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More handpicked essays just for you.
Globalization in business
Globalization in business
Globalization in business
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In his books Where Am I Wearing? and Where Am I Eating?, Kelsey Timmerman humanizes the issues of globalization and provokes readers be informed about the origins of their products. By traveling the world and telling the stories of the people he meets, Timmerman is able to enlighten his readers and intiate communication about how to improve our world economy. After tracking down the origins of his blue jeans, Timmerman meets Nari, a factory worker in Cambodia. Timmerman describes Nari’s living conditions as poor and crowded. Nari, and seven other girls, live in an 8’x12’ room with no air conditioning, and a squat toilet walled off in the corner. To gain a semblance of privacy, the girls use a sheet hanging from a sagging cord in the back corner as a changing room. Four of the girls sleep on a bamboo bed and the other four girls sleep on the floor. (Where Am I Wearing? pp.99-103) Timmerman, then, writes of his meeting with Nari and her roommates. …show more content…
As she tells Timmeran about her own experiences involving the factory in Cambodia, the reader can see the Nari is grateful for her job, despite the unsatisfactory circumstances. Due to her uneducated, rural background, Nari’s dreams to open up her own beauty salon and provide for her family would probably go unrealized without her job at the factory (Where Am I Wearing? 122). Although the conditions are poor in comparison to American standards, the workers need the jobs the factories provide. Timmerman describes the “reality of the workers’ lives as harsh,” but says that “they don’t want you to boycott their products to protest their working conditions.” Overall, workers would like to work less and make more, but receiving $50 a month is more of a necessity than better working conditions (Where Am I Wearing?
Bob Jeffcott supports the effort of workers of the global supply chains in order to win improved wages and good working conditions and a better quality of life of those who work on sweatshops. He mentions and describes in detail how the conditions of the sweatshops are and how the people working in them are forced to long working hours for little money. He makes the question, “we think we can end sweatshops abuses by just changing our individual buying habits?” referring to we can’t end the abuses that those women have by just stopping of buying their products because those women still have to work those long hours because other people are buying their product for less pay or less money. We can’t control and tell what you can buy or what you can’t because that’s up to the person...
How often does one actually consider where a product originates or under what conditions it was produced? While out shopping a consumers main focus is on obtaining the item needed or wanted not selecting merchandise based on the “made in” tag. It is common knowledge that many products are imported from other countries. However, little thought is given to the substandard conditions that workers endure to eke out a living to maintain a poverty stricken existence. In Mardi Gras: Made in China director David Redmon demonstrates the effect globalization and capitalism have on the lives of the owner and workers of a bead factory in China while contrasting the revelry of partygoers in New Orleans. Underpaid, overworked staff toil and live in an inhuman environment, exploited by a boss who demands much for little compensation while profiting greatly, to support themselves and their families.
In The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, business professor Pietra Rivoli takes the reader on a fascinating around-the-world adventure to reveal the life story of her six-dollar T-shirt. Traveling from a West Texas cotton field to a Chinese factory, and from trade negotiations in Washington to a used clothing market in Africa, Rivoli examines international trade through the life story of this simple product. Her compelling story shows that both globalization's critics and its supporters have oversimplified the world of international trade.
Sweatshops started around the 1830’s when industrialization started growing in urban areas. Most people who worked in them at the time were immigrants who didn't have their papers. They took jobs where they thought they'd have the most economic stability. It’s changed a bit since then, companies just want the cheapest labor they can get and to be able to sell the product in order to make a big profit. It’s hard to find these types of workers in developed areas so they look toward 3rd world countries. “sweatshops exist wherever there is an opportunity to exploit workers who lack the knowledge and resources to stand up for themselves.” (Morey) In third world countries many people are very poor and are unable to afford food and water so the kids are pulled out of school and forced to work so they can try to better their lives. This results in n immense amount of uneducated people unaware they can have better jobs and that the sweatshops are basically slavery. With a large amounts uneducated they continue the cycle of economic instability. There becomes no hope for a brighter future so people just carry on not fighting for their basic rights. Times have changed. 5 Years ago companies would pay a much larger amount for a product to be made but now if they’re lucky they’ll pay half, if a manufacturer doesn't like that another company will happily take it (Barnes). Companies have gotten greedier and greedier in what they’ll pay to have a product manufactured. Companies have taken advantage of the fact that people in developing countries will do just about anything to feed their families, they know that if the sweatshop in Cambodia don't like getting paid 2 dollars per garment the one in Indonesia will. This means that there is less money being paid to the workers which mean more will starve and live in very unsafe environments. Life is
Scholarly intrigue and a hunger for knowledge led Kelsey Timmerman to write the book "Where Am I Wearing". "Where Am I Wearing" is a compilation of both Timmerman's thought-provoking questions: questions about wear the clothes we wear come from, about who makes our clothes, about the working conditions of the people who make our clothes, and the stories that he gathered during the many journeys that he went on while writing the book. Through his tales of travel Timmerman introduces his readers to the harsh realities of globalization, poverty, child labor, and sweatshops.
The documentary strived to show us how factories were corrupt that they couldn’t provide good working conditions for the workers until we lost people. This documentary is about the tragic fire that took place on March 25, 1911 in the Triangle factory. We can clearly see through this documentary that these people didn’t matter to the factory owners because their needs were not met. The documentary shows that the year before the fire took place the workers led a strike asking for better working conditions, but obviously their voices were not heard. After the fire took place this is when factories started improving working conditions. It is sad to learn that it took 146 lives of innocent people in order for factory owners to be convinced that they need to improve the poor working
Gardner, Robert, and Wayne Lavold. "Chapter 9-12." Exploring Globalization. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2007. N. pag. Print.
In China, Kelsey Timmerman spent time with a couple who worked at the Teva factory, traveled to the countryside to meet the couple’s son, insert name, who hasn’t seen his parents in three years due to his parents working long hours and it being expensive to take a train ride. In the US, the author visited one of a few clothing factories in the US to talk to the workers about his shorts, and the decrease of American garment factories. Timmerman wants the consumer to be more engaged and more thoughtful when mindlessly buying clothes. By researching how well the brands you want to buy from monitor their factories and what their code of ethics details, you can make a sound decision on if this is where you would want to buy your clothes. The author writes about brands that improve employers lives like SoleRebels, a shoe company who employs workers and gives them health insurance, school funds for their children, and six months of maternity leave. Brands like soleRebels that give workers benefits most factory workers have never even heard of help improve the lives of garment workers and future generations. From reading this book, Timmerman wants us to be more educated about the lives of garment workers, bridge the gap between consumers and manufacturers, and be a more engaged and mindful consumer when purchasing our
The Globalization Reader. 2011. Fourth Edition. Frank J. Lechner and John Boli, eds. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Some women come to the US and take any job that is available even if it means doing long hours and not getting paid a lot of money. Corporations travel over to third-world countries and hire women to do small jobs in large factories for little to no pay. They only hire a certain type of woman. In “Introduction: Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism” the author touches on the subject of the treatment of the third-world woman and what companies expect from her: “This woman turns into a form of industrial waste, at which point she is discarded and replaced.” (Wright, 6) Once this woman has become old and no longer able to perform the task that she was hired for originally, the company throws her out and simply replaces her with another woman. The third world woman has a sad destiny of coming to the US and dealing with the unfair treatment of companies that do not even appreciate their work.
Naomi Klein’s No Logo states that corporations have been championing globalization using the reasons that globalization allows U.S. consumers to benefit from cheaper products produced abroad, while developing nations benefit from the economic growth stimulated by foreign investments. The generally accepted belief is that governmental policies should be established in favor of the corporations to facilitate the trickling down of corporate profits to the end consumers and workers abroad. Klein, however, contends that globalization rarely benefit the workers in the developing countries.
The traditional Indian sari that is draped around Ashima is exchanged for a hospital gown that leaves her feeling embarrassed by exposing her lower legs. For this reason, Ashima doesn’t relate to the many American women that wear short skirts, exposing their skin. Ashima is feeling lonely, knowing she will be sleeping alone for the very first time. She has always slept in a ...
Americans do not realize the amount of clothing we wear on a daily basis is actually made in Cambodia, such as Adidas and even the Gap. The women that work for these sweatshops in Cambodia sew for 50 cents an hour, which is what allows stores in America, such as H&M to sell inexpensive clothing (Winn, 2015). The conditions these Cambodian workers face are a noisy, loud, and extremely hot environment where people are known for having huge fainting attacks. When workers were on strike a year ago, authorities actually shot multiple people just because they were trying to raise their pay. There is plenty of evidence of abuse captured through many interviews of workers from different factories, and is not just a rarity these places see often or hear of. Factories hire children, fire pregnant women because they are slow and use the bathroom to much, scream at regular workers if they use the toilet more than two times a day, scam hard working employees with not paying them their money they worked for and more, and workers are sent home and replaced if 2,000 shirts are not stitched in one day. Expectations are unrealistic and not suitable for employees to be working each day for more than ten
In today’s continuously changing world, many experts say that globalization is what every business, organization, and nation should seek and welcome as a positive change. However, many people are unaware of the main focus and meaning of Globalization, especially in comparison to Localization. A large number of people believe that globalization is just another common word used to refer to changes and differences that cannot be explained or accounted for. Therefore, many different activities or changes are improperly labeled to be a part of or caused by globalization.
Globalization plays a massive part in my life as it does in everyone’s lives. Every day the world is getting smaller, between technological improvements and peoples interest in these technologies it is easy to see why this is happening. In this essay I have only shortly touch upon some of the places where globalization has affected my everyday life. From shopping as Asda to meeting people on the other side of the world to discuss my dissertation ideas globalization has had a positive affect on my life. The fact that I can walk down a street in Coleraine or Sydney and see similar shops and food outlets is a positive thing in how our lives are intertwined through out the world.