I thought you might be interested in more details on things discovered by Dr. John A. Hall, law professor and director of the Center for Global Trade and Development at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, CA, while in Phnom Penh (he will be going back there from May 22 to June 12 to help make a documentary film).
(1) Cambodia is positioning itself as a "sweatshop free" manufacturing base. This dates back to the US-Cambodia bilateral trade agreement, which linked access to US market with guarantee of labor rights and a program of factory inspections. Since end of garment quotas in '06, AFL-CIO et al convinced Cambodian government to voluntarily continue many of these programs. Is it working? Is the Cambodia model a viable model for manufacturing and labor elsewhere? Couple of assassinations of labor leaders suggest may not be as successful as it appears.
(2) Cambodian Beer Girls. International beer companies employ young women to sell beer in clubs and bars. Clear link to prostitution, as the girls are pressured to flirt with customers and sleep with the biggest spenders. Number of beer girls have died of HIV. Sexual abuse, victimization, encouraged to sleep with customers, all to sell Budweiser, Corona etc. They are treated sometimes as little more than slaves.
(3) Cambodian returnees/deportees: mainly young men (permanent legal aliens) deported from US (many for violent gang crimes, but some for such absurd things as public drunkenness, public urination etc). Fascinating story. I'll be working with Tiny Toones - a group run by former Long Beach gang member, teaches hip hop to street kids, teaches them dangers of glue sniffing etc. That's a positive outcome. But for most returnees it has been extraordinarily difficult, many dead, drugs, joined violent gangs, alienated. Why did Cambodian government agree to take them, when many had not direct connection to Cambodia (left as children after KR, or born in Thai refugee camps). Asian impact of US immigration crack-down.
(1) Cambodia is positioning itself as a "sweatshop free" manufacturing base. This dates back to the US-Cambodia bilateral trade agreement, which linked access to US market with guarantee of labor rights and a program of factory inspections. Since end of garment quotas in '06, AFL-CIO et al convinced Cambodian government to voluntarily continue many of these programs. Is it working? Is the Cambodia model a viable model for manufacturing and labor elsewhere? Couple of assassinations of labor leaders suggest may not be as successful as it appears.
(2) Cambodian Beer Girls. International beer companies employ young women to sell beer in clubs and bars. Clear link to prostitution, as the girls are pressured to flirt with customers and sleep with the biggest spenders. Number of beer girls have died of HIV. Sexual abuse, victimization, encouraged to sleep with customers, all to sell Budweiser, Corona etc. They are treated sometimes as little more than slaves.
(3) Cambodian returnees/deportees: mainly young men (permanent legal aliens) deported from US (many for violent gang crimes, but some for such absurd things as public drunkenness, public urination etc). Fascinating story. I'll be working with Tiny Toones - a group run by former Long Beach gang member, teaches hip hop to street kids, teaches them dangers of glue sniffing etc. That's a positive outcome. But for most returnees it has been extraordinarily difficult, many dead, drugs, joined violent gangs, alienated. Why did Cambodian government agree to take them, when many had not direct connection to Cambodia (left as children after KR, or born in Thai refugee camps). Asian impact of US immigration crack-down.
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