Who makes your jeans?

I just saw the most amazing documentary called China Blue.

It follows the lives of two young girls (not yet really women) who come from the country to work in a blue jeans factory in the city.  It chronicles the 7-day-a-week, sometimes round the clock for 36 or more hours if there is a big order, working life of these women.  Their pitiful pay and the attitudes of the factory owners and management are shown at length too.

Fantastically enlightened management in this part of the world seems to be shown if you give the workers a free bun and cup of tea at midnight when you’re forcing them to work all night with no overtime pay.  The owner’s rants about lazy workers who will cheat him if they have a chance are amazing to us who see workers too exhausted to work any more, but who are prodded awake and urged to glue their eyelids open to stay awake (doesn’t work).

The horrible thing is, that even though our clothing manufacturers here are telling us that they’re on top of the situation as far as child labour and exploitation are concerned, it’s just not so.  They pay the factories so little per order that for the boss to make his expected profit the workers get unfairly paid.  The factories are notified ahead of time, either formally or through the grapevine, when an inspection is coming so they can temporarily improve things and give the workers scripts to spout about how wonderful their job is.

One of the very best things about this movie though is the way it focuses on the girls as whole human beings with dreams and aspirations.  Their thoughts, diaries and curiosity about the world are amazing.  I’m not sure I’d have energy for any of that if I worked those hours in those conditions.

You know though – we are all, each one of us that supports any company manufacturing its goods in China, responsible for this situation.  Look at the profits of these companies – they’re well able to afford to pay enough in China or elsewhere to get their jeans and whatever else made within reasonable hours and at a living wage.  If you buy things Made in China, until both the retailers here and the Chinese factory owners behave in a more humane fashion, you are as responsible for the unacceptable working conditions these people face as anyone else in the chain.

Money talks!! The only way we can change anything in this world is by “voting with our pocketbooks” and not giving our money to those who put profit – and excessive profit at that – before human well-being and dignity.

So, read your labels and tell your retailers you want alternative goods NOT “Made in China”.  And see this documentary if you ever get the chance!

A couple of reviews of this documentary:

“China Blue is more than an exercise in cinematic activism…the film develops a natural dramatic structure that’s profoundly affecting. Mr. Peled doesn’t just record the girl’s indignities, he listens to their dreams…China Blue examines the plight of the world’s largest pool of cheap labor and traces its exploitation to a retail outlet near you.” THE NEW YORK TIMES

“The most heartbreaking, moving film in theaters right now is not “Babel,” “Letters From Iwo Jima” or “Little Children.” It is China Blue…This is an unforgettable film.” THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Canadian Federal Election looming?

You know, even though I am not a fan of the present government, I really hope there isn’t an election this fall. I’ve gotten so dismayed by all of the major parties’ platforms and performance, that I’m just cynical enough to think that this minority government situation is a good thing.

They complain that they can’t get anything accomplished with a minority government, but given what any of them want to accomplish, I’d say that’s just fine.

Not a constructive attitude, I know, since there certainly are things that need doing. And electoral apathy in Canada is just huge now, and has been increasingly so for some decades. People don’t trust the government, or have any faith that those folks on The Hill are there to do what’s best for the country as opposed to what’s best for their friends or their own pockets. Public service has degenerated into self-service.

The only light I see at the end of this tunnel is the Green Party. They are, as far as I know, the only political party other than the Communist brands to be present in multiple countries. Elizabeth May, the Canadian leader, has extensive political experience. And they are the only party that seems to have a sound economic policy combined with an innovative environmental policy.

They are not NDP Light, as so many people seem to think. I had always liked that the NDP’s hearts were in the right place, but somehow, their economic policies not only left much to be desired, but also left whatever level and place they took the helm in bad shape financially. But all of the governments seem to do that now.

What’s really bugging me these days, and even since before the last federal election, is the refusal of the ruling committee to allow the Greens to participate in the formal debates. They set up a law that says that a party has to get 10% of the popular vote in an election, and then they can take part. That’s fine – you can’t have a debate with innumerable people who represent nothing that more than themselves or one or two others are interested in or agree with.  That happened with the Green Party two elections ago, and they’re still refusing to let them take part. This is unconscionable – and illegal, by their own rules. What’s up with this?

And you know, while I’m at it, I really have to address the concept of vote splitting. That’s what it’s called when folks try and convince you not to vote your conscience when you’re in favour of a small party, since the votes taken by those voting that way may allow the worst of the big, bad guys to gain power by taking votes from the lesser bad guy.

I’d like to point out two things about that. The first is that until people start voting their conscience and giving the smaller parties growing clout – and it will grow, since they’ll get more press, and more ‘followers’ will feel comfortable voting that way too – nothing is going to change. The big bad parties will feel increasingly smug about the lack of opposition to their flawed leadership (and that word’s a joke in this context!) and will continue to do as they please without reference to either the good of the country, the world or the people. But the most important thing, in the long run, is that voting your conscience makes a statement that will be heard increasingly throughout your network and others will begin, I hope, to see that there is a chance to change things if only we’ll stand up and be counted. Someone has to start, and if it means that for this time the wrong party gets elected, well then at least eventually there’ll be a chance for the right party to get elected. If no-one starts, it’ll never happen, so I might as well be one of those who starts – and maybe you, too.

With only about 30% of the population voting, it’s too easy for governments in all first world countries to discount the voter entirely, and govern only for the benefit of their own small cadre and to let malfeasance, dishonest and unethical behaviour slip by with only a “tsk, tsk, you shouldn’t have let yourself get caught”. And we’re seeing more and more of that. Members of government working hand-in-hand with big business, passing laws that are unfavourable to the general population, but get them cushy jobs with salaries that would support a small third-world nation when they decide to retire from government.

When I hear stories from new Canadian friends about those who are fighting and dieing in their home countries for the right to vote and have some say in government, I wonder when, how, and why we here let it get so far away from us. This is supposed to be a participatory democracy – so for Pete’s sake, participate!!

There’s a saying that you get the government you deserve, but what’s sad is that the small percentage that are working to try and better the condition of all have to sit and suffer through the governments that the majority have deserved for their lack of caring.

I know that when you take “The Government” as a whole, it’s enormously overwhelming, and it’s easy to think that you can’t do anything to change things.  But you can!!  If everyone did just one small thing to help their party, or even to educate themselves about one or two of the major issues and figure out which party really represented their thought on those issues and could be trusted to follow through, it would make a remarkable difference. And that difference would grow exponentially over time to influence some large changes. And if we let our elected representatives know that we are watching them, and their performance, and expect them to be working towards our best interests, that too, would make a huge difference.

Let’s pull up our socks, Canada! Get involved! It’s your life.

Civilian rights and dash cams

I’m beginning to wonder why we’re not seeing more legal charges against police officers with the use of dash cams in the cruisers.

I sometimes watch those TV shows – World’s Most Amazing Video-type of program – and frequently they’ll have a show that seems to be mainly taken from police cameras. I simply cannot believe what I see there.

Recently there was a sequence where two police officers completely emptied their revolvers at an unarmed, fleeing person who had been pulled over for some minor infraction and then gotten stupid and resisted (not violently) and run. It was pretty scary too, to see that those bozos didn’t hit anything once with all those bullets. What if they had really needed to hit something to save their lives? Who is training these incompetents?

There have been countless videos showing police officers needlessly crashing their cruisers into a suspect’s car and doing major damage to both vehicles and to both drivers. Who pays for these cruisers that they ruin without need? And since it seems that they crash them either out of a disinclination to have to chase the guy if he exits and runs (it’s also amazing how many *really* fat police officers there are) or out of adolescent spite and testosterone overdosing – who chose these guys to be peace officers in the first place, and who is making sure that they are fit to remain in that position?

And for those police officers that aren’t really fat – has anyone else notice that some forces seem to have these Schwarzeneggar types pretty consistently? I know the stories of steroid use/abuse on the police force in my own city are in every hard-core gym in town, and just looking at the types that are on some of the other forces, it’s pretty obvious that Mother Nature is getting a large helping hand. Are these guys ever tested for steroid abuse when thy flip out on some poor citizen? Are they tested for anything? Ever?

Pretty scary stuff . . . . and that’s before we even start talking about the recent (over)use of Tazers and stun guns, which seem to be turning out to be just new, shiny, fascinating – and dangerous – toys for big boys, and they can’t resist using them whether they need to or not.

I asked a police sergeant I knew years ago, out of curiosity, how many men he was in charge of.  He gave me the strangest look, and said “Only two.  The rest are animals.”  If that’s the situation in ‘Toronto The Good’, how much more dreadful must it be in other places?