CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, Sept. 2, 2007
The Ship Breakers Of Bangladesh
Ship Breaking Industry Arrived In Bangladesh By Accident, Literally
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Play CBS Video Video The Ship Breakers
In Full: Working for barely a dollar a day with little but their bare hands, the ship breakers of Bangladesh strip old ships in one of the world's most dangerous jobs. Bob Simon reports.
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Photo Essay The Ship Breakers See Cape Town-based photographer Mark Lewis' images of the ship breakers at Chittagong, Bangladesh.
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Fast Facts Bangladesh Learn about the people, economy and history.
But steel is only part of the deal; there are so many things on a ship which are sold off. It is in fact a gigantic recycling operation.
You can find everything, including kitchen sinks, at a sprawling roadside market which goes on for miles. When you’re driving down this road, it's not a problem if you need a toilet or a life boat or a light bulb. It is estimated that 97 percent of the ship’s contents are recycled. The other three percent, the stuff nobody would buy, including the hazardous waste, asbestos, arsenic and mercury, are left behind to foul the beaches.
"And what we're looking at, which is a recycling operation, is also an environmental disaster," Simon says.
"That's true. And I think this is really capitalism as red in tooth and claw as it gets. At the moment this is what makes financial sense for everybody. And this is, despite the fact that we might not like it, and it doesn't look pretty, this is how it's done," Buerk says.
The workers toil in tough conditions. They have no unions, no safety equipment, and no training. About 50 are said to die in accidents each year; often in explosions set off by blowtorches deep inside the fume-filled holds.
You see casualties in the yards, men who were injured here but have no money to go anywhere else. The workers are housed in barracks with no beds, just steel plates scavenged from the ships they break.
Many of the workers are not old enough to grow a beard. Some are, quite simply, children. 60 Minutes spoke to several who said they were 14 and had been working here for two years.
So what does the man from Peace Happiness and Prosperity say about that?
Asked if there are any children working in his yard, Mohsin says, "Not my yard."
"Well, we talked to several children," Simon tells Mohsin. "We found a couple who were 14 and said they'd been working there for a couple of years."
"They are - if they are working - if they don't work, what they'll do, then? Our government cannot afford it. Their food, shelter and clothing has to be provided by someone whether their parents or the government. None of them can afford it. So what they gonna do?" Mohsin argues.
"So, you say that child labor is inevitable, necessary in Bangladesh?" Simon asks.
"If they don't work in ship-breaking yard, they'll work somewhere else. They have to," Mohsin replies.
But child labor is only one of the issues. Environmentalists have been doing battle with the industry for years. They say the west has no business dumping its toxic waste on impoverished lands in the east. They condemn the appalling work conditions, the low pay, and the lack of accountability for workers who are killed or injured. Their most important proposal: that ships be cleaned of their toxic materials in the west, before they sail to Bangladesh.
That’s in line with an international ban which prohibits the shipment of hazardous waste from rich countries to poorer countries.
Rezwana Hasan of the Bangladeshi Environmental Lawyers Association is in the forefront of the battle against the industry. She says the shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh don’t respect even the most minimal environmental standards.
"And an industry that can't comply with these minimum standards must not operate," she argues. "I mean if you can't comply with the - if you can't pay your worker the minimum wage, you can't operate. You can't - if you can't ensure the minimum environmental safeguard you shouldn't operate."
Produced By Michael Gavshon
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 31 Commentshttp://www.globalgayz.com/BDChittagongShipBreakingYard/index.html
But your slant is obviously in the direction of ''look at these poor downtrodden slaves''. These are not ''miserable'' people. Look closely at their faces and you don''t see the tension and anxiety of American corporate workers! They are workers who know nothing else and don''t particularly want anything else. They work 7AM to 11PM with a two hour mid-day break, get paid a low but reliable income; their kids go to school (I saw no child workers in the yard; upper teens yes, children no)--and many somewhat cheerful faces--not necessarily happy, but not miserable. They work with their friends; all feel equal. They have little and little to worry about.
The conditions are daunting but not wholly, the pace is calm and there are numerous periods of waiting during the day as the ship parts are taken apart.
It is not the horror show you portray. It''s dirty and rough but far from hell.
Yes, caring for the welfare of others. How sad.
You could be stripping ships.
Yet again you provide only the side of the story that attacks the greatest philosophy the world will ever know - Capitalism! Shame on you CBS, to propagate the Marxist view point to your American Capitalist audience! We too had child labor. We too had poor working conditions. We too had a low starting point. But it was the Capitalists, the entrepreneurs that saw the potential for the creation of wealth and risked everything to make a better world for themselves and as a byproduct, raise the standard of living for all of us!
It was President Kennedy that said, "...a rising tide lifts all boats". He was right then and now.
Yet again you provide only the side of the story that attacks the greatest philosophy the world will ever know - Capitalism! Shame on you CBS, to propagate the Marxist view point to your American Capitalist audience! We too had child labor. We too had poor working conditions. We too had a low starting point. But it was the Capitalists, the entrepreneurs that saw the potential for the creation of wealth and risked everything to make a better world for themselves and as a byproduct, raise the standard of living for all of us!
It was President Kennedy that said, "...a rising tide lifts all boats". He was right then and now.
Doug From Eagan
Ayn Rand Objectivist/Capitalist/American
ABeckmann
ABeckmann, Raleigh,NC
I wish I could travel there to experience their life first hand.
I'd love to talk to people further on this topic...message me on myspace, www.myspace.com/coreyjohn
I have met many Bangladeshi people and I can tell you that these people work so hard and are so very generous! They are the poorest country in the world and I know that they will give me the shirt off there back when I go there. (Even if it is there only shirt, and they will happily give it to me.) It saddens me so much to know that there are millions of these wonderful people that are put in such danger just to survive.
Wouldn't it be great if we sent all that wasted money spent on campaign adds over to Bangladesh. Do you have any idea what they would do with that money. The joy that money would bring. What a waste!!!! It infuriates me to see how we waste money, food, everything in this country.
These are real people over there! Kind, giving people! Is there nothing we can do to help??
Try to think about what they go through. Educate other Americans. Do not judge immigrants who come here. They just want a better life! They want the American DREAM!
Thank you!
If this were the case in Bangladesh, no one would be working because no entity would stay in business. If you think ship breaking is a tragedy, you should learn how much teachers make there. In some cases, they don't get paid at all. Women working in the garment industry are also underpaid and work in terrible conditions.
But Bangladesh must find reasonable alternatives for employment before they shut these entities down for not meeting minimum wage requirements. You certainly can't shut down an education system all together. And the garment factories have empowered the thousands of women working there. I think by implying that these measures SHOULD be taken--by the way, there are a lot of things the Bangladeshi government SHOULD do--she really meant "should" but "can't," at least not at the current moment.
Craig
You didn't produce any evidence for that claim.
You complain that the West is exploiting them when the West has nothing to do with these operations. You claim that Bangledash gains no advantage--tell that to the workers who otherwise wouldn't have a job.
"cutting torch"/"blow torch"
I think everyone gets the idea of what 60 minutes was talking about...I still occasionally refer to my refrigerator as an ice-box -- no one yet has had to pull out a dictionary to figure out what I'm talking about.
And, as primitive as these operations are - maybe they are using blow-torches.
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