literature.cafe

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/20589079

From left to right:

• first aid kit
• Nintendo Switch
• a pile of trash (a ~1yr old crushed mint, a receipt from 4 months ago, a ripped balloon, a lil ball of tape, and a coupon that expired last year)
• sand timer
• inkblot game

• !secret ingredient for badguys!<

• "~~best~~ worst therapist ever" bag (hand painted modification) with pride/pronoun pins
• paper, pencil, and pen
• Freudian word game
• hypothetical discussion starters
• neurofeedback headset
• thinkpad t420
• suckers

In a vast Bangladeshi factory hall thrumming with sewing machines, garment workers churn out seemingly endless pairs of mountain hiking trousers for customers in Europe and North America.

Bangladesh's key clothing manufacturing industry supplying global brands was crippled by a revolution that toppled the government last year, in which garment sector protesters played an important role.

While owners say business has bounced back, frustrated workers say hard-won concessions have done little to change their circumstances, and life remains as hard as ever.

"It is the same kind of exploitation," said garment worker Khatun, 24, asking that only her first name be used as speaking out would jeopardise her job.

Production in the world's second-largest garment manufacturer was repeatedly stalled by the months-long violence, before protesters forced long-time autocrat Sheikh Hasina to flee in August.

An interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, took over.

Scores of factories closed and tens of thousands lost their jobs. But after a five percent wage hike was agreed in September, the industry rebounded.

The South Asian nation produces garments for global brands -- ranging from France's Carrefour, Canada's Tire, Japan's Uniqlo, Ireland's Primark, Sweden's H&M and Spain's Zara.

The apparel industry accounts for about 80 percent of Bangladesh's exports, earning $36 billion last year, dropping little despite the unrest from the $38 billion exported the previous year.

Despite challenges with a cooling of demand, Anwar Hossain, the government-appointed administrator of BGMEA^*^, said the industry was returning to strength.

^*^ Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association

The garment industry recorded a 13 percent increase from July-December 2024 -- the period after the revolution -- compared to the same period the year before, he said.

Workers tell a different story.

Khatun welcomed the wage rise but said factory managers then hiked already onerous demands for "nearly unachievable production targets".

Scraping by in the capital Dhaka's gritty industrial suburb of Ashulia, she earns $140 a month including overtime and benefits to support a family of four.

The wage increase of $8.25 a month seems a miserly addition.

Opening her fist, she showed a 500-taka note, just over four dollars, all she had left after paying rent and other expenses. "We have good facilities inside the factory, like toilets, a canteen, and water fountains," she said. "But we don't get even a 10-minute break while trying to meet the targets".

Many factory owners were close to the former ruling party. In the immediate days after Hasina was toppled, several factories were damaged in retaliatory attacks. Some owners were arrested and accused of supporting Hasina

"We weren't receiving salaries on time after the owner was arrested," said worker Rana, also asking not to be identified. "Now, they've offered me half my basic wage, around $60 to $70. I have a six-month-old child, a wife, and elderly parents to support", he added.

Taslima Akhter, from the Bangladesh Garment Workers' Solidarity (BGWS) group, a labour rights organisation, said that "workers are struggling to maintain a minimum standard of living".

Akhter said factory bosses must push back against global purchasers wanting to maximise profits at the expense of a living wage. "Garment (factory) owners need to take more responsibility and learn to negotiate better with international buyers," she said. "This industry is not new, and problems are not impossible to solve."

Despite the industry's apparent fiscal success, Abdullah Hil Raquib, a former BGMEA director, warned it was on fragile ground. "The stability in the garment sector we see now is only on the surface," he said.

Idk how to read it

As a professional journal for clothes and apparels, Clothing Magazine provides tactic information to fashion lovers, designers and practitioners to know what’s new and different regarding clothes and apparels around the globe. Beginning with depicting the fall and winter with the information on responsible approaches in the fashion world up to IT innovations such as AI and 3D printing, the magazine reflects contemporary trends.

Features of the site are frequent interviews with experts, market reviews and the presentation of fragments of leading brands and up-and-coming designers. Being a highly-illuminated and stylish magazine, Clothing publishes articles with professional guidance and outstanding images that help readers turn their ideas into outfits while updating them on the latest breakthroughs and obstacles faced by the global clothing industry.

all plant-based too

The books are better.

In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.

4k restoration presented by David Fincher and Spike Jonze.

https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/14784-the-fall

TO COPS

Hundreds of thousands of Catholic pilgrims swarmed the streets of Manila in search of a miracle Thursday, straining to reach a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ in an annual display of religious fervour.

The procession to the Philippine capital's Quiapo Church, which started before dawn after an open-air mass, was expected to swell to more than two million participants from across the heavily Catholic country, church officials said.

Barefoot men and women in maroon shirts -- the colour of the robe that covers the black, wooden Jesus the Nazarene statue -- scrambled to grab the rope used to draw the life-sized religious icon, believing it would bring good health.

The giant religious parade commemorates the arrival of the wooden statue of the genuflecting Jesus the Nazarene from Acapulco, Mexico in the early 1600s, shortly after the start of the Spanish colonial conquest. Its colour -- which has led it to be popularly known as the Black Nazarene -- was believed to have been caused by a fire aboard the Spanish galleon that was transporting it.

President Ferdinand Marcos said the annual celebration of the icon was a "testament to our people's solidarity and camaraderie".

"It also speaks of the immense power and compassion of God who walks with us and hears our prayers, especially in our time of need," Marcos said in a statement.

Police said about 14,500 security personnel had been deployed along the procession's six-kilometre route as a precaution.

Mobile phone signals were also blocked to prevent the remote detonation of explosive devices during the parade which is expected to last up to 18 hours, police said.

Emergency response teams were stationed along the route.

The Red Cross said it provided first aid treatment to more than 100 participants in the first few hours of the procession, mainly for cuts, dizziness, nausea and body weakness.