Huffington Magazine Issue 49 | Page 27

MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Voices PETER S. GOODMAN HUFFINGTON 05.19.13 The Shame of Bangladesh WE ALREADY KNOW that our banks remain too big to fail, threatening regular people with crisis. Now, a parallel reality is emerging in the garment trade: Most of our clothing is produced by global enterprises so vast and complex that they are simply too big to supervise. The inability of these multinational brands to monitor factories that produce their goods in poor countries combined with their power to extract cut-rate prices reinforces an uncomfortable yet unavoidable truth: People will suffer and die making our clothes. No matter how well-intentioned Bangladeshi volunteers and rescue workers at the scene of the factory collapse on April 25.