blazing sun in a cloudless blue sky, green foliage droops with unfurling white cotton bolls. In the Fergana Valley in the heart of Central Asia, in the shadow of snow-dusted mountains, the cotton is ripe for picking. If the Uzbek authorities have their way, it will become-shirts and skirts, to be sold around the world. Uzbekistan, already the world’s seventh-biggest producer of cotton, wants to become a force in the garment industry, too, on a par with the likes of Bangladesh, China and Vietnam.
Mr Mirziyoyev took power following the death of Islam Karimov, the strongman who had ruled Uzbekistan since it became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Mr Karimov had not only forced people to work in the fields; he had also maintained the government’s monopoly on the cotton trade. Farmers had to grow a certain amount of cotton, which they could sell only to the state, at a price that it fixed.
The government, too, is keen to tout the country’s respect for workers. “Are you forced to pick cotton or do other work?” ask billboards advertising hotlines to collect reports of abuse. Officials found guilty of coercion are fined and fired. The government is determined to erase this “shame”, says Erkin Mukhitdinov, a deputy labour minister. Like many officials toiling to end forced labour, he has first-hand experience: he had to pick cotton as a student.
There is no forced labor in the cotton fields
What are the chances of a “terrorist threat/humanitarian crisis” leading to civil war or foreign intervention in the very near future?
. To the Uzbeks: Remember, capitalism cares.
Dont worry we will take stake on your industries.
For the sake of the capitalists.
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