Dirty work

STORIES FROM THE BOILER ROOM OF OUR COMFORTABLE LIFE

The downside of our Western lifestyle

In the backlands of Kenya, female workers on a rose farm work overtime because the rest of the world will soon be celebrating Valentine’s Day. On the outskirts of Calcutta, without protective clothing, Bengalese labourers dye underpants for European discounters. In the space of five years, Jan Stremmel visited more than forty countries. Far from the tourist hotspots and luxurious beach resorts, he travelled to locations where the effects of our globalised world are par- ticularly obvioustextile mills in Asia, dried-up lakes in Kazakhstan or South American coffee plantations. And it is the stark contrast between our comfortable life in Europe and the hard reality in developing countries which Jan Stremmel describes in ten impassioned and captivating reports. He shows that the everyday life we have come to expect is only possible because we have outsourced the dirty work to these regions, that our consumption is part of the problem and therefore also part of the solution.

Barbecue charcoal made from tropical wood, sand stolen for the construction of holiday villages, roses grown on land where the hippopotamus graze: the consequences of our consumer behaviour made tangible by impressive reports from around the globe

The right book at the right moment: there is currently a strong awareness of the consequences of global trade links