Are you Sweating the Sweatshops?

Blog post 5

"This is a Dante-like vision of hell." The author of "Where Sweatshops Are A Dream", Nicholas D. Kristof opens with a very aggressive allusion to the epic poem,"Inferno", written by Dante Alighieri who goes into great detail about what his interpretation of what hell is to be like. Kristoff begins his column with this profound allusion to give readers (assuming that they have read the epic poem) a vision of what the environment and conditions are in a third world country for an individual searching for plastic to sell to recylers.
He continues with the figurative language of a metaphor, " It's a mountain of festering refuse", and leads into his first usage of  the rhetorical triangle, pathos, "The miasma of toxic stink leaves you gasping , breezes batter you with filth, and even the rats look forlorn. Then the smoke parts and you come across a child ambling barefoot, searching for plastic cups that recylers will buy for five cents a pound", he builds up scenery for the audience, first it feels as if you are in hell, then you are forced to keep your family afloat by searching on this mountain with rats and other rodents present in the compose with toxic smells hitting against your nostrils and finally to make your heart melt, you spot a child who is doing the same thing while wondering barefoot in such a filthy environment. The reader is not only feeling bad for themselves at this point, but even more so for the child because that is not a place for anyone more less a small child.
Nicholas jumps right into his claim that many believe that sweatshops exploit to many individuals, and in his opinion he states,"they don't exploit enough". He supports his claim with the interviews of

Actual photograph from the original
article, found in New York Times

those who he sees wondering the hellish mountainside for plastic, "I'd love to get a job in a factory", Pim Srey Rath , a 19 year-old woman; "At least that work is in the shade. Here is where it's hot". He goes onto to say that while many Americans and outsiders on this topic believe that sweatshops are harming the people that work in them, when in reality a sweatshop job in these countries are seen as a privilege and aid many families to be able to eat and be productive citizens of the world. He also adds that "sweatshops are a symptom of poverty, not a cause, and banning them closes off one route out of poverty", so while he understands that the Obama administration was trying to shut down sweatshops because they only see the harm in them, his purpose of writing this column was to expose the readers to the fact that nay sweatshop jobs are a route to successfully living some countries, despite it not being the ideal job for most.
Kristof, the author gives a personal testimonial on why his views are what they are, "My views on sweatshops are shaped by years living in east Asia, watching as living standards soared- including those in my wife's ancestral village in southern china -because of sweatshop jobs" stating that he has personally seen the stereotypical grungy, abusive sweatshop job truly have a positive impact on those around him giving his more credible because he has lived, witnessed, and has ties to what he writing about, which can make an audience more open to listening to what the writer has to say.
He concludes his opinionated column with a solution to his problem that he stated earlier in his writing, "The best way to help people in the poorest countries isn't to campaign against sweatshops but to promote  manufacturing there. One of the best things America  could do for Africa would be to strengthen our program to encourage African imports called AGOA, and nudge Europe to match it". Overall "Where sweatshops Are A Dream" was written pretty well, but I would advise maybe using one more rhetorical device from the triangle, because his writing was solely based on emotion, while he did have some ethos sprinkled in, I believe that if may have used some logos or statics the his argument would have been flawless, because you can't fight numbers.