Exodus.
So we all have the image of a plentiful Egypt with grain sufficient to share fixed in our minds. Even today, with intense desertification throughout northern Africa, we have grown to think of Egypt as a land of productive farmland and bountiful harvests. Thoughts of Egypt bring to mind images of street vendors with huge baskets of pita bread.
The image doesn’t ring true in contemporary Egypt. There is a shortage of bread and a shortage of flour to make bread these days in Egypt. Although there is still plenty of fertile land along the Nile River, Egypt has become a net importer of food. These days, Egypt imports about 80 percent of its agricultural products. Inflation is running at 9 percent, which further drives up the costs of basic food. The revolt that drove President Hosni Mubarak from office a year ago has not resulted in any improvement in the shortages of food. Charges of corruption in the Mubarak administration are especially accurate when it comes to agriculture. Two of the last three ministers of agriculture are in jail. Among the charges are the allowing of tainted pesticides into the country and selling prime farmland at a fraction of fair market value.
The destruction of the food economy was, in part, due to greed. With water in short supply, large farms turned from producing low-margin grain crops in favor of higher price products such as cut flowers, cotton and fruit. More and more agricultural land was sold to developers despite zoning laws prohibiting such changes in land use. The price of the land began to rise, making it impossible to earn a living off of the land producing grain, where the profit is small.
The potential famine threatens to eclipse the seven years of drought in the Biblical story of Joseph in the land of Egypt. There is not enough bread to feed the people. In a land where 40% of the people live on less than $2 a day, there simply is no way to pay the higher costs for imported food. A country that cannot produce its own food faces a future of perpetual dependence and famine. A weak transitional government exacerbates the situation. The administration is incapable of making long-term plans and developing strategies for increasing food production.
Images of wealthy Arab oil producers have tainted the perception of Egypt in the eyes of many in the West. While there are extremely wealthy countries in the Middle East that produce enormous amounts of oil for export, Egypt is not a major player in the world oil markets. While Egypt does produce oil and exporting oil is a source of income for the nation, it is a relatively small player in the world markets. The wealth produced by exporting oil is insufficient to offset the costs of importing food.
As is true in other countries with huge economic disparities, the benefits of a growing economy are felt by the wealthy elite and have failed to trickle down to improve economic conditions for the broader population. Unemployment, especially unemployment of those less than 30 years of age is a huge problem that is growing.
So there is famine in Egypt.
The response of our country is mixed at best. The United States has invested heavily in rural Egypt. USAID has spent over a billion dollars in training courses and water-management programs. At the same time, our country is a net exporter of food grains. Loan guarantees and other subsidies in our country mean that our grain is available at low cost throughout the world. Keeping the price of grain low benefits our producers, but narrows the potential for profit in other parts of the world. At the same time as our country continues to invest in Egyptian agriculture, our exports are seen as the reason that farmers cannot earn a living from growing grain in Egypt.
It is a complex problem. One might even say that it is a problem of Biblical proportions. The stories that our people have been telling for thousands of years ring true today. As was true in the story of Joseph, excessive dependence upon foreign sources for food leads away from freedom for the people. This time the roles have been reversed and it is Egypt that is wondering how to feed its people.
Once again there is a need for visionary leadership. The world is waiting and watching. And the lines for bread are getting longer and longer.
The basic story is relatively complex. Joseph is the eleventh of Jacob’s 12 sons, the first to be born to Rachel, who is the most beloved of the four mothers of Jacob’s children. A special coat that is a gift from his father demonstrates Joseph’s status among the brothers. His brothers don’t hide their animosity toward him. They plot to kill him, but at the last moment sell him into slavery at the last minute.
In Egypt, where Joseph is taken as a slave, his fortunes rise and fall and rise again as he makes his way into the role of manager of the household of the captain of Pharaoh’s guard, then is thrown into prison under false charges. His ability to interpret dreams gains him release from prison and eventually rose to become the administrator of the Pharaoh’s entire domain.
The key vision that gained him his freedom and position was the interpretation of one of Pharaoh’s dreams from which he accurately predicts seven years of plentiful harvests followed by seven years of famine for the entire region. Egypt’s careful saving of crops during the seven years of plenty makes it into the breadbasket of the entire region. People from distant lands are forced to come to Egypt in order to survive.
It is during this famine that Joseph is reunited with his family as they too are forced to beg for food from Egypt. Thus begins the journey that leads the people of Israel into slavery in Egypt and concludes with the Exodus.
So we all have the image of a plentiful Egypt with grain sufficient to share fixed in our minds. Even today, with intense desertification throughout northern Africa, we have grown to think of Egypt as a land of productive farmland and bountiful harvests. Thoughts of Egypt bring to mind images of street vendors with huge baskets of pita bread.
The image doesn’t ring true in contemporary Egypt. There is a shortage of bread and a shortage of flour to make bread these days in Egypt. Although there is still plenty of fertile land along the Nile River, Egypt has become a net importer of food. These days, Egypt imports about 80 percent of its agricultural products. Inflation is running at 9 percent, which further drives up the costs of basic food. The revolt that drove President Hosni Mubarak from office a year ago has not resulted in any improvement in the shortages of food. Charges of corruption in the Mubarak administration are especially accurate when it comes to agriculture. Two of the last three ministers of agriculture are in jail. Among the charges are the allowing of tainted pesticides into the country and selling prime farmland at a fraction of fair market value.
The destruction of the food economy was, in part, due to greed. With water in short supply, large farms turned from producing low-margin grain crops in favor of higher price products such as cut flowers, cotton and fruit. More and more agricultural land was sold to developers despite zoning laws prohibiting such changes in land use. The price of the land began to rise, making it impossible to earn a living off of the land producing grain, where the profit is small.
The potential famine threatens to eclipse the seven years of drought in the Biblical story of Joseph in the land of Egypt. There is not enough bread to feed the people. In a land where 40% of the people live on less than $2 a day, there simply is no way to pay the higher costs for imported food. A country that cannot produce its own food faces a future of perpetual dependence and famine. A weak transitional government exacerbates the situation. The administration is incapable of making long-term plans and developing strategies for increasing food production.
Images of wealthy Arab oil producers have tainted the perception of Egypt in the eyes of many in the West. While there are extremely wealthy countries in the Middle East that produce enormous amounts of oil for export, Egypt is not a major player in the world oil markets. While Egypt does produce oil and exporting oil is a source of income for the nation, it is a relatively small player in the world markets. The wealth produced by exporting oil is insufficient to offset the costs of importing food.
As is true in other countries with huge economic disparities, the benefits of a growing economy are felt by the wealthy elite and have failed to trickle down to improve economic conditions for the broader population. Unemployment, especially unemployment of those less than 30 years of age is a huge problem that is growing.
So there is famine in Egypt.
The response of our country is mixed at best. The United States has invested heavily in rural Egypt. USAID has spent over a billion dollars in training courses and water-management programs. At the same time, our country is a net exporter of food grains. Loan guarantees and other subsidies in our country mean that our grain is available at low cost throughout the world. Keeping the price of grain low benefits our producers, but narrows the potential for profit in other parts of the world. At the same time as our country continues to invest in Egyptian agriculture, our exports are seen as the reason that farmers cannot earn a living from growing grain in Egypt.
It is a complex problem. One might even say that it is a problem of Biblical proportions. The stories that our people have been telling for thousands of years ring true today. As was true in the story of Joseph, excessive dependence upon foreign sources for food leads away from freedom for the people. This time the roles have been reversed and it is Egypt that is wondering how to feed its people.
Once again there is a need for visionary leadership. The world is waiting and watching. And the lines for bread are getting longer and longer.