Nature Calling!!!!!!

How easily do we forget in the flat lowlands of Holland the incredible beauty of lush, green mountains ! Everytime I see them again, no matter in what country, I wonder how I can live without them...what miraculous wonders of nature! :)

As I was complaining about hot and sticky Manila, I write you now from the beautiful green and mountainous province of Davao del Sur in Mindanao, the most southern island of the Philippines.
The island which is mainly in the news because of the ongoing struggle for independence of the Islamic majority of the population, the Moro National Liberation Front.
But rest assured, Davao del Sur is one of the few provinces with a Catholic majority, the second largest religion is our beloved animal loving 7th day adventists church :). So no worries about Abu Sayyaf... (Im Iranian anyway! ;))

Mindanao, the 'food basket' of the Philippines, is one of the biggest food suppliers for the rest of the country. It exports coconot, banana, pineapples and oil palm not only to the other provinces but also to the rest of the world, mainly Japan, US and Malaysia.

Very ironically, 1 in every 3 households in Mindanao is suffering from extreme hunger, making it one of the poorest regions of the Philippines.
The blessing of the country is slowly becoming its curse; the focus of the agriculture is turned to export, the demands of the global food market are more important than the domestic needs. Crops which are high-value in export are taking more and more land, while essential food crops like rice and cattle-farming are decreasing. In the past, farmers were at least able to feed themselves with their own harvested products, now they must have the money first to buy food from someone else (mainly imported rice from China!).

The promiss of fortune made from the export of coconuts, pineapples (del monte) and bananas (del monte, dole, chiquita) unfortunately does not reach the normal farmers. The large plantations where these export-crops are grown are owned by big international companies or rich philippino landowner-families, who cash in the profits.
Small farmers who used to harvest on their own land, lend their land to large plantation owners who offer them short-term 'large' sums of money. For example, the farmer signes a 4 year contract with a plantation owner, he will receive the payment 1 year in advance, so he gives up his land and receives immediately 200 dollars cash, for the coming 1 year. Most of the farmers have never seen such a large sum of money in their life. Needless to say that after maximum 3 months all the money is spent, and the farmer is left without money, without land and thus no income. They are forced to find employment in the plantations, working on their own land, for the large sum of 100 pesos per day (61 peso is 1 euro). To give you an idea, the average household here consist of 6 people. 1 kilo of meat is 170 pesos.

Again I have one to add in my book of contrasts in the colourfull land of the Philippines.

And I haven't even mentioned the working conditions on the plantation! Especially the use of extremely toxic pesticides by unskilled and unprotected plantation workers will make your next banana taste bitterly different...
As I mentioned, my research will focus on the knowledge and attitudes of small-scale farmers, working on private land (not on plantations), concerning pesticides.
Before I came here my view was so different.. I had been reading other researches on the dangers of misuse and unsafe use of pesticides by farmers in third world countries. Most of the researches put the blame on the farmer for not informing himself better how to use the pesticide.
Now I know that these researchers did not keep into account that many small scale farmers have contracts with food-companies, they provide them the seeds, buy their harvest, and also determine the pesticides they must use. Small side note: many of these foodcompanies have contracts with pesticide-producing companies (eg Cargill and Monsanto)!
Many pesticides on the market in developing countries are forbidden in the west, even in the countries of the pesticide-company!
I will go more in to that after my first research results.. I will go into the communities the coming week with my questionaire... I dont want to overload you with too much negative info...

And I really must say: there is hope..!! The peoples movement is incredibly strong here! More and more peasants and workers are organizing themselves, and despite many setbacks they continue to struggle for justice.... just the right to have enough to eat in this superrich country.

sooo... how was queensday?? ;)
many greetings,
maayong adlaw
babai
Shadi

ps. I havent figured out how to underline the pictures: so first two are pictures from mount apo, the highest mountain of the Philippines (actually its a vulcano). We (dr. romy, nangin (who helped with the questionnaire) and I) hiked up the mountain where dr romy is setting up an organic farm.

The third picture are kids in an adjacent village, on our return, with their own improvised pooltable.

4th picture is another farm project of dr. romy where he is planting organic medicinal plants, the children live in the small house on the background and are the children of the caretakers of the plants, indiginous peoples. (many of them lost their land as described above). They have signed a 10 year contract with the plantation and still have to wait 9 years to get their land back.