Thursday, July 07, 2005
Plucking Tea |
This is something that I just confirmed from a second source.
A recent World Bank document on the estate sector in Sri Lanka, grossly exaggerates the levels of poverty in the state owned estates. Yes there the situation there is poor, and it is generally accepted that estate areas are among the most poor in the country, but it is not as bad as the World Bank document makes it out to be.
S who originally put me onto the story believes that these figures are being manipulated to keep more and more money coming into the estates for poverty eradication programs. This source was one of the team who gathered the data that was manipulated. But A makes a few more links and comes up with another theory. A says the ultimate aim of the World Bank is the complete privatization of the estate sector and they can do this by twisting figures to show how shitty the state run estates are and how good the privately owned ones are. In reality the level of poverty in both state owned and private owned estates is shocking.
But the World Bank's tweaking of figures is more shocking. You out there, you know there's more to this story. Say it.
A recent World Bank document on the estate sector in Sri Lanka, grossly exaggerates the levels of poverty in the state owned estates. Yes there the situation there is poor, and it is generally accepted that estate areas are among the most poor in the country, but it is not as bad as the World Bank document makes it out to be.
S who originally put me onto the story believes that these figures are being manipulated to keep more and more money coming into the estates for poverty eradication programs. This source was one of the team who gathered the data that was manipulated. But A makes a few more links and comes up with another theory. A says the ultimate aim of the World Bank is the complete privatization of the estate sector and they can do this by twisting figures to show how shitty the state run estates are and how good the privately owned ones are. In reality the level of poverty in both state owned and private owned estates is shocking.
But the World Bank's tweaking of figures is more shocking. You out there, you know there's more to this story. Say it.
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Do you happen to know if the estate workers now have access to education? Last time I was visited the estates the children still didn't have access to schools. |
anon anon I will respectfully disagree with some of your points here. I’m generally aware of the conditions in the estates but not over the last few years. Aren’t you taking a bit of creative licensing in comparing the estate workers with Dafur and Rwanda? Yes they are marginalised, poor and have few opportunities for social mobility or improving their lot. However they are not living in fear of life and liberty, and as far as I know there isn’t any discrimination. They are not starving, have access to healthcare, most of them are citizens (yes I am aware of those who were in limbo) and have political representation (via the CWC, DWP, JVP, etc. more later) and certainly there isn’t any ethnic cleansing. They also have access to some sort of Industrial Relations Tribunal system where the complaints brought forward by the workers are dealt with. If I recall correctly they even have Colombo based lawyers representing their cases. However, I gather that there is some competition now including the JVP. Hey, if the JVP are improving their lot and not training them in the art of weapons the political outcomes may be better than in the past. India too seems to have picked up the ball recently by agreeing to support the estate workers. I hope they follow through with this and as you say, as long as they don’t become a political football. Another problem has been the lack of economic development in the hill country in general. It seems to be about 20 years behind the rest of the country at times. They may also be disadvantaged by a lack of informal communications networks (read relatives, friends etc) into colombo too. In addition being geographically close to India may have had an impact on branching out from the estates unlike those in Fiji, Sth Africa, Malaysia, etc. I know for a fact that the government has lately tried to improve the communication between the tamil estate workers and the non-tamils who live in the near by towns. They are trying to use English as the means to overcoming the language barrier. Here is a good interview by an Australian academic who was involved in this work. However, my personal view on this is that in the past the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) had a monopoly on the estate workers vote and didn’t make use of it for qualitatively better living conditions and even some sort of rights to private property (i.e. for a small plot for house before people start accusing me). While they gained some improvements in the estates they were always close to the seats of power and cutting deals, they could have done better. Again my knowledge is limited, I wonder if it’s another case of the CWC’s colombo based elites failing on the job. I just hope it improves. We all deserve it. |
Arrgh ... kept stuffing up the links. Here they are in order of appearence. were in limbo political football good interview failing on the job it improves |
Anon Anon Morq seems to be enjoying been driven around. You know, he’ll probably demand us minions refer to him as “Morquendi Mahaththaya” or some thing similar once he returns. Let’s keep this blog interesting in the meanwhile. Anyway, getting back to discussion, when have I suggested that the history and struggle of the Estate Workers should be forgotten or placed in the dust bin of history? No doubt there have been many forms of discrimination, systemic or otherwise, against the estate workers of Indian Origin. I look forward to the day their contributions are recognised and codified in the history of the country. May be someday we will be able to visit a museum dedicated to these workers and their history. Thanks for clarifying your position. I am objecting here to the use of the term genocide in describing the plight of and the violence committed against the estate workers. The term, since its introduction, has a particular significance in the English language and should be protected from attempts to dilute its meaning. I recommend reading the description of genocide as given by the inventor of the word Ralph Lemkin at the wikipedia. In addition the UN Convention on Genocide describes it as …genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: • (a) Killing members of the group; • (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; • (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; • (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; • (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. I agree that politically motivated murder and violence has been heaped upon the Indian origin estate workers at various time. Their history / culture may have been neglected too (not destroyed with intent). However it’s impossible to compare this to the systemic attempts at the eradication of the Jews under the Nazis, Tutsi in Rwanda or Pakistan in Bangladesh? Are you saying that there has been a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves[link] in regards to the estate workers ? Economically it would have been suicide for the tea industry and SL. Moving on, the mad-monks sound very right-wing to me. I saw that they were fighting the JVP now. Looking at what some of the ultranationalist loonies have been saying about reclaiming and cleansing the hill country, it’s damn scary. BTW, I last visited the estates in 1997 a long time ago. |
Sorry - I meant give Morq a hard time - not stop commenting! I'm too busy for this at the moment - I'd betting log of before I say the wrong thing & offend you! ANOn AnoN - ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..... |
Hi, I found u'r blog very interesting & have linked it to my own: www.dheshapalana.blogspot.com Keep up the good work! |
Wow, I'm not surprised, after seeing the hatred sown on the Tamil nationals in western countries by the Tiger propaganda machinery, this is exactly what should be expected from Anon. |
i strongly recommend that people pay Mr Sven Swedish nice Gay Guy a visit on his Blog page - all will be revealed .... Anon Anon |
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