A "miraculous rescue"

The Rana Plaza collapse was deemed as the deadliest disaster in the history of the garment industry. The carnage was horrific and the number of dead easily surpassed 1,100.

And yet, amid all the horrific news a miracle happened. 17 full days after the collapse, a female garment worker, Reshma was rescued. A survivor! This news sent shocked waves across the globe. Millions of people across the world were overwhelmed with joy. Losing at least 1,100 lives was forgotten by the victory of saving one. There was excitement everywhere. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina rushed to the hospital. Joy had been found in the wreckage, people felt so inspired.

It wasn't until recently that the "miraculous rescue" was proven to be nothing but a staged drama.

Doubts had been cast from the beginning upon the story of Reshma. She "survived" on 4 biscuits and a bottle of water, and was also "rescued" in completely new and fresh clothes. Her finger nails were trimmed and she was pulled out without a cover over her eyes.

Why would anybody set up such a cheap drama? One might say the government just tried to cover up misdeeds and failures prior and after the collapse. But that would be just another one of those conspiracy theories.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Up until today, there has never been serious unrest inside of diplomatic enclave. That means that Gulshan and Baridhara (the so called diplomatic zones) never came under attack. 

But we are now living in different times or like Bob Dylan song goes:

"The times they are a-changin'..."

Angry over the deaths in Savar building collapse, thousands of garment workers vandalized today hundreds of vehicles in different parts of the city, including Gulshan.

Ironically, the vandalism also disrupted supply to different hospitals and clinics in Savar area which are treating the injured victims.

Some more "good" news from Dhaka

After a terrible start of the week, we got hit with more bad news yesterday.

The nine story Rana Plaza building in Savar (20 miles outside of Dhaka) collapsed like a deck of cards. Around 3,000 workers were working inside of the building on Wednesday when this happened.

Firefighters and soldiers joined volunteers in the effort to locate survivors in the mangled wreckage of concrete and steel. Death toll has easily passed 200 at the time I am writing this, but there are lot of people still trapped inside, so I would not be surprised if we end up with a lot more than that. Trapped workers can still be heard inside the rubble, screaming for help. Local hospitals are overwhelmed with scores of people injured.

Bangladesh has one of the largest garment industries in the world, providing cheap clothing for major Western retailers which benefit from its widespread low-cost labor. The money gained from exporting textiles is the single greatest source of economic growth. Exports of textiles, clothing, and ready-made garments accounted for 80% of Bangladesh’s total exports.

However, the country has chronically poor safety standards, so this came as no surprise. What is somewhat new are the circumstances surrounding the collapse. The building violated any construction codes and the owner illegally added three extra stories to the building. On Tuesday morning, cracks developed on some pillars and a few floors of the building following a jolt, causing panic among the people working there. They rushed out of the building and some even got injured in the process. The industrial police visited the building that day and advised  suspending operations of the factories. The warnings and instructions were all ignored. The owners of the garments closed their factories around Tuesday noon but asked the workers to show up for work the next day. Still shaken by the scare they got the day before, the workers turned up for work yesterday but many were hesitant about getting into their factories. They have been told that some engineers had certified that the building was safe. The factories deduct salaries for three days for any non working day, so people had to go inside. The irony is that Sohel Rana, owner of Rana Plaza, was inside the building when it collapsed. He was rescued and is now on the run.

It is really a catch 22 situation. Western retailers try to keep costs down. Bangladesh is one of the longest lead-time country and a difficult country to work in, so the only way it becomes competitive is by offering the lowest cost. If the factories want to raise prices to make up for rising wages and costs, the buyers will say, "Why do we want to go to Bangladesh if I could go to China, Pakistan, Cambodia etc for a similar price?" That would lead to a lot of people losing their income source.