Today I got to see the plantation sector from a different perspective. Through a network of mutual friends, I had contact info for a British guy who is managing a small private tea estate about 45 minutes outside of Kandy, so he took me up to see it and talk a bit about his experience. He's been managing the place for about a year, on behalf of his uncle who owns it. They have about 12 families working for them, who live on the estate in the traditional line houses (which are pretty run down, like on most of the plantations).
After all of the discouraging (and disparaging) things I'd been hearing on my other visits about plantation owners and supervisors who don't care about the laborers, it was refreshing to see that this management has made a sincere effort to address the conditions in which the workers live. But even so, they are struggling to figure out the most effective and productive way to go about this. They started by installing electricity in the workers' homes, but without really consulting the workers themselves, so it wasn't as beneficial to them as the managers had imagined it might be. Turns out that after living without electricity for so long, the workers weren't all that interested in paying to have electric lights.
They have also tried to raise wages a bit, but met protests from the surrounding estate owners who couldn't (or wouldn't) raise wages above the nationally-mandated minimum (at least the owners in this area actually pay the minimum wage - from what I hear, not all do). So, they try to give small bonuses or other ammenities when they can. They're installing better water supply lines, bathing areas, and toilets, and their long term plan is to improve the housing. And they're trying some other approaches to raise small amounts of additional income/resources, like gardens, bee keeping, and a small fish farm. Still, life for the estate workers isn't easy, and for the small estates that most of the tea is grown on now, it isn't always easy to make a profit. Instead of the large corporate-like tea plantations that once dominated the tea sector in Sri Lanka, much of the tea is now grown on small plots, and then sold to companies which process and package the tea. What does all of this mean for those of us who buy and drink tea in the west? Good question...I haven't quite figured that out yet. It's hard to know which are the "good" brands of tea to support when the inputs come from so many different, smaller companies that could have varying levels of treatment for their workers.
After all of the discouraging (and disparaging) things I'd been hearing on my other visits about plantation owners and supervisors who don't care about the laborers, it was refreshing to see that this management has made a sincere effort to address the conditions in which the workers live. But even so, they are struggling to figure out the most effective and productive way to go about this. They started by installing electricity in the workers' homes, but without really consulting the workers themselves, so it wasn't as beneficial to them as the managers had imagined it might be. Turns out that after living without electricity for so long, the workers weren't all that interested in paying to have electric lights.
They have also tried to raise wages a bit, but met protests from the surrounding estate owners who couldn't (or wouldn't) raise wages above the nationally-mandated minimum (at least the owners in this area actually pay the minimum wage - from what I hear, not all do). So, they try to give small bonuses or other ammenities when they can. They're installing better water supply lines, bathing areas, and toilets, and their long term plan is to improve the housing. And they're trying some other approaches to raise small amounts of additional income/resources, like gardens, bee keeping, and a small fish farm. Still, life for the estate workers isn't easy, and for the small estates that most of the tea is grown on now, it isn't always easy to make a profit. Instead of the large corporate-like tea plantations that once dominated the tea sector in Sri Lanka, much of the tea is now grown on small plots, and then sold to companies which process and package the tea. What does all of this mean for those of us who buy and drink tea in the west? Good question...I haven't quite figured that out yet. It's hard to know which are the "good" brands of tea to support when the inputs come from so many different, smaller companies that could have varying levels of treatment for their workers.
The estate I visited today was also quite beautiful and peaceful - a very pleasant place to spend the day. They have a guesthouse in the big old bungalow, with amazing views of the surrounding hills, a nearby waterfall, and a swimming pool. Maybe a successful future for the Sri Lankan tea industry will include a mix of tourism and production.
I have a few more days here in Kandy, then I'm hoping to do a little traveling around and sightseeing. I had gotten my hopes up that I might be able to visit Jaffna, where I used to live, and catch up with my friends there. Unfortunately, after talking with my old boss, it seems like it's not a good idea to head up there, since the security situation is uncertain there right now. So, I'm disappointed about that. But maybe other interesting adventures await...
1 comment:
It's so nice for me to have found this blog of yours, it's so interesting. I sure hope and wish that you take courage enough to pay me a visit in my PALAVROSSAVRVS REX!, and plus get some surprise. My blog is also so cool! Don't think for a minute that my invitation is spam and I'm a spammer. I'm only searching for a public that may like or love what I write.
Feel free off course to comment as you wish and remember: don't take it wrong, don't think that this visitation I make is a matter of more audiences for my own blogg. No. It's a matter of making universal, realy universal, all this question of bloggs, all the essential causes that bring us all together by visiting and loving one another.
You must not feel obliged to come and visit me. An invitation is not an intimation. Also know that if you click on one of my ads I'm promised to earn 8 cents for that: I would feel happy if you did click it, but once again you're totaly free to do what ever you want. I, for instance, choose immediatly to click on one of your ads. To do so or not, that's the whole beauty of it all.
I think it's to UNITE MANKIND that we became bloggers! Don't see language as an obstacle but as a challenge (though you can use the translater BabelFish at the bottom of my page!) and think for a minute if I and the rest of the world are not expecting something like a broad cumplicity. Remenber that pictures talk also. Open your heart and come along!!!!!
Post a Comment