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Going Bananas
By Chitra Padmanabhan; Illustration by Sudheer Nath
July 7, 2000: The military force of the Asian country of Taiwan was put on a very important job last week. They were ordered by the government to eat as many bananas as possible.
The members of government did the same thing. They stood outside their parliament and munched bananas for a long time. Journalists from newspapers, radio and television were there to see their cheeks puff as they bit into one banana after another.
Some of the politicians even made up a song on the banana there and then. The Speaker of the Taiwanese parliament bought 60,000 kg of the fruit. Almost every person in the small country of Taiwan has been eating bananas for the last one week. In fact, the country went bananas or slightly crazy on that most common of fruits last week.
There is a simple reason behind the actions of the people of Taiwan. They were trying to help the banana farmers of their country. Most of the bananas are exported to countries like Japan. So bananas bring in a lot of money for the farmers. And for the country.
But this time, Japan did not take as many bananas as they usually do. Taiwan got flooded with bananas. Since there were more bananas than people wanting to buy them, the desperate farmers kept reducing the price of their fruit. It was clearly a tragedy for them.
And, at such times, the people look to the government to help them. That's why the government got into action by asking each citizen to do her or his duty by buying and eating as many bananas as possible.
It is quite clear that bananas are not for monkeys alone. The economies and politics of many countries depend on this humble fruit. Nobody knows it better than the United States of America, which has been monkeying around with bananas for a long time.
How the banana came to the US Though the banana fruit was known to the people of Asia and Africa for a long time, the first bunch of bananas reached New York a little less than 200 years ago, in 1804. It was the red banana, which is the most common variety. The yellow or golden banana variety was developed and served in upper class homes in Boston in 1875 and the Americans went crazy over the fruit.
