Global Studies
Five Years After Graduation

I have graduated from UCSB in the year 2000 with a degree in Global Studies. I was born in Brazil and immigrated to the United States with my family at the age of 10. Coming from a Brazilian/Korean background and later adopting the American way of life, I considered myself to be a multinational individual. I have always wanted to be involved with anything on an international scale; therefore Global Studies seemed like a logical option as a major. The story that follows is about my life and what I did during the five years of my life after I graduated from UCSB. I hope that you are not too busy to read this or worse, I hope I don't bore you to death.

I remember a lecture Prof. Juergensmeyer gave us about the working conditions in the garment district in Los Angeles. It was about the "sweat shops" in the manufacturing sector. That lecture hit me close to my heart. As a child growing up in Brazil, I remember my own mother laboring over 12 hours a day on one of those back breaking machines for many years. Eventually she raised enough money to buy enough machines and started her own manufacturing business. She sewed for 15 years. Having immigrated to the United States, she was able to leave that harsh life behind. She opened a clothing store and prospered economically. She seemed to have experienced the "American Dream"; within five years she owned five clothing stores and was able to afford many luxuries. From 1989 to 1998 she spoiled her children as best as she could. While attending UCSB, my mother spoiled as best as any Korean mother would, and never let me worry about money. In 2004, two things happened which drastically changed my life. First, my mother announced that she was bankrupt and second I graduated from school.

My first job as I entered the "real world" was for a start-up internet company working as a computer operator. I had looked for a job in the international community but after a few months, I took the first job I could get. I worked there for almost one year, never letting go of my dreams for furthering my knowledge of what I had learned in Global Studies. Accomplishments: Experienced the reality of an underpaid 8 hour work day. Did some growing up. Failures: Experienced the feeling of hating life.

As a Global Studies major, I had decided that I needed to go out and see more of the world. One day I decided to quit my job and boarded on an airplane towards France. I backpacked throughout Europe for almost six months working part-time jobs when I could. I remember Prof. Juergensmeyer had us memorize the map of Europe, pointing out that a Global Studies major should at least know the location of all major countries in the world. Accomplishments: Saw Europe, its History and its beauty! Met the people and experienced some of the different cultures. Failure: None that I can think of. Europe was an experience I will cherish for the rest of my life.

One thing Europe taught me was that I needed to learn more about life. The people and the customs of every country was so different from the pre-notions I had about them that I could not help notice the bubble in which I lived in. When I came back home to the United States, I started work in a place I had to keep secret from my family and friends. I was in Los Angeles, working in the garment district. More specifically, I was working in the manufacturing sector (the sweat shops) of California. Perhaps it was shame that made me look for a job there. Knowing that my mother at her old age was now bankrupt, while I had spent over five years in Santa Barbara soaking in the beautiful beaches of Santa Barbara County. She had wasted so many years of her life working in those sweatshops! Another reason I wanted to work there was because most sweatshop owners are Koreans.

They are the people from my roots, and I did not want to think Koreans as the people running the sweatshops of California. Perhaps the whole sweatshop thing could be an overrated idea blown out of proportion! I worked in the garment district for six months. During that time, I saw things that made me feel both happy and also disgusted. Practically all of the workers in the garment district are Mexican women. About 90% of them are uneducated and can't speak English. My job there was of a manager, with my knowledge of Spanish and Korean; I was gap between the owners and the workers. Although I am ethnically Korean, I relate much to the Latino community. Being born in South America, many times I felt closer to Latinos than Asians. Due to the circumstances of being in a sweatshop I naturally took the side of the workers. They got paid around 10 to 20 cents for each piece of clothing they finished. On average, they took home around $1500 every month. I was happy to see that a few earned more than $2000 a month. (More than I did working as a computer operator.) However, that was rare. Many of them worked 12 hours a day and got paid much less. (No benefits, no insurance, vacation or sick days.) The reason they worked in such bad conditions was because many of them were in the United States illegally.

The ones that did have legal status didn't speak enough English nor had had the proper education to work at a better job. The good side of the story is that while they labored in the sweatshops, their children were here in the United States. They were getting an education and chances of them working in a sweatshop like their mothers was greatly diminished. There were a few of them with educated children that fought for the rights of the workers. They worked hard to organize the workers and sue the Koreans who were unreasonably bad. Yet, it was a lost cause. Poverty always brought new workers to replace the few willing to fight for their rights. The owners of the sweatshops are all Korean. Many of them are immigrants from Korea and many of them are also here illegally. The woman I worked for was one of them. She was a nasty and wicked woman. We hated each other, the only reason she kept me there was because she couldn't find a replacement. She tried to cheat the workers out of their money whenever she could and forced all of us to work like animals by constantly yelling in a foreign language that only I unfortunately understood.

When I finally quit working there, I confided in my mother of what I did. I confronted her about the way Koreans treated their workers and she explained to me that it was in fact a hard world to live in sometimes. She said, "Welcome to the real world my son." She also gave comfort in saying that there were many Koreans who did not treat their workers bad. She told me that the reason she was able to get out of that life was because her workers actually helped her. There was a bond that formed between an employer and employee even in sweatshops when there was respect among them. My mother told me that she always sewed together with her employees. She knew when it was reasonable to fight for a better contract from the big companies without losing them to another competitor. She said that there was a bond between her workers and her because they all had one thing in common. They all knew that they were in some hellhole together. When she was able to leave the sweatshop business, she gave everything to Elizabete, one of her employees. They had worked together for 10 years, my mother made her promise she would make her money needed to leave and pass the baton. Accomplishment: Learned about my roots and reported my former employer to the authorities. She closed the business and I don't know what she is doing right now. Failure: Can't think of a solution to the sweatshop problem. (In California, perhaps a free labor of movement from Mexico could ease the problem.)

After leaving the garment industry, I was broke. I did not get paid well there. I went back to Santa Barbara and started working at Nordstrom selling shoes, delivered pizza, and opened a small business importing handmade artifacts made by poor street vendors in Brazil. I failed miserable. Accomplishments: Learned that I cannot start a business with not enough capital nor can I try to help the poor economically when I am struggling to support myself. Failure: None. I learned much from the business venture.

I have been in Korea for over a year now. I am an English teacher. I am pretty happy with my job. I am learning a great deal about the Asian culture and their work ethic. I still want to do something internationally.

I really want to go back to school. I want to become a lawyer. I tried very hard to apply what I learned from the program as best as I could and this is where I am today. Now, I want to go further. (Note to Global Studies students: there are many job opportunities here in Asia for students with a degree in Global Studies.)

Sincerely,

Tomas Kim
tomasjkim@hotmail.com