Jordanian clothing factories

An email I sent to Tami ...
"So, yesterday I bought some athletic shorts at Target while I was there ... today I noticed that they were all made in Jordan. Interesting, I thought.

So, I looked it up and found this NY Times article: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/03/business/jordan.php.

Being now an expert on sweatshops (haha - as if visiting one makes me that), I'm basically unable to buy clothes from anywhere.

So, nudity is my new political lifestyle choice. [I say this facetiously because the major message coming through loud and clear from the workers was DO NOT BOYCOTT.]

Anyway, would you ask Ahmed what, if anything, people were saying in Jordan about the factories? Sounds like they're mostly guest workers ... and I don't recall seeing ANYBODY there who wasn't Jordanian/Arab. I certainly didn't see Bangladeshis and Chinese. But I spent much less time in Amman than y'all did.

Anyway, while I know this would pay crap which means I can't do it ... maybe someday I could be a factory investigator in foreign countries ... learning the local law and the companies' regulations, and then doing surreptitious investigations to learn of abuses and then to nail the capitalist pigs to the wall.

For a $21.99 pair of jeans somebody buys here, over half goes to the CEO of the company selling it - that's how these retailers are making record-breaking profits while people who actually make the clothes are making below-living wages.

Bastards."