Comments on: Book review – The travels of a t-shirt in the global economy

By: ronald adair

ronald adair — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:22:02 +0000

I am astouded at the narrow mind-set of the author. She fails to see the difference between trade objection which occurred historically from businessmen wishing to preserve their profits and the current situation where the objections are from working people who object to losing their jobs as a result of misguided trade policies which take no account of the atrocious working conditions and environmental problems which are all the harder to stomach when one sees that only the corporate elite benefit from this so called free trade. I guess the professor is a celebrated darling in the board rooms.

By: Jim Gates

Jim Gates — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

When I read this title I immediately thpo0ught of the travels of THIS t-shirt: http://tipline.blogspot.com/2009/04/amazingly-tiny-world.html Sounds like something from Chapter 10 or 11, yes?

By: Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Hi, Jim. Yes, absolutely. Fascinating!

By: Bethany Smith

Bethany Smith — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I look forward to reading this book. My husband is in textiles & I found it interesting how his job has changed through the years. What started out for him as working in the Dye House of an old mill in the back woods of SC has taken him around the world and back again.

Although the migration of textiles, and well manufacturing in general has always moved to the “lowest bidder.” I think what is striking is how fast it has occurred recently. Textiles was a booming economy 30 years ago.

OK – so I could go on forever because I live it, but what I think what we are really seeing is the evolution of the Textile industry in the US. The R&D for these companies are still staying state-side. I believe this mimics what is happening in all of manufacturing, and that our corporate culture is redefining itself.

PS. My husband got to do work in West Africa and has some interesting anecdotes about the donated Goodwill clothing market there

By: kelsey

kelsey — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Rivoli and I share the same editor at Wiley. This book is one of the first I turned to when researching the global apparel industry. I think it’s great that she was able to approach the subject with such an open mind. I visited apparel factories in China, Bangaldesh, and Cambodia and spent a lot of time with the workers and found that life as a garment worker doesn’t always beat the hell out of life on the farm. Many of the workers miss their families and farming with them in the fields.

By: Maria Sesaria

Maria Sesaria — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

While the economics of Travels of A T-Shirt in a Global Economy were quite interesting, overall, I was offended by the book. When this book was recommended to me by a friend, I expected to find a story about economics that at the same time might be able to reveal the truth about the horrific journey a t-shirt goes through to end up in your closet beginning with the labor used to pick the cotton to the sweatshop that is involved in the process of making the shirt. Instead, I found myself reading a book written by a Ph.D professor who found it fit to boast her own privilege on nearly every page of the book and call protesters of sweatshops rag tag and uninformed. Perhaps Ms. Rivoli should tried experiencing the life of a sweatshop worker rather than try and run the globe defending it by saying how much better it is than life on the farm. Almost every person in my family has worked in a sweatshop since they were kids and Pietra Rivoli has no idea how terrible it is. Members of my family have been hurt and even murdered by conditions set in place by sweatshops such as ending shifts at midnight and working people to death. I could not believe that she compared work in a sweatshop to a boarding school she attended and it only goes to show how misinformed she is. On top of that, her major piece of evidence, when she interviews a sweatshop worker who said she liked her job proves absolutely nothing. Of course a sweatshop worker will say they like their job to a lady who is about to publish a book with their name written in it. She’d be fired if she revealed the truth. Another thing that bothered me about this book is that the author almost completely dismisses the workers that pick the cotton for Nelson Reinsch. She even goes on to say that his workers and his sons are treated equally which is hard to believe. I doubt his sons are forced to work hours under the sun, receive next to nothing for pay, and have pesticides fall on them regularly. The other thing that is disturbing about this book is that she uses so many stereotypes while writing it such as making broad generalizations about African people and talking about them as if they all lived in mud huts. She also talks about the used clothing markets in Tanzania but obviously is clueless as to what it is really like to have to buy these clothes. No, buying hand me downs in a market is not the same as shopping in a mall, and no not every African is so desperate that they will wear whatever garment the U.S throws at them. She interviews a man who says that used clothes are better than no clothes, and while this is true, she refuses to ask herself the question of whether it is alright that some people wear the latest fashion while others are forced to rummage through market stalls? Finally, her comment about how the Marias of the world can’t afford to get their hair done was ridiculous. There are millions of Marias in the world and not all of them pick cotton for a living. There are doctors, professors, bank owners and lawyers (myself included) that make triple the amount of money she makes so she can stop snubbing them any time now. I could go on and on about racist, stereotypical, and ignorant comments the author has made but the bottom line is that while Pietra Rivoli may be an expert on economics, she is no expert on the process of making a t-shirt. Maybe she should go back and re-think that Ph.D before she writes another one of her books where the only thing to be learned is how blinded she is by her own privilege.