Bitcoin, Banana Chips and Community Capital
Business Lessons from Rice Paddy Cultivators, Rubber Planter Entrepreneurs and Backwater Capitalists
#Planters #Traders #Bankers
Kerala is a bizarre anomaly among developing nations, a place that offers real hope for the future of the Third World. Consider: This small state in India, though not much larger than Maryland, has a population as big as California’s and a per capita annual income of less than low $1000s. But its infant mortality rate is low, its literacy rate among the highest on Earth, and its birthrate below America’s and falling faster. Kerala’s citizens live nearly as long as Americans or Europeans. Though mostly a land of paddy-covered plains, statistically Kerala stands out as the Mount Everest of social development; there’s truly no place like it. Let me tell you about our Wealth.
In the mornings, from nearly anywhere in Kerala, you can hear loud music from the Hindu temples, wailing muezzins at the mosques, and church bells ringing at the cathedrals. Religious tolerance is just one reason for Kerala’s success.
When the state government was introduced in 1956, Kerala entered the history books by establishing the world’ first freely-elected Communist government. In the decades that followed, the state developed a distinctive strategy for social and economic development that endured sweeping land reforms and spends almost half of its budget on health and education be it Congress or Communist government . A heritage of female-headed households means women have always been equal participants here.
Kerala is a place to meander: Simply take a bus from Trivandrum or Cochin out to almost any village and spend a day wandering the dikes between the rice paddies and rubber trees, seeing how half the world still lives: men and women stooping to cut rice with sickles, or spreading coconut along the road to dry; water buffalo wallowing in the irrigation ditches; every inch of ground cultivated; every small field lined with palms; a place where little is wasted. It’s also a place that works, and in poor, rural Asia, that alone would make Kerala a paradise.
Kerala is India’s second smallest state, ‘but its land is so fertile that it is home to more than 30 million people. The state is mainly rural, but it has 4 airports spread across the state with about 200 KM between each city.
Rubber Planter Entrepreneurs
I come from a small town called Pala, Kottayam in Kerala, India’s green and fertile land of spices. According to some historians in Kerala, our family descended from one Parackal Manayil Parameswarn Namboodiripad who lived at North Parur. He embraced Catholicism as far back as in the 1st Century A.D. straight from the apostle St.Thomas who landed in Kerala in 52 A.D. From North Parur his’s two sons moved to Pallippuram, on the western bank of the Vaikom backwaters. One of the sons from the succeeding generations moved east in search of fertile land and reached Pulliyannoor, the western part of Pala, and settled down there. The land he purchased for his dwelling is still owned by our family 400 years later. He had brought with him a huge quantity of gold and silver which he used to purchase vast stretches of land. He apparently invested a good amount in the local businesses too. Within a short period, he is said to have amassed a lot of wealth, both movable and immovable. The weather around Pala is responsible for some of the best spices and peppers that were available globally and had huge demand in Europe. The Arabs controlled the spice trade from middle ages. So when Columbus set sail for here in 1492, trying to find a better way to get to our Peppers he ended up in a New World and we all know how that turned out for the “Indians” there.(Americaa)
Backwater Capitalists
Keralites meet you on more or less equal terms, with neither the subservience nor the rage you’ll find in much of the Third World.
Every celebrated traveler in history set their sights on the Malabar Coast, as Kerala was known at the time. Marco Polo came here; There’s a small town in Kottayam called Athrirumpuzha and the then famous river port was mentioned in his journals. My mother’s family have been the local traders and bankers here. My great grand fathers ensured all their children study and one of my grand fathers was a well loved bank manager of the local State Bank of Travancore and my other grandfather was a famous police surgeon.
Kerala played host to the peripatetic Islamic scholar Ibn Battuta, China’s intrepid Admiral Zheng and hundreds of other travellers across history. Vasco da Gama was buried here. The ancient Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs — they all came to Kerala. King Solomon is said to have sent his commercial fleet here. The Portuguese, the Dutch and finally the British took over the trade and subsequently the kingdoms from the local kings. They changed the land use patterns and eventually around 1900s we also started growing Rubber.
Spice Traders
Traders still come for the spices — when the wind is right, a hint of nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom and turmeric wafts across the air from plantations to warehouses or factories around Kerala — but travelers are arriving in increasing numbers for another reason: a respite in what’s probably the gentlest, most idyllic and socially interesting corner of India. This is one of the best places in the world to live.
Cut off from the rest of the subcontinent by a spine of mountains called the Western Ghats, lapped by the warm Arabian Sea and crisscrossed by the tranquil web of canals, lakes and rivers known as the Backwaters, Kerala is unlike any other place in India. It’s green and lush rather than brown and dusty, its literacy rate is the highest in the world, and it’s renowned for religious tolerance in a country where this hasn’t always been a strong point.
Fort Cochin is a cultural nexus, with the ramparts of an old Portuguese fort, moldering Dutch and English mansions, a waterfront fish market and a warren of narrow streets meandering through the old spice district. The beaches —— are said to be like those of Goa, minus the blissed-out ravers. And a journey by a local vanji, vallom or houseboat through the Backwaters is becoming de rigueur for locals and world travelers.
The next thing Kerala is famous for is the red hammer-and-sickle flags — lots and lots of them. Any one will tell you, Kerala has the world’s oldest democratically elected communist government. The government recently came back to power with a historic majority.
Where does Kerala’s wealth come from?
Kerala was saved by an explosion in the opportunities for Indian workers abroad particularly in the Middle East when world oil prices increased during the 1970s. We all have that one uncle in ‘gelf’, one in Europe and if lucky some in America.
The economy here is exuberantly capitalist — You can regularly see hammer-and-sickle flag flapping in front of a billboard for luxury condos and villas— and both the communist and congress governments, aided by money sent home from Kerala workers in the Middle East, has created a society with a nearly 100 percent literacy rate, a life expectancy close to that of the United States and comprehensive, free medical care for all. You will regularly see Rolls Royces and Ferraris next to autos and bikes at the signals.
The Kerala Model emphasized raising literacy rates, improving health and nutrition standards and increasing longevity. Kerala’s considerable success in these were not matched by industrial development or job creation.
We now have 100 percent computer literacy, with free classes all over the state. Kerala was one of the 1st places in the world to make internet a basic right and this ensured internet is available in every village across the length and breadth of Kerala.
People here boast that Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, was built largely on Kerala brainpower. We have large infrastructure projects set up in the state to attract foreign IT companies to set up shop in the state. We have a few home grown success stories but have largely failed at making home grown unicorns.
A different type of Rich
The place is far from wealthy, or even middle class, but you never see the kind of hopeless, rock-bottom poverty that’s so common in Mumbai and Delhi.
Kerala is an example, of poor people living well.
The name “Kerala” is said to mean “land of coconuts.”
Coconuts are supposed to be one of the top industries here, surpassing even the lucrative spice trade. The fiber called coir is shipped all over the world and used to make mats, ropes and other products. The fronds of the palm tree are used for thatch, the roots for firewood, the trunks for furniture. And the coconut is the foundation of Kerala’s unique cuisine. Made with coconut milk, our curries are lighter and more refreshing than elsewhere in India. For breakfast, malayalees around the world eat a mixture of steamed coconut and rice powder called puttu or rice pancakes called palappom. Grated coconut is an essential ingredient in a common stir-fry dish known as a thoran which is made from any vegetable.
The local version of potato crisps here are kerala banana chips fried in coconut oil. We have set up one of World’s largest banana chips factory in Kerala.
In the absence of Coke and Pepsi, the most popular soft drink is a coconut with the top lopped off and a straw inserted called Elaneer.
If you were going to make a Bitcoin Citadel, it’s hard to think of a better place than Kerala.
Built around a huge natural harbor, the layout is similar to Singapore, Newyork or the Bay Area: The old trading town of Fort Cochin occupies San Francisco’s spot, the modern port of Emakulam is where Oakland would be and manmade Willingdon Island, in the center of the harbor, is Treasure Island.
Kerala is a mishmash of European architectural styles reflecting the successive colonial overlords: the 500-year-old Portuguese church where da Gama was originally buried (his remains were later sent back to Portugal), a Dutch cemetery surrounded by manses with high-peaked and tiled roofs, and half-timbered homes built by homesick Brits.
Tradition says the first Jews began arriving in Kerala after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.The 440-year-old synagogue is a light, airy and cool place with a floor made of hundreds of hand-painted Chinese tiles, no two of them alike.
This is Kerala.
