A note about welding in Bangladesh.
As some of you may have gleaned from my blog posts, or general accurate stereotypes of South Asia that you might have heard, this region is not known for it's safety precautions. I would normally make some comment about how perhaps in the United States we are too obsessed with safety precautions. I recently heard that despite Bangladesh's horrendous traffic patterns, the US still has more fatal accidents (citation needed, obviously). However, when it comes to safety precautions for welding, less isn't more.
Maybe it's because of the state of Bangladesh's economy, or maybe it's because the buildings are not built to last, and constantly need repair work, or maybe it's because Bangladesh doesn't compartmentalize and hide away the grittier elements of life the way we do in the US, but not a day passes by when I don't see someone welding something. When I drive down the streets a flash of white light catches my eye as we pass men working on the side of the road. When we take a trip to the ship breaking yard, the smell of hot metal permeates the entire scene and many welders can be spotted. Right now, as I sit on my balcony, a hissing sound draws my attention to the building across the way where a man is welding on the roof.
I'm definitely no expert on welding, but it's my impression that serious safety issues are involved in the practice. The hot flames and metal can lead to serious burns while the bright light can lead to permanent eye damage. In the United States, I believe people wear protective gear on their body, arms, hands, head, eyes, and feet. In Bangladesh most or all of this is disregarded. No doubt there is slim to no availability of this protective gear, or where it does exist it's too expensive for most projects.
The man who is working on the building near mine is in sandals, and a t-shirt and is squatting down peering at the area he is welding. With his left hand he sometimes lifts an eye guard to his face while he does the welding with his right hand, but sometimes he neglects to do this. He has no gloves on.
I wish I knew more about the economics and philosophy of Bangladesh. While of course in the USA we also talk about people being 'expendable' in certain jobs, there's a general attitude that human life itself isn't quite as expendable. If it comes down to either a job being done and a life lost, or a life saved and the job never being done, we usually choose the latter. Maybe we could assert that this solution, which obviously isn't really a solution at all, is the reason why we outsource and globalize. The life of a citizen in the US isn't expendable, but the life of an illegal immigrant in Southern California, or of a factory worker in Bangladesh is one we have less of a problem labeling as expendable.
There's no doubt that working at the ship breaking yards is dangerous. Not only are workers there working literally up to their knees in toxic waste, but they are also engaging in completely dangerous activities. Despite the danger and the cost to the environment, Bangladesh's economy relies on ship breaking. A few lives lost benefits thousands, perhaps millions, in theory. But is it worth it? I heard a figure recently that once a person starts going through trash in Bangladesh (to pick out valuable things and sell them- like paper, metal, bottles, etc.), they have 15 years left in their life. Do we just say, it's a rough job, but somebody's got to do it? I want to know what the cost would be to make these jobs more safe. How much less money would Bangladesh make if they ensured the safety of all of their ship breaking workers?
I think it's safe to say that condoning the safety and methods of these jobs is essentially classist, but at what point will we admit that ignoring this global classism is also wrong?
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