As I try to filter out the noise to focus my mind on over a million textile workers in Bangladesh who were sent home from work, furloughed without pay, or have lost their jobs, I find it difficult. My mind is swimming, video footage posted on Facebook, the terrible blast in Beirut this week. Lives destroyed, homes and possessions lost. In the UK, there is fear of a second peak of Covid-19 looming. Unemployment figures are on the rise. With economic gloom on the horizon, I think to myself, what does this mean for the pension crisis?
‘And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?’
Right, focus, Bangladesh. Headlines read “Apocalyptic; Bangladesh Garment Workers Face Ruin’’, ‘Primark and Matalan among retailers allegedly cancelling £2.4bn orders in ‘’catastrophic’’ move for Bangladesh’. Finally, ‘Primark to cover wages of factory works after cancelling all orders’, some good news?!
‘You often say, ‘’I would give, but only to the deserving”.
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.’
Back to Bangladesh. So, what of those who were not so fortunate as to find themselves in the sweatshops of our disposable readymade clothing industry? … ‘Starvation defies lockdown’, I read. The Bangladesh Bureau of statistics reports that ‘there are 10 million people in Bangladesh who are dependent on their daily income’. In other words living hand to mouth as the saying goes. Driven by hunger and starvation they are forced to defy lockdown and the punitive hands of the law, in search for their daily bread. The inevitable consequences play out in my head. Increase in poverty, equals increase in violence against women and children, resulting in an increase of children seeking refuge on the streets. The difficulties faced by street children worsens. How terrible. This is too hard to digest. I have no words. In search of light relief, I allow my thoughts to drift once more:
‘All you have shall some day be given;
Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors. ‘
Extracts from ‘The Prophet’, Kahlil Gibran.
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