tv Documentary RT August 17, 2013 4:29am-5:01am EDT
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i am my own business and how they get up in. the european central bank be happy to buy cheap led to projects that don't include my this and if we buy this coming from u.b.s. i totally i know they followed the hen i said. how early where is that being exposed to fly supply and lead them to her. over the last twenty years bangladesh has become a global center for less of production. this industry generates over three hundred fifty million euros per year for the country. that thing has very bad suburb of the
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capital dhaka around three hundred ten there is a field of twenty five acres producing the clothes and leather goods that flood the international market. that was more than fourteen million skins are treated every year in the slum warehouses and tanneries sit side by side. a nightmare situation for which we westerners are also responsible i was. with. the skins arrive like this every day and each one of the factories where in one of the has very bad tenor is an average sized factory employing around thirty workers it's here that the cycle of leather tending begins.
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every day around one thousand tonnes of skins arrive directly from albatross all over the country to be stored in this hangar. go to in kelso inns arrive coated in salt so as to avoid rapid decay. but what you want to say i was in the morning we get the deliveries and we cover the skins and lie rinse them and dry them how they was mixed after applying the chemicals we place them in the tanning drums and then we wash them i don't know why there was ever going to get the ocean but we do this three times over and in but then we don't know what. a large proportion of the litter
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bags jackets and other accessories we buy today are produced in tanneries such as this the working conditions are antiquated nothing has changed in thirty years neither machines nor techniques. telling is a long process to remove the parasites the facts and the hez workers carry handle scrape and treat the tons of skins using numerous chemical products and wearing only gloves for protection.
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agency i am cutting the small pieces of skin that had been damaged during washing. sherman is one of the forty thousand working in the tanner is more than twelve hours a day nonstop manual workers are hired on a daily basis without training all contracts. few women are able to withstand such physically exhausting and wearing labor. i wear a scarf to protect my hair otherwise i would lose it because of the lime water. and when the water runs over my hands it burns away my skin and what i. meant in the others put up with the. is working conditions for the simple reason
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that today in bangladesh forty percent of the population is unemployed getting a job in a turner is considered a lucky break. the main problem in the tannery is the smell. that it makes us sick blackens and it's a way of our skin. color but people like me have no other choice than we have to take the job that. i work long hours because i have to cut the small leather pieces and unwrap the new skins they arrive. here to live what sometimes the skins are crawling with parasites and the smell a style. that i do find it takes away my appetite. i
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remember my first day of work in the factory. the smell was so disgusting that i threw up and faint like so many guy had the noise of the machines pounding in my head until it would burst. but i did a fracture when i was sick for a week after but never ever now i'm used to it. and doesn't know how old she is she may be twenty she's been working in a turn referred to lose on a good months she can earn forty euros i can't let. her go down this is my mother's house.
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i was a kid and this is my daughter. rosa post three year old daughter thank god that you don't know then and the more. you know when. you get back on that there's nothing at the factory they are no medical support. that i have no friends and there are no safety regulations do you know when i start every day at eight am and there's no paid overtime they should you know i never get any holidays and if i miss half a day they counted as a full day that i don't use i'm sick it's the same they count me out sent one dollar so i have to go to work even when i'm ill. and another was i have no money left at the end of the month. my money back because. the judge will decide that. sherman spends ten euros on her rent and for this price she gets
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one tiny room in which to house the whole family. who was like the majority of the slums five hundred thousand residents dependent on the other industry. is enough that the abortion i never get a pay rise. is down i asked for one in january but nothing happened they said to be happy with what i had or leave money. shot after paying my rent and giving some money to my parents there's almost nothing left to bet that does a good rap but i had a better salary i could save some money but it's impossible right now. to worry among i need money to bring up my daughter and send her to school but there's really no one sure did how can i educate her properly without money to get them i'm sure of the others even question i've had a hard life will be the same for my kids. shamming would like to
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be able to count on her husband to feed the family. what time did you get back home. at five and you leave because i went to the fish market. time should leave for work at noon i caught a cold i didn't feel well ok i'm not trying to tell you go to work at noon because you could call. me how do you think i'm going to go to work at eight. little one preparing dinner. thank. you ok. good. i never wake up i don't get up now that the.
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national. guard down there it goes we have no electricity and no gas here so it's difficult to cook but worship that from us and to. hide like a more comfortable and cleaner life. i keep cleaning but everything gets dirty so quickly and i had to get. we live with the stink of the town mary's. we have every kind of problem here. that nobody nobody but we can't afford to go anywhere else so i have to stay in this disgusting environment going on resume what i thought it was but that again. i. never. thought that you would with
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a population of twelve million access to water is a serious problem thirty percent of the population don't have any sherman and her husband are among those who have the privilege of access to a water pump which they share with the neighbors but it's not drinkable and has to be paid for if you move from. family my husband pulls rickshaws back but he only works part time not that much then his that's why i have to work at sea. was a little guy. plus defines a country's success. faceless figures of economic growth. for a factual standard of living.
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down in the final. day. and the rest of life doing a little bit every week. that i work for a miserable wage and they yell at me. and my dad you're not my dad. this morning i didn't go to work because i didn't feel well. about the boss wasn't happy about that he got angry with me. and he told me i would lose my job if i didn't come back but how can i work in this state my hands and my feet hurt so much. work his feet and hands are eaten away by the chemical products used throughout the tanning process these products are extremely toxic for the skin but also when
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inhaled the telling factories have no ventilation system. all the workers are exposed to danger but especially those who are in direct contact with the chemicals . crooks. at least three hundred products are necessary to soften and die the skins ammonium acids wrestling fans a sea as old crow mates hydrogen sulfide and mole. inflammable explosive and corrosive they use requires training the workers never receive. we use all the derivatives of potassium. but how c.m.i. and ammonium. when we rinse the skins we use lots of acids. and we put them in the
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drums that can be dangerous. for the new workers it's dangerous but after they get used to it i. look at my hands there i k. there's no problem the batteries because i've just used chemicals. that can be met one is a few doctors working in his area bag. you know or use labor. to do other feet where do you want to do when you're going. to fix the colors on the skins the workers use mercury huge quantities are used for blue and for black this process has been outlawed in france for twenty years because mercury permeates the body and contaminates all the vital organs.
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the stuff you can also like. to see you. feel. in two thousand and ten at apex one of the country's so-called model tanneries three workers died and ten was seriously injured in an explosion caused by an error in the handling of chemicals. yes there are accidents you have to be careful throughout the whole process especially when turning the drums on and off and when you put the chemicals in. we often drop the sacks on our feet touch the chemicals.
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one third of workers will be injured. fifty years now the term is union representing twenty thousand workers has attempted to improve working conditions for its members to no avail. one of the pocket until one of the to be owners conversation and their behavior towards us. shows that their priority is to give us the least they can. without for many years their union our union has put forward peaceful solutions. that they show no interest in. i think with the tight ship they are going on with us so we have no other choice than to revolt from an adult up i cannot. long live the union strike no workers unite workers of the world unite workers of the world get up and fight the most obnoxious the more almost all of us are sick but they're
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not going to the bosses have never taken any health measures but what a night they don't want doctors in the factories caring for the workers but i like that's why every day here at work is die from leather sickness look at the gum or see. when the workers take to the streets to demand an increase in the minimum wage to please. welcome them with guns and ammunition. in two thousand and ten several thousand demonstrated three died fifty were injured and hundreds were arrested. i'm not sure from the way to the leather industry that is not a risk to health. national we want the bosses to respect the employment and health
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legislation of this country you know soon because she doesn't have the money coming in to know by ignoring the law to get out they make bigger profits lobbying the government. does allow i do this to protect her from evil. than to lead the nation i don't like and. my daughter is three but she still can't walk properly there are not. she has trouble eating and falls over a lot. i don't think she still can't touch that one of allah now she's very weak
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and her health is very fragile here and there are none of that but i can only afford to feed her rice and biscuits back ok financially until i. need a car. and has no health protection the only way she can obtain health care is. some sole dispensary which also has free consultations. the a.o.s. . ninety percent of the of the workers develop an illness as a direct consequence of the work you live beyond fifty.
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percent what are your symptoms of the six months i've gradually been feeling worse and worse the more i work out the weaker i get. when you work it out the other factory. visually career women working in canneries are rough and frail. who made. they suffer from the general infections their very joint pain fever and coughing. children want to. receive it is often have respiratory complications during the manner rosso debilitated or dishwasher their body was suffering from part. and gastritis. can not simply. fish shamming also worries for her daughter who is not growing
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well i'm coming from. a visit where is your child while you are working mater she stays of my little brother. i'm here for the last twenty years right now i'm just. going to say making the never do nothing to you coming here. believe it is one of them there. in his own bag no one is. tight as he is three hundred times higher here than in the rest of the country but sherman and her family have no other choice than to endure the working conditions and to live in the sun breathable environment if you. see your full story you can. hear you can. hear i'm coming from long sleeve.
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i don't feel any better. but if you think i'm the one you should. see. this thing that i. recently and despite her age showman's mother was forced to go back to work in an open air factory in the center of the slum. can get here there's some terrible smelts but am i what can we do. i want if we had rice in our belly what would worry about it but it can't be our priority today. in the countryside life is peaceful. in other countries there there is no work no food and in the winter.
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of a dish. that does happen. every year eight hundred thousand people leave their own fertile land. to crowd into has a very bad and its surrounding area it's. a willing to accept such conditions because the turner is of their only. charming is among these climate refugees she's originally from. the northern island of bangladesh and goes to buy water in two thousand and five and i understand that . we had to come here yeah because the river overflowed that lot of them and house was washed away.
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so i'm going to have a little think about that with the mother didn't my parents have nowhere else to live so they stay here with us. only did they tell you that the army like and i didn't know what is your but i'm also from poland and i ended up here because my home was swept away i built my house seven times and seven times it was carried away by the flood waters i have no more land to live on and no money to buy more there was no more work for us there that's why i came to. i'm on the rails i work at the tannery for forty five euros a month it's the only way for me to survive. on this yet. among showman's friends and family some children also have to work to help their parents. sometimes you know you have this well as it. is and i think that the. most i think. the lanham sets the mantle for this and.
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then in the business of. my family it's your mother who works instead of your father and you need me. to upload. all talking about language or what are lovely react to situations i have read the reports so i'm like the british no i will leave that to state department to comment on your latter point please. please or carry out a car is all you're talking welcome. thank you no more weasel words. when you have a direct question be prepared for a change when you find you should be ready for a battle for the speech and little doubt the freedom to question.
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most of these boys has been in couples a lot for violence or theft. but we drove the window climbed in going tried to start it but we pushed it a little way and here we were drunk. and soon who you're an alcoholic or nearly all of them are homeless orphans with no money or relatives. are you afraid going to and without me. for a moment but verify why i was bad but those street hooligans are going to beat me up at any moment of. yours i turned my back i couldn't help wondering about my safety. isn't a warden he's there the father you could say that slava raises us he makes normal people out of ugly duckling. exactly what happened that day i don't know but a woman i killed. years later is when i got arrested for. for
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a crime i did not do. we have numerous cases where police officers lie about polygraph results. people to consent to the police officers don't beat people anymore i mean it just doesn't happen really. in the course of interrogation why because there's been this is like meant no because the psychological techniques are more effective in obtaining confessions than physical abuse and they were taken they could get what they wanted they can say what they wanted and there was no evidence of what they did or what they said. he.
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ponders these hundreds are refusing to leave a mosque in cairo which is surrounded by security forces this follows another day of deadly clashes and with school in which scores were killed. above the law since two thousand and eight leaked documents indicate that's how long the us national security agency has been playing by its own rules look into these latest revelations by whistleblower edward snowden. and russian punk band pussy riot received their prison sentences a year ago today we talked to the one member who was freed and examined how their controversial performance affected society.
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