fascinatinghorror

The Rana Plaza Collapse

Added 2023-01-03 11:16:00 +0000 UTC

Here's some interesting further reading on this story.

The survivors now

I found this article, which collects photographs and stories of survivors of the Rana Plaza collapse. It's really interesting (and heart-breaking) reading, and it does a great job of showing the long term effects of a disaster like this.

Very often survivors have to live with physical injuries, as well as mental stress and trauma related to what they went through. In this particular case, though, many also have to deal with financial hardship.

Not only was the compensation awarded in some cases quite meagre, but the collapse also left families without a main earner. Even decades later, the disaster is still changing lives because of this.

The high cost of cheap fashion

There really is quite a lot wrong with extremely cheap fashion. It's not just safety issues, but environmental ones as well - and it's a problem that's still ongoing even now.

This BBC article gives a good overview of the situation. It mentions the Rana Plaza collapse, and also talks about the phenomenon of brands and retailers "chasing the needle".

"Chasing the needle" refers to the way in which brands are happy to rove around the world looking for the cheapest source for their clothing - often encouraging different countries and companies to undercut one another in the process.

As well as allowing me to learn a lot about the history of Bangladesh, researching this story has also opened my eyes to how damaging cheap fashion can be!