Considered from the "development discourse" angle - or some variation of
that angle - (Arturo Escobar, James Ferguson, Rahnema, etc.), peasants are
surely lazy. In fact, there is a remarkable singularity within the
development archive concerning the character of the world's peasants. They
are lazy, invariably alcoholic, overly concerned with matter sexual,
irrational (of course) and, of considerable interest, their ethnic and kin
affiliations root them in prisons of cultural space.
Paul Hanson, Ph.D.
<html></html>
>From: Nick James <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Are peasants lazy?
>Date: Fri, 20 Apr:27:45 EDT
>
>Has anyone come across readings/research into this debate concerning
>peasants? I know for instance that Goran Hyden was a commentator.
>Nick
>
>News reports & clippings no. 115 from Joseph Hanlon
>20 April 2007
>GUEBUZA & PEASANTS UNION
>JOIN DEBATE
>Are peasants lazy
>or not supported?
>
>"The lack of a habit of hard work is perpetuating hunger and poverty. We
>have to work more and harder," President Armando Guebuza told a series of
>rallies in Zambezia province last week. "There are many lazybones in
>Mozambique. We
>have to admit we don't work much." These are people who "relax without
>having done anything, and then become tired of so much relaxing."
>
>In Alto Molocue he criticised the "massive apathy toward work in the
>country". In Zambezia there is a lot more land that could be farmed, and
>rivers that
>could be used for irrigation, but which are not being used because
>peasants
>are lazy and apathetic.
>
>The respected journalist Gustavo Mavie, head of the AIM news agency, who
>travelled with the President, said Guebuza really was "breaking the ice"
>--
>saying the unsayable in blaming lazy peasants for underdevelopment. Mavie
>noted
>that in Mopeia, Guebuza hinted at it might be necessary to resort to
>"persuasion". This could be seen as a reference to the Operation
>Production which
>Guebuza used against "unproductive" people in the cities in 1983.
>
>But the new line is not going unchallenged. The National Peasants Union
>(UNAC) marked International Peasants' Day (18 April) by saying the
>peasants
>cannot do more work unless they have more support from the government. The
>use of
>fertiliser, improved seeds, animal traction and irrigation is very low in
>Mozambique because most peasants are so poor they cannot buy inputs. UNAC
>called
>on the government to provide agricultural credit, inputs and marketing
>support.
>
>UNAC said other countries in the region and around the world provided such
>support, which is also necessary in Mozambican to make peasant agriculture
>profitable.
>
>Meanwhile, the national Food Security Unit (Secretariado Tecnico de
>Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional - SETSAN) announced on Wednesday that
>chronic child
>malnutrition is getting rapidly worse -- from 31% of children in 1997, to
>41% in 2003, and rising further to 46% in 2006. Chronic malnutrition comes
>from
>a regular lack of food, and means that the poorest half the population is
>getting poorer.
>
>Thus one reason for peasant "apathy" may be simple lack of food. Peasants
>who start work at 4 am before sunrise and who only eat one meal a day are
>likely to be tired and sitting under a tree by 11 am when the visiting
>delegations
>pass. But they have already done 7 hours of hard labour. Even just a bit
>of
>fertiliser and some improved seeds would make that labour more productive,
>meaning more food and perhaps making harder work possible during the next
>season.
>
>Guebuza's attack on lazy peasants has been expected, because Guebuza's
>close
>advisors have been taking this line in private for some time. But the
>Frelimo leadership and Guebuza's advisors are increasingly urban middle
>class, and
>it appears the Guebuza has been given some bad information. In one speech
>he
>said that it was due to laziness that food was being imported from Malawi.
>But on the same day, an article appeared in Noticias complaining that
>13,000
>tonnes of food had been exported to Malawi from just one district, because
>there was no market for the food in Mozambique. Some Mozambican peasants
>do not
>have the money to buy basic food.
>
>Clearly, the debate is only beginning.
>
>Joseph Hanlon, 20 April 2007
>
>
>
>
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