TRIANGLE vs TAZREEN: A Tale of Two Fires

On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory went up in flames. 146 workers died in the fire, from smoke inhalation, and from jumping or falling to their death. Here are a few useful factoids worth noting:

• The Triangle Shirtwaist company occupied top three floors of the 10 story building.
• Immigrant workers worked 9 hours a day during the week and 7 hours on Saturdays, earning between $7.00 and $12.00 per week.
• The oldest victim was Providenza Panno, age 48.
• The youngest victim was 11 year old Mary Goldstein.

101 years later, on November 25th, 2012, the Tazreen Fashion factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh went up in flames. At least 111 workers died in the fire, from smoke inhalation, and from trying to escape via the staircases in the building.  Here are a few useful factoids worth noting:

• The building was 9 stories high, with most of the workers on the first five floors. The top three floors were under construction and unoccupied.
• Although most workers were gone for the day, more than 600 were working overtime.
• Workers were paid approximately $37.00 per month, the government mandated wage....which is about $9.25 per week.
• The factory had a history of safety violations and had previously been coded “orange,” a warning grade, by Wal-Mart.

One would think that impact of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire would have a greater impact on American work and safety ethic. And I supposed that government regulation within the United States insures that sweatshops are few and far between. They are not gone here…we all know this….but they are no longer standard parts of the working landscape. Outside the US, however is another story completely.

The American appetite for mass produced brand-name-luxury-goods-at-on sale-prices sends scouts out looking for the next cheap labor pool. I defy you to find mass produced clothing made in the US. It was just a few months ago that Ralph Lauren was taken to task for producing the hideously ugly Olympic uniforms overseas. But I stray from the point. 

One can argue this demand employs millions of workers worldwide. But does having a job in a slave factory at slave wages make having any job okay? As an “advanced” society, what exactly do we owe those workers? 

A lot of people will say we owe them nothing. They working conditions should be monitored by their own government, not ours…and that is correct. However, if the contract holder is an American firm or retail chain, do we not have an obligation to make certain the workers are treated fairly and paid a decent wage. BUT…is our idea of “fair” and our idea of “decent wage” a uniform standard?

Does any of this bother you? It sure as hell bothers me. For the record and to be PERFECTLY clear, I will not set one single foot inside a Wal-Mart. Their idea of ethics and my idea of ethics are diametrically opposed. I try to shop locally whenever possible. And when I do shop, especially for soft goods like towels and clothing, there are some countries I will NOT support. China is first on that list. And there is a method to the madness.

The criteria is “how good a trading partner is the country on the label, and what do I know about their human rights record?” The corollary becomes, “Is this manufacturer known for being human rights cognizant?” This is like being kosher. You know what you’re supposed to eat and not eat. Reading food labels is a way of life, so it’s not exactly a quantum leap to read clothing labels. This is my private little revolt, but at least I am cognizant of what I am buying and where my very hard earned dollars are going. 

The workers of Bangladesh and other places where clothing is contracted deserve a whole lot more than sweatshop conditions and a $1.00 an hour wage. They have the right to clean and safe factory floors with ample exits and safety training. As long as they are an integral part of our consumer chain, they should be able to have hopes and expectations just like American workers. If you insist on off-shoring your contracts, at least act like a responsible citizen abroad. 

Orange carding the factory is not enough. Telling the brokers you will not contract to a substandard manufacturing facility is a non-negotiable point. Explaining to your shareholders that ethics are more important than profit will be a challenge, but it can and must be done. 

Tell your customers. People want to feel good about what they buy. Up the ethical standard…and then advertise the hell out of it. Raise the bar. Set the example. Do what’s right for everyone. 

Do what’s right for everyone….and there will be no more Triangle Shirtwaist or Tazreen Fashion fires. 

The Wifely Person's Tip O'the Week

Have ethical issues with a company's trading practices?

Vote with your feet and your wallet.

Someone else actually wants your business.

No Settlements, No Jews, No Peace

You might have heard that Target Corp headquarters had a little incident on Friday. Seems someone called in a report of what sounded like gunshots being fired on the 10th floor. In the scheme of things, security did everything right. There was confirmation that something that sounded like shots was heard by multiple people, and then then announcement that everybody should close their office doors, barricade themselves in, then wait for the all clear.

Well, like most modern businesses, few people actually have doors, so employees, including my daughter-in-law, hustled into conference rooms and barricaded those doors. Again, this was the safe thing to do and no one will argue the wisdom of being safe rather than sorry even though the sounds turned out to be a worker using some sort of pneumatic tool (think nail gun) near an air vent and yes, it sounded pretty much like gunfire.

I was blissfully unaware of any of this when my daughter-in-law called to tell me she was okay. “Is there some reason you wouldn’t be okay?” I asked cautiously. She told me what happened, adding she thought it was odd that I hadn’t tried to call her. We laughed the relieved-it-was-all-a-big-nothing laugh, and then I said, “Let’s play a game.” 

"Okay." I suspect she knew where I was going.

“What if," I asked, "you lived in Tel Aviv?” 

“I’m ahead of you; I already thought about that. This would’ve been part of my reality.”

That lockdown was about 3 hours. Israeli civilians have been under a non-stop rocket barrage for several years. In 2011, over 680 missiles and rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel. In 2012, thousands have been fired….more than 100 today, November 18^th, alone. These missiles and rockets are not aimed military targets; they are aimed at schools and parks and apartment buildings. But until the past week, Israel’s response has largely been silent.

No other nation on the planet would be expected, requested, demanded to stand silently by while they are under attack. Did the British just stand around during the Blitz with all the lights on waiting for more? Did Paris just throw open the gates to the Germans and welcome them with, "Entrez, mon gars! We'll just conveniently line up so you can shoot us!"  Why is Israel expected to do nothing?

There are those who claim settlements are the obstacles to peace, but let’s just be clear about that particular fiction:

·         In 1948 there were NO settlements and NO peace

·         In 1967 there were NO settlements and NO peace

·        In Gaza today, there are NO settlements, not a single Jew, and there is NO peace.

As long as the Palestinian charter states Israel is an illegal entity and teaches its children that the destruction of Israel is their primary goal, Israel will continue to question Palestinian commitment to the peace process.

According to the NY Times:

The onslaught continued despite talks in Cairo that President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt said Saturday night could soon result in a cease-fire. Mr. Netanyahu said he would consider a comprehensive cease-fire if the launchings from Gaza stopped.

There has been no let up to the missile and rocket launching, no indication that Hamas is going to stop lobbing bombs at Israel. In fact, the Hamas propaganda machine today announced that they “missed” suicide bombings and that they would resume them.

And what exactly do they think is going to happen?

Let’s be real clear about a few item:

1.   Jerusalem and the country around it has been the heart and soul of Judaism for almost 3000 years. Text references in Torah, Tanach, Talmud and other contemporaneous text describe Israel as a nation and Jewish homeland.

2.    Archeological evidence supports the existence both the first and second Temples.

3.    Even during periods of exile, there were Jews who remained in the land.

4.   Israel and Judea the twin Jewish states were ruled at varying times by Egypt, the Hellenes, the Persians, the Romans, the Caliphates, varying Crusaders, the Ottomans, and the British. At no time did Jews abandon the land.

5.    By the time of the British Mandate in 1947, large tracts of land had been purchased (as in bought and paid for) by Jews and Jewish organizations returning to the land they called home. Farms and settlements were established on those tracts.

6.   Even the name isn’t Palestinian – “Herodotus wrote in c. 450 BCE in The Histories of a 'district of Syria, called Palaistinê" (whence Palaestina, from which Palestine is derived)” He went on to describe the population as predominately Jewish.

7.   Palestinians as a recognizable ethnic group did not exist until the 1834 Arab Peasants Revolt against conscription in the Egyptian army.

Let me also be perfectly clear: the Israeli government is not blameless in the ongoing  violence. They’ve have their share of the responsibility and they have brought some of this down on their own heads. But that’s not what we’re talking about here.

If Hamas was serious about wanting a solution for the Palestinians, it would be part of the peace process. However, if Hamas is going to continue to launch rockets and missiles into Israel…especially from locations with the bounds of hospitals, schools, and other human shield locations, they must be equally prepared for the consequences. Israel has the absolutely right to defend its populations, Arab, Christian, Baha'i,  and Jew alike, from attacks originating in Gaza. To do anything less would be gross dereliction of duty.

See the tiny speck of red? That's Israel

Oh wait. I forgot. We're talking about Jews living in their own country under their own flag.  Here's an idea. Let's build a wall around Israel and call it a ghetto. Then the rest of the world would be happy to support that plan.

Either way, we're gonna live in our own country, under our own flag, in the place we've called home for 3000 years. Get used to it. And every Jew in the world will retain the right to finally go home. To our own country. Under our own flag. 

We already did the crematorium thing once. We're not doing it again. Got it?

The Wifely Person's Tip O'the Week

Jews have survived as a unique people for some 3000 years.

Don't expect that to change. 

Ever. 

And Now, Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Life....

Well, campers, color war is finally over and yes, the blue team won. The winners will go to their new or renewed offices and the losers will go wherever they want..except 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and that's just fine with me. 

From the "Things I Just Don't Quite Get file:  

1: Power companies from non-Sandy areas sent trucks and crew to Long Island to help repair the power grid. LIPA (that thing we used to call LILCO) initially sent them away. Turns out, the unions didn't want strangers helping. Huh? Are these people challenged in a new and unusual way? No wonder people are rising up all over the island.

2: The Minnesota Republican party didn't quite grok the idea that since most everybody in the state knew they were bankrupt and facing eviction from their offices for non-payment of rent, this might be viewed as a fiscal credibility issue.3: Most of the Romney campaigns aids found their campaign issued credit cards turned off at the moment the man conceded defeat, leaving some of them stranded.  Draw your own conclusions,  but that was not a nice thing to do to people, a lot of them kids, who worked their asses off for that man.  But, as my mother would say, "Class will out."

While we’re on the subject of a complete lack of class, I would turn you attention to a little teapot with a tempest called Mendota Heights.

My little city is just that, a little teapot of town: quaint, charming, idiosyncratic, fiscally conservative, …did I mention little? It has a lovely little city hall, a lovely little city council, a lovely little planning commission, and some lovely little parks. The town pretty much runs itself because we have professional city manager and  city council that pretty much works and plays well with others. Two years ago, Sandra Krebsbach was elected mayor by a sweeping margin of 36 votes. She, of course, ran again this year.  Her opponent was an affable gent named Ultan Duggan who has a penchant for writing his committee reports in verse. And unlike the mayor, he seems to actually listen to all sorts of people in our town ... not just the ones in his own claque. 

Mayor Krebsbach's qualifications, or rather the lack thereof, are not in question here; her understanding of the democratic process is.

Madam Mayor, when asked for election night feedback by that august media outlet, The Mendota Heights Patch, said:

I think it’s a campaign that didn’t need to happen. Normally the mayor is not challenged, the city’s been doing well. And Mr. Duggan was in a safe spot, he’s in the middle of a four-year term [on the city council], and I think he just wanted it.

Excuse me?  

Opposition happens to be part of the process. I don’t know about all you voters out there, but this voter found Madame Mayor’s statement to be particularly offensive. Kinda goes with her performance as mayor, which is more noblesse oblige than actually working toward the common good. I would encourage my readers from around the world to take a moment to write to Mayor Krebsbach about how the democratic process works....even in America. Please; feel free to send her an explanation on how one runs for and gets elected to office. Seems she thinks she's exempt from opposition. 

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, winter is a'coming. Now that the election is over, there were things to get around to doing... like hauling in the ladder to change top hat  flood bulbs in the kitchen. Spartacus also replaced the flaming heating element in the oven all by herself. This required advanced use of email to secure a new element, picking it up at the appliance part store, as well as advance use of hex-head screwdriver. There were no electrocutions and the oven works fine, thank you very much. I have also mastered how to remove goo from the rear end of a ceramic towel bar holder that separated from the wall. Clean and now drying, it will be re-installed on the morrow with the appropriate amount of new goo carefully smeared with a putty knife I already owned and didn't have to buy.. And yes, the snow blower is ready to go. 

The real highlight of the week was the trip over to Eclipse Music in West Saint Paul to see Misha's new Ibanez AFJ85 hollow body with a vintage sunburst finish before it was shipped to Milwaukee. When Grandpa Sieg heard he was trying to put together enough for a new guitar, he decided this was something he wanted do. And so he did. And this is it: 

It's good to hang out in a music store when you're a kid. When you go back to order a real working musician's guitar, the guy that humored you back then is all smiles when he hears the kid turned pro. It was a cool moment. 

GRANDPA SIEG'S TIP O' THE WEEK

 "If you're going to be carpenter, you need a good hammer."

Erev Elections: Get Out There And Vote

Here’s the straight skinny:

There are two candidates:

One candidate believes in civic responsibility, civil discourse, and a government that fulfills its mission when it holds an umbrella over its citizenry when bad stuff falls from the sky. The same guy believes the planet is fragile and needs protection from human endeavor. The same guy who believes education and innovation go hand in hand. The same guy who believes a woman has the right to equal pay for equal work AND that women are smart enough to know how to manage their own bodies.

The other candidate thinks 47% of We, The People,  are freeloaders. The same guy who thinks civil rights aren’t for everyone. The same guy who wants to repeal legislation that protects in environment from overuse and abuse. The same who wants to turn health care over to competitive insurance companies. This is the same guy who thinks women should not be in control of their own bodily functions.

I don’t know about you…but I don’t think there’s much of a choice here.

·I believe I know what to do with my own body.

·I believe civil rights are for everyone regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or level of personal wealth.

·I believe the planet needs to be protected and given the opportunity to heal from the abuse we have heaped upon it.

·I believe if you want to live you, you need to be paying your fair share of taxes.

But whether you agree with me or not………….

VOTE

it's your civic duty.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain for the next four years.

Scariest Day: Halloween or Election Day

It was kinda fun Sunday morning, watching GOP pundits explaining Mitt Romney's latest shell game. Watching Carly Fiorina defending her political idol was like watching a spinning class: the wheels are going around furiously but nobody is getting anywhere. One of the outstanding moments came when Ms. Fiorina said:

But-- but I think if-- if you-- if you want to talk about being factually accurate, it is factually inaccurate to say that Governor Romney was against the rescue of the auto industry. If you read his entire op-ed, you guys are journalists I assume you believe that words are important. ….. And what he says in that op-ed is that he believed that the government should have provided financial guarantees. The difference between Governor Romney’s approach and President Obama’s approach is who gets to stand first in line to get paid off.

Rachel Maddow’s response was spot on:

“What-- what government-- what government-- what government?”

That happens to be an excellent question. Not a single bank or financial institution was in a position to "bail out" anyone, much less the behemoth auto industry. And had the auto industry had gone under, would anyone like to venture guess as to what the unemployment figures would look like today? 

Scary stuff, no?

Maybe it’s not so accidental that election day follows closely on the heels of Halloween. Last year, I wrote what I thought was a mildly funny blog entry  on who the candidates should be for Halloween and the thing took off like  rocket. I got a ton of mail on it.  I just went back and looked at it again for reference. 

Okay. Romney could as the scarecrow from Wizard of Oz. However, the constant changing of positions has taken on a new   aura during this last hurrah hurricane. Makes him seem more Gene Kelly...you know what I mean. A little fancy footwork ... Swinging in the Rain?

Since no one seems to remember Rudy Kazootie, Ryan should go as Alfred E. Newman. "What? Me worry?" is perfect for Mr. Ryan. He doesn't worry about anything; not the country, not the tax revenue stream, and  certainly not the health of this nation's natural resources.

As much as I really do like Joe Biden, he  just has the smile of The Mask. It's so big and so wide across his face that no matter how infectious his laugh, all he needs is a little green pancake and he could out do Jim Carrey. But he would be a nice Mask:. "Non-smokin'!"


Last, but certainly not least, President Obama needs  little levity. We got a glimpse of it with the horse and bayonet remark, but he need to do something....while still preserving parity. Going as Martin Luther King or Malcolm X just doesn't set the right tone. No. POTUS needs to go as Fred Armisen. Yeah. Go as a white guy who plays a black guy. That would be perfect.

As for the rest of us, the campaign regalia says it all. Wear a ROMNEY RYAN hat or t-shirt and go as an outsourced job. After all, his stuff is made where the labor is cheap and the profits are plentiful: China.

At the the Obama campaign had the great good sense to make sure their product not only says MADE IN USA, but carries a Worker's United label as well.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you happened to have been married on 

November 3rd, 1943,

this Shabbos could be your 69th wedding anniversary

Tagg, You're It.

Misha Siegfried Band at Wild Tymes

Well, this was a big weekend. The Misha Siegfried Band rolled in Saturday in time for another gig at Wild Tymes in downtown Saint Paul. All the best people were there….family, friends, total strangers…and half a wedding party in tuxedos and boutonnieres. It was a great gig, they sounded so on top of the music, and what may have been  bit rough over the summer was smooooooth. They bunked over at the Junior Son and Spouse house, but band breakfast was here. They wanted bagels and lox, so they got bagels and lox. And a huge spinach and Gruyere frittata. And a giant apple crisp. Oh, and doughnuts. You can't have band breakfast without doughnuts. I was too busy to take pictures…but let’s just say there isn’t even the tiniest scrap of lox or smoked trout for the lone remaining bagel. But Keyboard Dan tickled our piano for bit and having live music in the house was totally cool. But I digress.

I waltzed in from the gig at about 1:30 a.m. and I still had a fair amount of prep work to do. I was so wired it didn’t much matter. However, my 3 a.m. Zen floor washing experience was rudely disturbed when I happened to catch  a news flash on my computer: Tagg Romney bought a voting machine company????

Now, I was immediately dubious. I mean, how stupid do these people have to be? Haven’t they ever heard of morit ayin….the reality of doing something that is technically okay but just looks totally wrong. Like a Romney owning a voting machine company. It’s gonna raise a lot of questions.

Tagg Romney

Being the naturally suspicious sort, I stopped washing the floor and started looking for supporting material on this one. Lots of left wing websites and news sources bring it up, but other than a teeny tiny article in The Cleveland Leader, a paper that bills itself as “Greater Cleveland’s Premier Independent News Source,” I could find nothing in the major news organs. It was, however, interesting to read what the Cleveland Leader had to say on the subject, which was very little. Instead, the referenced left leaning PoliticolNews.com:

As Lee Fang points out in his detailed analysis of the Romney investments

“Many of these private equity–owned companies rely on federal and state contracts, from HIG Capital’s Hart Intercivic, a voting machine company, to EnviroFoam Technologies, a biological and chemical decontamination firm that does business with the US military and is owned by Peterson Partners, a private equity firm listed in the Solamere prospectus.”

Solarmere’s tangled web of investments now includes Hart Intercivic voting machines which will be used in Cincinnati Ohio says Truth Out which could guarantee Mitt Romney the White House.

The State of Ohio is Ground Zero for the White House, in particular Hamilton County a repeat of the George Bush election in 2004.

So I figured the next place to look was at Solarmere’s website. After all, this was Tagg’s company. Follow the link above. It’s a nice looking homepage. There are tabs: HOME/ABOUT US/TEAM/STRATEGY/CONTACT US/PARTNER LOGIN.  

Click on the ABOUT US tab.

What? It didn’t go to the next page? Did you check the other tabs? I tried it in 3 different browsers: Chrome, Firefox, and Explorer. Didn’t work in any of them.  

So, I wondered if the same thing would happen at Bain Capital. Now there’s an interesting website.  There are 165 pictures on  their “team” page, and not a single African American face in the lot. So I counted…and here’s how it turned out:

Does anyone else see this as exceptionally weird?

Yeah, yeah, Romney’s no longer involved with  Bain, but he remains its founder and these numbers reflect a certain mind set. Yeah, yeah, they do have offices in Mumbai, Tokyo, and Hong Kong as well as Boston and London. Still, out of 165 principals in that firm, not a single black person? And just to make sure this is not some kind of aberration, let me mention there is not a single Hispanic surname, either.

Somehow, I don’t think this is okay. I’m not talking about affirmative action here, I’m saying that it’s just too high a number of team members not to have at least a couple of  members from American’s two largest minorities in that mix.

Reflecting on the binder debacle of the last debate, I have to wonder if there is a pattern here. It's not exactly one of inclusion. If Bain Capital doesn’t want to be diverse, that’s their business, but if Mitt Romney wants to be president of this country, his history on the subject is our business since he tells us it's his business acumen that makes him qualified for the post. We have no history with which to measure his ability to work and play well with others different from himself...even unto personal plumbing. The whole binder story sets up a failure of inclusion which would not be a positive attribute for this nation.

But getting back to the Tagg and the voting machines. Like his father’s problem with minorities, it doesn’t matter whether or not he really owns a company that supplies voting machines to Ohio. Regardless, it just looks wrong.

And y’know…there’s just too much wrong history for We, The People, to just ignore it. 

Wifely Person's Tip o'The Week

Got friend stuck in a hospital?

Go visit. 

It's  good thing. 

It's A Rudy Kazootie Kinda Day!

I got an email from my dear friend Chuck who moaned: "Why would Biden, probably the smartest guy out of the lot pull what he did last night? Good grief, he's better than that."

My response was to ask if he was venting... or if he wanted a serious answer. "A little of both," he answered, and I told him I thought Biden did just fine. He gave Ryan about 4 minutes to establish his methodology and it was pretty clear pretty fast that Ryan was attempting to Gish Gallop him as Romney did to President Obama. And the best way to fend off a Gish Gallop...school the SOB. Every laugh, every eye roll, every interruption underscored Joe Biden's belief that Ryan is a liar and he was going to call him out on it any way he could.

Rudy's twin brother?

Rudy Kazootie

Yeah, sure, they  both get their facts wrong. Yeah, sure they both needed some serious fact checking, but it was pretty obvious that Ryan is a piker when up against Mr Biden. And his attempts to paint Mr. Biden as old and decrepit did nothing to enhance his own image. I rather enjoyed the debate. It was fast, refreshing, and means absolutely nothing in terms of this race. Still, I was glad to see Joe Biden wipe the floor with Rudy Kazootie.

So, I'm guessing you, gentle reader, have figured out I don't like the R&R Toon Town Trolley. I could list any number of seriously strange things the candidates have said, but I would just like to focus on one in particular. Mitt Romney had some sort of episode while talking to an Ohio newspaper:

“We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack,’  ” he said as he offered more hints as to what he would put in place of “Obamacare,” which he has pledged to repeal.

“No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital. We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.”

He pointed out that federal law requires hospitals to treat those without health insurance — although hospital officials frequently say that drives up health-care costs.

The Columbus Dispatch

Thursday October 11, 2012 3:55 PM

I wonder how the air is on Mittens' planet. We don’t have people dying from lack of health insurance? Is this man on crack? And when someone goes to the emergency room  and can’t pay…who does he think pays the bills? Can he possible be that dense and ill informed about the reality of the lives of We, The People? I think it's past the time when the Toon Town Trolley Clowns spent a night, incognito, sitting in an inner city ER. These two need a good does of reality before they start talking again.

Meanwhile, there's another Presidential debacle...I mean debate... this week. And you can pretty much count on Romney taking another gallop at the President. This time, however, I think the President is going to be prepared for an avalanche of malarkey. And in that preparation, someone will clue the President in on the tell. 

Every bluffer, poker player, and liar has a tell. It's a simple little thing that, if you know what to look for, tells the not-so-casual observer that the other guy is bluffing...or in the case of politics, lying. Some people lick or chew their lower lip every so briefly. Others glance away. There are a million versions. But I'll tell you Mitt's. 

Mittens gets shrill. When he feels desperate, his throat visibly constricts, his voice goes up a notch, and he raises his chin ever so slightly. Don't believe me? Go watch the Big Bird section of the last debate and you will see it right there. The minute he heads into dangerous waters that he knows are dangerous, he does the throat/chin thing. 

Now that you have something to look forward to, go get ready for the debate. It's gonna be a hoot.  Meaningless, but a hoot.

Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

When confronted by the wisdom of someone you think is too stupid to live,

smile......and thank them for sharing.

Steven O. Siegfried