There approximately 30 coconut trees in the garden around the house where I'm staying. The owner of the land sends every few weeks some people to pluck the coconuts. An article in the New York Times a couple of months ago was describing the dearth of coconut pluckers in the state of Kerala in south India. Economic development and education are making this activity less and less attractive to millions of people who have lived off the products of coconut trees for many generations.
Sorry about the soundtrack. I know it's lame, but I messed up the original
Needless to say, this is a rather risky activity that can seriously injure you if you fall from the top of a probably 30 feet high tree. No one has yet found a way to develop a technology that allows to pluck coconuts mechanically, not only it is hard to design a machine that could pluck coconuts, but you would still need the plucker to decide which coconuts are ripe and which need to stay on the tree. True, such machine would at least save many bones from being broken.
Negombo Plucking Down
But Indian coconut farmers have found a solution, which is not very technological, but manages to keep bringing the coconuts down from the tree. India is recruiting coconut pluckers from Sri Lanka, who have apparently not yet embodied the ambitious self of the indian pluckers who want IT and government jobs. This has turned into some kind of an odd pride in Sri Lanka, where some seem happy that pluckers keep plucking, instead of having some crazy new idea.
Former Prime Minister Sir John Kotalawela is probably better remembered for his comment on the the dearth of coconut pluckers in Sri Lanka, (and other similar ones) in the early fifties than for his poor handling of the language issue, at a time when things in Sri Lanka could have still been quite different. When asked about the nature of the problem, Sir John suggested that no one was climbing the trees because all pluckers had entered Parliament.
Fifty years later, it is obviously not politically correct to make such jokes. Fifty years later, it is apparently more acceptable to praise coconut pluckers for their professionalism, perhaps this will keep them from running for office. Oh, by the way, the only plucker I talked to, hated his job.
Sorry about the soundtrack. I know it's lame, but I messed up the original
Needless to say, this is a rather risky activity that can seriously injure you if you fall from the top of a probably 30 feet high tree. No one has yet found a way to develop a technology that allows to pluck coconuts mechanically, not only it is hard to design a machine that could pluck coconuts, but you would still need the plucker to decide which coconuts are ripe and which need to stay on the tree. True, such machine would at least save many bones from being broken.
Negombo Plucking Down
But Indian coconut farmers have found a solution, which is not very technological, but manages to keep bringing the coconuts down from the tree. India is recruiting coconut pluckers from Sri Lanka, who have apparently not yet embodied the ambitious self of the indian pluckers who want IT and government jobs. This has turned into some kind of an odd pride in Sri Lanka, where some seem happy that pluckers keep plucking, instead of having some crazy new idea.
Former Prime Minister Sir John Kotalawela is probably better remembered for his comment on the the dearth of coconut pluckers in Sri Lanka, (and other similar ones) in the early fifties than for his poor handling of the language issue, at a time when things in Sri Lanka could have still been quite different. When asked about the nature of the problem, Sir John suggested that no one was climbing the trees because all pluckers had entered Parliament.
Fifty years later, it is obviously not politically correct to make such jokes. Fifty years later, it is apparently more acceptable to praise coconut pluckers for their professionalism, perhaps this will keep them from running for office. Oh, by the way, the only plucker I talked to, hated his job.
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