BANGLADESH…
(adding our contribution to making it one of the saddest places on Earth..)

This latest disaster in Bangladesh, where a building full of clothing manufacturing workers collapsed upon itself, killing hundreds, and still counting, while rescuers frantically try to save those that still lie under the rubble of that collapse, comes from adding our contribution to making it one of the saddest places on Earth.

Our American hunger for cheap imports, with our oh-so-willing major emporiums such as Walmart, Target, Nike, Macy’s, and a long list of others, ready to oblige it is, in some ways, one of the reasons why so many of these kinds of sweat-shop enterprises in offshore sources exist. So local entrepreneurs there cobble together facilities to produce such goods for us, as cheaply and as shoddily as possible; and, since safety and health regulations are mostly non-existent in such countries, or if they do, are so inadequately enforced, it should come as no surprise, that these kinds of catastrophes happen.

Meanwhile, our fashionistas from San Diego , California to Bangor, Maine, blithely go about their shopping sprees, happily insouciant of these darker aspects of the –Global Economy-.

I say it is one of the saddest places on Earth, because it suffers from both man-made and natural disasters on an almost continuous basis. I only visited there once, back in the late ‘60s, on a consulting assignment. While its people were very friendly and warm in every way one could hope for…their country was a shambles, politically, economically, and otherwise. It was not a very encouraging visit.

Part of its problem derives from the nature of its creation. In the turmoil that followed the independence of India from England, the horrific Hindu/Islamic conflicts which tore that hard won independence apart, creating what is now Pakistan (the remnants of that conflict still rumbling there today), followed by a second wave of conflict between Pakistan and what is now Bangladesh, it’s hardly surprising things are the way they are there. Even after breaking away from Pakistan, it has never really had any kind of internal political stability. Not for long anyway. And without that kind of stability progress in its conditions is almost zero.

On top of all that man-made set of problems, Bangladesh has the misfortune of also being topographically…mostly flatter than a pool table…and being like the open end of a funnel facing a very shallow Bengal Sea. Thus, almost annually during the monsoon season, it receives tsunami like storm surges which sweep very deeply inland, wiping out everything within reach of those waters.

While the inadequacies of its governments have improved over the years, they are barely able to maintain some semblance of infrastructure repairs from these kinds of flood devastation. It’s a wonder its people manage to survive.

Yes, there is a lot of international aid and assistance that heads its way, but that is not conducive to any kind of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. So perhaps our guys need to really think not just about where they plan to invest their manufacturing capital…but how…and whom it really benefits in those places. A cheap source of imports with a nice fat margin of profit over here is great…for us…but what about those who have to produce them?

Which is why it seems to me to be one of the saddest places on Earth.

CENTURION