I wear garments touched by hands from all over the world 35% cotton, 65% 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 mills 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 for 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? https://youtube/watch?v=u9sBRnVeUuI
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:23:03 +0000
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