WTO blog 4: Lugaw and tuyo

I need to apologise for ‘dissing’ my badge yesterday because today it proved to be a really useful friend. It got me and 30 other trade campaigners from around the world, into the ministerial conference where we were able to stand just outside of the door to the hall where the opening plenary was held. As the delegations were entering the hall, they were greeted with us singing WTO protest songs to the tune of ‘Jingle bells’ and ‘It’s been a hard day’s night’.

There was a great atmosphere as most of the delegates found it amusing and enjoyed the commotion. The opening session is often littered with speeches about the merits of the WTO but we wanted the delegates and press to see that there is much opposition to WTO policies across the world.

I met Pabs Rosales who is a fisherman from the Philippines (they call themselves ‘fisherfolk’ so that is how I will refer to them from here on) who leads the Progressive Fisherfolk Alliance in the Philippines.

Pabs and the members of his fishing alliance are just ordinary men who want to make a living to provide food for their families and education for their children but WTO policies are taking away their livelihoods through liberalising their fisheries sector. WTO rules allow multinationals the freedom to fish in Filipino waters. Large commercial trawlers out-compete fisherfolk like Pabs who only had a simple boat. Furthermore, overfishing by commercial fishing trawlers has also led to the depletion of fish stocks in his area, making it even harder for fisherfolk to maintain sustainable livelihoods. Watch his full story.

As part of their demonstration outside the ministerial conference building, they made some traditional food to highlight their simple diets because of low incomes and also to show how they are dependent on fishing for both their livelihoods and for their food. They make a rice based porridge called lugaw which I am very familiar with as the Chinese also eat this but we call it congee.

Normally they have tuyo (dried fish) with their lugaw, which they grill. Having eaten a lot of sandwiches the last few days, eating some hearty, home cooked food from the far east was very comforting!

My family have congee and fish for lunch every Sunday after church mainly because it’s easy to cook but that meal will remind me about the Filipino fisherfolk and their fight against WTO policies which is threatening their way of life.

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