For several years now, the bedlam of the economic and
political environment in both Europe and the United States has enraptured most,
if not all, of the developed world. Stock market crashes, the devaluation of
the euro, and the assault against the financial industry are defining points of
the past decade, and played pivotal roles in determining the global economic
climate of today. And in a sense, these events are very accurate reflections of
the post-industrialized state that much of the developed world now enjoys and,
to some degree, takes for granted much of the time. These events would not have
occurred a century ago, when the industrialization of the United States and
Europe was in full swing, especially when taking into consideration the two
world wars that destabilized the entire world for several decades. It is
possible that these challenges – currency devaluation, banking collapses,
volatile stock markets, and disillusion at the widening income gap - are the
challenges we will now face going ahead in the future. And because the markets
of Europe and the United States are so important to the global markets, the
challenges that we will now face
going ahead in the future is the only thing many people have noticed for quite
some time now. However, much of the rest of the world is involved in a colossal
and monumental change, something so profound that it will begin the shift from
developing countries into developed, potentially altering the international
pecking order decades from now: as globalization allows for greater exports
from the developing countries, and in turn their economies grow and their
production increases, workers are beginning to demand organization. The wars
that were waged between worker and boss in the United States over a century ago
are now beginning to be waged in less developed countries all over the world.
Sure, the economy of the United States may affect the world and is important to
keep an eye on, but if the developed world does not become more aware of what
else is going on in the world, we may turn around a decade from now and realize
we have missed a revolution that has forever changed our position in the
industrialized world created centuries ago.
Pakistan’s Very Own Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
On September 12, less than two weeks ago, a fire started in
a clothing factory in Karachi that resulted in almost 300 workers being killed.
Many of the exits were locked, or potential exits blocked by unmovable
machinery and other objects. Those who were desperate enough leapt from upper-floor
windows, some surviving with bad injuries and others being killed by the fall.
The rest were trapped inside to suffer unimaginably horrific demises. The
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which took place in 1911 and was considered
the worst worker-related disaster in history, now pales in comparison, as
nearly twice as many were killed in this month’s blaze in Pakistan. In a
country that has for years mass-produced goods which are exported and consumed
in the developing world, the fire is seen as a grave embarrassment and a
national tragedy.
This type of event is frightening in itself; what is even
more frightening, however, is that just a few weeks before the fire erupted,
the factory was deemed safe for work and passed all inspections by an industry-financed
private factory-monitoring group. The incompetence present in this situation is
alarming; either these monitors are terrible at their jobs, or they simply do
not value the lives of the lower-class workers these factories employ.
Whichever the case, this is a larger issue that must be addressed. The lessons
the Triangle disaster taught the United States in 1911 were hard to digest, but
paramount in our evolution as an industrial power. Setting aside the day-to-day
working conditions these laborers face at their jobs, the bare minimum a
company should offer to its employees is the security that they can to go work
every day without the risk of being trapped and burned alive in their
workplace.
This type of incompetence will certainly not be tolerated
forever. As industrialization evolves, Pakistani’s will demand more worker’s
rights and safer work environments. As horrible as this fire was, Pakistan
needs to see it as a lesson learned the hard way, and begin to get ahead of the
curve on these issues. Because if for some reason this ever happens again in
Pakistan, there will be significantly more outrage from the lower class, the
result of which could be devastating to the country as riots, strikes and other
unrest could break out. As for other developing countries around the world:
take note. The loss of lives of this magnitude is not something to be taken
lightly, and until factory infrastructure is improved, emergency procedures
established and continuously rehearsed, and better measures put in place to
safeguard against accidents, millions of workers around the world are in
danger.
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