As this week went by, I had this strong urgency of going
to the malls and outlet stores to browse around. I wanted to challenge myself
by seeing if I was going to purchase anything. However I managed to stop myself
from doing that because after watching the documentary “Made in L.A” it made me
think twice about shopping. What I learned from watching “Made in L.A” was that
garment workers did not receive any good benefits and that they get treated
like animals. This documentary raised my consciousness of garment workers being
paid less than three dollars and suffering from being treated unfairly. As a
consumer, I need to redeem myself from purchasing unnecessary valuables that
does not benefit me. I also need to learn where and how products are made
before buying them. As mentioned in “Santa’s Workshop” the authors, Holstein,
Palmer, Rehman, and Ito, gave a list of recommendations for consumers to do
before purchasing anything. Thus an example would be asking store managers
where the products are made from because this determines whether the retailer
is informed of where the products are made or even if they care where it’s made
from. This is a mental challenge that I am willing to accept because it
decreases the production of underpaid workers producing clothes.
Here is a video I found from youtube which relates to the
garment industry workers we had discussed in class. This short documentary is
about Cambodian garment workers who are protesting to get a higher pay and
better work conditions. This film connects with “Made in L.A” because they are
struggling with the same socio economic issues of being under paid and treated
unfairly.
Sources :
Made in
L.A. Dir. Almudena Carracedo. Independent Television Service,
2007. DVD.
Holstein, Palmer, Ur-Rehman & Ito. “Santa’s Sweatshop: In
a Global Economy, it’s Hard to Know Who Made Your Gift – and Under What
Conditions”
"The Abuse Behind Cambodian Garment Worker Protests" YouTube 6, Jan, 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment