University community should not be fooled by ad

I am writing in response to the cynical Nike ad that recently ran on the back page of The Chronicle. I happen to have some inside information on Nike's business practices in the Third World. I have been working as a foreign correspondent in the People's Republic of China for the past 15 years, for the Los Angeles Times, United Press International, the Asian Wall Street Journal and most recently Beijing Scene, my own independent publication.

I have on numerous occasions visited Nike factories in southern China. They are Dickensian sweatshops. Most of the employees are underage females, stitching swooshes onto sneakers rather than attending secondary-and in some cases primary-school.

The central fallacy of Nike's argument is "independent, outside auditors." I have investigated these international inspection and compliance organizations. Depressingly invariably, with a wink and a nod the inspectors take their kickback payment and report back exactly what Nike wants to hear, most often without setting foot on the sweatshop's floor.

I call on The Chronicle and fellow Dukies to boycott this sickening Nike advertisement in your school paper. I remain astonished at the level of the American public's gullibility-at least from my Beijing perch. How else do you build a billion-dollar company but by manufacturing products in the Third World for pennies on the dollar and selling them for upwards of $100 to American children?

Nike is the quintessence of global capital American-style as the new millennium approaches. Don't be fooled, those shoes you're wearing come at the expense of a Third World kid's childhood.

Scott Savitt

Trinity '85