Quality of Life: Education, Culture and Power Imbalance
QOL seems to be an ambiguous notion that is hard to quantify. However, improvements in the tea plantation throughout the years are conspicuous: increased living space, availability of clean water, universal education opportunities, maternal-child health care, etc. Some aspects have improved; but more has to be done nonetheless. Most importantly, some other aspects in quality of life is intangible and core to the livelihood of plantation workers, which are unable to catch up with the tangible improvements, as aforementioned, in certain areas of their lives. These issues mainly evolve around education, dogmatic cultural conventions and power imbalance.
Although younger generations who study in village schools are provided with better education, they are not on par with international vision—their perspective is rather narrow and locally grounded. Perhaps outbound excursion and exchanges are not pragmatic to implement, given the existing financial resources. What can be done is to revamp the school curriculum and impart more education contents of the developed country: not so much as to convey imperial values or western conventions, but to offer a picture of the latest trends and deliver ways of reflecting and liberating local mind-sets. Although cultural immersion to the west is undeniable, western education can open locals to mentalities of liberation, progressivity and freedom. Acquiring reflective learning is the key not only on personal level for making better individual decisions, but also accumulates high quality educated human capital that can offer solutions to social problems and formulating effective policies. Ultimately, it adds balance to the national power that narrows the disparity between Sri Lanka and the developed countries.
More importantly, English medium should be introduced in schools: teaching of language is the most efficient way to understand the dominant culture of the western society, and effective way of connecting to the thoughts of the outside world. Constant cultural exchanges between the self and the other cultivate cultural tolerance, and allow the nation to improve on one’s weakness and learn from the other’s strength. Bilingual-education avoids the complete invasion of another culture, whilst acknowledging and safeguarding the local cultural assets. The ability to converse in English in turn not only opens up a different way of seeing one’s own culture, but also promotes the tourism industry, thus boasting foreign income, where communication with visitors are possible.
For the older generation, generally possessing lower education level, keep a picture of how the world is like through years of socio-cultural experiences and incorporate such as knowledge. In contrast, their children are taught with textbook knowledge and scientific methods. For some important issues, such as health, older generations should be given the opportunity to proper education, especially for pregnant mothers. For example, previous generations generally prioritize resources for housing while unaware of underweight problem for their children. Since malnutrition problems are visible only upon proper check-ups, it is often neglected if the mother does not approach the clinic regularly. Worse still, since they do have the conception of what malnutrition is, and the corresponding negative consequences, they underestimate the effect of such for young children. It leads to problem of slow mental development and other major health problems in their later age.
Optimistically, in our conversations with the households, some (grand) parents are aware of their health condition: quality of food is worse in comparison to the old time because of the use of pesticides and other chemicals. Many of the elderly allege that common sicknesses today are caused by deteriorated food quality. Although the range of grocery available is broadened, the quality drops in contrast—this seems to be an inevitable trade-off in developing country when mass agriculture production is prompted during fast economic growth. The complexity of child development is concerned when their health is compromised by the inferior food quality even though the quantity is boasted. In a macro perspective, a balance has to be made between food price, quality, nutrition loss and consequent health cost in mass production.
If the QOL of the tea plantation workers and their future generations are to be improved, more education is necessitated. In terms of power balance, knowledge allows them to open up to more perspectives and options; acknowledging their own rights; and thus avoiding potential exploitations and unequal treatments. When knowledge bestows them the forms of power, in both short and long run, they are able to understand clearly their own situation, reason with sound arguments, make the best choices for themselves and seeks ways to improve one’s life. The power of knowledge not only empowers educated individual when dealing with unfair institutional policies and cases of injustice, but also becomes a force of citizen that are able to voice out their point of views collectively—as a nation—when deciding matters involved with other nations. When knowledge becomes power, it increases one’s bargaining power in the game of politics.
To protect the workers, various tea certifications are created to guarantee a better quality of life for workers in the tea estates. Learn the promises behind the labels and logos on your tea, show your care to the ones who contributed to the fine tea. When you look at the pack of tea, it is never going to be the same again; it is more than a product, but the people who work hard to support their family and make you the finest beverage.
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