[originaltext]Chairperson: Good evening ladles and gentlemen. It’s nice to see

Chairperson: Good evening ladles and gentlemen. It’s nice to see so many of you here. Well, I’d like to introduce our two guests this evening: Mr. Andrew Frobisher, who has spent many years in Malaysia in the 1950s and 60s and knows the country very well indeed. And, on my right, Mr. Harry Benson who’s an agricultural economist.
Benson: Good evening.
Frobisher: Good evening.
Chairperson: Well, erm ... the purpose of this evening is to find out more about that fascinating substance, rubber, and the effects that it has on that fascinating country, Malaysia, Erm erm ... I believe erm ... er Mr. Frohisher, erm ... that Malaysia is at the same time an extremely rich and rather poor country. Erm ... how is this possible?
Frobisher: Yes, well, that’s quite true, Monica. Malaysia’s population is by now over 13 million, and er per head o... on paper the citizens are richer than those of the UK. But...
Benson: But of course that wealth is not so evenly distributed. In fact in 1981, it was estimated that 37% of the population were below the poverty line...
Frobisher: Yeah, well ... whatever that means ... and anyway shouldn’t it be, er, was below the poverty line.
Benson: Yes, of course. Sorry, Andrew.
Frobisher: Yes, well, erm ... as I was saying, much of Malaysia’s wealth is based on rubber. Now I remember my planting days...
Benson: Yes, yes, yes, you’re quite right there Andrew. Rubber represents about 20% of the Gross National Product and 30% of export earnings. This puts Malaysia in a very good position internationally since rubber is an example of what we might call a "post-industrial industry".
Frobisher: Well, what do you mean by that?
Benson: Er ... excuse me ... yes, what does that mean?
Frobisher: What is a pest-industrial erm ... society?
Benson: Manufacturing industries are based on fossil fuels, for example, coal and oil. Now, the problem is that these will not last forever. They are finite. Sooner or later they will run out! Now, rubber is a natural product. The energy source involved in its creation is sunlight. Now sunlight, we hope, will outlast coal and oil, and best of all, sunlight is free. So, it is much cheaper to produce natural rubber which as we all know comes from trees, than to use up all those fossil fuels, both as fuels and as raw materials, in making synthetic rubber in factories. Rubber is one of the world’s strategic products, so you can see what a good position Malaysia is in, and it would help if she could produce more...
Chairperson: Er ... well, what stands in the way then?
Frobisher: Ah, well, well it’s the way they go about cultivating it. You see, I remember in my day just after...
Benson: Yes, most people have this image of vast estates, centrally run, but that’s just not the case, even if almost a quarter of the population is involved, one way or another, with the production of rubber ...
Frobisher: Yeah well, that’s if you count the families...
Benson: Oh, yes, yes, yes, almost 3 million people are involved, but the picture is a very fragmented one. Do you realize that there are 2 million hectares of land under cultivation for rubber in Malaysia, but that 70% of this area is divided among smallholders-half a million of them-who between them produce 60% of the country’ s rubber?
Frobisher: Well, there’s nothing wrong with that i ... in terms of quality of life, though I remember, yes, quite right ... just after the war there was...
Benson: Yes, quite right. But being a smallholder does present problems. For example, when it comes to replacing old trees-you’ll know about this, Andrew-and the average useful life of a rubber tree is about 30 years, this can cause financial problems for the small farmer. The problem is being tackled, however, by some very enlightened insurance schemes available to the smallholder which can give him help through the difficult year. After all, the new trees take some years to mature and start producing rubber.
Frobisher: Yes, indeed they do. I ... I ...
Benson: Look, I’ve got an overhead projection here, which I think will be useful to make the various problems and their solutions dearer to us all.
Frobisher: Overhead projection. There wasn’t anything wrong with the blackboard in my time, you know...
Benson: No, but this is clearer and neater and up-to-date. So, here you see a summary of the position of rubber in Malaysia’s economy and here is the first problem, and the solution that has been found through these insurance schemes.
Chairperson: Hm, yes, I see. That’s really very clear.
Benson: Now for the second and really major problem.
Frobiseher: And may I ask what that is?
Benson: Boredom and fatigue.
Frobisher: Boredom and fatigue? What?
Chairperson: What do you mean by that?
Benson: Well, as with so many societies, the young people are leaving the land for the cities, leaving no one behind to carry on their parents’ business. The root cause seems to be simple, boredom. Rubber is just not that entertaining a product to be involved with. It is labour-intensive in the extreme. Each tree on a plantation has to be tapped, by hand, every other day.
Chairperson: Tapped?
Benson: Yes.
Frobisher: Yes, well, we...