Bangladesh Building Collapse: Death Toll Reaches 746

[webfact]

Bangladesh building collapse: Death toll reaches 746
The Daily Star

DHAKA: -- The death toll from the collapse of an eight-story factory building near Dhaka, Bangladesh continues to rise on the 14th day. The more rescuers remove rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza, the more they find dead, decomposed bodies. Some 67 bodies were pulled out of the wreckage on the 14th day yesterday since the deadliest industrial disaster in the country.

Including these victims, the death toll reached 746, which is expected to go up when rescuers get deeper into the concrete mess. The nine-storey building at Savar outside Dhaka housed five garment factories and many shops.

Meanwhile, dillydallying throughout the day, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) began giving wages and other benefits to the workers at around 9:00pm.

Hundreds of garment workers who survived the incident and relatives of the dead demonstrated near Savar bus stand, demanding wages and perks. They blocked the busy Dhaka-Aricha highway at about 10:15am for around two hours.

They launched the protest in front of Razzak Plaza after they got to know that wages would not be given as per an earlier announcement by BGMEA.

We heard they [bGMEA] were going to pay only one months salary. But we want four months' pay and other perks as per the rules, said a survivor who worked on the sixth floor.

ìWe lost many colleagues while most of the injured will not be able to bear their treatment expenditure with a month's salary said Shipu Begum who used to work as a sewing operator at a garment unit on the fifth floor.

The blockade was withdrawn at around 12:00noon after the districtís Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Yusuf Harun assured the protesters of paying their dues at a field opposite to Savar Army Cantonment from 3:00pm.

The workers said they hoped BGMEA would pay them at least an amount equivalent to their four monthís pay. They refused to accept anything when the trade body offered only April's salary to those who had worked there for less than six months.

Full story: http://www.asianewsnet.net/Bangladesh-building-collapse-Death-toll-reaches-74-46442.html


-- ANN 2013-05-08

[Scott]

I find it so amazing that so many threads get endless pages of argumentative remarks, but one in which 746 people are now reported dead, barely gets a mention.

It makes me wonder about people's priorities.

My condolences to the many, many families, friends and colleagues of the victims. A lot of lives in tatters.

[Steely Dan]

You beat me to it Scott, I note the last Bangladesh building thread had three replies, one of which was your own post closing that thread and opening this one. Death it would seem is not newsworthy, unless it occurs in a developed nation, or failing that conforms to a politicized agenda such as who is killing who.

[beautifulthailand99]

We all love cheap stuff including the clothes worrying about the blood on out purchases would spoil the globalization party. You'll find many a western feminist decrying the exploitative third world 'sex trade' whilst wearing some clobber that was made in a third world sweatshop with no thoughts about how it came to be so cheap. A H&M T-shirt I am reliably informed costing £10 in the UK then 1.5p will have gone to the Bangladeshi worker who made it. The lowest wages in Bangladesh are around $30 a month whereas in Thailand that would be around $80 - $100. The answer is to pay a lot more for the stuff we think we want / need and put pressure on the manufacturers to pay their staff a living wage. On the weekend I saw Primark in Oxford St rammed to the gills with shoppers and not a single notice in the store window expressing sympathy or sorrow. Truth is the big players don't care because most of their customers don't care. It's a long way away in a poor country out of sight out of mind.

[Credo]

So, if I pay more for my clothes, then they will build better buildings in Bangladesh?

[beautifulthailand99]

So, if I pay more for my clothes, then they will build better buildings in Bangladesh?

Only in a more equitable world where people's lives matter in the round. I'm not that political been there done that when I was younger - just seems to me that the nice folk inhabit the bottom of the heap and the more greedy,venal and less caring climb up the greasy pole and make the world in which we live. Hopefully there will be a groundswell of opinion from western consumers that puts teeth into their ethical checks that they purport to do so that at least the factories could become somewhat safer - a hundred died in a fire close to where the factory collapsed just over a year ago.

[Nobelcat]

American Apparel is made in the USA, H&M is Vietnam.

We all love cheap stuff including the clothes worrying about the blood on out purchases would spoil the globalization party. You'll find many a western feminist decrying the exploitative third world 'sex trade' whilst wearing some clobber that was made in a third world sweatshop with no thoughts about how it came to be so cheap. A H&M T-shirt I am reliably informed costing £10 in the UK then 1.5p will have gone to the Bangladeshi worker who made it. The lowest wages in Bangladesh are around $30 a month whereas in Thailand that would be around $80 - $100. The answer is to pay a lot more for the stuff we think we want / need and put pressure on the manufacturers to pay their staff a living wage. On the weekend I saw Primark in Oxford St rammed to the gills with shoppers and not a single notice in the store window expressing sympathy or sorrow. Truth is the big players don't care because most of their customers don't care. It's a long way away in a poor country out of sight out of mind.

[beautifulthailand99]

American Apparel is made in the USA, H&M is Vietnam.

We all love cheap stuff including the clothes worrying about the blood on out purchases would spoil the globalization party. You'll find many a western feminist decrying the exploitative third world 'sex trade' whilst wearing some clobber that was made in a third world sweatshop with no thoughts about how it came to be so cheap. A H&M T-shirt I am reliably informed costing £10 in the UK then 1.5p will have gone to the Bangladeshi worker who made it. The lowest wages in Bangladesh are around $30 a month whereas in Thailand that would be around $80 - $100. The answer is to pay a lot more for the stuff we think we want / need and put pressure on the manufacturers to pay their staff a living wage. On the weekend I saw Primark in Oxford St rammed to the gills with shoppers and not a single notice in the store window expressing sympathy or sorrow. Truth is the big players don't care because most of their customers don't care. It's a long way away in a poor country out of sight out of mind.

Whilst H&M no doubt manufacture in Vietnam as well most use Bangladesh

As for Benetton, the company has been fighting back stiff competition

from so-called fast-fashion brands including H&M and Zara. H&M

slashed costs, making its clothes more affordable than Benetton's, and a

big part of that strategy was Bangladesh. H&M currently is the

largest buyer from the country, followed by Wal-Mart, according to the

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324766604578460833869722240.html

Edited May 8, 2013 by beautifulthailand99

[USNret]

So, if I pay more for my clothes, then they will build better buildings in Bangladesh?

You're mixing up cause & effect. If they implement decent living/working conditions in Bangladesh, you will pay more for your clothes.

[Credo]

Actually I am not mixing up cause and effect. My point is that most people are talking about the clothing business and low wages and I was talking about the construction of a building.

[keithkarmann]

Double or treble the workers pay for making a T shirt and it would make no difference to the £10 it sold for and they would be on high wages like the Thai workers

[Steely Dan]

Money without oversight just leads to Lear jets for the elite. If people are prepared to pay more for clothes then this is only half the battle, getting it to those in most need will not happen by passively handing over money to Bangladeshi companies, or I suspect even the government.

[F430murci]

I find it so amazing that so many threads get endless pages of argumentative remarks, but one in which 746 people are now reported dead, barely gets a mention.

It makes me wonder about people's priorities.

My condolences to the many, many families, friends and colleagues of the victims. A lot of lives in tatters.

Well you started 4 or 5 different threads on same subject matter and many of us responded a week or so ago to first thread. It's not apathy.

Almost everything about India is a disaster and the sad part is that human tragedies like this are not surprising. They drink from, brush their teeth in, bathe in, and defecate in the same river in which they dump their dead corpses. They have cow dung and human feces everywhere. People just stop and relieve themselves in the middle if the street.

Point being, India and the people of India do nothing to protect themselves or it's general population from health hazards of any type. India tries to position itself to offer cheap labor and products so they can sell on the world market. I guess US and other countries can boycott their products until they implement worker safety, but that hurts India as well.

There are horrible tragedies occurring in places such as Mexico on daily basis to people that are actually trying to improve and better their society, but you don't post those topics in here or comment in that daily human tragedy.

Does that make you apathetic to a horrible plight suffered by a society living under a constant threat of terrorism and having their entire families kidnapped, tortured, beheaded and dismembered? New mass graves were found in Tamps and Durango over the weekend with over 300 unidentified bodies. In Sinola over the weekend, 26 murdered in Simola alone and two young sons of a financial journalist were kidnapped and assignated. Mass shootings and kidnappings spiraling out of control in Cancun.

[Naam]

Almost everything about India is a disaster and the sad part is that human tragedies like this are not surprising.

Bangla Desh was annexed by India?

They drink from, brush their teeth in, bathe in, and defecate in the same river in which they dump their dead corpses.

Muslims don't bury their dead but dump them in rivers?

get a life some basic education man!

[F430murci]

Money without oversight just leads to Lear jets for the elite. If people are prepared to pay more for clothes then this is only half the battle, getting it to those in most need will not happen by passively handing over money to Bangladeshi companies, or I suspect even the government.

People will pay more for clothes. The problem is India tries to position itself cheaper than others solely for a competitive advantage. This is not a middleman or end user issue. This is a country fighting for market share and money at the risk of it's people.

[Scott]

The stories are posted by a news feed, not by me.

As Naam mentioned, the country is Bangladesh.

[F430murci]

Almost everything about India is a disaster and the sad part is that human tragedies like this are not surprising.

Bangla Desh was annexed by India?

They drink from, brush their teeth in, bathe in, and defecate in the same river in which they dump their dead corpses.

Muslims don't bury their dead but dump them in rivers?

get a life some basic education man!

Oh jeez, off soap box back into my cave, but I do know where Mexico is . . .

[NeverSure]

What boggles my mind beyond my sorrow, is the comment that the injured won't be able to pay their medical bills without additional salary.

It seems almost beyond belief that there is still a world where the building owner or employer wouldn't cover the medical expenses for injuries.

My heartfelt condolences to all victims and their families.

[Scott]

F430murci, no need to go back in your cave. It happens to the best of us occasionally.

[diz]

Almost everything about India is a disaster and the sad part is that human tragedies like this are not surprising.

Bangla Desh was annexed by India?

They drink from, brush their teeth in, bathe in, and defecate in the same river in which they dump their dead corpses.

ockquote>Muslims don't bury their dead but dump them in rivers?

get a life some basic education man!

Oh jeez, off soap box back into my cave, but I do know where Mexico is . . .

Where they speak Mexican?

[Scott]

According to CNN, the death toll is now over 800.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/08/world/asia/bangladesh-building-collapse/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

[beautifulthailand99]

Good article here which is from a pressure group holding the brands to account - one can only hope following this tragedy some progress will be made.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ilana-winterstein/boycotting-primark_b_3227839.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

[manarak]

Good article here which is from a pressure group holding the brands to account - one can only hope following this tragedy some progress will be made.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ilana-winterstein/boycotting-primark_b_3227839.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

It's easy to write down good intentions.

In the end, workers need wages and factories need customers.

Industrial tragedies happen, almost unavoidably, in the development of any country before industrial standards can be enforced.

Cheap talk such as "nobody should have to die for <insert business goal here>" is sickening, death cannot be completely avoided in any human activity, the question is to bring their number down to an acceptable level.

My thoughts are with the victims and their families in this tragedy.

Edited May 8, 2013 by manarak

[Steely Dan]

Whilst the building collapse is rightly the top news item for Bangladesh from an external perspective there is large scale civil unrest relating to the trials and sentencing of former Bangladeshi leaders for crimes against humanity. Also there is an ongoing campaign of violence to shut down any bloggers who are deemed to have blasphemed Islam. In a recent demo 32 were killed and a crowd of 70,000 was dispersed. It is a tragedy that instead of trying to improve peoples lives, whether it be with respect to working conditions, sanitation, human rights little is done, whilst many are mired in backwardness pursuing vendettas rather than focusing on how to help the lot of all Bangladeshis. Those agitating such violence have a lot to answer for when the government is hard pressed due to the aftermath of the building collapse.

[SteeleJoe]

I find it so amazing that so many threads get endless pages of argumentative remarks, but one in which 746 people are now reported dead, barely gets a mention.

It makes me wonder about people's priorities.

My condolences to the many, many families, friends and colleagues of the victims. A lot of lives in tatters.

You make a valid and important point and it is very much to your credit that you did.

I would point out though that there is seemingly nothing to debate or discuss at first glance; having said that, if one takes a moment to think about it, there are probably more than a couple of tangential issues to sink one's teeth into and that such thought was presumably not given says something.

Of course, that people - including myself - didn't feel compelled to express their sorrow here, perhaps reflects poorly on them/ us, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't feel, as I do, horrified and saddened at the scale of the tragedy.

[Scott]

A troll post and reply were deleted.

[Mosha]

BBC reports another survivor has been pulled out of the rubble.

[rubberduck]

death toll 1034 so far

Rest In Peace. You died for the unlimited greedyness in the 'civilized' world.

BIG picture of the scene

Edited May 10, 2013 by rubberduck

[Potosi]

What boggles my mind beyond my sorrow, is the comment that the injured won't be able to pay their medical bills without additional salary.

It seems almost beyond belief that there is still a world where the building owner or employer wouldn't cover the medical expenses for injuries.

My heartfelt condolences to all victims and their families.

I have a good memory. See you on the next Obama-healthcare thread.

[chuckd]

What boggles my mind beyond my sorrow, is the comment that the injured won't be able to pay their medical bills without additional salary.

It seems almost beyond belief that there is still a world where the building owner or employer wouldn't cover the medical expenses for injuries.

My heartfelt condolences to all victims and their families.

I have a good memory. See you on the next Obama-healthcare thread.

Count me in as well.