Ecuador-Rainforest

‘Dein Spiegel’ says that as selfies grow more and more common they meanwhile also are very popular with the upper classes of comparably poor regions like Kenya, Zambia or some parts of Ecuador. People just put themselves in the middle of a flower-field and never mind the damage their actions do to the flowers. Nor do they think of the farmers and other workers who grew these fields of tulips, roses, lilacs etc. Especially in Kenya, Zambia or Ecuador these farm people already are rather poor without this loss. What’s worse is that often children and adolescents helped growing these fields as this is quite normal there. How must they feel seeing their hard work destroyed? Or even worse…how must they feel knowing they will have to do even more work eliminating the damaged flowers and perhaps even growing new flowers to replace them? Sure France, California etc. also have farmers who grow flowers and they also have citizens who have become almost obsessed with selfies. But the thing is that these two are rather strong countries. If there is a law that forbids this damage, most people obey and the rest will have to pay a recompense to the farmer. In let’s say Kenya things are different. Even if there is a law, wealthy people can just bribe police officers with promises or very little amounts of money and they can get away without giving anything to the farmer.

I know these news maybe will not be taken that serious as I can’t mention any specific source, but this week I read on the electronic roadside billboard at the train station of Reutlingen that while most people think of dark chocolate as something very healthy that contains nothing but cocoa-beans – perhaps even fair-trade-products – and just a minimal amount of sugar, scientists now found out that many producers of dark chocolate put a lot more sugar than would be healthy into their products and in some cases also use vanilla for the taste. Most vanilla however gets imported from Uganda and especially Madagascar both of which are known for vanilla-producers using child-laborers to grow and harvest their vanilla. Cocoa on the other hand is associated with child-labor on a much wider range than that. Ecuador is just one of many countries known for the use of child-laborers on their cocoa plantations.

“Domradio” says that in Ecuador years ago the producer of petrol “CGC” put some explosive agents underground in the rainforest to reach a new source of petrol….despite the fact that this place was the home and property of the “Kichwa”, a native people that has been living in exactly this area for centuries now. Anyway already years ago a court decided that “CGC” was to remove their explosive agents immediately and yet – at least they never used these agents – they still refuse to do so…untill now. This week the “Kichwa” spoke before a foreign court in Costa Rica in hope that their decision would make this company remove their explosive agents. Alas their ultimate decision hasn’t been translated into my native language yet.

“Domradio” says that half a year after the heavy earthquake in Ecuador’s coastal area people still struggle to get their former lives back. This is hard as the rebuilding of damaged houses takes a lot of time in Ecuador. While the Ecuadorian government promised at least some sort of financial support what they received so far was a lot less than expected.

I’m so sorry, but between Monday and Wednesday military time my village – including me – had either very limitted access or no access at all to the Internet due to a heavy storm. At least that’s how I explain that parts of this comment from 09:19 PM Jan 10 2016 weren’t even uploaded.
For example I meant to say “At their expense people from industrial nations build themselves fancy walls.”