Globalize this

Heh I being at work on the computer at work means I'm blogging lots...

Wouldn't want to be this guy:

More Pics(BBC)

I've never had any personal encounters with pepper spray but that's gotta be pretty painful... was chatting with rob last night who lives out in HK, and how there are big WTO protests as WTO is meeting there right now. Buses suspended from going to the island where the talks are held... (Edit - BBC put more pictures up here)

Its an issue I wished I thought more about, and knew more about too. I mean the shoes I'm wearing, the clothes I'm wearing, so many of the items around us we have - they were all made halfway around the globe, perhaps in less than pretty circumstances, with barely any benefit to the hands that made them.

I'm no expert, but heres my quick lowdown on the WTO stuff if you haven't heard much about it. WTO is the World Trade Organization, usually associated with globalization. They promote free trade, i.e. opposing trade tariffs, restrictions. The main beef is when you have such powerful and rich people calling the shots in free trade, then the smaller poorer countries are going to get screwed over. Free trade then can create extremely competitive prices that means some producers/growers are going to get screwed over. BBC has an excellent In Depth section on these world trade issues (Link) and Wikipedia has a detailed article on the WTO also (Link)

So what can someone like me even do about such things? Certainly we cannot vote on WTO, etc. Perhaps what we buy becomes our vote? We've all heard of the stories - and many of them true. Nike employees in some south east asian country being paid 2 cents for every shirt they produce. I recently bought a great documentary looking at some of these corporate problems (The Corporation, Reviews). Feel free to borrow it from me.

I think its good for us, especially as citizens of one of the richer countries that historically has gained a lot more from free trade than other poorer countries to be aware of the situation out there. The global economic situation seems dire... still over a billion people living on less than $1USD a day. The fact that free trade might make things WORSE for those people makes some people pretty pissed off. Pissed off enough to protest even at risk of getting a faceful of pepper spray (see above).

Some companies are trying to make a difference, economically and environmentally. One such company I respect is Mountain Equipment Co-op, who in their mission state they specifically seek good and fair compensation and working conditions for those producing their clothing/backpacks. But even then its tough to be competitive - MEC used to have a lot of its clothing and backpacks produced right in Canada, but I guess competition/greed has pushed them back to almost outsourcing all of its production, but it is clear that they are firm on being socially and environmentally responsible, as seen here.

As for me? Maybe I should be a little more pissed off.