THE PRICE WE PAY
David Lunan, the Presbytery Clerk for Glasgow, took part in a trip to the Philippines where he visited some of the many banana plantations that feed the West’s insatiable demand for cheap produce. Plantations where workers' rights are viewed as a luxury rather than a necessity. He also met Christian Aid partner PhilNet-RDI who are working to redress the balance.
“We stood on top of the truck and there was nothing but banana plantations, banana plantations on all sides, as far as the eye could see, except for the road, straight as a die heading for the horizon in both directions. We were told to keep a low profile – if a car appeared we were not be seen. The owners of the plantations don't like strangers, or NGOs or photographs.
The road was the best we’d seen in the Philippines, with no potholes and as smooth as a motorway. That was so the bananas didn’t get bruised travelling to the cargo ships, on their way to Japan, Australia or Europe.
We talked with the families that worked on the plantation. They seemed happy to meet us – we were a pleasing diversion from the production line. Endlessly checking, labelling, packaging and stacking the boxes was a monotonous task.
We learned their wages had risen by 8p an hour in seven years. They had no schools, no health care, no shops, just huts here and there in the middle of the plantation. Yes, they could leave, but where could they go? They were economic slaves. They had no freedom or choices.
Perhaps the most shocking thing we saw were the chemicals. We were shown unmarked sacks whose contents burned the skin. We heard about the insecticides sprayed from the air, causing infertility.
We drove through a monsoon rain that washed away the mountain road behind us; we rode four on a moped, we crossed a river on a bamboo raft, we walked the last miles to the hilltop through sweltering, steaming foliage.
We were visiting people who had never seen a white person, except for a missionary who ended up taking rather than giving. The dozen or so families had been moved from their tribal, ancestral lands to make way for illegal loggers backed by the army, and a huge geo-thermal plant on their sacred mountain.”
These ‘development’ decisions were made by the desire for money alone; money is spendable, people are expendable. The natural world is not seen as our problem – it’s there for the taking. Where decisions are made from financial motives, people may suffer and nature can be harmed. The balance only returns when we recognise the worth of every human being and the beauty of the natural world.
Christian Aid’s partner PhilNet-RDI attempts to rectify the imbalance and works to promote rural development. It provides training and research and looks towards a fair and sustainable society. By praying for PhilNet-RDI and similar organisations and perhaps making a donation through Christian Aid to their work, we can stand in solidarity against the injustice described. I know that never again will I ask what I pay for my banana, but who else is paying for my banana.
David
Lunan
Courtesy of the
Christian Aid Website