a simple black T

I was copying some handouts for my 3pm English class today when I noticed a T-shirt worn by one of the employees in the shop. It read-

I started with nothing
and I've got almost all of it left.

It reminded me of an article I read last week in the Cambodia Daily about migration. It quoted the Cambodian Development Resource Institute (CDRI) as saying that less than 5% of migrants leave Cambodian with proper paper work. If this is accurate, 250 000 people may have left the country in 2009 alone. Most of them pay to go illegally. They generally do 3D jobs that nobody else wants to do. (3D = dirty, difficult, dangerous). They work in construction, fishing, agriculture and factories. Sometimes they get paid between $3 and $8 per day for their efforts. Sometimes they get nothing. And there's always the risk of getting caught, locked up and spat out in Poipet. The Cambodian Daily article added that government officials said that more than 100 000 illegal Cambodian migrant workers were deported by Thai authorities via Banteay Meanchey's Poipet border crossing in 2010. Enough stats already? Here's the story of one young woman who started with nothing...

Chantha, a 19 year old from Banteay Meanchey, grew up in a poor family of four. She was unemployed and decided to go to Thailand to seek work after hearing from other villagers that there were well-paid jobs available there. She contacted an organiser who had already taken a few villagers to Thailand... To go to the intended workplace, the organiser asked her for 250 000 riels (about USD60). Chantha's household could not save such a big sum and was forced to borrow from a moneylender. The $60 did not cover everything. Chantha needed to pay for transport from her home to the border [which took four hours and cost a further $7.50].

Chantha earned 14 000 riels per day [about $3.50] while daily consumption cost her only 2500 riel [about 60 cents]. She worked hard but was happy that her hard work paid off. She expected to save 172 500 riels per month. With that, she could pay off the debt and send some money to support her family. On the 15th day of work, her expectations came to a sudden end when she and other Cambodians were seized and jailed by the police. She could not even recover the cost of transportation and the fee paid to the organisers. She was kept in a crowded room and provided food like pig feed. The room was so packed with illegal migrant workers that it was impossible to move. On the third day of her imprisonment, the police extradited her and the others to Cambodia via Poipet.

Although Chantha had such a bad experience, she believed that working in Thailand allows workers to earn more income, which can lift their families out of extreme poverty, and to learn new skills and get to know foreign places.

(Case study from CDRI)

Maybe perspective will come... but right now I'm stuck on the stupid, depressing T-shirt!