A Story Behind Your Meal

We heard many criticism are launched against a gigantic fast food business, McDonalds. It ranges from causing environmental hazard, ruining your health to exploiting staff. Anti-globalisation activists are relentlessly campaigning against the unfair practices and calling for a boycott of McDonalds and others companies which has similar attitude to that a giant burger makers. Some groups within society who are concerned about the health, environtment and labour condition will be also reluctantly buying any food of it. Fair enough! There are many places that offer cheap and healthy food.

While McDonalds is no longer an option when you would like to get a cheap fast food, Chinese, Thai, Kebabs, Koreans, Indian and Malaysian become an alternative solution. When your tummy is rumbling after working since morning, you just go off to the nearest food store and order a vegetarian kebabs or a plate of rice and vegetables in a Chinese take away. Life then is perfect (you taste it from your spit!) when you dont have to feel guitly everytime you are chewing your lunch.

How much you paid for a plate of rice? 7 dollars. Great! It suits everyone pockets, doesnt it? But things might get a bit shocking when you can listen to the story behind your meal. How much the workers will get paid if they are selling a very cheap food? Do they get paid according to minimum wages policy?

When i used to work at the restaurant in Sydney, i met a guy who worked for a Chinese restaurant that is located exactly beside the restaurant that i worked. He told me that he got paid 50 per shift. If one shift could be 6 hours long, then he gets less than 10 dollars per hour. I was absolutely gobsmacked! Believe it or not the restaurants in that area will sell at least 40 dollars for a main meal. So if I've got paid 15 dollars/hour that will be fair. But less than 10 dollars for more than 6 hours working? Does it make you want to join a radical leftist organisation? Things got clearer to me when there was a raid, many staff of that restaurants were arrested by immigration officers.

Illegal immigrant are great labour force. They are keen to work hard. The minus is only their language skill. But if they are working in the kitchen, you can still use the gestures to ask them to re-wash the dishes, cant you? And they wont be rebellious as they are not aware of their rights, let alone being knowledgeable of labour regulation. What matters in the end for them is to earn income to feed their families. Ironically, they are paying tax too (selling tax).

I was wondering why there is no protest in Chinatown or in front of take-away shops. If McDonalds is always under attack due to their ability to pay their workers better, so shall we be apologetic with places that can't afford to pay their workers according to minimum wages policy? Or maybe we are afraid of loosing our favourite dim sum, kebabs, and Pad Thai. Maybe no ones will care if we discuss McDonalds and workplace conditions, while we are having a plate of chicken dim sum and drinking a free tea out of plastic mug.