The truth about how your sportswear is made

Here is a visual depiction along with excerpts from The Independent report:



Alternative link

Blood, sweat and tears: the truth about how your sportswear is made
By Martin Hickman
Factories used by biggest brands abuse staff, employ children and pay pitiful wages - while stars earn a fortune

"Inspections by Nike, Puma and Adidas, identified 281 rogue factories, whose failings ranged from the unsatisfactory to the abysmal."

"A decade after some shoppers boycotted Nike over the issue, the leading players in the £134bn-a-year global sportswear industry seek to protect their reputations against allegations they profit from sweated labour by inspecting factories and blacklisting the worst. However their own reports show they have had only partial success in cleaning up the industry, and that they continue to outsource production to countries where trade unions are banned or restricted."

"Of 479 factories checked last year, on average 168 failed to meet Nike's standards, meaning they had "serious system failures" or a "general disregard" for codes of conduct. One in five failed to provide contracts, honour collective bargaining, occasionally used children or worked staff seven days a week without a break."

"Of 362 factories that supply Puma, one in five – 75 – failed audits two years ago. About half of those flouted rules on hours and pay, and most endangered workers' health. Three-quarters failed to follow rules on the handling of chemicals. Puma says it is committed to trade union-rights, but it outsources to China and Vietnam, which restrict those rights. In its Team Talk report, Puma admitted: "Considering these limitations, the social standard on freedom of association and collective bargaining is admittedly difficult to enforce at many of our supplier factories."

"Adidas, which was praised by the campaign group Playfair in 2008 for introducing complaints processes and for ending short-term contracts, gives little information about life inside its factories. Last year it ranked 60 per cent of 1,200 suppliers in the bottom three "compliance" ratings, but since it declines to explain the criteria, it is unclear how many failed audits. Last year the German firm warned 38 suppliers that they were so bad they could lose contracts."

"Conditions may be worse than publicly stated because factories falsify wage and time records to pass audits. Puma acknowledged "many factories" covered up excessive working hours with two sets of time records – one genuine and one for inspections. The firm said: "It is common knowledge in our industry that software programs have been developed specifically for this purpose, with workers being coached on how to answer questions." "

Storytelling: A fun way to learn effectively

Teaching Storytelling in Classroom



What I find most attractive in storytelling as a technique of teaching is that more than just learning pre-determined knowledge they allow creative and imaginative construction of knowledge itself in the process. Moreover, compared to the traditional techniques in which the teacher is more or less at the center, in the storytelling technique the child is at the center of learning process. Storytelling fosters reasoning and communication skills. It encourages the development of reading habit, social interaction skills, and even problem solving skills (using both rational and emotional reasoning methods). All these are in addition to moral values and knowledge that can be conveyed in the play-out at a very deeper level.

Would also recommend checking out "A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play" by Vivian Gussin Paley.

Why Storytelling - Part I



Why Storytelling - Part II



Also see, Rakugo - The Japanese Art of StoryTelling

Rakugo - The Japanese Art of Storytelling

From Wiki: "Rakugo (literally "fallen words") is a Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone storyteller (Rakugoka) sits on the stage, called the Kōza. Using only a paper fan ("sensu") and a small cloth ("tenugui") as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters, the difference between the characters depicted only through change in pitch, tone, and a slight turn of the head."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakugo

Yah Bacha - By Ibn Insha - Urdu sub English

This presentation visualized in the context of Pakistan is based on a poem by Ibn Insha. I read somewhere that he wrote this poem after seeing an image of a starving child in Ethiopia in the 70s.



Violence comes in various forms - physical, symbolic, structural. This should imply that conscientious activists around the world cannot afford to focus on only one facet of injustice.

Poverty and hunger are forms of structural violence, largely resulting today from current international trade laws written by corporate greed.



Materialism is the underlying logic of the prevailing global injustice. Unfortunately, it seems that we - the non-corporate actors - are also implicated in this exploitation, with variable degrees however, knowingly or otherwise, because of self-absorbed excessive consumption, apathy, and lack of resistance against how our governments and corporations are exploiting people and resources around the world.



The above video addresses not only 'how' bad it is, but also 'why' is it that bad and what are some of the structural causes.

In the ultimate analysis, the root cause lies in materialism - a deep psychological force - that has become pervasive in our values, cultures, and institutions.

See a related post here: Miniature Earth.

Hurray for Baba Ali!

See Baba Ali's latest project.



From his earlier, V-Blog, "Muslim While Flying":



Taking on one of the pressing social problems, "$25,000 Muslim Wedding!!"