Synopses & Reviews
Ninety-seven percent of our clothes are made overseas. Yet globalization makes it difficult to know much about the origin of the products we buybeyond the standard "Made in" label. So journalist and blogger Kelsey Timmerman decided to visit each of the countries and factories where his five favorite items of clothing were made and meet the workers. He knew the basics of globalized laborthe forces, processes, economics, and politics at work. But what was lost among all those facts and numbers was an understanding of the lives, personalities, hopes, and dreams of the people who made his clothes.
In Bangladesh, he went undercover as an under-wear buyer, witnessed the child labor industry in action, and spent the day with a single mother who was forced to send her eldest son to Saudi Arabia to help support her family. In Cambodia, he learned the difference between those who wear Levi's and those who make them. In China, he saw the costs of globalization and the dark side of the Chinese economic miracle.
Bouncing between two very different worldsthat of impoverished garment workers and his own Western lifestyleTimmerman puts a personal face on the controversial issues of globalization and outsourcing. Whether bowling with workers in Cambodia or riding a roller coaster with laborers in Bangladesh, he bridges the gap between impersonal economic forces and the people most directly affected by them. For anyone who wants to truly understand the real issues and the human costs of globalization, Where Am I Wearing? is an indispensable and unforgettable journey.
Synopsis
Globalization makes it difficult to know where the things you buy come from. Journalist and travel writer Kelsey Timmerman wanted to know where his clothes came from and who made them, so he traveled from Honduras to Bangladesh to Cambodia to China and back. Along the way, he met the people who made his favorite clothes and learned as much about them as he did about globalization itself. Enlightening and controversial at once, this book puts a human face on globalization.
Synopsis
From the Preface:I was made in America. My "Jingle These" Christmas boxers were MADE IN BANGLADESH.
I had an all-American childhood in rural Ohio. My all-American blue jeans were MADE IN CAMBODIA.
I wore flip-flops every day for a year when I worked as a SCUBA diving instructor in Key West. They were MADE IN CHINA.
One day while staring at a pile of clothes on the floor, I noticed the tag of my favorite T-shirt: MADE IN HONDURAS.
I read the tag. My mind wandered.
A quest was born.
"Timmerman is a fun tour guide, rather than a stern moralizer. His quest to find community around the world is an inspiration to anyone beginning to ask what's been lost in the new global economy."
—John Bowe, author of Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy
"It's one thing to talk about our disastrous trade policy.It's quite another to live with the consequences. Kelsey Timmerman takes us to sweatshops and shantytowns to meet the people—mostly very young and grossly underpaid—who make our clothes. Every Washington policymaker should come down from their ivory towers and read Where Am I Wearing?"
—U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Synopsis
A journalist travels the world to trace the origins of our clothesWhen journalist and traveler Kelsey Timmerman wanted to know where his clothes came from and who made them, he began a journey that would take him from Honduras to Bangladesh to Cambodia to China and back again. Where Am I Wearing? intimately describes the connection between impoverished garment workers' standards of living and the all-American material lifestyle. By introducing readers to the human element of globalization—the factory workers, their names, their families, and their way of life—Where Am I Wearing bridges the gap between global producers and consumers.
- New content includes: a visit to a fair trade Ethiopian shoe factory that is changing lives one job at time; updates on how workers worldwide have been squeezed by rising food costs and declining orders in the wake of the global financial crisis; and the author's search for the garment worker in Honduras who inspired the first edition of the book
- Kelsey Timmerman speaks and universities around the country and maintains a blog at www.whereamiwearing.com. His writing has appeared in the Christian Science Monitor and Condé Nast Portfolio, and has aired on NPR.
Enlightening and thought-provoking at once, Where Am I Wearing? puts a human face on globalization.
Synopsis
An Entertaining And Thought-Provoking Look Behind The Curtain Of The Global EconomyWhen journalist and traveler Kelsey Timmerman wanted to know more about where his clothes came from and who made them, he began a journey that would take him from Honduras to Bangladesh to Cambodia to China and back again. In Where Am I Wearing?, Kelsey introduces you to the human side of globalization—the factory workers, their names, their families, and their way of life—and bridges the gap between global producers and consumers.
Updates to this paperback edition include:
The author's astonishing search for the garment worker in Honduras who inspired the book and who underwent a death-defying journey of love, sacrifice, and hope
The lives of the factory workers and their families now, and how the global financial crisis affected them
A visit to a fair trade Ethiopian shoe factory that is changing lives one job at time
Discussion guide for teachers and educators, focusing on sweatshops, child labor, fair trade, individual and corporate social responsibility, and other global economic issues
About the Author
KELSEY TIMMERMAN is a freelance journalist and public speaker. He's spent the night in Castle Dracula in Romania, gone undercover as an underwear buyer in Bangladesh, and taught an island village to play baseball in Honduras. His writing has appeared in publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and has aired on NPR.
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Prologue: We Have It Made xv
Part I The Mission 1
Chapter 1 A Consumer Goes Global 3
Chapter 2 Tattoo’s Tropical Paradise 13
Chapter 3 Fake Blood, Sweat, and Tears: Anti-Sweatshop Protestors 17
Part II My Underwear: Made in Bangladesh 21
Chapter 4 Jingle These 23
Chapter 5 Undercover in the Underwear Biz 31
Chapter 6 Bangladesh Amusement Park 37
Chapter 7 Inside My First Sweatshop 43
Chapter 8 Child Labor in Action 49
Chapter 9 Arifa, the Garment Worker 55
Chapter 10 Hope 63
Chapter 11 No Black and White, Only Green 69
Update for Revised Edition: Hungry for Choices 75
Part III My Pants: Made in Cambodia 79
Chapter 12 Labor Day 81
Chapter 13 Year Zero 87
Chapter 14 Those Who Wear Levi's 93
Chapter 15 Those Who Make Levi's 99
Chapter 16 Blue Jean Machine 111
Chapter 17 Progress 121
Chapter 18 Treasure and Trash 129
Update for Revised Edition: The Faces of Crisis 135
Part IV My Flip-Flops: Made in China 139
Chapter 19 PO'ed VP 141
Chapter 20 Life at the Bottom 149
Chapter 21 Growing Pains 159
Chapter 22 The Real China 169
Chapter 23 On a Budget 177
Chapter 24 An All-American Chinese Walmart 181
Chapter 25 The Chinese Fantasy 187
Update for Revised Edition: Migration 193
Part V Made in America 197
Chapter 26 For Richer, for Poorer 199
Update for Revised Edition: Restarting, Again 211
Chapter 27 Return to Fantasy Island 215
Chapter 28 Amilcar’s Journey 229
Chapter 29 An American Dream 237
Chapter 30 Touron Goes Glocal 249
Appendix A Discussion Questions 269
Appendix B Note to Freshman Me 275
Appendix C Where Are You Teaching?: A Guide to Taking Where Am I Wearing? to a Glocal Context 279
Acknowledgments 285