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Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs talks with host Jamie Rubin.
 Watch the video Dial-up | DSL or read the transcript.
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Where is the line between fairness and exploitation in global business?
As Cambodia reconnects to the global economy after 30 years of war, WIDE ANGLE examines the mixed blessing this represents to the country's poor. In this week's briefing, FORTUNE magazine's Richard Behar asks French telecom giant Alcatel why the men and women who laid cable for the company in 1998 had to work so hard for so little.
Globalization: Between Fairness and Exploitation
By Richard Behar
August 1, 2002
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Where's the line?
If the great globalization debate were boiled down to one question, it would be this: "Where's the line between fairness to and exploitation of poor workers by the world's multinationals?"
| 1953 |
Cambodia gains independence from France.
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| 1970 |
King deposed. U.S. and South Vietnamese invade.
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| 1974-1979 |
1.7 million Cambodians die under Pol Pot's rule.
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| 1978-1996 |
War between Vietnam and Khmer Rouge over Cambodia.
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| 1993 |
Constitutional monarchy restored.
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| 1997 |
Pol Pot captured. Denies crimes against humanity.
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On one side of the debate sit people like Laurent De Segonzac, spokesman for Alcatel -- the French telecom giant that has used hundreds of rural Cambodian villagers to dig through rock and dirt (and past unexploded landmines) to lay broadband cable across the country. For this they received less than $1 a day -- the official line of absolute poverty.
"You can't be deciding if a wage is acceptable through the eyes of a Westerner," says De Segonzac. "It's not acceptable to us, but it is to them." Many of those diggers might beg to disagree with Alcatel.
Then again, "Let Them Sweat," writes NEW YORK TIMES columnist Nick Kristof. He calls on G-8 leaders to promote garments from third-world factories, with labels reading, "Proudly Made In A Third World Sweatshop." As Kristof sees it, sweatshops are the best and only option that the poorest workers have in places like Cambodia and Afghanistan. He's right. And he's wrong.
Read More 
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Inside This Episode
 Learn how Alcatel's Cambodia operation fits into a larger global picture in our Photo Essay.
An Interactive Atlas explains how economists today draw the line between rich and poor.
This week's Info-Graphic reveals how several global companies attempt to balance profits with social responsibility.
A Cambodian woman employed on Alcatel's cable-laying operation.
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