I couldn't believe my eyes

The girlfriend and I were watching the news last night. She had the TV on to ABC's 20/20, where Baba Wawa was interviewing Courtny Cox and David whats-his-name. Arquet, Arkett, something like that. Anyways, I was tuning it out, because I really don't give two hoots and a hollar about whether or not they try invetro fertilization to have a kid. Seriously, the things that pass for news these days sometimes makes me scratch my head. So I was doing some leatherwork, sipping a scotch on the rocks, and basicly winding down the day.

Untill the last ten minutes of the program, when John Stossel came on and did a small blurb on sweatshops. (It's a three web-page piece, BTW)

The students object to what they call sweatshops. They say companies are exploiting poor people, by setting up factories in developing countries and paying workers a fraction of American workers' wages.

Now, I look up and see the usual pictures of college kids marching and chanting and waving flags. Blah, I was about to change the channel when John Stossel said something that made me snort scotch out my nose. As usual, all emphasis is mine.

Arunga and DeBroy point out that in poor countries, the Nike factories that rich American students call sweatshops routinely pay twice what local factories pay, and more than triple what people earn doing much harder and more dangerous work in the fields. Arunga says people in Kenya would volunteer to work in sweatshops for free, just to have access to clean running water and electricity without carrying firewood. "I wish we would have more sweatshops, quote unquote, in my country," Arunga told me. Most economists agree that "sweatshops" are what allowed people in now-thriving places like South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore to work their way out of poverty.

I'm sorry, but did ABC just say that? Economists and Conservatives have been making that argument for a while now, but did ABC JUST ACTUALLY AGREE?

Arunga said, "People get jobs in these places, their generation lives better than their parents lived. Most of them work for these companies for a while, go off and start their own businesses, it's a win-win situation for everyone," she said.

And that, she says, is why the students who protest are ignorant and clueless.

At this point, I'm checking the TV and the remote, because I can't believe that ABC just allowed someone to call college protesters ignorant and clueless. There's no way. This is reading like one of my rants.

"They're comparing that to what they have in their rich homes," she said, "They're people who are very wealthy. They have no idea what they're talking about."

Jaw on floor. Scotch dribbling on living room table. Girlfriend wiping drool from chin. This is actually on ABC. And when Stossel interviews the students, they show themselves to be idiotic buffoons.

"The image that we have as being rich and clueless and just idealist college students is a false one," said Mandie Yanasak.

"Do I have a vision of how I want the world to be? Sure. Of course I do. I want the world to be one where people don't have to struggle to feed their children," she said.

Lindsay-Marisol Enyart, another student, said, "We're talking about workers who don't have a choice and are forced to leave their home farms."

Stossel asked them "Who's forcing them? They aren't being chained and dragged into the factory."

The girls stuttered and mumbled something about "We're not trying to close sweatshops, we just want to change them" and Stossel hammered them. The end of the piece was the kicker.

But Bibek DeBroy said if these students get their way, it won't help people in the developing world. "It would mean fewer jobs, lower incomes, more people in poverty," he said. Arunga agreed, saying, "By passing laws trying to improve the jobs by force, they will get rid of the jobs."

After the protests against Kathie Lee's clothing line, Wal-Mart withdrew its contract from one of the "sweatshops." American complaints about child labor persuaded factories in Bangladesh to stop hiring adolescents. The result, according to UNICEF, is many of the young girls turned to prostitution.

This helps poor people?

Give Me a Break

Oh. My. God. Someone finally listened. After years and years of conservatives and economists and people from the very countries involved speaking and pleading, someone finally listened. I'm still in shock. ABC put the news out.