Friday, May 3, 2013

Book. Jackets.

Bound book by Eric Cannon (Backdoor Books)

There is a problem with the way we think about consumables in the western world. Maybe it's because almost everything we need and want comes from somewhere else; and since these market transactions are rarely with the people who produce the merchandise we seldom consider that every purchase sets in motion a cascading series of consequences.
     Some of them are good, but a lot of them are irretrievably tragic.
     So think twice, maybe three times, before you download that "free" book, movie, TV show, or music selection; or buy electronic equipment made in China. 
     Never mind that article of clothing that seems like such a great bargain.

"Whenever impoverished garment workers die while making clothes for wealthier consumers in far-off lands, competing clothing brands manage to come together over a high-minded common cause: Better scrutiny of the overseas plants that produce their garments, to avoid putting vulnerable workers in harm's way.
     But in the wake of an epochal garment industry disaster inside his own country, Shahidullah Azim, vice president of the largest garment manufacturing trade group in Bangladesh, declared such talk self-serving and misguided. If the big clothing labels are truly committed to improving safety standards inside factories in Bangladesh, he argued, they should reconsider their own cutthroat buying practices and agree to pay higher prices to underwrite the safety improvements they say they want for workers.
     'The retailers only talk about ethical sourcing,' Azim, of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, bemoaned to HuffPost, speaking Bengali. 'I think this is the time we start talking about ethical buying.'"
— Emran Hossain and Dave Jamieson, Huffington Post
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