For a neat encapsulation of all that is wrong with our world, you need look no further than this post by Johann Hari in today’s HuffPo.
He writes, about the decision of one corporation—United Fruit—to take a single species of the banana out of the jungle and mass produce it on huge plantations:
There was an entrepreneurial spark of genius there – but United Fruit developed a cruel business model to deliver it. As the writer Dan Koeppel explains in his brilliant history Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, it worked like this. Find a poor, weak country. Make sure the government will serve your interests. If it won’t, topple it and replace it with one that will.
Burn down its rainforests and build banana plantations. Make the locals dependent on you. Crush any flicker of trade unionism. Then, alas, you may have to watch as the banana fields die from the strange disease that stalks bananas across the globe. If this happens, dump tonnes of chemicals on them to see if it makes a difference. If that doesn’t work, move on to the next country. Begin again.
It seems the banana is dying—of a fungus called Panama Disease—and it is taking whole third world economies with it. This is happening because of the stupidity and greed of one huge conglomerate. So, tell me again why we are urging politicians around the world—through so-called stimulus packages—to pour vast sums of taxpayer’s money into huge conglomerates? Doesn’t matter whether their ‘product’ is bananas, cars, or financial derivatives—they’re all the same, interested only in amassing profits for themselves. And, when things go wrong, it’s never the corporate jets, the executive suites, or the expense account junkets that are jettisoned. It’s always people.
or whole countries…or the environment…
Interesting post…the things i didn’t know about bananas…and what a great analogy it is for the current state of the economy.
An unfortunate, sickening analogy, but you’re right, alas.
I have only ever heard horrifying stories about the banana industry actually. This is another to add to the list.
I was blissfully ignorant on the topic until I read that article. Now I want to read the book he mentions, although it’s only going to depress the hell out of me, I know.
Tessa: I read somewhere about 3 years ago that by 2010 there will be no more bananas (and no, I’m trying not to think of that song!) due to such policies. It is symptomatic of all that ails the world. We all edge closer to the classification, don’t we?
XO
WWW
I had read something similar, about the banana being a genetically modified fruit that was dying out because it can’t propagate, but I had no idea about the shenanigans of United Fruit et al. I think the human race is going to hell in a handbasket.
News of the present-day banana industry aside, isn’t it just a little embarrassing to live in a civilization where the phrase “banana republic” is used, in fun, almost exclusively in regard to high-priced clothing?
I take your point, John. Although it was also aired rather frequently during the recent political kerfuffle in these parts. Never thought I’d live to see the day when Canada was being compared to a banana republic …
I’m most definitely NOT urging government to stimulate any conglomerate and am frankly quite appalled by the fact that we are doing just that. How many other depressions and recessions have we gone through and come out all the better without all these stupid bail outs? I’m disgusted what we American’s have come to expect rather than depend on ourselves to pull up our own boots straps, grab a shovel and start getting ourselves out of the muck that we ourselves have created. grrrrr…..
btw, I don’t read the huff because it always makes me mad, whether I agree or disagree. I’m going to have to start doing a quick scan of your post for a reference to them and if I find one…..shut my eyes and move on. *wink*
I really don’t know what the answer is to the mess we’re all in right now. I know it was not fun to wake up one morning and find the nest egg for our old age was worth only 40 percent of its value a month earlier. Guess I won’t be retiring any time soon *sigh*. But there are a lot of people who would agree with you, judging by the number of calls lately for the financial meltdown to be used as an opportunity for getting back to basics.
I never miss HuffPo, partly because I find so much there to make me look elsewhere and find out more, and partly because I remember Arianna Stassinopoulos, as she was known then, as a recurring talking head on British television and being mercilessly pilloried in Not the Nine O’Clock News, a brilliant satirical BBC programme. She was absolutely insufferable, basking in the limelight of a biography she had written about Maria Callas (which came under fire for plagiarism later on), and it’s quite fascinating to watch her relatively recent transformation into a card-carrying liberal in the US.
The loss of bananas is a symptom of what I think is the worst problem the world faces — the loss of biodiversity. Of course that is connected to all those other problems, expooitation, greed, politics for the poloticians (not the people). That’s why we’re losing all the beautiful and necessary variety in the world.
While our political masters continue to pay lip service to the concept of diversity … so long as it is profitable for them.