Two days ago we were discussing bananas in the context of the Elvis Presley sandwich. Now Johann Hari, writing on Huffpo, tells us the days of the jolly yellow, phalic fruit may well be numbered.
“Bananas are dying. The foodstuff, more heavily consumed even than rice or potatoes, has its own form of cancer. It is a fungus called Panama Disease, and it turns bananas brick-red and inedible. There is no cure. They all die as it spreads, and it spreads quickly. Soon - in five, 10 or 30 years - the yellow creamy fruit as we know it will not exist. The story of how the banana rose and fell can be seen a strange parable about the corporations that increasingly dominate the world - and where they are leading us.”
Banana production also turns out to be of a model of capitalism at its most viciously merciless.
"Find a poor, weak country. Make sure the government will serve your interests. If it won't, topple it and replace it with one that will. Burn down its rainforests and build banana plantations. Make the locals dependent on you. Crush any flicker of trade unionism. The term "banana republic" was invented to describe the servile dictatorships that were created to please the banana companies. In the early 1950s, the Guatemalan people elected a science teacher named Jacobo Arbenz, because he promised to redistribute some of the banana companies' land among the millions of landless peasants. President Eisenhower and the CIA (headed by a former United Fruit employee) issued instructions that these "communists" should be killed, and noted that good methods were "a hammer, axe, wrench, screw driver, fire poker or kitchen knife". The tyranny they replaced it with went on to kill more than 200,000 people.” (Click here for more.)
(And maybe proving the reality of karma, the politicization of Che Guevara actually took place when he was in Guatemala City during the CIA overthrow of Arbenz.)
The secret word is Peel
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15 comments:
Right... but today those corporations went turbo. Instead
of notion 'banana-country' they use 'banana-Earth'. :)
I suppose I should also point out that this is what happens with industrial monoculture agriculture. And today, as Gerin points out, we have large portions of the planet converted to industrial monoculture and waiting for some parasite or disease to evolve and destroy the whole thing. I really like bananas too.
Jon, isn't it the secret word maybe MONSANTO?
The article missed some needed points ofr a banana future debate. Bananas (and all other plantains) are monocultures because they have no seeds. All of these needed and vital food groups are grown from cuttings. This all of them are genetic antiques. Banana production would be a monoculture no matter how you sliced it. There are wild plantains that are immune to the new diseases. Those would be the sources of new genes for the commercial varities. However, that would nake the new bananas genetically modified so thats a no go since 'gene modified bad' is the current meme (mostly thanks to Monsanto.s crap practices. The French have been working on gene modified as well as old fashioned cross bredding with plantains and bananas with seeds. So far the results have been immune bananas that are ugly and taste like crap. The research continues. The French are in this due to their plantations on their Caribbean dependencies.
Sincerely Gaygeek
Gaygeek, thanks that was really interesting. Don't forget, you're dealing with science fiction readers here. I'm excited about gene modification. I'm not too happy about the creepy part played by Monsanto, but I can separate the issues. In referring to monocultures I was talking about the practice of grabbing several million acres of genetically rich land, including small farms with a mix of crops, plowing under, or worse yet, scraping off that genetic mix and planting the waste land that's left with millions of genetically identical plants. The result will be mass die offs as we've seen in European forests, or the complete destruction of needed food crops. That's not a possible outcome. It's an eventual certain outcome.
Gerin, the word is Monsanto, but it's only secret if you was hidin' out behind the barn when they's passin' out brains.
Jon, The Olde Farme Boye.
Ok, so the secret word is of their godfather, G.Bush Senior.
Yeah, that's still pretty secret. word verification is "Wake Dion". The Belmonts can sleep a bit longer.
Most of this crap happened before I was born... apparently there used to be some banana that was better than the bananas we have now & the same fuckers that killed it set up the system so that the second rate bananas I get now are going to die as well & I'm going to end up with a third rate acid banana that will probably end up dead also. What the fuck?
That was depressing... & that doesn't even go into all the stuff about the etymology of the term "banana republic" or the questions raised by a once fashionable clothing brand featuring the same name. What the fuck again?
Who owns Gap Inc. & did either they or their ancestors purpotrait me being stuck with these doomed second rate bananas?
& just for shits & giggles... Hey Mick, what's the word verification code?
I don't need no stinking code.
nor badgers.do you know i`m geting to the stage where i really don`t give a fuck.bananas,gaza,global warming,cfc,princess di.fuck`em.fuck everything.eh
Right on Stu! Now go fuck yourself.
I'm mildly surprised that no one has brought up the old nonsense from yesteryear about smoking the damned things.
Or some jive wordplay on "Yes we have no bananas."
I figured I should do Mick a favor and get us past comment #13.
And the WV is gyncy
dear jon.took your advice.feel a lot better about things.
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