If ever there was a much-maligned fruit, banana was it; if there is a popular, some say over rated, health food banana is it. The truth lies somewhere between these two extremes.
Small nations with agriculture-based economies are labeled Banana Republics: a derogatory term often given to South and Central American States, and lately the newly independent Caribbean mini States. Most banana republics are dependent on the vagaries of the export market, their leaders are often corrupt, they treat their people worse than the former colonists and yet they are like putty in the hands of the multi national