Funny Bananaphone

[Dirl]

 

[DokraOwl]

The banana is my second most favorite fruit after the potato. My favorite thing about the banana is the fact that it's one of the few fruits in which wars have been fought, the Banana Wars to be specific. When the United States helped guatemala break away from Mexico and become the first of what came to be known as the "Banana Republics". The Banana Republics were owned and operated by the United Fruit Company, which used the local people as low paid (essentially slaves) to harvest the banana crops. The "workers" were paid in fake money called Company Scripts which was only useful in buying things from stores owned and operated by the United Fruit Company (this is "the company store" as you may be familiar from the lyrics "I sold my soul to the company store") it all started with bananas. To this day the Banana Republics still operate and the United Fruit Company is now called Chiquita, Chiquita Banana. So if you ever buy a banana and wonder why it only costs 20 cents per pound just remember its the product of neo-slave plantations which were in part founded by the descendants of ex-Confederate southern planters in the decades after the Civil War. Very interesting history if you ever have a chance to research it. Note I may have gotten a few things wrong, I'm pretty sure it was Guatemala that was the first Banana Republic but I may be mistaken. Also fun fact, look up the Knights of the Golden Circle - it was a secret organization of Confederate plantation owners who wanted to create an entire country using all the land and islands in and around the Gulf of Mexico - a circular nation of all the best farm land. Some of their plans actually came true but most didn't because they lost the American south in 1865 which was a huge part of their territory.