Consuming other peoples’ sweat, blood and poverty

I am struggling to live with the daily divergence from values of social justice, equal rights and respect for all, colour-blindness…. It is infuriating that management at this international organization tries to work towards reducing poverty and improving human development, but does not even acknowledge all the back-breaking work carried out by sub-contracted, informal workers. One business manager at this organization threw down new rules, so that the women and man who clean during office hours and provide tea twice a day must alter their schedules. Basically, seeing these staff members cleaning toilets, emptying waste bins or making very sugary tea is too much of a distraction for these top echelon managers. Now the cleaning staff must come to work earlier and stay later to do all the cleaning (instead of just during 9-5 work hours), but must also be on-call during the day in case there are cleaning ‘emergencies’ such as they have to clean up the sick from someone’s dengue.

It is appalling that there was no consultation with the staff, that they have no bargaining power to stand up for different work hours and overtime, and that they are seen as people who should be unseen. They are already marginalized in mainstream society, deal with their own gender hierarchies at home, and now must struggle through UN’s subjugation to the unseen, private sphere. Maybe if we look the other way at their treatment and lack of rights, we can continue to work on human development issues from our pristine, clean ivory towers? We will be so lucky, then, to have these women (who have their own families from whom they are delayed in seeing, by this new schedule change) clean our toilets while we continue to churn out lofty, disconnected shit. Can we talk for a moment about praxis?

Meanwhile, this evening I went with Nason, the man who gives me cooking lessons where I live, to meet his visiting daughter. His daughter just turned 18 and came down from Kandy for the week. Nason rarely gets time off, so it is a huge deal that he is able to spend time with her these next few days. Wani, the daughter, traveled 5 hours by bus to stay in a cramped apartment with her relatives. I was fortunate to meet her aunt, cousins and friends. Everyone speaks Tamil, so Nason had to translate and it was difficult to get an understanding of who was who. There were 8 young women total, all garment factory workers. They seem very proud that they have these jobs, and it is commendable how hard they work. These women sew the majority of the world’s underwear, lingerie, swimsuits and shoes.

After the phase-out of the Multi-Fibre Agreement, which grants quota-free, duty-free access to developing countries, several Least Developed Countries are indeed competing for shares in the European and United States clothing markets. I’ve been saturated with textiles data since assisting with the quarterly tracking reports for the South Asian garment industry. Most notable is how Pakistan and Sri Lanka seem to be competing on certain clothing items, with Pakistan driving the bed linens and ready-made t-shirts and shorts segments, and Sri Lanka having a strong hold on the other, aforementioned items. But the two countries compete against each other on other kinds of ready-made clothing. Makes you think twice about Victoria’s Secret and Bata shoes. (My own view on consuming other peoples’ sweat, blood and poverty, which changes constantly, is that everything is made in sweatshops so it’s impossible to avoid. But we can become aware of the work conditions, opt to pay slightly more for fair trade clothing, and normalize talking about these issues until all garment workers get benefits, decent pay and hours, health provisions, back massages…)

So these 7 women, 2 young (maybe 20-25 year old) husbands, 1 daughter and Nason share a tiny, 2-storey, 10x5 ft room with loft. About 1/4 of the room is divided for a Hindu shrine on a shelf, with a cheap, colour TV in one corner. Another shelf with spices and condiments lines the opposite wall, under the stairs leading to the loft. They use kerosene to cook their chapatis and curries, and drink disgusting Nescafe coffee with too much sugar (traditional drink here?). I have no idea where their toilet or bathing area is, but most slum dwellers do not have access to clean water.

Sri Lanka is still in a bid to privatize its water, so it is likely that clean water will become increasingly difficult to access for urban dwellers. In the dilapidated building scores of families live in cramped rooms, stacked on top of each other. I saw a few young girls with their mothers being younger than me, who most likely do not go to school. Another friend told me that most people living in this section of Colombo, come down from Jaffna and Batticola to sell cheap imported goods in Pettah’s maze of markets.

I tried to find out more about these young women’s work life and answers to how they stay so happy, but much will remain unsaid until I improve my Tamil. You can talk about vegetables for only so long! I am defnly the oddity and I think I surprised my hosts when I told them I cannot really sew. On the other hand, they make and wear really pretty dresses from simple, cotton prints. They even gave me a strand of beads, somewhat feeling sorry for me that I did not have (or wear) gold necklaces despite my apparent wealth. They were very glamorous young women with their own gold strands, ear cuffs, nose rings and anklets.

So while at work I have to commend Sri Lankan garment workers for keeping the industry afloat after the quota phase out, I cannot help but be frustrated that the lived realities of these women have not changed and possibly has gotten worse. I don’t even think colleagues who visited factories in their case study countries even went to the workers’ homes, relying on the forged experiences within a factory compound. Instead, we should commend garment workers for carrying the industry, their communities and families…Maybe I will find other ways to cope with this duplicity and fraudulence. (However, I am concerned that I spoke out of line to management about the cleaning staff decision ---we’ll see soon enough if I am barred from this organization for my audacity…)