both sides

A few hours ago, I got back from Milano after an enjoyable ride on the TGV. I had spent ten days out of town. First one week in Ticino, the southern part of Switzerland, attending a spectacular conference in a marvellous setting. Then I shared four lovely days with friends from college, exploring the lush countryside of northern Italy. Mountains just like around Grenoble, and lakes and gelato like nowhere else. I enjoy being part of the Western world, having a passport that lets me travel where I choose and having the means to do so. I also enjoy the benefits of globalization with shrinking distances, increasingly affordable consumer products, accessible information, and wealth created by those who work hard.

That I live a priviledged life is not lost on me, but sometimes it is good to be reminded just how unequal the world is, just how much my Western lifestyle is based on the exploitation of the poor and the ruthless machinations of globally acting powers.

Since Monday, textile workers in Bangladesh have been protesting their abysmal working conditions and demanding to harvest more of the fruits of their labor. The protesters have torched several factories to vent their anger and crashed violently with police today. Smug economists will point out how much the poor benefit from globalization, how much textile workers everywhere in the Third World are better off sewing t-shirts than they were before with no industry around. The protesters are just greedy, free marketers will tell you.

One look at the demands - 11 cents per finished sweat shirt plus paid overtime and ONE day off per week - should put any doubts to rest. As long as people toil 12 hours a day for $30 a month, just so you and me can buy 9.99 sale items, something is amiss. A stark disequilibrium of well-organized corporations on one side and uneducated, impotent workers on the other is at the core of this.

But that's not all. The article claims that textile making earns Bangladesh $7 billion a year. It doesn't seem like much of it is used to improve people's lives. Most probably ends up in corrupt officials' pockets. The lack of able and honest government in most of the poorest countries is a second reason of why globalization is still viewed with much ambiguity. As long as Nigeria, with all its oil wealth, is unable to feed its citizens, something is clearly painfully wrong with how globalization is handled.

In light of these contemplations, it is hard even for an inquisitive, critical mind to see how one can improve the situation, short of starting a revolution in some far-away country. I wish there were easy solution, and I'm not sure there is even a hard one.