Sweatshop

This was my presentation about a TV-show called ”Sweatshop” a show that is about textile workers everywhere, but mostly in Cambodia since that is the place they are filming.  There may not be a direct connection with this and our syllabus, but considering the many times we have discussed how bad circumstances some people have to live with, I thought it would be an okay topic. Also, we have talked a lot about news and media. This show is made for Aftenposten by Joakim Kleven, and has been (and still is) discussed a lot in media. 6 million people in total on youtube and Aftenposten have watched the show (in 2015).

 In the program "Sweatshop" there are three youths from Norway; Anniken Jørgensen, Frida Ottesen and Ludvig Hambro Dybsand (season 1), Ludvig isn’t participating in season 2, but there are two Swedish girls who are (Lisa Tellbe and Sarah Tjulander) including Anniken and Frida from season 1. They are visiting Cambodia both in season one and two. In the first season, they want to see what it’s like to work in clothing factories in Cambodia and is more focused on giving them a living wage (177dollar) since the money they earned was the minimum wage (128dollar), but not enough to support their families, and in the second season they came more prepared and focused on getting rid of the short-term contracts and exchange them with log-term contracts as well as the living wage. Anniken and Frida had a meeting with the owners of Hennes&Mauritz in Oslo/Norway, and they told the girls that they could visit whichever factory they would like to visit whenever they wanted, but when they came down to Cambodia none of the guards would let them in because of the powerful people in Norway. It makes you think of how bad it is in there, and how dangerous it is. In addition to the fact that they sent 315 mails to different factories in Cambodia about paying them a visit let in in one of the factories (not even specific factories) and they did not get a single reply from any of them.

A regular daily payment is 3 dollars, which is approximately 25 NOK/crones. By these three dollars the workers is suppose to pay their rent, buy food for both themselves and their children if they have any. You notice in the show that with those three dollars you can’t get things from the supermarket but rather from the marked outside, which is dirty and probably is very pathogenic. Also, a jacket that one textile worker may have sown with her own hands, she would have to spend all of her annual earnings. I would like to show you a brief video that has been shared a lot, especially on facebook.

As an end to this presentation I would like to say the reason I chose this topic and how I feel about it myself. I have chosen this topic simply because it interests me, and I would like to inform others of the show, recommend the show to people who may not have heard about it, as well as I want to share the textile workers stories and messages. I can honestly admit that this show has made me cry more than once, because I had not heard about this, and it was definitely something I never considered or thought about. I think it is important to share these things, and based on whom I have talked to about this show, it seems like there are mostly teenagers who have heard about or watched this show. I can’t really describe my feelings towards this because it really moves me and I think it is awful to watch how they react to different questions, but we can’t stop buying clothes either because then they will not get paid.

Here is a link so you can watch one of the episodes of sweatshop.