2 Book Sources

2 Book Sources:
http://books.google.com/books?id=oq2pgMztlzsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=walmart+sweatshop&hl=en&ei=p9j7TL2oHoi5nAfKooXICg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=sweatshop&f=false (search sweatshop)
Title- The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman

http://books.google.com/books?id=cK9xX4FoBmYC&pg=PA125&dq=walmart+sweatshop&hl=en&ei=59z7TJTCPIuwnge2hP3FCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false (page 25)
Title- Nice work if you can get it: life and labor in precarious times by Andrew Ross

Multimedia Presentation

Movie: Made in India

Powerpoint Presentation using 280 Slides.

Post 2: Int. Human Rights

1. Research Question: Why is it that Walmart supports sweatshops by buying goods from them to sell in their stores?

2. Will have to research how much money the sweatshop workers are being paid, what Walmart's reasons for their support of sweatshops are, why some who are informed continue to buy goods from Walmart?

Step 1 International Human Rights

1. I am interested in doing my International Human Rights presentation on Walmart supporting inhumane sweatshops that violate UDHR Article 24 by buying their products and how Americans are indirectly contributing to labor brutality by buying Walmart products. This interests me because it is very current and many Americans buy goods from Walmart, many not knowing that much of their goods are made in sweatshops by people who barely get payed anything and are struggling.
2. http://www.1worldcommunication.org/Walmart.htm (walmart/Bangledesh women)
   http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/stores3.html (walmart's statement on labor)
   http://www.veganpeace.com/sweatshops/sweatshops_and_child_labor.htm (define sweatshops/child labor)
3. Why is it legal in America for a store to sell goods bought from sweatshops?

Democratic Republic of Congo (current events)

1) The first news article that I found of a recent issue in the Congo was a New York Times article published on October 3rd, 2010 about Congolese women being raped literally up the road from a local UN headquarters and they not being able to stop it. The group gang raped at least 200 women going from home to home in the area. One woman says that if the rape victims had been “the daughters or wives or mothers of the power elites,” she said, “I can promise you this war would have ended about 12 years ago.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/world/africa/04congo.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Democratic%20Republic%20of%20Congo&st=cse

2) The second news article that I found of current news in the Congo was a BBC news article published on October 1st, 2010 stating that the UN is now reporting that the killings of Hutus in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s may be characterized as "crimes of genocide." I wonder why the UN is just now beginning to confirm that the killings of Hutus was a genocide. "Rwanda's government has always said its troops entered DR Congo to pursue the militiamen responsible for the 1994 genocide of Tutsis." Is Rwanda's government going to be charged with genocide now? Why is the UN just now making this realization and bringing attention to this when it should have been done years earlier?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11450093

Lingering Questions/Ideas after Discussion

1) What does the poem quoted from Rudyard Kipling on page 138 in Hochschild's book mean?

 "Ship me somewheres east of Suez,
where the best is like the worst,
Where there aren't no Ten Commandments,
an' a man can raise a thirst" (138 Hochschild). 


I understand why the chapter was called Where there Aren't no Ten Commandments, but aren't sure what "where the best is like the worst" and "an' a man can raise a thirst" means.

 2) The group discussion could have been better if those who did not speak much would have spoken more. The discussion of seven turned into a discussion of three and when the three of us held back from speaking there were long awkward pauses. Also, if the questions we were answering did not only have one direct answer and left space for opinions, they would be better discussion questions. It did not take us long to answer each question because they only had one direct answer and we read quotes to support. Something our group did well was using support from the book and explaining its significance to the discussion. We answered 4 questions.

Response to 'King Leopold's Ghost'

I liked how in the introduction to the book, the perspective of the Africans who's countries were being colonized by Europeans was taken. It almost reminded me of Howard Zinn's book, A People's History, when it is expressed that the Africans were "brutally suppressed" and their testimony was not heard in published documents (5 Hochshild). It is better to read about both perspectives and form an opinion yourself. When reading Kipling's,"The White Man's Burden," and Morel's, "The Black Man's Burden," there were plenty of evident contrasting opinions as to how the Africans reacted. It is very interesting to me to read King Leopold's Ghost because during the imperialism and the colonizing, no one cared enough to ask or document how the Africans felt about their culture being called "uncivilized" and being forced to abide by European customs. I am glad that E.D. Morel made an effort to paint a realistic picture of what imperialism was really like in Africa.

Q 1: What is considered "uncivilized"?
Q 2: What was the significance of slavery?