Working 9-5 by Felicia

---

It's a new year, and with a new year has come a new job for me--I will no longer be making the hour and a half trek from Reading to London everyday (I have to take the slow train, unfortunately--the fast train only takes 25 minutes). I officially qualified as a social worker at the beginning of December. Right before I left for Munich I interviewed for a new position only 45 minutes away from Reading. So--while I am still doing Child Protection work, it will be in a slightly different position. And I get to earn a few extra pounds while doing it (money, not weight!)

One of the benefits of riding the train to work is all of the books I get to read. Before moving to England, between a full-time job, grad school, a new boyfriend (now fiance) and taking care of my 3 year old nephew, I had no time to read anything but a research article or a textbook. I don't think I had even read a novel for two years before this trip!

My journal writing has also increased as a result of public transportation--giving me lots of time to process all of the interesting things I read or see.

I quickly bored of fiction books, and found that my taste seemed to run towards stories of injustice or abuse. The book "Shame" by Jasvinder Sanghera, about an India woman living in England who chooses not to go through with an arranged marriage, and is subsequently shunned by her family and community. She is then inspired to begin a resource centre for women in similar situations.

The fictional book "A thousand Spendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini (also author of "The Kite Runner") tells of Afghanistan’s history from the point of view of a family—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding.

The expose "The Daughters of Juarez" about the thousands of women who have mysteriously been murdered in Juarez, Mexico over the last 20 years, by journalist Teresa Rodriguez, moved me so much that I was inspired to write a song about it. That book haunts me.

But, this is not a book review, I promise.

My latest endeavour (a few years late) is a book called "No Logo" by Naomi Klein. Ms Klein examines pop culture, the branding phenomenon (ie Nike, Starbucks), and the workers who make these products in far away countires such as China or India. I became interested in this subject, because as I travel around, I am becoming more aware of how much we can affect each other on a global level. Things or processes we do in the US can affect people all over the world, and vice-versa. World wars or disasters are very good examples of this. I remember first really becoming aware in during my time in Jamaica. This trip to Europe is connecting the dots for me a little bit more.

I try to buy locally, fair trade, and sweat-free. After reading this book, I felt even more confused, though. I did not want people being abused or working for 15 or 16 hours straight with no breaks while creating clothing or holiday ornaments for places like Canada, western Europe, and the US. But, it's been pointed out to me, what were the people doing before they had jobs in the factories? Well, often times, my answer was, working for even less wages (hard to imagine), not having even less to eat, and even less opportunities for education.

A few days after I finished the book, the International Herald Tribune (January 6, 2008) about how conditions in Chinese factories are still not as good; Chinese factory workers are losing 40,000 fingers a year assembling clothing and other products for big companies overseas. They are still being abused and working long hours. The author suggests that while it is good to be a thoughtful consumer, the only thing that could relieve conditions there is to perhaps take the factories out all together. Which then leaves Chinese workers with no jobs. It feels like a lose-lose situation.

Other people have said that developing countries have to go through this process before gaining a little bit of economic stability. That Japan has worked its way out of that place in that same process. As has Europe and the US (remember the 1800s and the women and children exploited in the factories in the US?).

I was talking to a colleague of mine, who is an MSW like myself, and from India. She, too, has read "No Logo". She told me that if it weren't for all of the work that the factories brought to India, she would not have had the opportunities to get an education or to even be working abroad or travelling. She said that if there were no factories, the opportunities would not be as plentiful. The reality is people need to survive, and want their families to survive, and have more choices then they themselves do, or did.

If fair labour practises are no longer a choice, then what happens to those jobs? How do companies like Patagonia and H&M, who have chosen to do business in an ethical manner, survive in a world full of branding? (Or is it that brand that helps them survive?) Again, I do not want people to suffer that way in order to survive.

Any thoughts, perspectives are appreciated as I am fairly new to this stuff.

---