From: abulsari@abo.fi (Abhay Bulsari VT)
Subject: Re: Poultry Workers
Organization: Abo Akademi University
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 13:53:57 GMT

In article <oc7BoB2w164w@ailanth.UUCP> ailsa%ailanth.uucp@wang.com (Ailsa N.T. Murphy) writes:

>> I guess  I  don't have much understanding of  how  people live and the
>> kinds of  choices they have. If they are  offered work in  a  militant
>> organisation (read according  to your  convenience  : army (private or
>> government),  terrorists, freedom fighters, mafia),  and if that seems
>> to be the only possible  work that they can get, should they take it ?
>> I don't know. Some thieves steal because that is the only way they can
>> survive. Should they steal ? I don't know. 
>> 
>> In case of  those women,  they survive on  the  deaths  of hundreds or
>> thousands  or possibly millions of  animals. Should  I  have  pity for
>> them ? No. More work can be created for insurgency  and instability in
>> various regions of the world, and there are governments willing to pay
>> a  heavy  price to  support  such  activities.  This kind of a  labour
>> market is not respectable. 
>> 
>> >
>> >Sorry, but I cannot think of any nice way to reply to the above comment.
>> >And a reply it deserves!
>> 
>> That's all  right.  Perhaps you could reply now. I too have  questions
>> unanswered, and am willing to listen to opinions and facts.
>> 
>i am not sure exactly what you are getting at.  

If  your  options  are  bad  enough,  like  working  for  unscrupulous
employers, it is better to  get  out  of that place and find something
elsewhere. I have no answers to the questions I mentioned before.

are you suggesting that 
>the american poor class rise up in revolt to protest inhuman work and 
>working conditions?  

I am not suggesting anything. Why would I worry about Americans ? The
original article, I believe, was about Canada.

if not, i am really not sure what you mean by the 
>last paragraph.  

Doesn't matter. 

but i think these women deserve a little more sympathy 
>than you are giving.  in a one-industry town, there isn't a lot you can 
>do if you are poor and raising a family.  in the are i grew up, the poor 
>worked in shoe shops and textile mills.  in other parts, chicken packing 
>and other meat packing plants are what there is.  

It is difficult to move to another place, but if the existing industry
closes down, then they have to move anyway. They could realise that it
is wiser to  move out and find some  work which is not contemptible. I
understand it is not easy, but imagine a situation where there is just
one place available to  work, where chemical weapons are manufactured.
Should they go for it,  just  because that is  the only work available
nearby ?

if you want to offer 
>these people money to settle elsewhere, i'm sure they'd take it, but 

I know Israel takes the money that US gives to settle people "elsewhere".

>holding them morally blameworthy for a system that victimizes them and 
>that they did not create is unfair.

Some  people  seem  to perpetuate  the system that victimises them. It
might be difficult to get out of the system,  but one can try  to find
some better corners with less interference from the system.

I can  sympathise with them to  the extent  that most of  them perhaps
cannot think (for whatever reasons -  economical, limited intellectual
energy,  inability  to  see  that what  they  are  doing is  wrong and
possibly harmful  to themselves as well, etc.)  that should try to get
out of there.

>
>                                           -ailsa
>
>ailsa%ailanth.uucp@wang.com   or   io81409@maine.maine.edu



-- 
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