so, i was just on a particularly wild vacation with a travel writer friend of mine. we went on the eastern & oriental express' (yes, THAT orient express) from singapore to bangkok. i may try to pitch some stories about the week, so i'll hold off on writing more about the trip itself for the time being, but i've read a couple things since getting back that were pertinent to the experience, and i wanted to talk about.
like i said, the trip started in singapore, and we spent, as one might imagine, a fair amount of time in malaysia. i can't really imagine places on the asian continent that could be more different from nepal, where the bulk of my experience with asia lies. i was, as usual, just blown away by the cleanliness, efficiency, and infrastructure. i'm hard pressed to think of more than five places in kathmandu where smoking is prohibited. in singapore, you can receive a $200 fine for chewing gum on the street. and it's amazing to think of the progress that kuala lumpur has made from what was basically a mining camp at the confluence of two muddy river banks (the literal translation of "kuala lumpur") 100 years ago to this:
as one of our tour guides told us, malaysia hopes to become recognized as a "developed" country by 2020, and by many measures it's on its way...including the exploitation and systemic marginalization of immigrant labor. this post on the guardian development blog describes the experience of burmese migrant workers in malaysia, common to migrant workers around the world (including nepalis in the gulf), who are exploited by employers and, stripped of rights or a support network, are left without redress for fear of imprisonment or worse.
in, well, i won't say "defense" of malaysia, but perhaps the interest of maintaining perspective, i'll point to this other guardian post. countries like malaysia that are trying to play with the big boys, have to play by the rules the big boys set. in some ways, it's tremendously hypocritical of the international community to criticize these countries for their labor practices when the bretton woods institutions are pulling janus-faced crap like holding meetings with international labor organizations and committing to extension of social protections, while simultaneously releasing reports that laud countries with the greatest zeal for deregulation, including of labor standards. as the guardian reports:
In the 2010 edition of [The World Bank's "Doing Business" Report] , the "top reformer" prize was won by Rwanda, because employers were no longer required to consult with the employees' representatives or notify the labour inspector before announcing job cuts.
like i said, the trip started in singapore, and we spent, as one might imagine, a fair amount of time in malaysia. i can't really imagine places on the asian continent that could be more different from nepal, where the bulk of my experience with asia lies. i was, as usual, just blown away by the cleanliness, efficiency, and infrastructure. i'm hard pressed to think of more than five places in kathmandu where smoking is prohibited. in singapore, you can receive a $200 fine for chewing gum on the street. and it's amazing to think of the progress that kuala lumpur has made from what was basically a mining camp at the confluence of two muddy river banks (the literal translation of "kuala lumpur") 100 years ago to this:
as one of our tour guides told us, malaysia hopes to become recognized as a "developed" country by 2020, and by many measures it's on its way...including the exploitation and systemic marginalization of immigrant labor. this post on the guardian development blog describes the experience of burmese migrant workers in malaysia, common to migrant workers around the world (including nepalis in the gulf), who are exploited by employers and, stripped of rights or a support network, are left without redress for fear of imprisonment or worse.
in, well, i won't say "defense" of malaysia, but perhaps the interest of maintaining perspective, i'll point to this other guardian post. countries like malaysia that are trying to play with the big boys, have to play by the rules the big boys set. in some ways, it's tremendously hypocritical of the international community to criticize these countries for their labor practices when the bretton woods institutions are pulling janus-faced crap like holding meetings with international labor organizations and committing to extension of social protections, while simultaneously releasing reports that laud countries with the greatest zeal for deregulation, including of labor standards. as the guardian reports:
In the 2010 edition of [The World Bank's "Doing Business" Report] , the "top reformer" prize was won by Rwanda, because employers were no longer required to consult with the employees' representatives or notify the labour inspector before announcing job cuts.
is it possible for developing countries to reach the level of the most developed without going through the labor (not mention environmental) abuses that all currently developed countries went through during their biggest surge(s) in development, the industrial revolution? by holding developing nations to higher standards than we did ourselves during our own economic coming of age, are we dooming them to lag behind forever? i'm skittish when it comes to this borderline economic/moral relativism, but i think that donor countries do have a responsibility to facilitate and support sustainable production and consumption abroad, as well as at home. that is why i'm going to follow initiatives like the EU's SwitchAsia program with a great deal of interest, in the hopes that it will be a model, in opposition to the world bank and IMF's examples, that supports economic development of developing nations, without demanding the sacrifice of social and environmental welfare.
perhaps something to think about when i finally get around to posting more pictures of the luxury train trip, like the ones below. this isn't meant as a criticism of the trip itself, which was pretty fantastic, but it behooves me to remember that, at least for now, there is no luxury, and no "progress", without a price.
right. this is why i'm such a "hit" at dinner parties. sigh.
perhaps something to think about when i finally get around to posting more pictures of the luxury train trip, like the ones below. this isn't meant as a criticism of the trip itself, which was pretty fantastic, but it behooves me to remember that, at least for now, there is no luxury, and no "progress", without a price.
right. this is why i'm such a "hit" at dinner parties. sigh.
