Footsteps

Some Quotes from Thomas L. Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree and my comments about them:

"... The factory belonged to a Sri Lankan firm, named Slimline, that manufactured clothes for Victoria Secret and Marks and Spencer...In terms of conditions, this factory was world-class. Wages aside, I would let my own daughters work there....I asked the plan owner, Mahesh Amalean, why the fancy factory? Why not a sweatshop? Wouldn't that be more lucrative for him? No, he explained...The only way to build long-term relationships with the big, global, brand-name retailers is to produce higher- and higher-quality products under better and better working conditions. This is not because Victoria's Secret has suddenly become socially conscious, but because American consumers and college students have become more socially conscious as a result of some very high-profile antisweat-shop campaigns. And these consumers are now telling stores that they do not want to be wearing goods made under sweatshop conditions. In other words, one of the big reasons working conditions have improved in Sri Lankan textile factories is not because Sri Lanka put up walls against globalization, but because in today's global economy Sri Lankan manufacturers must tie themselves to big Western retailers to survive, and the more they do that the more their factory standards have to meet the workplace norms being demanded by Western consumers."
Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, 1st Anchor Book Edition, pp177-178

Very untrue. I don't think the consumers of Victoria's Secret ever ask about the working conditions of labor behind the products. Simply, the daily routine of life of many people in North America does not allow them to be consciously aware of the existence of another country such as Seri-Lanka, let alone the labor behind the products in those countries. And yet if there are few who know, the credit for their awareness does not go to Friedman but to people like Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky and many others who have raised their concerns.

" There are essentially three ways that businesses can raise money: by borrowing from a bank, by selling shares on a stock market and by issuing bonds on a bond market. It is very important for a country to have all three options, so if your banks get into trouble entrepreneurs can turn to the bond and stock markets. An if the bond market tanks, they can turn to the stock market and banks. This so-called 'three-legged' approach disperses risks more widely and enhances any financial system's ability to cope with shocks. All too often, though, developing countries just have one or at best two legs of this three-legged stool, and that makes their financial systems less than stable."
Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, 1st Anchor Book Edition, pp184-185

Very true.

"... The closing session met in a steamy mud hole amphitheatre and was presided over by Zapatista leader "Subcommander Marcos"-a Mexican combination of Robin Hood and Ralph Nader...."
Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, 1st Anchor Book Edition, p 190

I should confess I laughed when I read these lines. Robin Hood and Ralph Nader, funny.