Article: Fighting for Bangladesh Labor, and Ending Up in Pauper's Grave
Author: Jim Yardley
Date Published: September 9, 2012
Hyperlink: Click here to read this article
Author: Jim Yardley
Date Published: September 9, 2012
Hyperlink: Click here to read this article
This article is about the killing of a man who was helping to improve the conditions of workers in Bangladesh. The article states that the man killed was a labor organizer that fought for the rights of workers. Allegedly, the man was also abused by the Bangladeshi police for his efforts to fight for workers' rights as his actions were believed to be harming the textile industry of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is one of the largest textile exporting countries in the world and authorities in Bangladesh took it upon themselves to eliminate a labor organizer for attempting to secure the rights of laborers.
I find the killing of the labor organizer fighting for rights to be alarming. During the Industrial Revolution, many factory workers were denied human rights so that the factory owners would be able to make more profit. This trend is now continuing in the Bangladeshi textile industry, an industry that produces much of the apparel Americans wear. The use of unpaid and inhumane labor to produce clothing for the people of the United States as it means that Americans as a whole are unwillingly taking advantage of the lives of other humans for their enjoyment.
This article relates to the culture of Bangladesh because it displays that Bangladesh is a poor place to live for laborers. With the problem of unpaid labor and corruption in the workplace in Bangladesh, many people living within the country may decide to move elsewhere. If people move out of Bangladesh because of its cultural contamination by foreign corporations, they will leave their native culture behind and instead moving onto a new one in which they can spread their customs and beliefs. Bangladeshi workers produce much of the clothing worn in the United States and other western countries, so if potential workers leave the country there will be less people to make such clothing, and many companies may lose or even go out of business.