This week's Smile Politely column is up: Clash of cultures, clothing edition, where I talk about sorting clothes with the Old Order Mennonites down in Arthur.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Observations at the Intersection of Church & State & Culture
Archives
- Dan's Writing Home Page
- Columns Published at Smile Politely
- India Travelogue
- Colombia Travelogue
- Guatemala Travelogue
- EbertFest Blogging
- I am a Blogger
- Why Mennonite?
- Why Minor?
- Post Election Wrapup
- Feeling Manly and Tired
- The Wall of Manliness
- My New Office
- Free Rice
- Peer Pressure for Good
- Peanuts, Power and Policy
- My Ensemble Experience
- God is Better Than I Am
- Tuk Tuks, Fletes, and Chicken Buses
- The Paradox of Power
- Sinner's Guide to the Chief Illinwek Debate
About Me
- Dan S
- Champaign, Illinois, United States
- "We must not only prepare our children for the world, we must also prepare the world for our children." -Luis J. Rodriguez
3 comments:
There was a documentary a few years ago about the cast-off clothes from American thrift shops that get shipped to various parts of Africa, usually by charities. The parcels frequently get sold in bulk to street vendors, who in turn flood the market with dirt cheap clothing. As a result, local textile manufacturing is not able to compete and goes out of business with devastating economic impact. See http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/tshirttravels/film.html
Bummer.
Unfortunately, that's often the way it goes with service/charity work. Which isn't to say we shouldn't do charity work, but make sure it actually helps.
Much better than charity is good social policy.
"...local textile manufacturing is not able to compete and goes out of business..."
Sounds a lot like what's been going on in America. Flooded with cheap products from elsewhere and American businesses go out of business, hurting our economy.
Hmm. Sounds more like a consequence of the "globalization" of trade than a poor social policy. (It certainly doesn't seem to me to be POLICY at all, but just part of the big game)
Post a Comment