I’m in Europe…

…or at least my book is.

You can check out a brief intro to Where Am I Wearing? and a Q&A with me.

I’m feeling very Che

The Spain-based website Rebellion.org has translated my recent contribution to Neatorama.

Viva la Revoluccion!

Kristof “Where Sweatshops are Dreams”

Kristof has “praised the malign sweatshop” now he writes about them being a much better job than a job at the dump. Sound familiar? Well it should because I visit the same dump of which he writes and make much of the same conclusion. Although, we don’t see everything the same.

Here’s the comment I left on his blog in response to his column:

In my book “Where Am I Wearing?” I visit the exact same dump in Cambodia. Mr. Kristof is right, it’s hell on earth. I also visit a Levi’s factory. The conditions in the factory were definitely not what one thinks of when they hear “sweatshop,” and I think to call the factory a sweatshop and to call the laborers sweatshop workers is degrading.

At the dump I came to the same conclusion that Mr. Kristof comes to, however I think his argument “sweatshops are good” is too simple, just as is the one “sweatshops are bad.”

I was on the ground in Honduras, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and China, and what I saw was that the workers sacrifice a lot to have the jobs. They pay bribes to get them; they move away from their families to have them. The jobs are really important to them and their families (the avg. Cambodian worker supports a family of 6), BUT the workers could be treated better.

Cambodia was actually one of the better regulated industries I found. The ILO has a very strong presence there. For the most part, the labor laws are upheld. The industry’s main problem is corruption and over-unionization (there are about 300 factories and 800 unions!). Much of the progress is a result of activists holding corporations accountable for where they source from.

As for fair trade….

A study conducted by the University of Michigan and Northwestern University found that 1/3 of Americans are willing to pay more for clothes made under good working conditions. There’s a market for fair trade. The challenge lies in how to appropriately label the products.

While I agree with Mr. Kristof’s general premise (there are worse lives than that of a garment worker), I think that this piece encourages apathy. As consumers, we should care who makes our clothes and what their lives are like. We should support companies like Patagonia and Levi’s who are making considerable effort to ensure their products are made under good working conditions.

— Kelsey Timmerman

Post #1,000!

This is the 1,000th post on Whereamiwearing.com!

To celebrate, I’m opening up the Underwear Wall of Fame for submissions. Send me a pic (kelsey@travelin-light.com) of you holding your favorite pair of skivvies and tell me why they are your favorite and I’ll add you to the Wall.

I’m officially adding Harper…

Harper Willow Timmerman modeling her Dad’s Jingle These boxers. Some day she’ll look at this pic and say, “Dad, why? Other girls’ dads have jobs in office buildings doing grown up things, and you…you went to Bangladesh because you’re underwear were made there. You’re SO lame!” But now she can barely move her head, so I can dress her up in my underwear.

For the record, her favorite underwear is any pair that doesn’t have poop in it. Ah…for life to be so simple!

Get in those submissions!

Consumer Reconnection

Scott Ballum was featured on All Things Considered today. He’s a 30-something designer turned “Who-made-my-stuff?” consumer. Since March he won’t buy or eat anything unless he’s met someone along the chain of its production, or as NPR so beautifully put, such as “the butcher, the baker, the tennis shoemaker.”

The parts I enjoyed most about the NPR piece were the interviews with his friends, and how his obsession has imposed on their lives. If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you can’t take on a kooky mission alone. You need the support of family and friends who won’t disown you for being weird.

So a tip o’ my Made in China hat to Scott and his patient friends.

(Thanks to Kristen of Vagablogging and Stan of Harvard for pointing me toward the piece)

Ehrenreich on the Poor getting poorer

Barbara Ehrenreich considers whether or not the down economy is eliminating class inequality. After all, hedge fund managers, white collar workers, business owners, are all finding themselves among the growing number of unemployed Americans. She points to the all too common story of Rich get Poorer:

Alright, I’m a journalist and I understand how the media work. When a millionaire cuts back on his crème fraiche and caviar consumption, you have a touching human interest story. But pitch a story about a laid-off roofer who loses his trailer home and you’re likely to get a big editorial yawn. “Poor Get Poorer” is just not an eye-grabbing headline, even when the evidence is overwhelming. Food stamp applications, for example, are rising toward a historic record; calls to one DC-area hunger hotline have jumped 248 percent in the last six months, most of them from people who have never needed food aid before.

She also has a great passage on welfare:

…so that when people come tumbling down they don’t end up six feet under. For those who think “welfare” sounds too radical, we could just call it a “right to life” program, only one in which the objects of concern have already been born.

Call me a socialist (Joe the Plumber would!), but I think our social safety nets, such as welfare, are an integral part to our society’s success. Otherwise the disabled, the elderly, the down-on-their luck, and the sick suffer. And chances are at some point in our lives we’ll all be, or at least know someone, among these categories. I’ve visited countries where there is no social safety net and the average person in these countries is just one accident, job loss, robbery, or bad business decision away from hunger. Knowing that if the worst happens to you, your survival is not in question is not a waste of tax payers’ money.

You really should read her whole essay, and if you haven’t read her book Nickel & Dimed you’re really missing out.

RIP Saipan Garment Industry

On January 31st Saipan’s last garment factory will shut its doors. At its height the industry’s 36 factories employed some 15,000 workers, mostly imported workers from Asia.

Saipan’s advantage was that worker’s wages were low and the garments produced could still be labeled Made in USA. Now that many of the quotas have been lifted the factories have closed down and moved closer to their labor force in Asia.

For a good glimpse of the industry check out John Bowe’s Nobodies.

“Opinions vary,” Goodridge editor of “Chicken Feathers and Garlic Skin: Diary of a Chinese Factory Girl” told the Saipan Tribune, “but most workers feel it was a benefit to earn the money they did. When the Uno Moda closes in a few days, it will mark a significant turning point for the island’s now primarily tourist-based economy.”

A video from inside a garment factory in Saipan:

A Note from an engaged consumer

I received a great email from a reader who picked up a copy of WAIW? As an engaged consumer Sonita has decided to not buy products Made in China.

Hello Kelsey,

I was standing in a ticketing line in Vancouver airport staring at the shelves of the bookstore & the title of your book jumped out at me. Needless to say, I bought it & have read it. I was eager to see what your experience & thoughts were on China. In March of 2008 someone sent me a PETA video clip on Facebook of animals being brutally & mercilessly skinned alive (foxes, dogs, cats & other furry animals I didn’t recognize) for the fur linings on winter jackets for the lining around the hood & sleeves. The animals were then left to die. I made a promise to myself to stop buying anything from China the very next day.

It’s been a challenge, but like you I check the label on simply everything I think of buying. It has also saved me a lot of money & helped me live without material possessions I previously would have bought & thought were necessary. Grocery shopping also took a new turn. Pot scrubbers, dish rags, Atlantic salmon-packed in China??? Tilapia, ready cooked shrimp, the list goes on forever. So the decision to not buy Chinese has changed my diet too.

More than that, the decision to not support them has made me more aware as a person in my daily life. I think about everything I touch, where it’s from, who made it etc.

So I guess I would like to say thanks to you for publishing your book. It was a very valuable read for where I am in my life at the moment. I can’t say that I have changed my mind on buying Chinese & I probably never will…..which is very interesting when it comes to thinking about having a family as simply every single piece of clothing & toy is produced in China.

Thanks again, I checked your blog, I hope you have wonderful time being a Dad.

Happy 2009
Sonita

Fast Food Globalism

Gary Arndt at EverythingEverywhere has an interesting post on McDonald’s around the world. He writes:

Many people flip out with the idea of western restaurants in non-western countries. They lament “globalism”, which is usually defined as elements of western culture in non-western countries. Whereas non-western cultural elements in western countries is considered “diversity”. It isn’t quite that simple.

Just because you have McDonald’s and Starbucks doesn’t mean a country’s culture has been destroyed, any more than Chinese restaurants destroy American culture. (and it should be noted that there are more Chinese restaurants in the US than there are McDonald’s, Wendys, KFC and Burger King COMBINED). You can add elements from another culture and still keep what is essential to your own.

(Thanks to @ AuthenticCoast for sending the link)

Some random thoughts on fast food while traveling:

* In Bangladesh Dalton told me that the reason Bangladesh didn’t have a McDonald’s was because the country’s meat didn’t meet their quality standards. I’ve since (tried to) become a vegetarian in countries that don’t have a McDonald’s.

* Matador travel recently had a great piece about Burger Kings new ad campaign Whopper virgins. BK travels the world finding people that have never eaten a hamburger and conduct taste tests between their burgers and McDonald’s. Regardless of which the taste tester chooses I would like to see what they think of the burgers a few hours later. Don’t know about you, but if I haven’t eaten fast food in a few months and splurge on a burger my plumbing takes a pretty good punch. https://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2008/12/27/whopper-virgins-how-burger-king-looks-at-people-worldwide/

Meet the people who made your clothes on Neatorama

I did a guest post on Neatorama.com today that features a few of the workers I met. Make sure that you checkout the comments and add your two cents.

A big Thanks to Alex at Neatorama for allowing me to contribute.