Blood, Sweat and Takeaway ep3

Just finished watching episode 3 of Blood, Sweat and Takeaway. This time the Brits went to work in the rice fields in one of the poorest regions of rice farms in Thailand. They were to first pick the young rice plants then clear out the weeds then plant them back the next day. And all this had to be done in quickly because summer was approaching and if they do not do it in time, the rice fields will dry up and they would lose potential yields. The Brits roughly managed to do this but with a lot of struggle and in very tough conditions.

They were shown three houses for living. First one did not have a bathroom and they would have to just go in the wild. And there was also cow shit all over the bottom of the stilted house. So they looked at the second one, which was nothing better than just a shed, it had no door, only four posts and a roof over the top with a wooden floor. And the bathroom was shared with a few other houses. Then the last one was the most decent with a bathroom and clean space. They picked the last one although the rent was the highest because they just thought the first two was unbearable. On their first day of work, they did not work quickly enough and more local workers had to be called in and so were only paid half the amount. This they used all of it to buy food and could not pay rent and begged to pay rent the next day. Then the next day even with their full wages, most of it went to rent which was barely enough and they basically starved for that day. And on the third day, they worked at the rice processing plant and were for once able to catch up on their rent and have a decent meal.

But after that the harvesting season was over and they had no other way of getting any money to survive. Asking the locals, they found out the only way to survive was to do odd jobs which paid even worse, or go to Bangkok to find work. Some of the kids stay with their grandparents while their parents move to Bangkok to find work. And the parents usually only get to see their kids 2 days each a year during New Year and a Thai festival. Next leg of the series would see them go to Bangkok to experience the work these poor farmers go to, for work.

There was a preview of this and it is really not the Bangkok people see on holidays. They would be living in a slum area and doing the worst jobs imaginable...

I was very humbled after seeing this episode especially. The field workers work really hard and it still is not enough. I always had the belief that if I work really hard, I would be duly rewarded. With that comes an expectation that I SHOULD be rewarded. But for these people, even if they work really hard they could only barely make it to survive, for a shelter over their head and food to eat. So in truth, what people deserve is only in their head. If it is enough for me to live comfortably, it is enough and I would count my blessings.

Also, by comparison there has been a niggling feeling in me that I could be earning so much more working in engineering industry rather than doing PhD. But now I am just happy that I do make more than I need to live by. I appreciate things like having a roof over my head and never ever going hungry. There is always a superfluous of food. And where does that come from? These poor people working for their lives. It has just grounded me really, and not take for granted anything I have. The clean air I breathe, the food I have to eat and the soft bed I have to sleep on at night.

It is good and all that I feel this now, but I find by next week the feeling usually dies off and I am pretty much back to my ignorant self. Well maybe not ignorant, but I do not feel as much affected by the issue anymore but certainly I do care. I feel the only way I can understand them is to walk a mile in their shoes. And I think after my Phd I would perhaps like to go volunteer for Engineers Without Borders and go to a developing country to help them out. But now all I can think of doing is donating more to organizations like Kiva. I think just stop buying things beyond my means. I do not think boycotting would be much help as other people will still buy these food products anyways. And that is the system in place, in those countries. Boycotting would be a negative choice of action. Donating to Kiva would provide them with the means to improve their standard of living and so better their lives independently. It hopefully would generate more wealth in their countries and create a more decent living. Hopefully I can continue to be more appreciative of what I have, and what I can give back to the world.