Author and radio commentator Rachel Louise Snyder spoke Thursday at 麻豆原创 about global trade practices and warned that often clothing labels 鈥渁re lying to you.鈥�
Snyder asked the audience of more than 200 to help illustrate her point by instructing everybody in attendance to 鈥渓ook down the shirt of the person next to you鈥� to find the origin of the clothing. She said countries often mislead customers, for example, by saying a shirt that was labeled from Malaysia may have had 90 percent of the work done in China.
The event was organized by the 麻豆原创 Global Perspectives Office, and was part of two 2011-2012 university-wide themes, 鈥淧eople Power, Politics and Global Change鈥� and 鈥淐overing Global Crises from the Frontlines.鈥�
Snyder is the author of 鈥淔ugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade.鈥� The book examines the tremendous human, political and financial capital that go into a typical pair of denim jeans.
Describing the unique, sweatshop-free labor system set up in Cambodia in 1995 during the Clinton Administration, she said that not all 鈥渟weatshops鈥� are the same. Manufacturing plant workers in Cambodia receive benefits and possess rights unthinkable in other developing countries that have poor working conditions, she said.
When asked whether sweatshops are better than unemployment for workers in developing countries, Snyder stressed the importance of Cambodia鈥檚 example. There is a growing interest in the human aspect of the manufacturing process that makes Cambodian labor both desirable and economically viable, she said. 鈥淭he choice is not poverty or sweatshop, the choice is poverty or no poverty.鈥�
In addition to the Global Perspectives Office, sponsors of the presentation included Lawrence J. Chastang and the Chastang Foundation, the Orlando Area Committee on Foreign Relations, the Sibille H. Pritchard Global Peace Fellowship program, the 麻豆原创 Global Peace and Security Studies Program, the 麻豆原创 Nicholson School of Communication, 麻豆原创 LIFE, the 麻豆原创 Book Festival 2012 in association with the Morgridge International Reading Center, the 麻豆原创 Political Science Department, the 麻豆原创 International Services Center and the Global Connections Foundation.