{"id":134408,"date":"2023-05-17T16:23:21","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T23:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=134408"},"modified":"2023-05-17T16:23:21","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T23:23:21","slug":"unilevers-tempest-to-tumble-ceylon-tea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/05\/17\/unilevers-tempest-to-tumble-ceylon-tea\/","title":{"rendered":"Unilever\u2019s Tempest to Tumble Ceylon\u00a0Tea"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

\u2018Modern Planters\u2019 in Sri Lanka have successfully stagnated productive forces<\/strong>\u00a0for over 2 centuries forcing workers to harvest using their 2 fingers, while in Kenya the process of harvesting is aided by light machinery, raising labor productivity and therefore real wages, while plantations increase profitability.\u2019(see\u00a0ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>, Mendacious)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A curious lawsuit is splashing about by the North Seas of the Atlantic in Scotland, involving Kenyan tea workers far away in East Africa. At present it is but a few frothy waves, but this lawsuit (an old manoeuvre in born-again \u2018hybrid\u2019 \u2018lawfare\u2019) is set to roil turbulence midst tea producers in Sri Lanka. Last ee<\/em><\/strong> reported on this case, but now emerge a few more details:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The lawsuit is being brought \u2018on behalf of\u2019<\/strong> Kenyan tea \u2018pickers\u2019 whose health and lives have been diminished by tea multinational James Finlay Kenya\u2019s plantation practices, where certain \u2018labor-intensive\u2019 work practices (monotonous, incessant, backbreaking, & de-skilling) have predominated (those courts only interested in the \u2018backbreaking\u2019 part). Coincidentally, this MNC (multinational corporation) JFK is \u2013 according to Kenya\u2019s The Star<\/em> \u2013 \u2018embroiled in a persistent dispute with local leaders and communities over the use of tea-plucking machines<\/strong> that saw hundreds of workers rendered jobless\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Rainforest Alliance<\/strong> said suspension of the licenses<\/p>\n\n\n\n

followed an\u00a0independent<\/strong>\u00a0investigation over allegations raised in the\u00a0BBC<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revocation means tea exported by the 2 companies to international markets will not be accepted as it is not certified.\u2019(ee Agriculture<\/em><\/strong>, We\u2019re Working)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This week, media continued to announce that Sri Lanka firm Browns Investments<\/strong> had bought James Finlay Kenya (except for a tea extraction facility) \u2013 a deal that \u2018will be completed in the next few months\u2019. Media also reported that an apparently unelected \u2018international\u2019 \u2018regulator\u2019\u2013 The Rainforest Alliance<\/strong> \u2013 has suspended JFK\u2019s and Ekaterra (formerly Unilever)\u2019s<\/strong> license to trade internationally due to sexual abuse of their workers! Who gives this NGO such power? Supermarket chains? Or the suppliers \u2013 Unilever?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Then why is Browns buying JFK at such an hour as this?<\/strong>\u00a0Perhaps the answer, again, lies (lies!<\/em>\u00a0indeed!) in the teaspoons of the tea exporters\u2019 fraud. They have to learned \u2018make a killing\u2019 in many ways. MNCs like Unilever monopolize not just our own home market. They have a neck-lock over \u2018those markets\u2019 too. Many are the city precincts and rolling rural scape in Europe & the Americas built from the land & labor stolen from us and invested in industry & real-estate there. So what on earth is this slick subarctic \u2018tea trial\u2019 really all about? And what does it have to do with technical advances in the original land of tea \u2013\u00a0Cha! Cha! Cha!<\/em>? (ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0&\u00a0ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s President bows before England\u2019s King, instead of going to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting hosted by India. The IMF\u2019s regional hacks return to Colombo\u2019s Central Bank. A plot is uncovered at the University of Colombo. Police are deployed in numbers enough to whip the bulls on at the Stock Exchange. The US Envoy laments any use of force. The media wails in chorus. The IMF Waves Goodbye. Another Euro-American entourage descends. Another national plan postponed. Here in samsara: Press play. Pause. Rewind. And play again\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Times<\/em><\/strong> informs its readers that an unnamed \u2018state agency\u2019 in Sri Lanka is probing \u2018allegations\u2019 made in MP Wimal Weerawansa\u2019s book \u2013 The Story of 9.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     9<\/em> examines the role played by the US & Indian governments and local actors in igniting the latest conflagration in Sri Lanka. Within parliament. Within officialdom. Within the armed forces. Within (import quality) civil society<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The Times<\/em><\/strong> also published their English translation of certain excerpts of Weerawansa\u2019s 9<\/em>. The book received a boost on being panned by the US Envoy as \u2018fiction\u2019 (a Booker Prize then?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The Island<\/em><\/strong> points to certain Weerawansa allegations involving both the USA & India, focusing on the supposed undermining of the chain of command, crippling both \u2018national security\u2019 as well as economic policy (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     All around us \u2013 from the Yellow Sea to the Red Sea, from the Nan Hai (South China Sea) to the Cape of Good White Hope \u2013 examples abound to look back at<\/strong> and look forward to<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unilever\u2019s Tempest to Tumble Ceylon Tea<\/a><\/blockquote>