At 5:00 am, still dark, a group of migrant workers started to gather in Ansan station square. No later than 5:30 am about 100 laborers were gathered. At 6:00 am, a mini-van arrived and a man selected 10 people and disappeared with them. Ten minutes later, another van came and took 5 more and left. No more van came, but people did not move away until around 9:00 am.
Then, most of the people who might have their “daily bread” went back home. Five or six persons opened their suitcases and started to sell small items of souvenirs from their home countries. Three or four persons started begging. About ten people were “standing around” the square. Some were dazed by the sun. Some were sighing.
In South Korea, there are about one million migrant workers. Most of them work for so-called “3D” jobs which means “dirty, difficult (physically) and dangerous”. Many of them work as unskilled laborers in construction industry. However, due to the impact of the global economic crisis in 2009 and the collapse of the housing market, many of them have no daily job to work.
When you think about it, palm oil has given smallholders a chance to escape the grinding poverty that these migrant workers have to endure and count as their lot to life.
In a report today, the Jakarta Post points out that “The palm oil sector generates significant employment and economic opportunities for the poor. In Indonesia alone, the sector directly and indirectly employs around four of the economically active rural population and supports a rural population of up to 20 million. The sector has proven to be a powerful tool for poverty alleviation in Indonesia.” (see: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/12/03/the-contribution-and-challenges-smallholders-oil-palm-industry.html)
“In rural areas where poverty and unemployment are endemic, the establishment of palm oil plantations has proven to provide jobs and generate significant income for the local people. Research showed that the Nucleus Estate Smallholder (NES) Project in general has been successful in reducing poverty. The number of poor people in NES areas is between 2 percent and 7 percent only. Those figures are below the national poverty level of 14 percent. The Gini coefficient of income distribution was 0.36. This means there is a relatively good income distribution as the figure is still below the upper limits of in-equal income distribution of 0.4,” the paper observed.
The paper concluded that “Palm oil is a primary source of income in rural areas for the present and is likely to be so in the future. The income of smallholders reached US$1,246-1,650 per year in 2005 and it is predicted to be $2,000-2,500 in 2010. Currently, palm oil is among Indonesia’s top income generating commodities. The oil palm industry has proven to be a powerful tool for poverty alleviation in Indonesia. The oil palm industry contributes to economic development, and its output growth drives industry development.”
Yet we have an entire cabal of “green” and “civil society” groups such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth (FOE), the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), the WWF and even zoos like the Melbourne Zoo, the Auckland Zoo and the Philly Zoo who have declared palm oil an environmental mistake for alleged deforestation that threatens the extinction of exotic wildlife such as the orangutan.
Such wild and unsubstantiated allegations may make for good sound bites for radio programs but they ignore a very real problem that exists in the palm oil producing region – the commodity is a useful tool in the eradication of rural poverty!
Furthermore, the allegations of deforestation cannot stand the scrutiny of facts, for palm oil is planted on only 0.23% of the world’s agricultural lands and yet produces a whopping 30% of the world’s supply of edible oil! THE END
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