|
Last Saturday morning I was at the Health
Food section in the bottom floor of the Clot Mares market
in San Antonio to purchase some tofu when an Ibicenco woman
I knew came up and asked me if I had any idea what was happening
with Kava. I replied that I was possibly about as up to date
as anybody else and explained the situation. Readers of the
last two issues will be more up to date than she was (and
more up to date than most people in the world). She said that
for some time she had been regularly purchasing a relaxing
natural medicine from one of the pharmacies in Vila (Ibiza
town) and that one of the listed ingredients was 'kavakava'.
During February, though, she said the medicine was not available
but that it was now back on the shelves and she had just purchased
another batch. She was surprised to find a small sticker,
though, stuck over the portion that previously listed kava
as one of the ingredients. The sticker read (in Spanish) 'No
contiene Kavakava' (‘does not contain Kava'). Well, it
seems the media scare, which reached a peak in Germany towards
the end of last year, has now had its effect on Spain. But
what is it all about?
In early November 2001 the German Bf ArM
- the Federal Institute of Drugs and Medical Devices in Bonn
- announced that it had received from German doctors reports
that there had been 24 cases of individuals with various levels
of liver damage in which it was suspected that there was a
possible connection with the intake of medicinal kava extract/tablets
as an anxiety/stress reliever. The Bf ArM (Germany's equivalent
of the US Food and Drug Administration, the FDA) then requested
information and 'pro and con' kava views from the pharmaceutical,
health food and medical professions to enable them to try
and make some formal decision about the safety of kava in
medical extract form. They gave a deadline of 21st December
2001 for reports to reach their office and they were expected
to make a decision by the end of January 2002. They began
their decision-making meetings on 6th January and, as a result...it
seems that the press around the world has announced a German
'ban' on the use of kava extract in natural medicines used
to combat stress, anxiety, tension and other such ills of
the modern world. Possibly not to be outdone by their German
colleagues, the French government announced a pre-emptive
ban on all medicinal kava products on 14th January and their
medicinal registration within France was withdrawn that day.
Certain Pacific Island states, the world's major kava exporters,
were puzzled, shocked and, to put it mildly, angry. And rightly
so! A Kanak (indigenous Melanesian New Caledonian) friend
and colleague wrote to me on 17th January, "The French
and German prohibition on the use of kava is big news in Vanuatu
and here. Just when an island product could permit our small
economies to survive, the big countries put a stop to it...PS
One should hint to the French and Germans that it would be
better to ban alcohol and tobacco, which are a lot more dangerous
than kava!" (Translated from the French). Import orders
for South Pacific kava were rapidly cancelled by companies
in the US and Europe and by early March kava exports from
the Pacific had juddered to a halt.
This is a disaster for Pacific Island economies,
particularly for Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. There is
no gold, oil or other rich mineral resources in most of the
Pacific islands (except for gold and copper in Papua New Guinea,
and nickel in New Caledonia, but neither of these countries
export kava), leaving heavily-forested islands in the western
Pacific rather desperately open to dubious (mostly SE Asian)
logging companies as one of the few possible sources of income
besides the export of copra (the smoked and dried meat of
the coconut). The Vanuatu government had counted on a 16%
increase in income in 2002 over its kava exports from last
year. Now these governments, and their kava-growing populations,
seem to have been kicked and insulted by 'the white man's
world' yet once again. Overseas countries, and foreign entities
such as the World Bank, the IMF and foreign economic advisors
to these Pacific nations have perpetually been telling them
that they must develop exports that will cut down on their
needs for overseas financial aid. Kava seemed like the ideal
answer: it was local, traditional and did not require backbreaking
labour to prepare for export. It looked like parts of the
Pacific had finally found one of their own products that would
enable them to achieve some form of economic independence.
Then the European press fanned the flames of a frenzy, announced
the German 'ban' and stopped the whole export industry in
its tracks. It is said there is nearly (Australian) $200 million
worth of kava, growing in Pacific Island nations, ready for
export within the next couple of years. The whole situation
is extremely depressing and Pacific Island governments and
indigenous inhabitants relying on kava exports have a right
to be absolutely furious. The kava-exporting nations called
urgent meetings in January and February 2002 to try and deal
with the rather hysterical accusations regarding kava and
liver damage that were appearing in the European press. As
the drinking of kava by Pacific males is an extremely ancient
and respected practice, it goes without saying that more is
known about kava in the Pacific by Pacific Islanders than
by European (or American) scientists - and liver damage in
traditional kava drinkers is not a known side-effect.
The already-planned Pacific Herbs Business
Forum meeting took place in the capital of Vanuatu 18th-20th
February. Sponsored by the Brussels-based Centre for Development
of Enterprise in association with the Commonwealth Secretariat
in London and the (Netherlands) Technical Centre for Agriculture
and Rural Co-operation it brought together nearly 100 professionals
involved in the production and consumption of Pacific medicinal
plants and related natural products. Because of recent events
in Europe, kava was the main topic of discussion. What were
the reasons for the kava 'ban' and what should Pacific Island
nations do?
But wait a minute. The main 'problem' seems
to lie in Germany, and with France and Britain (and now Spain
- and with warnings at the beginning of this month in Australia)
and other nations recommending the withdrawal from sale of
kava-based anti-stress medicines based purely upon the German
announcement and German press-generated statements circulated
around the world. Has anyone really followed up what is going
on in Germany? Seemingly not. My wife and I spent three weeks
in Germany from late December and I used the opportunity to
telephone widely to try and get to the bottom of all this.
Readers may be interested to know - and Pacific Islanders
rather shocked and angered to hear - that medicinal kava extracts
to combat stress and anxiety are still openly on sale in German
pharmacies (I rang a colleague in Germany on Monday night
– 18th March - to get this confirmed) and there is (as
yet) no official 'ban' on medicinal kava products announced
by the relevant German Government Ministry. The Bf ArM in
Bonn has not yet announced any decision - although everyone
was expecting an announcement at the end of January. This
seems to be a situation where a media-inspired frenzy, regarding
the possibility of a 'ban', has in fact created a de facto
ban, to the detriment of the long-suffering Pacific Islanders,
who have had long experience with the inconsistencies, irrationalities,
irrelevancies and - to put it plainly, idiocies - of the 'white
mans' world. What would be rather nice poetic justice, in
a way, would be to see a group of traditional Pacific chiefs,
or a group of Pacific Nations, get together and bring a legal
court case against certain European nations (and the EU in
Brussels, for good measure) and certain European media outlets
for sheer stupidity, cultural incomprehension and lack of
respect (and, just for good measure, include a whopping financial
fine to cover loss of kava export revenue)!
Tens of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands
- of men from the kava-drinking areas of the Pacific have
been regularly using the sacred drink for untold generations
and no-one has any stories of liver damage caused by it (in
fact in certain areas of northern Vanuatu, where a mild form
of hepatitis is almost hereditary, kava-drinking seems in
no way to aggravate that). Then the 'white man' comes, his
missionaries (at least in Vanuatu) try to prohibit kava drinking
as associated with 'heathenism and devil worship', colonial
governments demean it as 'unhygienic', tourists don't like
the taste... and then what happens? The 'white man' suddenly
finds out that there is money to be made from it, it can be
made into a relaxing medicine to treat one of the 'white mans''
major diseases, 'stress'. Everyone tells Pacific Islanders,
"Plant lots of this wonderful bush and we will buy its
roots from you and you will make lots of money". Over
nearly the last couple of decades there has been a rather
frenzied rush amongst European and US pharmacological specialists
to experiment with the plant's roots, to try and decipher
its chemical secrets, to take a bit from here and a bit from
there, concentrate it to get a stronger effect and so on and
so forth. You know the game. They forget that it is a sacred
plant, given in its entirety from the Spirit World, but modifiable
along certain traditional guidelines. In much of northern
Vanuatu, it is a Woman, or from a Woman (and therefore forbidden
for women to drink, except in a special form for medicinal
purposes), and is due respect as that Woman was due respect.
By the early 1990s the Pacific began receiving visits from
various forms of 'bioprospectors', some good, some bad, looking
for special varieties of the plant or for access to particular
sources of supply for their employer's back in Europe or the
US. By the mid-1990s, even Vanuatu, always more cautious about
protecting its monopoly of most of the world's varieties of
kava and more concerned about ensuring regular supplies for
its traditional drinkers, began exporting. By the mid-to-late
1990s overseas producers of medicinal kava extract and kava
tablets and associated products were crying out for more and
more and more. Prices per kilo of fresh or dried root or powder
exported from the Pacific became rather reasonable for the
growers. By the late 1990s, certain overseas interests were
trying to patent the plant, or its chemical ingredients, but
with no real notable success. Then certain 'white people'
started turning up in the Pacific, telling Pacific Island
states that they would have to lower their kava export prices
and some even hinted that if they did not, other countries
would start growing kava with modern methods and take over
the export market.
Well, Hawaii has started mass-growing kava
plants in plantations, with all the modern accoutrements.
Under missionary pressure, the traditional practice of kava
drinking had almost died out in Hawaii, as have the original
Polynesian Hawaiians (only 1% of the population is now of
pure Polynesian descent, 8% of mixed Polynesian descent) and
the real understanding of kava has seemingly disappeared as
well. Modern 'plantation methods' do not necessarily produce
the best kava, and it is said that if one split open the roots
of an Hawaiian plantation kava it is soft like a cucumber
inside. In Vanuatu one might consider that to be a plant not
worth drinking, but then most drinkers or purchasers of roots
for pharmaceutical companies in Hawaii or the mainland US
would probably not know that. By early 2000 French and German
representatives of certain kava-importing pharmaceutical companies
were hinting to the Pacific nations that (do I hear "Unless
you lower the price of your kava roots"?) another plant
with similar effects to kava might be found. Readers with
knowledge of business processes in the commodities business
will recognize here the general pattern of stages common to
overseas big business interests trying to corner control of
a potentially lucrative source material. If one follows through
these stages, the next obvious step is one where imports are
cut off for a while so that the increasingly desperate exporters
are then forced to lower their base price to almost nothing
to entice the importers to begin purchasing stocks again.
The first bit of this last stage has effectively been done
by the rather dramatic and ill-researched nature of the recent
European press reports.
It is a sad story and one that Pacific Island
nations are rather familiar with. The West has finally discovered
kava, and has adopted kava for its own purposes: it has taken
it over, played with it and changed it, out of almost all
recognition, for its own needs so that it bears almost no
resemblance to its original form. In doing so, they may have
completely messed it up and may have therefore not just left
the situation in a mess, but have seriously damaged a series
of small nations that were relying on this plant for assistance
in economic independence. Worst of all, the West has shown
a lack of respect for a traditional aspect of the spiritual
beliefs of a series of nations who are so far away from this
side of the world that they cannot really fight back. It is
the continuing story of colonialism, exploitation and destruction.
Actually, the West needs kava more than
certain Pacific nations need the money from kava root exports.
At least in Vanuatu, if there is less kava exported, there
will certainly be no lack of kava for the indigenous kava
drinkers, and there is no lack of the latter in Vanuatu! But
on what basis is Germany considering its potential 'ban'?
Why has this 'problem' come up only now, when German doctors
were the first Europeans to begin looking at the medicinal
properties of kava as long ago as 1860 and medicinal kava
extract has been available in certain German medicines since
1890? What has this got to do with Eivissa/Ibiza and you reading
this column in the UK or the USA or wherever? It actually
affects us all, and in my concluding article on kava next
week I shall explain why.
Kirk W Huffman
| |
