I’ve been meaning to mention for a while now that on September 1, Uzbek Independence Day, a number of bloggers are pledging to blog about Uzbekistan and to call for sanctions of Uzbek cotton. Given my schedule, I probably will not be online that day, but I think that it’s an issue worth discussing.
Craig Murray issued the original call for sanctions on cotton in this column and also responded to questions and concerns about the call.
I think that Murray makes some good points. If I recall correctly, the US unilaterally embargoed (planned to?) Uzbek cotton in 2001 over the practice of forced child labor to harvest the crops (an embargo that I’m sure was dropped after 9/11). The cotton industry is a disaster. It ties farmers to land they don’t own to do work that they can’t earn the full profits of to fill the state’s coffers. And because the state depends on the revenue, it will not change the system willingly. (Which is why it’s good to hear Sanjar Umarov say that agricultural reform a priority.
Anyhow, I’m on the fence on the issue.
I will schedule a post for September 1, and I encourage all other bloggers discussing the issue to send a trackback to the post. I also encourage readers to comment and debate the issue on the first.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 1 comment }
Catton embargo? What you do with it. You make the life of uzbek people even harder. If freind to uzbek people, you should not think of that.
Comments on this entry are closed.