Beating the Tree

I am still able to take an evening constitutional (though not for much longer).

Tonight at dusk, I saw some labourers gathered around a tree. One was very vigorously beating the tree with a 5 meter long 1x2. I assumed there must be a reason, and saw that, after each beating, the other labourers scoured the ground and were collecting the seed pods that fell from the tree.

I tried to ask, but the labourers definitely do not speak a single word of English, probably do not speak any Arabic, and possibly don't even speak Urdu, so communication was impossible, though one tried to use hand gestures to indicate that the seed pods would be heading for their communal kitchen and his broad smile indicated that he expected the results to be very pleasant.

I have, of course, seen people shaking fruit and nut trees before, but this was my first experience of this approach to collection in the Emirates.

I've seen fruits and nuts being gathered on some plantations in the UAE and Oman, but there the workers are sent with sharp implements to remove ripe fruits with minimal stress to the tree.

These labourers, apparently quite fond of this particular seed pod, had little regard for the poor tree, and, after they'd finished, I saw quite a few broken branches.

I cannot begrudge the labourers, who have to live on about $180 a month (if they get paid at all), their seed pods, though I wish they could have obtained them without the necessity of so much stress to the poor tree.

But faecal matter, as they say, seeks the steepest negative gradient.