LESSONS FROM FACTORY FIELD TRIP

Last week, we had an interesting field trip to a textile and garment factory named Hanosimex. It's located around 2 km from my living area yet that was the first time I have had chance to have a thorough view around such a big factory like that.

We received warm welcome from the board of management and one among them was a graduate from Hanoi university around 20 years ago.

At first, we watched a nice introduction video clip about the development and achievements of the Corporation. Then we were taken around the premise of the factory, visiting 3 main working areas: thread and fibre production, sewing area and finished-product exhibition.

My first impression when looking around the fibre production area was its bad and noisy working condition. All female and male workers have to wear masks and there are a huge number of big machines running and operating. We have to shout or at least speak loudly if we want to be heard. From my observation, workers there are quite hard-working and it seems their working attitudes are quite positive, reflecting by their facial expression. 

FEMALE WORKERS IN FIBRE PRODUCTION AREA

However, the dust and noise from such working comdition may result in some kinds of occupational hazards like skin irritation, deaf, back pain (as most of them have to stand or walk along the aisle to do some repeated tasks).

Leaving the first area, we visisted the sewing area where female workers accounted for around 80% of the labor force. The working condition here seems to be better with adequate light and fan systems and everyone have their own tables with sewing machines.

They sat in line and rows and concentrate well in their job except some curious eyes turning to our crew to see what's happening.

And I tried to make a quick interview to a very young and beautiful female worker about her feeling of her job. She is only 19 years old and has been working there for just around 3 months and in her traning period. Salary for an apprentice during training time is just VND 950,000. But after deduction for the 2 meal expenses provided by the factory, she only gets VND450,000 left for her daily living expenses. I asked her the reason why she chose to work in a factory but not another kind of job, she told me about her failure to get higher education to University and College and the decision to work in a factory as a way to contribute financially to her family. "I plan to work here for a long time as human resource policy of my factory is quite good and I can manage my living expenses with the salary I earn. It's going to increase soon after I finish my traning period."

The field trip has provided me with more real knowledge of what I learn from the text book about the life and working condition of factory workers. It's true that working condition in a factory is not good enough for female workers and if company does not have good policy to protect rights and provide approriate compensation to their employees in case of occupational hazards, company may have more difficulty in hiring labor force in case of need.

ECO-FASHION, AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY FASHION TREND

A BEAUTIFUL ECO_FASHION SHOW

Is what we wear everyday causing harm to our environment?

Not exactly, it is the process of manufacturing these clothes or the way they are discarded when wearing out directly cause the harm to environment.

That is what I remembered most after the exciting and intereting workshop we organized last week as a regularly weekly activity of my "Talking Green Club".

"Eco-fashion, a trend or a must" is the main topic of our discussion that is aimed at making participants and members be more aware of the effect of what we wear on our environment and the recent trend that more and more international famous fashion designers are trying to produce garments made from natural fabrics and by responsible production techniques.

The workshop is sponsored by several celebrated textile and garment companies in Vietnam like Viet Tien or Thai Tuan.

Interestingly, most participants expressed that they hardly pay attention to the eco-fachion trend emerging for the past years and have little idea about what eco-fachion really means.

 In fact, eco-fachion is about making clothes tha take into account the environment, health of consumers and working condition of people in the fashion insustry. Eco-fashion are often made using organic materials, such as cotton grown without pesticide and silk made by worm fed on organic trees. Also, they are often made from recycled and reused textiles.

However, participants were rasing their confuse about how to identify these eco-clothes easily when going shopping. Many retailers selling their products are still claiming them to be eco-friendlywhile in reality only a small part such as cotton is organic and the other manufacaturing processes are ruthless to the environment.

Hence, sponsors like Viet Tien expressed their approval of raising ideas to the Government and other agencies of textile industry about the need to giving licence to stamp a label on any garments containing eco-credentials.

Thanks to this workshop, I become more aware of my own clothes purchase habit and behaviour, especially paying more attention to buy such clothes that can last long and made from natural fabrics instead of easily being worn out.

A THOUGHT ON THE JOB OF PROSTITUTES

Last week, we discussed at class about prostitution as a kind of job making people who do that easily being excluded from society.

I just have some additional thoughts about this kind of job as it is quite available aroud my living area almost every night. Whenever coming back home a bit late because of parties with friends or some other reasons, I often drive through the small lane leading to my living area, seeing many young call-girls with colourful make-up and sexy dressing standing along the way.

When I was small, I did wonder a lot of time about the reason why this type of job has been so long-lasting in our Vietnamese society where the moral culture and tradition is always well preserved. And why prostitutes are committed to do that job while there are thousands of other jobs that still can provide them with income?

Growing up, I understand that this is such a complicated question to have a perfectly single correct answer. Primarily, the major reason prostitutes enter the trade is due to unemployment and poverty. Many girls are engaged in prostitution at a very young age and a recent trend that some students even use prostitutes as a means of supporting themselves through college. However, it is also true to accept a fact that prostitute is related to real need in life. it is because there are many people who don't marry or are widowed but they have the need for sex.

Also, this kind of sex industry tends to grow up with the development of society. Richer men want to spend their extra money for some relaxation purposes and may find having sex with some employees of massage centers and karaoke bars. And tourism industry develops that make it easier for transnational call-girl rings to be set up in collusion with tour guides.

Nevertheless, prostitution is still needed to put under strict control as a way to preserve community health and order. Hence, I believe that a red-light zone should be set up, granting certificates to prostitutes and enhance decriminalisation against prostitutes. As this is an indispensable need for humans, banning it is impossible and harsh prohibition law undoubtedly will encourage disguised prostitution.