September 14, 2012
History repeating itself since we never seem to pay attention: Fire engulfed a garment factory with workers trapped inside, killing at least 264 people in Karachi
From the BBC:
Families in the Pakistani city of Karachi have buried their dead after a fire engulfed a garment factory with workers trapped inside, killing at least 264 people.
Murder charges have been registered against the factory's bosses and government officials, police said.
Police are looking for the factory owners, who have not been seen since the blaze.
It was one of the worst fires in Pakistan's recent history.
Government officials are also being investigated for failing to enforce fire safety regulations at the Ali Enterprises factory.
"We have registered a murder case against the owners of the factory and several government officials for showing utter negligence to provide adequate security to the factory workers," local police chief Mohammad Nawaz Gondal told the AFP news agency.
More here. And here is one of the most beautiful poems I have ever read, by Robert Pinsky:
SHIRT
The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams,
The nearly invisible stitches along the collar
Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians
Gossiping over tea and noodles on their break
Or talking money or politics while one fitted
This armpiece with its overseam to the band
Of cuff I button at my wrist. The presser, the cutter,
The wringer, the mangle. The needle, the union,
The treadle, the bobbin. The code. The infamous blaze
At the Triangle Factory in nineteen-eleven.
One hundred and forty-six died in the flames
On the ninth floor, no hydrants, no fire escapes--
The witness in a building across the street
Who watched how a young man helped a girl to step
Up to the windowsill, then held her out
Away from the masonry wall and let her drop.
And then another. As if he were helping them up
To enter a streetcar, and not eternity.
A third before he dropped her put her arms
Around his neck and kissed him. Then he held
Her into space, and dropped her. Almost at once
He stepped up to the sill himself, his jacket flared
And fluttered up from his shirt as he came down,
Air filling up the legs of his gray trousers--
Like Hart Crane's Bedlamite, "shrill shirt ballooning."
Wonderful how the patern matches perfectly
Across the placket and over the twin bar-tacked
Corners of both pockets, like a strict rhyme
Or a major chord. Prints, plaids, checks,
Houndstooth, Tattersall, Madras. The clan tartans
Invented by mill-owners inspired by the hoax of Ossian,
To control their savage Scottish workers, tamed
By a fabricated heraldry: MacGregor,
Bailey, MacMartin. The kilt, devised for workers
to wear among the dusty clattering looms.
Weavers, carders, spinners. The loader,
The docker, the navvy. The planter, the picker, the sorter
Sweating at her machine in a litter of cotton
As slaves in calico headrags sweated in fields:
George Herbert, your descendant is a Black
Lady in South Carolina, her name is Irma
And she inspected my shirt. Its color and fit
And feel and its clean smell have satisfied
both her and me. We have culled its cost and quality
Down to the buttons of simulated bone,
The buttonholes, the sizing, the facing, the characters
Printed in black on neckband and tail. The shape,
The label, the labor, the color, the shade. The shirt.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 05:21 AM | Permalink






















Comments
It never ends. For some people life must always be cheaper than profit, except for their life.
Posted by: Jim | Sep 14, 2012 6:52:58 AM
God how awful. That's my favorite poem by Robert Pinsky, too -- it's not possible to read about a disaster where working people were accorded no safety, given no chance to survive, without thinking of it.
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Sep 14, 2012 1:14:28 PM
Yes, a searing poem: it is the lack of safety regulations and liability that gives Chinese factories their competitive edge over Western factories.
Posted by: aguy109 | Sep 17, 2012 5:09:57 PM
@aguy:
I am not sure where Chinese factory safety vis a vis western ones figures in this story. If anything the clients of this Pakistani factory are reportedly western. The Triangle Factory in the poem was in NYC not Shanghai. It would be nice when you make a claim you substantiate it with some data, such as major factory fires or accidents in China as compared to other countries. Can you?
Posted by: Raza Husain | Sep 17, 2012 6:38:08 PM
Raza, here is a link to one paper which opens with
http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/psc/ccc/publications/papers/AC_Occupational_Health_2010.pdf
"The seriousness of the problem is supported by China’s own official statistics In 2005, it was estimated that 16 million enterprises were using toxic and hazardous materials, and 200 million workers were engaged in hazardous jobs (1–3). According to the Ministry of Health, 5 of every 1,000 workers in these jobs suffered from occupational diseases (4). In the same year, 728,000 accidents claimed 127,000 lives (5). In 2003, the fatality rate per million tons of coal mined in China was 100 times that of the United States (6, 7). These frightening national figures reveal just the tip of the iceberg, as underreporting in data collection is widely recognized in China. '
I was not trying to criticize China, just saying that when the Triangle Factory caught fire in NYC in 1911, that city was playing the same low-regulated-cheap-manufacturing role that Chinese ( and maybe Pakistani and other) cities are filling today. Health and safety rules cost money - that's a dilemma that emerging economies have to face.
Posted by: aguy109 | Sep 18, 2012 12:20:36 PM
Post a comment