Fishy business. The Social Impact of SST.pdf - Act Now!

When we asked if this meant sporting sponsorships, he said, “No, but I mean we get involved inthe community as much as we can. Our cafeteria buys supplies locally…so it’s…some of thelocal businesses in PNG we buy a lot of parts from.”What is “read into the commodity” varies across positions in global trade (Appadurai 1986:41).Commodities have life cycles, and these reflect the historical and political relations that gobeyond supply and demand. NTCs are powerful symbols of monopoly capital in the global age,and their global relations are complex: cut flowers from South America flown to markets inNew York; children toiling away at sub-minimum wages to make $250 Nike running shoes;Brazil nuts from the Amazon garnishing cakes in a Parisian bakery; and so forth. Closer tohome we see villagers on Baluan Island, Manus Province, selling mounds of fresh pineapples atmarket, to raise the fare for a boat ride to Lorengau, where they splurge on tins of Dolepineapples. The global marketplace does not mean people are ‘free’ to make the same choiceseverywhere. Workers may have limited employment options, just as consumers can only make‘choices’ in accord with their wages. The affluent continue to define the conditions and valuesof the poor, as critics of globalization would say. The production of NTCs may in fact degradethe standard of living in a host community. A minority of farmers may be favored or ignored,local subsistence resources depleted, and the overall income (and social well-being) of acommunity depressed.Landowners are aggrieved by the aloofness of SST as much as by anything else. Meni andKreer people understand the issue of State land and rent being taken by the Harbour’s Boardwithout any payment to them. They are clear that the problem predates SSTC, and thatcompensation might and should have been paid when the land was transferred from customaryto Statehold. But they are perfectly aware that they are in no way favoured for employment orspin-offs of any kind. The Suare 2 Villagers are much more justifiably angry at the way they’vebeen treated: first cultivated and ‘greased’, then encouraged to invest their own moniesregistering business associations and preparing for the factory, they were summarily droppedwhen the better site became available.There are environmental questions to be answered still. Why are patches of oil and debris seenfloating near the shores of Wewak almost every day? What effect does the nauseating smellhave on peoples’ health?The shady ownership off SST only reflects the entire climate of Wewak business, where arms ofgovernment and free enterprise are not only encouraged to be intertwined, but appear to be thesame. This is not about privatization of government assets, but about wholesale flogging ofpublic resources for the benefit of a very few.Labour issues are thorny. The pay is astonishingly low, and the conditions strenuous andunsafe. Of course market logic will win out, and eventually workers will realize the price ofstanding eight to ten hours a day for a fortnight’s pay that’s less than a good day in the market istoo high. As it is, they are giving the factory good labour for almost nothing, confused by theidea that development and wage labour is always better than an informal economy. Some aregrowing cynical, resenting the fact that they seem to be toiling to make a few rich men thatmuch richer. How long will it take them to figure out that capitalism has no natural quid proquo? That no one will thank or donate or organize or even think twice about their contributionto ‘provincial development.’167