On the garment sector’s woes
The scene of hundred something young men women locked in while fire and smoke start choking them. This is horror and sadness. When I hear factory mid management started locking the gates after fire alarm goes off — I get angry. Then when I hear the prime minister immediately puting the blame, without any investigation, on Jamaat-Shibir — I become speechless in disbelief.
A friend wrote to me thus after the fire at Tazreen garment that killed over a hundred workers on 25 November. It was followed by a lot of emotional facebook status updates, blog posts, newspaper op eds, and shouting heads in TV.
Well, it’s now official — it was ‘sabotage’. So that’s that, eh? Well, not quite. The official recommends taking legal actions against factory owner and nine mid-level managers for gross negligence that contributed to the tragedy. Is there anything more to be said? What about another facebook status update about ‘evil capitalism’?
Over the fold are some thoughts I haven’t seen/heard expressed. And I promise, there is no infantile, emotional outbursts about ‘greedy killers’.
Is the Bangladeshi garments sector facing collapse?
Deyalpotrika has compiled recent New York Times articles on labour unrest in the Bangladeshi garments sector. She provocatively asks whether ‘Made in Bangladesh’ will become a scarlett letter. In the comments section, Naeem Mohaiemen claims:
If you don’t think this is the coming crisis that will destroy Bangladesh’s economy, you’re too busy with other tamasha …. Look at the NYT reader comments and you can see the contours of the coming Bangladeshi goods boycott.
Now, I enjoy a tamasha as the next person. But I enjoy thinking about economics even more, and definitely lot more than the next person. So I’ve thought about the issue. Are we really likely to see a boycott of Bangladeshi goods? No, I doubt we will.
সাতকাহন
To compensate for the recent hiatus — caused by microcosmic organisms with evil side effects — a double edition of trashes collected by the senses. Normal ramblings should begin soon.
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