as i mentioned in an earlier post, one of the most interesting things about living in bangladesh is watching people at work. many people make a living with their bodies, and those bodies (especially male ones) are at work in a very public way.
looking around, it is hard to resist the conclusion that there is a very uneven distribution in how hard people work. this is true most everywhere, of course, but especially striking here.
on the one hand, there are many people who seem to spend all day standing around doing nothing. a building will often have several doormen, when one seems sufficient. and small shops frequently have groups of apparently able-bodied men sitting around, just passing time.
for example: when keith was here, we visited a small shop, similar in size and offerings to a 7-eleven. we were the only two people in the store, and keith counted 14 employees. most of whom, of course, were standing around with nothing to do. and one finds this everywhere in bangladesh.
on the other hand, there are many people who frequently work for hours at backbreaking, exhausting tasks - pulling carts, or carrying bricks, or driving rickshaws or sorting through trash. and then, of course, there are the many factory workers, who work for long hours with little pay, and whose work is hidden from view.
i am not suggesting, of course, that those who are not working - or not doing very productive work - are lazy or at fault. i assume, rather, that there are larger economic and political structures - national and global - that explain both: 1) why many people here are unemployed, or employed in jobs that seem to accomplish very little, and 2) why so many people are forced to do crushing work, with no safety protections and little remuneration.
i also recognize that is easy to romanticize the physical labor of others, to gloss over what is boring and monotonous and painful in their labor. even so, i find something to admire and appreciate in the physical labor of many bangladeshis.
looking around, it is hard to resist the conclusion that there is a very uneven distribution in how hard people work. this is true most everywhere, of course, but especially striking here.
on the one hand, there are many people who seem to spend all day standing around doing nothing. a building will often have several doormen, when one seems sufficient. and small shops frequently have groups of apparently able-bodied men sitting around, just passing time.
for example: when keith was here, we visited a small shop, similar in size and offerings to a 7-eleven. we were the only two people in the store, and keith counted 14 employees. most of whom, of course, were standing around with nothing to do. and one finds this everywhere in bangladesh.
on the other hand, there are many people who frequently work for hours at backbreaking, exhausting tasks - pulling carts, or carrying bricks, or driving rickshaws or sorting through trash. and then, of course, there are the many factory workers, who work for long hours with little pay, and whose work is hidden from view.
i am not suggesting, of course, that those who are not working - or not doing very productive work - are lazy or at fault. i assume, rather, that there are larger economic and political structures - national and global - that explain both: 1) why many people here are unemployed, or employed in jobs that seem to accomplish very little, and 2) why so many people are forced to do crushing work, with no safety protections and little remuneration.
Always good to hear from you.
ReplyDeleteI bet that work like the pictures show, like the man-powered hay wagon occurred in the US in the 1920's.
Work like the manual parts cleaning into the 1950's. Would you expect to find similar in Mexico today?
Certainly makes one understand something of our blessings.
Have you seen how much a liter of gasoline costs there?
How much does a rickshaw cost? licenses?
Love Dad and Mom
Micah, have you talked to enough people to get a sense of whether those who do the difficult physical labor lament it, or whether people who stand around all day wish they had something 'constructive' to do? Or does there seem a general acceptance of one's lot?
ReplyDeleteI'm not really sure, though it appears that some people enjoy their jobs more than others (as you would guess.) I've been thinking about which jobs I would like more than others. Fisherman seems good. Garbage collector bad.
ReplyDeleteI did speak for a while about work with a young man at a cell phone store. He had recently finished college, but said that it was hard to find a good job. He complained in particular that many positions are given to people with connections, rather on the basis of merit. So even if you are young and fairly well-trained, you can get stuck in low level positions. This was clearly a source of frustration for him.