Recently I happened to watch a document's on CBC about an industry known as " Ship Breaking" . Apparently the main hubs for this industry are India, China and a few other countries in that region.
Unfortunately the short term and long term impacts of breaking these ships are terrible-from bad working conditions & Child labor to Environmental Contamination . Greenpeace has been calling for a change in this industry at---the source i.e. ship manufacturers taking responsibility for what happens to their ships---And in the countries which host these ship breaking businesses yards. The governments seem to be in denial, the owners are unchanged and the unemployed people in these countries have no choice but to choose either between poverty or poor working conditions ( no surprise they end up working there).
In fact some countries like Pakistan want to welcome more ship breaking initiatives!
A few pictures and movies illustrate how bad the working conditions are, specially if you look at standards set in the industrialized nations....
Greenpeace has a few tips on what you can do, along with spreading awareness........
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4 comments:
salam. watched a documentary on the same topic recently. while i whole-heartedly sympathize with you plea.. i would like to underscore that persons employed in this industry (ship-breaking) mostly consider it a god-sent. for breaking each ship can employ thousands.. it is not that these laborers are wholly unaware of the risk they face, it might well be that such a risk is acceptable in the face of their daily lives. i feel strongly that beyond the good will of ship manufacturers it is incumbent upon governments of developing nations to value lives of their citizens. no one will respect your life if you have no self-respect.
true!
and these goverements take taxes from ( or bribes from) the rich owners of these operations......Pressure from international labour organizations, etc. and Greenpeace would help to put pressure on these governments for sure...
Moreover I feel that at the same time, ship manufacturers should take responsibilty for the sometimes Hazerdous material they buld their ships with....
just as car manufacturers should take responsibility for poisonous gases that vehicles produce, just as industries should take responsibility for their emissions, just as plastics synthesizers should take responsibility for the biodegradability for their products....
true.
From what I have read the situation with ship manufactuerers is worse then all those other industries you have mentioned...of course I have heard calls for tighter legislation on everything ( these days theres a debate in the US about Emission standards set on Car manufacturers which are more leniant then in Europe)...
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