Sunday 22 February 2009

Shoe manufacture in SE Asia -Jamie Chang's letters to Clarks

Source: http://jamiechang.com

An email I wrote to Clark's:

August 27th, 2008
Hello,

I have been a big fan of Clarks for years now. In fact, for several years, Clarks were the only brand of shoe that I bought. I've was recently disappointed however, when I went to buy a new pair and discovered that Clarks are no longer made in England. According to the sales person at the Clarks store in Mill Valley, California, no Clark shoes are made in England. She informed me that Clarks are all made overseas, primarily in China. This greatly disappoints me. Not so much because I am concerned about the quality of Clarks, but more so because I am concerned with supporting brands that care more for profit than fair, decent wages, building infrastructure in countries used for overseas production, fair healthcare and retirement possibilities, and the impact on the environment. I do not believe in exploitation of people for industry profit. If you can send me information on what Clarks comments are on these matters, I would appreciate it.

Otherwise, I would like to make it known that I would gladly pay the extra $20 or $40 dollars for a pair of shoes, if I had the peace of mind that the hands that crafted them are treated fairly.

Thank you for reading through this, regards,
Jamie Chang

Clark's response:

August 28th, 2008
Dear Jamie,

Thank you for your recent email. Clark’s Customer Service is here to make it easy for you to do business with us. It’s as simple as that.

We understand that you need information on where our shoes are manufactured. Currently, we manufacture shoes in over 12 countries including Brazil, China, India, Italy and Vietnam. We source our products globally due to various factors including cost, availability of materials, and capacity issues within individual countries.

Because we have a diversity of sourcing options, we are not overtaxing any of our factories. We also are continually exposed to new technologies, materials and shoemaking techniques from different areas of the world which each have their own expertise.

Our shoe making processes are up to the same high standards no matter where our factories are located. Leathers, cutting dyes, lasts, and machinery are consistent in quality in all of our factory locations.

While the countries that we produce our shoes in might not have firm labor standards, we here at Clark’s do. All of our factories have to follow our strict standards including hourly wage and work conditions. If these standards are not met, we no longer do business at that location.

If you prefer, or if you have further questions, you may contact our Customer Service Center directly by calling 800-4-CLARKS.

We are grateful for your continued support of the Clark’s family of products.

Thank you,
(employee's name)
Clark’s Consumer Services

My response:

September 3rd, 2008
Hello,
Okay, great. Thanks for your email back. You mentioned that you have strict hourly wages and working standards. I would appreciate it if you elaborated on these things. How much, for example, does a Clark's worker get paid in China and Brazil? Do Clark's factories adhere to individual nation's environmental standards, or something better? Does Clark's provide health care and retirement benefits to workers overseas?

Thank you, regards,
Jamie Chang

Whom am I walking over?

I just found a great blogger - Jamie Chang -who has written to companies to find out where they make their products.

I visited Cotswold Outdoor at Newnham Court Shopping Village on Friday. Looking around I found the shoes and clothes and many other items were, by and large, made in Vietnam or Cambodia or China or Phillipines or Thailand. A few things were manufactured in Spain - very few.

It was at that point I checked my own (Clarks) shoes - to realise they were manufactured in Cambodia.

Ironically as I left the shop, nearby is another retail outlet called 'Sweatshop'. A sad reminder of the realities of many workers in South East Asia.

Check out Jamie's blog and his letters to Clarks - I think I might try the same - where does what I wear, what I eat, what I consume today come from - who's life was broken, which child sweated to produce the shoes I walk in this day?

Lord have mercy on me and those who dressed me, shod my feet rather than went to school this week.

http://jamiechang.com/?q=blog/2

Josh McKague of Whisper Productions on Cambodia

http://www.joshmckague.com

http://www.joshmckague.com/blog/

Josh McKague is a film maker and has made films for Transform Asia - the film on Cambodia is particularly interesting and worth a watch.


Cambodia Documentary Rough Draft from Whisper Productions on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/1223290 web link for video

Josh was interviewed recently on Pastor Rick Smith's 'double-popped' series.




http://rickwsmith.com/blog/2009/02/16/double-popped-joshmckague/comment-page-1/

link for post on Rick_Smith's blog


http://vimeo.com/3248746 web link for video

Thursday 12 February 2009

Human Trafficking report on Reuters News Network

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-37989220090212?rpc=46

reuters published a good article highlighting human trafficking today.

Prayer for missionary family in Chiang Mai

Dear All

Stefan Mickel has a friend called Jurgen who works for a large German mission called the Marburger mission. The other day Jurgen and his family were involved in an accident where a juggernaut shed it's load. The family car impacted the load and their three year old child was killed. The rest of the family were injured and or heavily bruised.

As you can imagine, this has been devastating to many who know them and ofcourse the family themselves.

Please pray for God's grace in this situation in incredible tragedy. Thanks

Wednesday 11 February 2009

The future of the internet and a thought

The future of the internet and a thought

Posted using ShareThis

Prayer Letter Mickels Feb 2009

Prayer Letter Stefan & Tina

February 2009


Family

We are doing well as a family, being rather satisfied with our lives here in Chiang Mai. Tobias is doing very well at school and at home. He is just bursting with energy and life.


One major change occurred in our family. 19 years old A* has moved in with us about 4 months ago. Due to unacceptable circumstances within his family we had no choice but supporting him and ultimately providing him a safe and loving environment in our family. He is doing reasonably well now, as God is working in his heart and life, healing and restoring him from past experiences. He loves Jesus and knows deep inside that he is his only real hope.


Ministry

We still teach English and have activities for children and youth. On Saturdays we are telling bible stories and certainly seeing the fruits coming out of that. The kids are very aware of God’s love and presence in their lives.


We started a home group now, where we have worship, sharing our lives and pray for one another. And God’s presence is really there. A* had a beautiful picture last week where he’s seen Jesus coming and sitting in our little room encouraging us and promising us that He will be there for us all the way. We could sense His presence in the room.


A*, one of the women who is coming on a regular basis is already sharing what she learns with us in her Akkha village.


We still do house visits, pray with and support people in the community. When needed we take them to hospital or take them to visit a relative who might live far away or simply have an outing.


On one of those occasions I took S* to the hospital. Do you remember her? She is the one who had tuberculosis, almost died and met jesus right there and then. she got baptised and really follows Jesus now. She told me of the dream she had.: she has seen heaven opening like a curtain and Jesus was standing there all in white blessing her. She was very encouraged by that and is even more determined to follow Jesus all the way.


We are moving Kham Siri to a new location. It is inside our community again. It is an old wooden house on stilts with a garden. We have a lot of space there for fellowship, eating together, teaching crafts and skills, language, bible and different activities. It is also much more cost effective.


God also opened a door into the homeless community here in Chiang Mai where we are building relationships, pray with and support some homeless people in whatever way we can.

There are also working girls who we get to know and we are currently seeking ways how to teach them some life skills to move out of this circle of poverty.


Prayer points

-Please pray that our home group will be well established , grow and we’ll make disciples who will be sold out for Jesus.


-May we have a strong sense of community.


-Please pray for A* to grow in Christ, as he teaches the bible and English more and more at Kham Siri. Also for his final examines as a tourist guide and a smooth transition into university where he wants to study to become a teacher. May God bless him in every way.


-Changing and moving Kham Siri. May we be even more established in the community.


-The right way forward with the working girls and the homeless.


-Please pray for our physical safety as well as we seek to establish justice here in Chiang Mai.


How to contact us:


We will be distributing regular news for prayer. This will be

· By group email

· Hard copies

· Through prayer gatherings.


For those in our home church - Riverside Vineyard, London

admin@riversidevineyard.com


For others contact Ian Watt - hallelujah150@yahoo.com


Or if you want to support us in any way, you can contact us here in Chiang Mai.

Our email address is mail@mickels.org our website is www.khamsiri.org


We are also on skype now. Our address is “khamsiri” we’ll try to be online on Sundays 7-11pm Thai time. We’d love to hear from you.


Thank you all so much for your support and prayer. We miss you a lot, but it is great to know that you are right behind us.


Lots and lots of love

Stefan, Tina & Tobias

Friday 6 February 2009

News from the Mickels in Chiang Mai

February 2009 News

It’s a lot going on at the moment and I try to just condense it to some prayer points:

A major change occurred in our family 4 month ago. 'A' the young man who've we know for a long time moved in with us permanently. The situation within his family was difficult and we had to act very sudden. He is doing reasonably well now, as he depends on God and God is healing him. Actually we are amazed how quickly God is healing him and he even gained in confidence a lot already. But he still needs a lot of prayer.

Kham Siri is changing at the moment. We shift our emphasis from teaching English to run a Thai homework club run by A. We keep Saturday activities going, where we tell bible stories, play games and have lunch with the kids.

But most importantly I focus more on discipleship. On Thursday we teach the bible and on Saturday mornings we have a homegroup setting with worship, sharing our lives, praying and I also introduced communion last week and somebody straight away had a picture seeing the father and Jesus sitting with us and blessing\helping us. We’d love to establish and grow this homegroup into a house church. .

In 3 weeks time ,on the 21st Feb. we are moving Kham Siri again to a new location inside the community. We feel that God will establish us there. We want to start with a big party, where the community is involved.

An elderly couple from New Zealand joint us. They’ve been in Calcutta for 10 years living in the slums and teaching a trade to working girls there. They want to do the same thing here. For many years now I reach out to working girls here in Chiang Mai and some show interest in learning a trade. Our new place, which is a wooden house on stilts is very suitable to do this kind of thing.