File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2001/postcolonial.0109, message 406


Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2001 13:21:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: jamil khader <inbetween_2000-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: While Progressives and Democrats....


I've just finished with my FYE classes working on this
issue form the consumer's ethical sense of
responsibility for Nike and its sweatshops in Vietnam
and eslewhere. We examined their websites as well as
those in global exchange, and the issue goes beyond a
simple comparison of their salaries, or basic food
basket/living wage, with other MNC, although we have
to admit that even Nike's arch enemy, global exchange,
has praised Nike for the progress they ahve made in
protecting their workers' rights. Nike's factories
have been notorious for the violation of the basic
human rights of their workers--workers were made to
stand in line and were slapped on the face by a
taiwanese supervisor; another was forced to lick the
floor with her tongue, among many other horrible
incidents. Jamil

--- Salil Tripathi <salil61-AT-hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I don't even own a pair of Nikes, and hold no brief
> for them at all, but 
> this myth of Nike "superexploiting" Vietnamese boys
> and girls should be seen 
> in the context of wage structure in the country.
> Several surveys show that 
> Nike pays its workforce better than other
> multinationals in Vietnam in 
> similar industries. In fact, it is also shown that
> Vietnamese and other 
> Asian companies in Vietnam pay their staff much
> less. And many, many 
> Vietnamese want to work at factories owned by
> multinationals, or contracted 
> to multinationals, because the conditions and pay
> are relatively better than 
> what they could do otherwise.
> 
> Sure, Nike pays its people in Vietnam less than what
> it pays its people in 
> the US; but so does all other employers, including
> NGOs that are operating 
> in Vietnam, which have a sliding scale of pay, with
> expat staff earning 
> considerably more than local (there may be the odd
> exception, but this was 
> the rule when I reported out of Vietnam in the
> mid-1990s), and with handsome 
> benefits, like cute four-wheel-drives, which local
> staff aren't given. This 
> is not only in Vietnam; I've seen this in Cambodia
> and Laos too.
> 
> Short of a complete overhaul of immigration
> policies, which allow skilled 
> people irrespective of color, race, nationality,
> gender, etc, to move 
> wherever they want in the world, as easily as
> financial capital does, and 
> short of a sea-change in consumer attitudes whereby
> people would be willing 
> to pay whatever the price a product costs after all
> costs (including Oregon 
> wages in Hanoi) are added to it, neither of which is
> about to happen 
> (because consumers in the west do want cheaper
> products, and unions and 
> nationalists in the west don't want competition in
> the form of people of 
> different color and race competing for their jobs in
> their developed 
> regions), the current situation will prevail.
> 
> Salil
> 
> 
> >From: bob brown <vacirca-AT-charm.net>
> >Reply-To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> >To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> >Subject: Re: While Progressives and Democrats....
> >Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2001 02:30:47 -0400
> >
> >tony yu miss the point entirely. i think che's
> thought should be spread as
> >widely as possible precisely so we can have a world
> where we don'tt have to
> >watch  nike, etc cannibalize and pervert culture
> while superexploiting
> >vietnamese girls and boys. the quote is in italian
> not because che spoke
> >italian but because i relate to my italian comrades
> who took and take
> >solidarity with the palestinians and the third
> world very seriously.  the
> >quote is aimed at the heart of the hypocracy,
> parasitism and privilege of
> >the Western world, including much of the Western
> Left.    bob
> >--
> >"solidarity means sharing the same risks" - Che
> >( la solidarita significa correre gli stessi
> rischi)
> >
> >----------
> > >From: ajsimoes <A.J.SimoesdaSilva-AT-exeter.ac.uk>
> > >To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> > >Subject: RE: While Progressives and Democrats....
> > >Date: Fri, Sep 28, 2001, 4:51 PM
> > >
> >
> > > Every so often someone will send an email that
> says what many of us 
> >often
> > > think but will not / cannot be bothered to
> say...'El Che spoke Italian? 
> >Neat'
> > > is one of those... I hear it in my mind every
> time I read 'la solidarita
> > > tatata... It seems to be traveling round a bit
> at the moment. It is not 
> >that
> > > the Che could not have spoken Italian, or
> Chinese, but having the poor 
> >chap
> > > trussed up to dozens of messages going round the
> world at such dizzying 
> >speed,
> > > and without having had any say in it seems to me
> to be on the level of 
> >Nike's
> > > 'Go for it!', sung to the sound of Beethoven's
> Fifth, Kylie Minogue's 
> >Love at
> > > First Sight or Green Velvet's La La
> Land...positively...
> > >
> > > Tony
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >      --- from list
> postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> > >
> >
> >
> >      --- from list
> postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> 
> 
>
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> 
> 


====Jamil Khader, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of English
The English Department
Stetson University
421 N. Woodland Blv.
Deland, FL 32720
(386) 822-7366 (w)(386) 740-1416 (h)

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