Of Empty Pots and Pans

Protest and Celebration at the Rice Festival
Preceding Hong Kong WTO Ministerial

Hong Kong (Dec 11) -- Farmers from across Asia jumpstarted a week-long anti-World Trade Organization (WTO) protest by celebrating and defending Asia's vital rice culture from destructive neo-liberal policies.

The Rice Festival, organized by Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP), Save Our Rice Campaign, and the People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS), brought together numerous participants in Victoria Park who banged empty pots and pans to symbolize how millions of people around the world go to bed hungry because of WTO.

"We would like to commemorate the millions of people who are going to bed hungry everyday even though the world produces enough food to feed every one of us. We are banging these empty pots and pans to show our protest," asserted Sarojeni Rengam, PAN AP executive director, as she also officiated the launch of the Peoples Camp on Food Sovereignty taking place between December 15 to 17 at Victoria Park. The new pots, pans and other utensils were then donated to the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) shelter, set up to assist migrant workers facing problems and struggling for just treatment and wages in Hong Kong.

The Festival took place right after grassroots peasants, women, agricultural workers, support NGOs (facilitated by PAN AP and PCFS,) from Bangladesh, India (North and South), Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines joined thousands of protesters on the streets of Hong Kong to protest the WTO.

Cultural performances of farmers groups from South Asia and Southeast Asia enthralled audiences with creative expressions of the life and struggle of food producers.

Sinagbayan (Art for the People), an organization of grassroots artists from the Philippines, opened the festival with a captivating repertoire entitled "Redeeming Punholdayan" (Redeeming the Ifugao Rice God). Their performance related the ill-effects of the WTO "Agreement on Agriculture" (AoA) on the lives of the Ifugao peasants. Ifugaos, indigenous peoples from the Cordillera region, are famous for their rice terraces. But their livelihood has become endangered as the country is flooded with imported rice and vegetables and high-priced farm inputs. Punholdayan is the Ifugao rice god, symbolising and celebrating their traditional rice culture and peasants' rice wisdom.

In their performance "Redeeming Punholdayan" (Ifugao rice god), Philippines cultural team, Sinagbayan challenge the WTO Agreement on Agriculture--symbolised in the performance by the negative deity, "Hay Manahaat". At the end, the performance calls for peasant's and people's solidarity to combat the problems wrought by the WTO. Photo: PAN AP

In Sinagbayan's dramatization, the AoA was symbolised by the extravagant negative deity, "Hay Manahaat," which spreads suffering to the indigenous farmers. A brilliantly choreographed fight scene between the farmers and the deity ensued. At the end, audiences were cheered when the artists showed how the peasant's and people's solidarity can successfully combat and bring down the WTO.

A moving performance was delivered by the Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED), a grassroots-based support NGO fighting for the rights, welfare and recognition of the Dalits, the most marginalised caste of people in Tamil Nadu, India. The Dalits are mostly women landless peasants and plantation workers.

The all women cultural team's performance "Rice is our Life" described how rice is incorporated in the daily life and culture of the farmers. The skit showed how, from the time a woman reaches puberty, to marriage, pregnancy, the birth of her child, and up till the day she dies, rice is an integral part of her existence! "Rice Is Our Life", "Save Our Rice" they called out at the end of the performance.

NOUMINREN, part of a coalition of farmers, consumers, agricultural workers, and workers unions in Japan, also performed a traditional Japanese dance which was modified to show the Japanese farmers' resistance to WTO.

Meanwhile, songs by the Bangladeshi farmers from UBINIG (Policy Research for Development Alternatives) and New Agriculture Movement (Nayakrishi Andolon) described the traditional way of rice farming as well as the attempt of transnational corporations (TNCs) to take over the indigenous seeds for their profit.

Danilo Ramos, secretary general of the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines), delivered a poem written by a Filipino peasant. A part of the poem is as follows:

"Peasants by the millions
Are losing the competition
Only the imperialist nations
Benefit from this situation

People now unite
Struggle with all your might
Resist globalization
And JUNK WTO!"

Finally, a seed exchange among peasant farmers from across Asia was done to symbolically promote solidarity among peasants committed to preserving traditional rice wisdom and opposing the WTO-led patenting and commercialization of seeds.

Usha Jayakumar, Programme Coordinator of Sustainable Farming of Kerala based THANAL, (extreme right) facilitated the seed exchange involving farmers from Bangladesh, India and the Philippines opposing the WTO-led patenting and commercialization of seeds. "Rice is Life!" they called out. Photo: PAN AP

"Rice is Life!" shouted Usha Jayakumar, Programme Coordinator of Sustainable Farming of Kerala based THANAL, who led the seed exchange involving farmers from Bangladesh, India and the Philippines.

After the performances participants, and hundreds in the audience, enjoyed delicious rice cakes, and Indonesian "nasi lemak". The traditional Indonesian rice cooked in coconut milk with spicy eggs and fish, as well as rice cakes, were served by Indonesian and Filipino migrant workers who staunchly supported the peasants' struggle for land and food. An informational display on the Rice Campaign was set up to educate all present on rice related issues.

The 8 day Rice Festival is part of the People's Action Week against the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference being held between December 13 and 18 at the Hong Kong Convention Center.