Re: [microsound] RE: McLabor(ot)

[aleks <bvasic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
> I tried to stay out of this, since it isn't microsound, but...
>
> >> Do you really think that Nike is paying their overseas employees
fairly?
> >> Are the children in India working for the diamond trade getting fair
wages?
> >
> > yes they are.  and are probably paid better than others in their area.
> > it's about the MARKET VALUE of labor.
>
> ...sorry, this just isn't true. I worked as a human rights advocate for
> Chinese and Indonesian workers for several years and the wage that Nike
pays
> in Indonesia is not livable, nor is it markedly better than other in the
> area. The Nike jobs may have an initial appeal to laborers because its an
> American corporation but that appeal quickly disappears when people
realize
> they can't live off 29 cents a day and they get the shit kicked out of
them
> if they hang out in groups more than five.  Nike has been directly
> implicated in hiring armed thugs to harass workers who organize, beat up
> their families, etc.

Alot of what you say is true, and saddening, but Nike, Reebok arent to blame
for the social woes of the contries they set up their factories in.  We also
have to remember that the conditions and choices many of these people are
left with are zero to none, so they are actaully thanksfull even for what we
consider deplorable working conditions,enviroments.

What other options do these people have?  Picking through garbage heaps all
day fro scrap metal?  Making sun dried bricks in the sun for 14 hours?
Tilling a field for 14 hours a day?  What job is safe in an enviroment as
chaotic as this.


I dont think big buisness, consumerism blah blah blah has anything to do
with any of our social woes.  Its not some self aware entity that makes
decisions for itself.  Its a by product of who we are.  Humans are shitty
period.  We dont know how to achieve a balance with our surrounding wether
in nature or each other.


aLEKs

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