Xmas 2005

Descended from Adam’s Peak after 7;30am, with the brilliance of plotting hot sun rising before all of our eyes. A whole other world goes to sleep or takes their Christmas Eve nightcaps, dreaming of what gifts will be under the tree or mulling over the family get-together. But in this Buddhist paradise of Sri Lanka, marred by previous (and possibly new) civil war hells, there’s just the hum of synchronized chants, chilly night air, and throngs of exhausted yet enthusiastic pilgrims. You have to climb about half a million steps to reach this nirvana, with Xmas lighting and neon shops, along the way. Because of this mass ascension it feels like something beyond any other cultural, musical or religious gathering, as you see wizened men with one leg or women carrying babies or middle aged shopkeepers balancing on their heads steel roof shingles or bundles of wood for their cooking fires. Can you imagine climbing about 2.5 hours a day, maybe 2 to 4 times, to maintain your small shop of rotis, Fanta and other snacks, for 500 people with little money, and 30 rich tourists who try to rip you off???! I don’t know how many of these hard working people maintain their good nature and sense of humor! And most of us in the West flip out over really small things, (like hand gestures in traffic). It really puts to shame any utterance of a complaint that I might have about anything in the world…ever.

Although I cannot understand a single word of Sinhala or Tamil, apart from Sutu (or gringa), I still know when people talk about me, even for a split second. Of course, there are way better things to talk about…but at the top of 2243m, this non-practicising Buddhist Sutu received sideways glances and giggling, presumably cos I’m there just to check out dawn. Instead I will most likely offend Buddha in the process. The hike is done at night, after Duruthu poya (December full moon) day, as there are less rains, it is cooler and you get to witness sunrise and the peak’s dangling shadow. When you reach the top you must take off your shoes and hats, and you can offer a small donation for a blessing, but must tap your head to the ground, 3 times, in front of Buddha. Mostly Buddhists, some Muslims and Hindus and clusters of tourists visit the top, which houses several food shops and a temple fitted with a large donations office.

Vistas from Adam's Peak

About 20 minutes after the start of sunrise, it has engulfed the Peak and has begun its scorching 35-degree blaze. It makes finding your equilibrium long enough to walk down, doubly difficult. On the way down, I was introduced to a wonderful man, who is a shopkeeper on the peak. He says that usually the crowds thin and no one really climbs after 8am. So he sleeps until afternoon, then waits for supplies and the evening crowds. Many shopkeepers listen to radio or watch TV, and basically live up there. Because of the recent 40% crash in the Sri Lankan stock market due to economic instability and cautious investing with regards to pending civil war, many people from Colombo and other tourists do not want to travel to Adam’s Peak. For the most part, Sri Lanka is safe, and Colombo is safe as long as you are careful and have networks of support. Only the Northern and Eastern provinces have experienced recent violent clashing, such as attacks on 26 soldiers this past month. (I reckon it’s significantly lower than many casualties in American-led wars and murders within a state of similar population size).

thru tea country

Anyway, this conflict and lack of confidence among investors, deters the tourist industry, which run a huge part of the country. During this kind of political instability, (relentlessly pursued by nationalist President Mahinda R.) all industries suffer. From this brief journey, the early-December market crash made clear that restaurants, hotels, guest houses, shops, small businesses, possibly tea plantations face decline, thereby adding to the unbearable level of poverty in the country. How to stem this plunge below poverty line for many people? Buy local? Give what you can?, (remembering that most people earn $35 USD/month) but do not attach feelings of obligation/pity/pride/generosity/etc. Giving cash to homeless people in the States is something that has a lot of these tags attached. Giving is certainly a personal choice, but how and when you action this choice, has serious political connotations. In general, many colleagues and acquaintances give only to women, children or disabled people because there is a stigma that most men would waste donations on liquor. And if you talk to many impoverished Sri Lankans they do not want aid money, huge relief projects or Brettton Woods infrastructure, but would like to awaken the wealthy parts of the world to their existence. Just highlighting some of these stories will bring attention to a few people who work extremely hard, for very little money and without due respect.

Ms. Kamalam

While driving through the highland tea plantations, we met a few tea pickers, who gave us directions, allowed us to take a photo of them and showed us where was a nearby pila (aqueduct-like system to bring water down to workers’ bathing area). Some people in the group wanted a quick bath in the spring water to cleanse the day’s 13 layers of sweat.

Ms. (Thangaraju – family name) Kamalam, about early 40s with one 7-8 year old son and one teenage daughter working as nanny in Colombo, led the group through the tea pickers’ neat maze of black tea, and their cricket fields to a refreshing bathing spot. She and her fellow women pickers told us that they get up at 4am to cook breakfast on their wood-burning stoves for families, then get in line to be selected for work by 7am. After 7am they may miss the opportunity to get the daily pay (135 rupees/$1.35/day). Most tea pickers, strap a basket-in-satchel to their foreheads, where it hangs in the back so they can deposit their tea leaves. They carry long sticks to ward off snakes and before the day begins they pray to Hindu shrines at the foot of tea plantation to ask that they are not attacked by snakes. The pickers work until 4-5pm in order to be home in time to prepare meals and settle in children. It is unknown what happens with many of the husbands and fathers of these women, but there is a strong presence of women in the fields. The men I did see were playing cricket at the end of the day, bathing or chatting with friends. A massive contrast to the women’s schedules; despite all their work, the women still had time to show around inquisitive foreigners.

Most tea pickers will work on plantations their whole lives, passing on the work to future generations. The majority of pickers are Indian Tamils, brought in by colonialists as cheap labour. They continue to face harassment, racism and marginalization by Sri Lankan Tamils, residing in North and East of the country. It is interesting to note that most tea pickers voted for Ranil, the UNP opposition party leader, as he has been an integral part of the peace process. Tea pickers risked a day off work to vote for a peaceful leader, but their efforts were futile because Mahinda got in instead.

Ms. Kamalam’s mouth was bright red from chewing betel leaves, had streaks of silver in her black hair and exuded graciousness, modesty and politeness. I got her address in case I can write to her (estate employers would most likely translate) or send her some extra income, even $5 USD/500 rupees a month could make a huge difference. On the other side of the coin, why couldn’t tea prices be raised slightly higher, in order to provide a more substantial living to tea plantation workers? What is the role of fair trade tea in Sri Lanka? What efforts are made to offer higher skill training to future generations?

As follows:

Ms. Thangaraju Kamalam
Brunswick Tea Estate
Maskeliya, Sri Lanka

No Deal Better Than a Bad Deal!

Anyway, for actual content about outcome of Hong Kong talks, a good write up:

(from Kathmandu Post, 23 December, 2005)

What is the benchmark?

by R.A.



























"Hong Kong ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization did not fail like Cancun Ministerial, as many observers had predicted. However, the benchmark against which the so called “success” should be measured may be quite subjective. If “development” is considered the touchstone for measuring success, significant advancement of the cause espoused by the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) is the only measurement of success.

It may be recalled that DDA, considered truly a development round, did not only include several issues of concerns to the developing countries in the main text, but also issued two separate declarations. They were: “Implementation Related Issues and Concerns” and “TRIPS and Public Health”. This column starts with the success made on these two issues before analyzing other issues included in the DDA.

First, a total of 12 issues, which required serious commitment from the developed countries so as to ensure their implementation, were listed out by the first of the above mentioned declarations. To the dismay of the developing countries, there has been extremely limited progress on this issue over the period of past four years. Adding insult to injury, Hong Ministerial Declaration institutionalizes the process of sidelining this issue by pushing the deadline further to “review progress and take any appropriate action” to 31 July 2006.

Second, on TRIPS and Public health, WTO members agreed, on 6 December 2005, to adopt a permanent amendment to the TRIPS Agreement, which allows the countries with insufficient pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity to import generic versions of drugs still under patent. However, this theoretical assurance, which was provided on 30 August 2003 itself by the WTO members, has not been utilized so far by any WTO member so far, due to the stringency of conditions attached. This is not a victory for the developing countries – it is rather a victory for the Northern pharma lobby, which has managed to contain the “damage” caused to them by the TRIPS and Public Health Declaration.

What has been the fate of other issues? On the relationship between TRIPS and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) the Ministerial Declaration has watered down the “negotiating mandate” provided by the DDA. Ministers merely “agreed to continue the work” and postponed the possibility of engaging on any negotiations at least until the seventh ministerial conference of the WTO. There is no sense of respite for the developing countries rich in biodiversity and traditional knowledge, which wanted to put a halt to the process of biopiracy through a mandatory “disclosure” requirement.

On the issue of agriculture the Doha mandate of phasing out of the export subsidies have been delayed at least until 2013 by the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference. Skeptics argue that by 2013, due to the ongoing reform under Common Agriculture Policy of the European Union, the actual reduction will be only to the tune of one billion, whereas the huge domestic support which prevents developing countries agricultural produce from entering the EU market remains. Actual gains will therefore be minimal.

Non-agricultural market access has been and will continue to be an area where developing countries are on the defensive side. The agreement reached at the Hong Kong Ministerial to follow Swiss formula for the reduction of industrial tariff would mean that developing countries will face steeper reduction in their tariffs. This could not only lead to deindustrialization, but also job losses in these countries.

Services negotiations, which became controversial even before the start of the Ministerial, saw a lot of wrangling between the developed and developing countries. One of the most controversial proposals relating to plurilateral negotiations had to be rewritten during the ministerial. Even after that the current text leaves room for different interpretations.

Special and differential (S&D) treatment used to be considered the backbone of the DDA with the members to committing to see to it that they are made precise, effective and operational. However, even after four years there is no significant progress on overwhelming majority of these issues, particularly Agreement-specific proposals, with deadlines set for the resolution being extended at least four times. As per the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration, ministers agreed to expeditiously complete the review of all the outstanding Agreement-specific proposals and report to the General Council, with clear recommendations for a decision, by December 2006 – fourth such deadline fixed after DDA was adopted.

The only five S&D proposals that have been agreed by the Ministerial relate to those proposed by LDCs, the most important of which is the provision for duty free quota free market access. Even on this issue, developed countries tried to create a division among the developing countries and LDCs on the one hand and within the LDCs on the other. In the end, the developed countries agreed to provide such facilities to LDCs only on 97 percent of their tariff lines. This still leaves enough room for the developed countries protect their sensitive products such as textiles, clothing, rice, banana and sugar.

It is worth noting that even prior to the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference WTO agreed to provide seven-and-half-year extension to the LDCs to implement the TRIPS Agreement. This means that they will not be required to implement this agreement until 1 July 2013. This will partly help these countries contain the damage the full implementation of TRIPS by the earlier deadline of 1 January 2006 would have caused.

Similarly, “aid for trade” has been incorporated as one of the decisions in the Declaration. On the face of it, this appears a good beginning. However, it is not clear whether such aid will only be repositioning of the existing bilateral and/or multilateral aid or they represent additional commitment on the part of the developed countries.

Viewed from the perspective of the DDA, developing countries seemed to have paid a huge price for to prevent the round from failing. Their impeccable support to the multilateral trading system is in part a reflection of their obvious desire to avoid falling into the trap of signing bilateral trade agreements and compromise with the policy space they have been able to retain so far. However, sustainability of this approach is something worth analyzing."