My Time For Tea

I'm British and I do appreciate a good cup of tea. The night we arrived in Sri Lanka I was served some locally grown tea at our first hotel. It was the best I'd had in a while; served from a teapot into a cup with a saucer, and milk in a dainty jug. At each place we stayed in the country after that, the tea service deteriorated, and I realized that tea drinking the English way came and went with the British.  Imagine that! The stuff is still grown here, picked and packaged, but then shipped overseas to be brewed by different cultures in completely different ways.
Tea production is a part of the history of Sri Lanka that I am glad I was able to learn more about.

The British first came up into these beautiful hills thinking they would grow coffee. When tea became a popular drink back home, the coffee was replaced by tea plants which flourished in the ideal temperature at this altitude. The process is simple and the leaves can be picked, dried, chopped and packaged in less than 24 hours. The only challenge was the picking, which is done by hand every few days. Not surprisingly, the locals were not very motivated to do this work for the English, and Tamils were brought over from the lower castes in India.  These workers, mainly women, still do the work today, live in poor conditions near the fields, and make about $4 a day.

The tea plantations are truly beautiful, and the pickers stand out in their colorful dresses against the bright green leaves. To my son's horror, we stopped to take their picture on the road side and visited a tea factory. I didn't understand his disapproval until he explained that it was just such a 'tourist' thing to do. But wasn't tourism helping this area? We started a family discussion into the benefits of colonization and tea plantations here in Sri Lanka. The visit to the tea factory educated me into the production of the stuff I drink, and made me think whether the country has benefited from this business, and I don't mean tourism.
The British were eventually forced out and the local government took over the tea plantations.  Unfortunately the locally run business began to fail and were privatized once again. So now they are owned by foreign businesses, some Indian, some British. They continue to pay their workers poorly and as the tea is shipped out, so are the profits.
The Tamils who were originally brought in as workers were made to feel unwelcome. Instead of leaving, like the British, they stayed and fought. This civil unrest went on for years until the Tamil language and culture was finally accepted by the country. This story seems so similar to others of colonization and forced labor in other parts of the world.

Some would argue that the country might be better off if the British had never come, or never left.  Beginning a profitable business could be seen as helping themselves to someone else's land; and offering employment could be interpreted as exploitation of the disadvantaged. The problem with any foreign occupation or colonization is that it rarely considers the local culture as worthy.  The colonists bring their own religion, language and ideals believing they are bring gifts to help a poor and needy people. At some point there will be conflict, and that conflict will have to be resolved. History shows that there is resolution to the many errors that have been made against peoples and nations, many committed in good faith, in the name of sharing goodwill and peace.  In each house, hotel or restaurant in Sri Lanka I was always offered a cup of tea and I always accepted with gratitude. Some of the tea was terrible, and I seriously question whether the locals know anything of how an Englishman wishes to drink his tea, and some of the tea was brewed to perfection. Offering tea was a gesture, a welcome, that humbled me and I accepted with appreciation.