By Ryan Harris
Putin Bans Bacon
What is the world coming to when a leader bans bacon imports? In retaliation to foreign sanctions, Vladimir Putin has just recently banned a variety of Western food imports. Russia’s president has dug himself, and the rest of his nation into a pretty deep hole. After his involvement and conflict in Ukraine, Putin has stirred up unrest throughout the entire world. Many are considering his most recent actions and decisions to be undemocratic. People may still support or follow Putin, but this population is diminishing. The time has come for this man to be removed from office and replaced by a more justified official.
Earlier this year, Putin decided to invade Ukraine. He began by seizing full military control of Crimea: a peninsula between Russia and Ukraine that is Pro-Russian. After this, he proceeded to fund Ukrainian rebels with weapons and tools. He supplied these rebels with surface to air missiles, which ultimately lead to the destruction of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Many nations throughout the world considered these events to be completely out of hand, and have responded with sanctions against Russia including the ban of business transactions with some major Russian companies, travel restrictions for specific individuals, a ban on Russian bank loans, and many more. Putin is now being pushed against a wall and believes it is necessary to answer these sanctions with a number of bans that hurt every nation’s economy, including his own.
Once again, this entire conflict really comes down to one major thing: bacon. Putin has basically formed an invisible “Berlin Wall” around his own country by banning food imports from every nation that has placed a sanction on him. A list of the nations banned are the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, Canada, Australia, and Japan. Before we know it, we will have to air drop bacon care packages onto countless innocent, pork-starved Russian bystanders.
Where does this stand in the global economy? The trade barriers established in 2014 have had a wide array of effects on foreign and domestic consumers and producers. Some people have seen good outcomes, but most have seen bad outcomes. Many major companies in these banned countries have just lost a major client. As a result, jobs will be lost. Because Japan may no longer export copious amounts of seafood to Russia, its people are at risk of growing obese. Amidst this chaos, the United States has discovered the advantages of producing its own oil.
For the last seven decades, Russia has had its fair share of bad leaders. Russia has an incredible amount of potential and promise. I genuinely believe that one day Russia will settle down and make great progressive contributions to the world, but in order to do so, change needs to happen. The only thing standing between Russia and a prosperous future, is Vladimir Putin. You can invade a country, you can undermine democracy, but you’re crossing the line when you ban bacon. Enough is enough Russia. Vladimir Putin’s got to go.
Video link: <iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="512" height="288" src="http://video-api.wsj.com/
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Citations:
"Russia Bans Food Imports in Retaliation for Western Sanctions." WSJ. Web. 9 Jan. 2015. <http://www.wsj.com/articles/
"Russia Sanctions: 'Ill-Planned, Ill-Timed and Foolhardy'" CNS News. Web. 9 Jan. 2015. <http://cnsnews.com/
"Why Did Russia Invade Ukraine? Because The West Is Weak." Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Web. 9 Jan. 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/
"Russia's Putin Issues Retaliatory Ban on Food Imports - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network. Web. 9 Jan. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/
"International Sanctions during the 2013–15 Ukrainian Crisis." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 9 Jan. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
I find it funny how you singled out bacon from general food imports to grab more attention, including mine. I enjoyed the humor of the bacon care packages dropping on "Pork starved citizens". I do believe that Putin's reign is nearing its end and will soon be seeing some leadership changes.
ReplyDeleteRyan, this was a cool and humorous way to tackle this issues and present the economic issue that Putin’s bans entail. Bacon is definitely an important and balanced food that needs to made available to the Russian people, but it was also interesting to see how the bans affects the countries that can no longer export to Russia, like Japan and the US. Putin is trying to make a political statement, but at what cost, so his country and the world hates him even more?
ReplyDeleteBacon is good but it is not a concern. Concerns are the trade barriers and how it affects the economies of the countries involved. Also the concerns should lie with Putin trying to lift the sanctions that were put on him by different countries and trying to mend the fences. Bacon is good but it is not important.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic. I think it fits really well into our last economics unit regarding international trade. It's interesting to read about the irrationality that law makers, like Putin, often possess; how a thing as small as bacon can have such an impact just because it's banned. It's also interesting how retaliatory leaders can be; enclosing themselves from the rest of the world just because they're "angry". Overall, you did a good job of concisely connecting this current event to economics and making it funny at the same time.
ReplyDeleteWhile this is comical and has value, you jumped around a bit too much to really focus on the topic, It terms of the post, you made some interesting points while adding your own opinions, such as bring up bacon as a topic to talk about the amount of food wasted/in excess due to this trade barrier with Russia. You also slightly hinted to the fact that this blockage has brought some good into the world, with the comment on how America has begun producing more of it's own oil. I will say though that if your going to talk about the food crisis Russia's put on itself then I think you should have spoke about it more and how this will affect food prices, supply, and consumer demand.
ReplyDeleteOverall I do not think it is that bad, because the sanctions make it very difficult for them to import any of these foreign foods. So by banning them they don't have to worry about people fighting for them when they do come into play. banning them makes it easier on the country, since they wouldn't have to deal with the whole problem in the first place.
ReplyDeleteGreat topic, actually one of the best. I really enjoyed reading this blog post, not only because it was a good source of economic knowledge, but also because the basic topic for the post is bacon! I think that you have made some really good points, that Putin is not only hurting his own economy, but a lot of other country's as well. It all comes down to the fact that he's being immature and just enjoys the power that he holds. If he's creating such a large problem however, countries like the US should meet with others and see if they can do something about it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with James, where Putin is only hurting his economy and country. It's not just that he's banning bacon imports, it's the fact that he's banning western imports, which doesn't look good for him, especially after the Ukraine invasion. Just as Germany tried to block the world out, I don't think that Putin is really putting his country in a good economic state by cutting off a portion of his trade, but at the same time, as long as he's still keeping his country open to products from Asia, I still think Putin might be able to maintain a stable economy.
ReplyDeleteAlthough all food imports have been banned, I find that bacon would be the harshest to lose. Putin is hurting his economy severely by taking away bacon, because everyone loves bacon and that means people are willing to pay for it. As a fellow bacon lover, I feel that Putin is making a mistake for his economy by taking away what was possibly a good source of income, and even worse is he's taking away a wonderful food.
ReplyDeleteThe similarities to the cold war are unsettling. This might even be worse.
ReplyDeletepractice comment
ReplyDeleteSomething needs to be done to ensure these poor Russians get their bacon.
ReplyDeleteOverall, you did a very good job. You drew your audience in with the topic of bacon, and continued to keep them engaged while you talked about boring economical issues. I knew nothing about Russia or Vladmir Putin's leadership, but I had a sense of understanding after reading your post. Your writing was successfully humorous yet informative and I agree with Daniel that"something needs to be done to ensure these poor Russians get their bacon."
ReplyDelete