Worn down by neglect

The tragedy that - yet again - killed several hundred Bangladeshi garment factory workers when their building collapsed last week poses important commercial, political and moral challenges to the country and to the global leadership of politicians and business executives alike.

It will not be easy because the difficult questions include what is the value of a human life? How much - or rather how little - are the people of the West prepared to pay for clothes? Do giant multinational companies, such as Wal-Mart, Gap, H&M and Inditex, have a responsibility to insist on - and pay for - safe working conditions in the factories in which their goods are produced?

There are challenges to modern capitalism: can its thirst for constantly rising quarterly profits allow room for a conscience that pays for safe conditions even if it reduces earnings?

There are challenges for governments: can individual governments stop the corrupt practices that are at the heart of many of the problems seen in the Bangladesh fire in November last year, which killed 124 people, and in the collapse of the factory last week in which 377 people lost their lives, with hundreds more missing?

Can governments as a whole or international bodies step in and enforce global standards? Or is one of the first rules of globalisation that no one is responsible, but everyone is squeezing to ensure the lowest production costs and biggest profits?

This is a very unequal struggle. The world's garment business is worth US$1 trillion. Wal-Mart has annual sales that are bigger than the gross domestic product of all but 25 countries. Gap includes the Gap itself and Banana Republic and Old Navy. Philips-Van Heusen makes Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger garments.

At the sharp and vulnerable end of the production line are some very small people, some of whom earn less than US$38 a month for their tough work in crowded and sometimes unsafe factories.