_Where_Am_I_Wearing

Sepetember 18, 2011 Where Am I Wearing Essay China, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Honduras-does anyone in America know what goes on in these countries' When you hear the word “sweatshops” what do most people think of' At first one’s thought might travel to little kids being forced to do slave labor underground for little to no pay, and yet once you read this book another side of the story comes into play. A man named Kelsey Timmerman is a very curious human indeed. One does not usually find a t-shirt on the ground and wonder where it was made and who made it. If by chance you made that slim margin of percentages, Kelsey would probably be the only one to take it a step further. All around the world he traveled and searched for the lives of the people who made his clothes. What he experienced has changed views for so many individuals, because our mind set is so closed off to what’s really going on around the rest of the world. Enlightened by this book, one cannot just keep their eyes closed anymore. Taking us readers on a trip, Kelsey introduced himself and then we were onward to Bangladesh. In Bangladesh kids do not have an education or a childhood. From the moment they can even barely work, they work. Making 6-20 dollars a month is not believed to be ethical in the least. I mean, mowing a yard in America for 30 minutes would get you 20 dollars. It’s hard to face such a cruel and unjust reality, and not having the power or the ability to do anything. We learn about the lives and the kids that work in Bangladesh. They bust their hump to support their family so they at least have more than a cardboard box to run home to at night; but what about years from now' It’s very hard to go anywhere without and education, let alone in Bangladesh. And the book goes on to tell about all these other countries, and how in China you get assassinated just for making a mistake, instead of the sane “your fired” approach. Being complacent with all of this knowledge is the wrong choice. Being an educated college student people would think that ideas would be overflowing out of our brain, and yet even if magical answers were coming to us, would we really do anything' Sure, we’d help out Arifa and all the people that we met alongside Kelsey, but what about the other countless number of people that are sitting with Arifa in the same boat' A very few percentage of human beings help strangers in need just because they feel like it. We as humans make sure that the people we know are our first priority, instead of everyone being treated equal under God. Economically we could contribute small donations to the people in this book, and maybe quite a few more people, and those small donations would become big donations. Such as life though, that wouldn’t be enough. To make such a drastic change that needs to be met with all of these other countries, someone up in congress might need to make such decisions. Because in reality what can college students do to bring consumers and producers up to the 21st century, while their still stuck back in the 1920’s' Reasoning for their classification is because we, America, use to be them. We use to send off our kids to coal mines to work at ages like Bangladesh is doing right now, but not for as little pay. As people scavenge for a good penny back there in Bangladesh, over in Cambodia and China it gets a little more hostile. Having to live right next to some people that bombed your family and friends and not doing anything about it is technically “not American” to us, but this is Cambodia. Logically, not taking action just so your community won’t be bothered is the right action to take. Emotions always lead people astray, when being calm and reasonable lead to brighter future choices. For example, Chinese people in this book let their emotions get the best of them. They killed a man because he let toys out that were poisonous and food out for animals that he shouldn’t have. End result, death. I found this baffling on the account that if you kill someone, that just creates another figure head, not a solution to the problem; also because the guy got killed of course, but that’s beside the point. But being of relevance to this, everyone needs someone or something to blame. In Bangladesh when Kelsey went undercover as an underwear buyer he came across many people in that country who hated George W. Bush. The citizens of that culture started blaming every little possible thing that’s gone wrong in their country on Bush. Very little education could be a probable answer to their ideas and beliefs, but once again, we all need someone to point the finger too. George W. Bush was probably the only huge name that they knew of politically with enough power for them to conclude such statements. Some of the problems they were stating might have been true; might have not, but did they really think that only one person was capable of ruining their lives' Many other names exist in congress and senate, but they are not educated or informed enough on the subject to start spouting off names from there. It is our responsibility as a whole to at least try to inform other countries more so they know with informed intelligence who to point the finger too. It’s very macho and noble for one guy to take the blame in a class room setting when teenagers were messing around. Switching that scenario on a higher dial though, such as president Obama, taking all the blame from millions of people when all of his other “classmates” are to blame as well is ludicrous. Everyone should mind each other’s business with little updates here and there, and be treated equally and fairly throughout the world. I do not discourage sweatshops anymore, seeing as I have now walked a mile in Kelsey’s shoes, who has consequently walked a mile in theirs. Economically I am also now more informed about what is happening around me, like a nice little update. If an opportunity arises, grasping it before it turns into thin air is what will get everyone that extra step. Just don’t wait, or you’ll fall.