a propósito de hard discounts, ikeas e outros exemplos edificantes

bernice johson reagon (a fundadora das sweet honey in rock)compôs esta música depois de ler o artigo “the journey of the blouse: a global assembly.”.
não pude deixar de reparar, aquando da minha única visita ao ikea, que a esmagadora maioria dos produtos vêm da china, como a maioria dos produtos alimentares dos hard discounts vêm, por enquanto, da europa de leste... (os não-alimentares vêm igualmente da china ou de lá perto...)

já agora, e porque coisas como esta não me deixam olhar o mundo da mesma maneira (é uma merda, eu sei), e para que tudo não sejam perdas... recomendo vivamente a audição das EXCELENTES (as maiúsculas são para quando são absolutamente indispensáveis) sweet honey in rock.

'are my hands clean?'

i wear garments touched by hands from all over the world
35% cotton, 6% polyester,
the journey begins in central america
in the cotton fields of el salvador
in a province soaked in blood,
pesticide-sprayed workers toil in a broiling sun
pulling cotton for two dollars a day.
then we move on up to another rung - cargill
a top-forty trading conglomerate, takes the cotton through the panama canal
up the eastern seaboard, coming to the US of A for the first time

in South Carolina
at the burlington mils
joins a shipment of polyester filament courtesy of the new jersey petro-chemical mills of dupont
dupont strands of filament begin in the south american country of venezuela
where oil riggers bring up oil from the earth for six dollars a day
then exxon, largest oil company in the world,
upgrades the product in the country of trinidad and tobago
then back into the caribbean and atlantic seas
to the factories of dupont
on the way to the burlington mills
in south carolina
to meet the cotton from the blood-soaked fields of el salvador
in south carolina
burlington factories hum with the business of weaving oil and cotton into miles of fabric of sears
who takes this bounty back into the caribbean sea
headed for haiti this time
- may she be one day soon free -
far from the port-au-prince palace
third world women toil doing piece work to sears specifications
for three dollars a day my sisters make my blouse
it leaves the third world for the last time
coming back into the sea to be sealed in plastic for me
this third world sister
and I go to the sears department store where I buy my blouse
on sale for 20% discount

are my hands clean?