Please get off your moral high horse. I used to be like you all smug-faced and judgmental sitting behind a computer, until I was on the field with brac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRAC_(NGO)) and see for myself how the real world works.

They are NOT underpaid for the most part (If you actually bothered to read what I wrote). They are under-paid to "western living standard" but not according to the local living standard (for the most part). There are some exceptions and exploitations, but its very small percentage, but those are the examples that the media and people like you try to bring up when discussion these issues.

Lets be oblivious and ignore the world of good garments industry has done for literally millions people in the poorest parts of the world.

Change takes time, its not pretty, its not shiny, and its not fairy tale and sometimes people die in the process.

I did "bother" to read the article. And I know all about BRAC (there is a branch in Sri Lanka too).

I don't need the media to tell me what's happening. I have family - therefore, a genuine vested interest in what happens to them and their community - and I stay in touch to this day. I know all about what the garment industry has done in the poorest parts of the world; I've seen the end result first hand (and second, third and fourth by virtue of having family working there).

The only one oblivious is you if you think you know how the real world works.

You are from BRAC! I have heard they are some sort of BLOOD SUCKER, by giving small money to poor they take 80% interest. Even some rural farmer had to suicide after taking loan from Brac. And you are talking about "living standard" how funny man :)

You are confusing brac with something else that happend in india.

No, I think he got it pretty spot on.

I.E. From just December last year :

http://www.eoi.es/blogs/amyblyth/dp-the-grameen-and-brac-exp...

For balance, here's the response straight from the horse's mouth before that story was written :

http://www.brac.net/node/861

Very convenient when borrowers are unaware of those choices all too often as happened in Sri Lanka too after the tsunami.

And a guardian piece from 2008 :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/20/internationala...

Ah, but these are "Western media" outlets with a clearly biased view spewed from behind the computer. I was born there, but let me return to the modest shack my granddad built so I'll have better standing, shoulder-to-shoulder, with you.

Your organization is the NGO equivalent of the U.N. with greater far-reaching tentacles in every aspect of the poorest communities you influence. The garment factories you hold in such high esteem are exploitive in the extreme and the level of self-delusion you exhibit would have been funny if the consequences weren't so tragic.

Edit: Reply link not showing up yet. Meanwhile, since microcredit is the bread and butter, so to speak, of the BRAC scheme :

https://www.google.com/search?q=consequences+of+microcredit

https://www.google.com/search?q=effects+of+microcredit

https://www.google.com/search?q=repercussions+of+microcredit

Can you please point out the reference of BRAC charging 80% interest rate and farmers committing suicide?

I didn't find any such thing from your links after a quick glance.

These jobs wouldn't be there if not for the low wages. They belong to a foreign industry and a foreign market, it's nothing that they can simply protect internally.

Now that the jobs are there, the foreign industry has a responsibility to maintain the welfare of their slave labor force.

They'd rather just pack and leave. Jobs are not life-long entitlements.

I find myself falling into this sometimes. I came from a relatively poor area and family (at least by US standards), and sometimes foolishly get the attitude briefly when confronted with poverty of "I got out of that, they should be able too. They're just lazy and/or are happy living that way. Which may be true, but I doubt it. I certainly never was.

So why did you get out and they didn't? Was it luck?

No, but not everyone has the resources (encouraging parents, teachers/community leaders that help, etc.) to do it that I did.

> It's the Western equivalent of let them eat cake since they're used to eating grass. Underpaid labor is better than no pay is an excuse of the privileged; and only the privileged.

...and only an excuse.

It's an excuse if the factory workers are underpaid. In terms of local buying power, how much more should they be paid in your opinion?