Follow-up to Cambodian Sweatshops
Little did I know when I read the column called “Cambodian Sweatshops” in the Bangkok Post last week that I was reading anything other than the commentary of a local writer. I was very impressed with the ideas that were presented and typed the column into this blog. A few hours after posting this, I had several friends reply to my blog announcement saying I should credit the writer.
I had a problem with that as I did not know his name. After getting the information I sought, from the Post, in regards to the writer’s name, I added it to the blog and then googled the name Nicholas Kristof. Wow, what a shock. He’s a famous commentary writer for the New York Times, which had just published the same column. So I apologize and have duly noted on that blog that this was written by him and that my blog will contain, from time to time, the writings of other authors.
I have now visited the website of the New York Times, seen the online version of the column and the pages of comments that have been made in response.
If anyone cares to pursue the subject further and to see those responses, here is the link:
Please keep in mind if you read the comments, that several people refer to the sweatshops of China or India. This column was written specifically about Cambodia, where factory situations may be different. That I don’t know. What I do know is that when we at home hear of someone making $2 a day we are quick to think that “fair wage for fair work” does not exist. My own comment on the above site reads :
“Having spent three months in Cambodia recently I can say that your word “sweatshop” is a misnomer. We saw hundreds of workers {outside the factories} each day at noon eating their lunches out in the fresh air. They were all well dressed and anyone we talked to said that yes, there were better toilets provided than in their homes, if their homes had one at all. The most common wage we heard mentioned was about $60 a month or $2 a day.
We also talked to many waitresses in the restaurants where we ate. They all worked 7 days a week, sometimes 10 or 12 hours. Most of them were fed several meals a day from the kitchens of these establishments. They had regular breaks and toilet facilities. And they were paid $60 a month. The same as the workers in the “sweatshops”.Out of that $60 it is possible to rent a room for about $25 a month, pay $10 a month for English lessons and still have money left over for meals that are not provided and for basic personal items that they could never have afforded before…like toothpaste and feminine hygene products.So keep writing Mr Kristof…some of us in Asia agree with you.”
There are several pages of comments, some agreeing with Kristof’s ideas, some disagreeing and some totalling missing the point altogether. But it’s interesting reading, and worth the time to explore the subject further.
I personally am also not in favour of “sweatshops” that hire children, or poison the surrounding countryside, or treat the employees as slaves with no dignity. But to pay a few dollars a day in wages when that is the local rate for unskilled labour is no sin. And the factories in Cambodia, at least the ones that I saw, and there were many, were playing a huge role in lifting their employees out of the abject poverty so common in this very poor country.
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