Section D In this section, there is one passage
followed by fire questions. Read the passage carefully, and then answer the
questions in a maximum of 10 words. Remember to write the answers on the answer
sheet.
The modest farm run by Solomy Leston and her husband, a few
picturesque acres in the central African country of Malawi, is in most ways a
model of third world development. Every season the Lestons reserve a corner of
their maize field for a fast growing cash crop that they sell at local markets
for top American dollars. The crop grows fast in the rich red soil without
sophisticated fertilisers, herbicides or irrigation and is dried on simple
wooden sun racks before being stacked away in rough mud brick shelters prior to
sale. If the crop were something wholesome, tea perhaps or
spices, it might serve as a model for the many African countries that struggle
to find a profitable niche in the global free market economy. Instead, this
lucrative local industry sits uneasily in the eyes of organisations like the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund whose aid dollars are so influential
to policy makers throughout Africa: the Lestons and their neighbors are tobacco
farmers. Tobacco is at the heart of an ethical and political
battle taking place in Malawi that is seeing the world’s largest health
organisations pitted against the industry that props up the economy of this
impoverished African nation. At stake is the issue of who will bear
responsibility for the world’s deadly nicotine addiction, and a conflict between
the need to reduce smoking deaths in the developed world while not sacrificing
the impoverished farmers whose livelihoods depend on cigarettes. Malawi’s Green Gold They call it "Green
Gold" in Malawi. Tobacco rakes in more than 70 percent of Malawi’s foreign
exchange and contributes one third of the country’s gross domestic product,
giving Malawi the dubious honour of being the most tobacco-dependent economy in
the world. In turn, the country contributes five percent of
global tobacco exports including a fifth of the world’s burley tobacco, a
sought-after sun-dried variety used in strong-tasting cigarette brands like
Marlborough. As an indication of the country’s dependence on
tobacco sales, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
estimates that 70 percent of Malawi’s 11 million residents depend either
directly or indirectly on tobacco for their livelihoods.
Tobacco became the backbone of Malawi’s economy under the dictatorship of
Dr Hastings Banda who assumed control of the country at its independence from
Britain in 1964 and remained in power until he was deposed by a referendum in
1993. During his almost three-decade reign, Dr Banda encouraged the tobacco
industry and amassed a personal empire that saw him become the largest private
tobacco grower in the world. Today, only foreign aid provides
more income for Malawi than tobacco. Therefore tobacco’s reputation as a leading
cause of preventable death worldwide is a dilemma for the government. As one of
the poorest countries in Africa, Malawi depends on tobacco exports to buy food
as well as maintain struggling health, education and infrastructure initiatives.
Yet without the support of foreign aid organizations, most of which oppose
tobacco growing, Malawi’s fragile economy would crumble. One
does not have to look far to predict the consequences of an economic collapse in
Malawi. This year, failure of the east African maize crop combined with economic
mismanagement triggered the country’s worst famine on record. Thousands have
already died of starvation and the British aid organization Oxfam estimates that
3 million people in Malawi face a similar fate unless something is done. The
food crisis only adds to existing burdens in a country where adult HIV rates are
estimated at one in five, malaria is endemic and childhood malnutrition
widespread. Remove tobacco profits from this equation and many fear a human
calamity. Ethical Dilemmas
Compromising situations can create unusual political alliances and the
tobacco industry in Malawi has some unlikely supporters. Dr J. M. Mfutso Bengo,
for instance, is a senior lecturer at the Malawi College of Medicine in
Blantyre, a member of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee and has a PhD
in bioethics from a German university. When the World Health Organization was
looking for a consultant in Malawi for their anti-tobacco lobby in 2001, Dr
Mfutso Bengo was well qualified for the position. He chose not to apply because
of ethical and moral objections to the WHO campaign in Malawi.
"My position is not motivated from ideology, it is motivated from
pragmatism," says Dr Mfutso Bengo, who himself is a non-smoker and receives no
funding from the industry. "Tobacco employs more than half of Malawi’s labour
force. IT they take away tobacco, it would be economic suicide for Malawi. The
social and health infrastructures would collapse and it would push Malawi
further towards absolute dependence on foreign aid. The WHO could give me money
to campaign against the industry but the poor people who are employed by the
industry, where would they be" Dr Mfutso Bengo sees double
standards at work in the international anti-tobacco lobby, whose concerns about
smoking-related deaths in the developed world he says overlook the more
immediate health and economic problems in Malawi. "In a country where 60 percent
of people live below the poverty line, basic health needs are most
pressing—things like the prevention of cholera, malnutrition, malaria. Dealing
with tobacco-based cancer is a luxury." he says. Questions: