The war in Ukraine and the energy and food crisis

the escalation of the war in Ukraine and the imposition of economic sanctions on Russia, while major oil producers said they are facing difficulty in producing their quotas established under a supply agreement, which increased fears. Oil consuming countries on the possibility of compensating Russian supplies in the international market, in addition to the increase in tensions and armed conflicts in the Middle East, which led to a rise in oil prices by 4.1 percent, approximately 4.In this regard, the United States of America and European countries that stand by Ukraine called on members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia, to increase crude oil production faster after prices rose above $100 a barrel, while the United States maintains its Its oil reserves are to meet the challenges of the future in an attempt to exhaust the Arab oil reserves, and the war in Ukraine clearly revealed the dependence of Arab countries on capitalist countries, especially in the field of food.

food prices

It seems that the rise in the food price index in the international market confuses the accounts of all Arab governments, and they are suffering from a high bill for the largest food importers, as the value of the bill for importing food from abroad in hard currency reached $100 billion annually, according to the Economic Affairs Sector of the League of Arab States.
The suffering of the Arab peoples will increase in light of the continuous deficit in the public budget due to the repercussions of the war in Ukraine on the global economic downturn, the decline in the availability of food production in the international market, and the rise in food prices, which burdens the Arab citizen, who alone bears the consequences of the failure of governments’ performance in the political and economic sphere. The increases in foodstuffs are an additional burden on the costs of living of poor and vulnerable citizens, which they will pay from their own pockets, at a time when huge funds are smuggled abroad by spoilers. In Morocco, for example, they reached 400 billion dirhams during the period between 2004 and 2013, an average of 400 billion dirhams per year, according to the report issued by the American Foundation.
For example, the salary of the Prime Minister of Serbia remains much less than the salary of the Moroccan Prime Minister by seven times, and this senior Serbian official does not own any car, any savings in the bank or wealth, and he only owns an apartment of 30 square meters. The issue of wasting public money in Morocco is one of the most prominent concerns of citizens, as the theft operations included most of the funds, especially the National Social Security Fund, from which 115 billion dirhams were stolen, in addition to the funds of local groups. Most of the citizens suffer from poverty and lack of work, housing and health care.

Natural Resources

The Arab countries have treasures of natural resources and own fifty-five percent of the world’s oil reserves, and agricultural wealth is considered one of its most important wealth, but it does not receive the attention that it should. Arab governments are self-sufficient in basic commodities and have failed to liberate the political decisions of the state from the economic dependence of Western capitalist food-exporting countries.
Among the reasons that led to the predicament of high food prices in the Arab countries, including Morocco, is the mismanagement of investment in the vital agricultural sector, neglect of farmers’ support, and the absence of spending on agricultural research, as it does not exceed 1% of the value of agricultural production, thus widening the food gap, which led to an increase in food import. From the outside, and the most Arab countries that suffer from food shortages are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Algeria and Iraq, and they are the countries that spend the most on buying weapons and deluding people into the existence of an external enemy that seeks to destabilize the internal system of the state, and although the Arab countries have gained independence, they do not It is still affiliated with the advanced Western countries in all fields. The food crisis that recently swept the world sheds light on the magnitude of the economic and food dangers threatening the Arab countries, as it has become a huge burden that cannot be easily rid of and has moved to form part of the political dependency of the Western capitalist countries, especially that the countriesThe Arab world depends on the aid of these countries, especially wheat, as bread is the food of the Arab peoples, and its high price may lead to political tensions and revolutions, which prompts Arab rulers to make concessions to Western countries, and thus the political decision is no longer in the hands of Arab governments, but in fact has become subordinate to the decisions of countries Western capitalism, and with the abundance of agricultural land in vast areas and the abundance of river water, especially in Egypt and Sudan, but the Arab countries are unable to achieve self-sufficiency in their needs for consumer foodstuffs. For agriculture and more than 100 million head of livestock as well, and more than 400 million cubic meters of rainfall annually, however, Sudan needs foreign aid. As for Morocco, in the field of agriculture, the real estate mafia devoured agricultural land at the expense of the livelihood of the population. The arable area is estimated at 12 per cent. hundredth ofThe total area of ​​the country, which is estimated at 17 million hectares, is experiencing increasing pressure due to urban expansion, as the country lost 28 thousand hectares of irrigated land within ten years due to the encroachment of construction, which annually devoured five thousand hectares under the eyes of officials.
The other aspect that is of great importance following the rise in the price of oil and the increase in foodstuffs due to the war in Ukraine is the extent to which the Moroccan government, businessmen and wealthy owners are able to protect citizens, help the poor, expand social protection networks, and seek to reduce disparities and reduce the income distribution disparity between The classes of society, however, the rise of the government of businessmen and the political orientation towards the concentration of the liberal regime that is merciless to the poor and the weak, and the trend more towards privatizing the vital sectors of the state will raise the poverty rate in Morocco, which recorded 17.1 percent in 2019.
History is witness that all the wars that took place in The Arab countries were the victims of the poor, the needy and the weak. As for the wealthy, they are not affected by it because they have the possibilities that facilitate them to flee abroad, where they find their palaces and their huge money in the banks.