US Anti-Sweatshop bill in Bang News
In Wednesday’s “The Independent” (Dhaka) the lead story was about an anti-sweatshop bill in the US Senate.
Read it to get the Bangladeshi perspective on this issue. I really can’t weigh in on any of this at present time, but would like to hear some of your thoughts.
I love reading the newspapers wherever I travel. I’m sure this story was reported much differently in the USA.
I love how western policy makers feel like they can change the way an entire part of the world works with a stroke of their Mont Blanc pens.
I know people mean well, but let’s be realistic here… does Byron Dorgan really think that passing a bill will improve conditions in the world’s factories? If so, then I think it raise a whole series of questions such as:
Will this prohibition have a positive or negative effect on the family of average factory worker in a developing nation?
How are they going to know that my boxers were made in a sweatshop and yours weren’t?
Why not pass a bill against world hunger while we’re at it?
I just don’t think it’s feasible.
I was suprised to see Sherrod Brown, a Senator from my home state, as one of the main supporters of the bill. My experience with the average Ohioan is that they could give a flying fuzzle about sweatshops – whaterve they may or may not be.
Kent, no one could vote against your Ending World Hunger Bill. I could see the campaign commercials now: “Jim Smith hates starving children.” Cue the little boy with the big eyes and the fly on his lip.