Prog on BBC4 about mangetout

[muminator]

Colonialism is not dead (unfortunately). I just watched part of a programme about the way in which we get our mangetouts from Tescos. I had very mixed feelings - mostly negative and deeply embarrassing.

These people in Zimbabwe WORSHIP the great God Tesco, who, as they see, provides them with a living. What are we doing wrong here??

It just seems no different to any colonialism in our shameful past.

We provide these people with a living and they are grateful, but where is the dignity and equality?

discuss...

 

[john_morris_uk]

I saw some of it too. I am sure that its a repeat from a couple of years ago. Caused a big stink then too because of the attitude of the locals in Zimbabwe to the "Great God Tesco". Having groups of school children being coached into singing 'We love you Tesco" sticks in the throat a bit I guess...

 

[EdEssery]

Did you see the text titles at the very end though...
150g pack is on the shelves for 99p (in 1997 when I think the programme was made)
Tesco pays the farmer's UK agent 68p for this pack
The agent pays the farmer in Zimbabwe 45p
The farmer pays the reaper/picker 1p for what goes into a pack - but the yield on the farm is only 60% so the reaper has to pick 250g to get this. The 40% rejected because it does not meet Tesco's qulaity requirements is used as cattle food.

 

[muminator]

Yes, HWMBO spotted that too.

Yet another point in a pretty immoral (or ammoral) Big Picture. We sit here in our priviliged positions and wonder, what can we do for the best?

We try to buy from local farmers and suppliers, we try to buy "fairtrade" as much as possible, but how much of the real picture are we getting?

Goodwill just doesn't seem to be enough.

 

[aitchw]

From those figures it's the farmer who is exploiting the pickers. Don't think you can blame Mr. Cohen for that.

 

[Stingo]

Not really because the farmers in Zimbabwe also provide free housing and food for the worker AND the workers family. Then there is the tax that Robert Magabe takes. Not sure how much that is but knowing Magabe's record, it will be something like "How much did you earn? Ok pay the whole lot to me". The farmer still has the packaging, crop spraying and so on. I doubt that there is much left in his pocket from 45p

 

[aitchw]

In that case (and I bow to your knowledge, Stingo) it doesn't look that alarming on the face it, does it?

 

[Stingo]

The Agent could reduce his take by 1p and pass it onto the worker.

 

[halcyon]

Do you feel the same about the engineer that scratches a living looking after your boat so you can go sailing, or the marina staff keeping it clean and cleaning the toilet and showers.
It's odd that we worry about workers in Zimbabwe, and moan about the rates we pay English people to look after our boats.

Be interesting how many people with marine related jobs can aford a £100,000 / 200,000 boat.

Brian

 

[muminator]

Sorry, Brian, but I take great exception to your comments.

You simply cannot compare the lifestyle of our lowest paid workers in the UK with that of the people shown in Zimbabwe.

We have health care, social care and a better standard of living than they could ever aspire to.

And before you accuse me of owning a £100,000 boat, you should know that only five years ago me and my family were living on the breadline.

I know how it feels to be bankrupt, homeless and not knowing where my kids next meal is coming from - and it's STILL nothing like the living these people scrape every day of thier lives.

Get some perspective, please.

 

[Peppermint]

Re:I\'ve always wondered

how many people with a £100/200k boat can afford them.
Particularly as so many seem to be used very rarely.

 

[Peppermint]

Re: Reality check

This is the only game in town for the guy in the field.

He can't eat his dignity.

Should we decide to up his pay nobody will buy the pea pods.

Should we decide to share the worlds dosh out on a superficially fair basis then none of us could afford peapods.

Other cultures are different. I doubt if the board of Tesco came up with the company song. That will have taken place "in country" were no stigma is attached to singing about such subjects.

The only reason we can afford our finer feelings is because we're not working 12 hours a day in the fields to achieve something more important. Feeding our families.

So if your buying the peapods from Tesco are you an oppressor or a giving a farmer a leg up? What is the consequence of not buying them? Gosh the worlds complicated.

 

[aitchw]

Thanks for the reality check, muminator.

It is perversely heartening for someone like me trying as best I can to follow my sailing dream with no funds to spare to know that others on this forum have been through similar hardships. I lost everything I had built up as a result of the last recession and never really recovered though I will never stop trying.

Even in the darkest moments my situation could not compare with the lot of many of these workers.

 

[Cornishman]

I have to admit to not seeing the programme, but I do wish that the same sort of outraged comments made here were applied on behalf of UK dairy farmers who also seem to be suffering from the Great God Tesco's attitudes to its own profits.
If as many dairy farmers sell up this year as is forecast Prescott will have millions of hectares for his building programmes, that is if he survives his diving trip to the hugely government polluted waters of Whitsand Bay.
Sorry to have strayed from the original post, but there is a connection - Tesco.

 

[Sgeir]

Tesco, Chiquita bananas and the United Fruit Company

A very thoughtful thread, and I agree that UK companies have a social responsibility to ensure fair labour, health & safety standards etc.

I use Tesco quite a lot - it's convenient, and the range/quality is good. They also sell Fairtrade bananas.

But I was less than amused to find, a couple of years ago, that the Stirling store was marketing Chiquita bananas as Fairtrade.

Chiquita is a marketing name for what used to be the notorious United Fruit Company. The United Fruit Company had a particularly dirty reputation in the suppression of its labour force, as well as its involvement in the overthrow of a civilian government and its replacement by a military killing machine in Guatemala.

A complaint about Tesco misrepresentation of Chiquita was duly made to one of their trainee managers, backed up with a call to the local trading standards people. The stall was changed within a couple of days.

While the killings and torture reports may be fewer than before there are still problems for employees, with continuing reports of intimidation and violence - see http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991219413&Language=EN.

 

[jhr]

I remember this programme from first time around. If I recall, there was a group of schoolchildren singing a song about Tesco to greet the buyer from Head Office. It was a bit toe-curling.

I always feel ambivalent about workers in other countries, and the extent to which we profit from their exploitation. Nevertheless, as Peppermint says, they are earning a living, rather than starving to death.

Or at least they were, four years ago. I wonder if the guy still has his farm, or whether it's been handed over to "Civil War Veterans". If the latter, then I'll lay level odds that no-one has a job any more. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[SlowlyButSurely]

That's funny, the program I saw showed a community that was happy, well clothed and fed, educated and taking a real pride in what they were doing, and very concious of the fact that it was all down to their own hard work. Could it have been the same program or is it that you have never been to Zimbabwe?

 

[janie]

I think this must be rather out of date. I thought there were so many problems with Zimbabwe not maintaining their planes or paying their fuel bills that the transport couldn't be relied on any more to get the fresh food to Britain. Has anybody seen any magetout recently from Zimbabwe?