Illegally Built Tower Block Collapses With Over 3,000 People Inside | Short Documentary

The Rana Plaza collapse occurred on 24 April 2013 in Bangladesh, it was an eight-storey commercial building containing multiple sweatshops with nearly 3,000 people inside.
The disaster is the deadliest building collapse in modern history.
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Some Fun Words: Concrete Building Collapse, Sampoong Building, Workers Rights, Fast Fashion , disaster management, construction Failure
#disaster #Documentary​​​​ #History​​​​​​​​​ #TrueStories

[@PlainlyDifficult]

►Thanks for watching, check out me other bits! ►My new Album: madebyjohn.bandcamp.com/album/now-thats-the-glades-94 ►Instagram: instagram.com/plainly.john/ ►Patreon: www.patreon.com/Plainlydifficult ►Merch: plainly-difficult.creator-spring.com ►Twitter:twitter.com/Plainly_D Sources: www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1482152/FULLTEXT01.pdf www.vqronline.org/reporting-articles/2014/04/ghosts-rana-plaza nanopdf.com/download/rana-plaza-structural-and-ethical-failure-mandy-gavin-engr2110_pdf www.slideshare.net/ManjotKaur82/rana-plaza-collapse-in-bangladesh www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22334240 libcom.org/article/house-cards-savar-building-collapse www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24080579

[@Andy-fd5fg]

When will you have your Bingo card in your merch store?

[@PlainlyDifficult]

@@Andy-fd5fgI’m hoping very soon, they have been ordered and once I’ve got them will need to be laminated hold tight! 😊

[@PrinzessinSchuhkarton]

@@PlainlyDifficult haha, the best unique merch piece 😂❤🎉

[@grmpEqweer]

Thanks for your work, it's a darkly charming addition to my Saturdays.

[@mukherjeesuniversum2665]

​@@PlainlyDifficult Make one on 1999 Gaisal Rail Disaster... The chain of incidents leading to the disaster is really really horrifying...

[@gwheregwhizz]

Benetton tried hard to deny their clothing was made at the factory, mainly because they didn't want to admit their clothing was made in the same factory as far cheaper brands like Primark and Walmart. Years later, they paid compensation.

[@thedevilinthecircuit1414]

And where's Benetton now?

[@anabrans2]

200 dollars....

[@ferretyluv]

Luxury brands all make their clothes in the exact same sweatshops as Walmart. That’s why luxury brands are pointless unless they’re made in the first world.

[@nilstrobaggia735]

They don't mention Nicky "Squeals to the Cops" Bocci or Pasquale "Vagisil" Indelicato. They were part of the Columbo crew run by Joey "Masturbation" Dio who ran salvage and Longshorman's union rackets in the Bronx. Turns out Nicky ended up squealing to the cops and we were all looking at some serious time in Riker's if we didn't take care of the situation. So, we gave Ernie "Smells like Teen Spirit" Galena the contract to clip him at ballet class. Next day, his wife recieved some bloody ballet shoes as a gift on her doorstep.

[@dcallan812]

Most brands farm out the manufacturing to middle men, they find the cheapest company that can deliver on time and thats about it. Very few brands have thier own manufacturing, Burberry used to make some of the items in the UK but we cant compete on price against Asia.

[@mrnitrous20]

The fact that they were evacuated and made to return makes this all the more horrific 😢

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It really is isn’t it!

[@Merennulli]

Sadly not uncommon. I used to work in an drop-ceiling office built out into the storage area. Above the drop-ceiling was nothing for 10 meters and then the crumbling concrete underside of the grand staircase. We had a chunk about half a meter across fall and hit the corner of the supports for the drop-ceiling and thankfully land outside instead of inside. A meter to the side and my coworker would have been hit. A while later they finally decided to take out the stairs and repair the mess. So they started jackhammering from above. While we were still expected to work underneath. We were still told it was safe as the fumes and pebbles, not to mention the constant jackhammering became our office experience. At that point I threatened to quit and thankfully my side of the office was moved the next day. The day after that, the jackhammer broke through and sent thousands of liters of water into the offices where some of my coworkers still were. Thankfully the concrete didn't catastrophically collapse, but it was a huge mess and safety risk we should never have been under. Unit conversion was made in my head, so I may be slightly off. I'm in the land of freedom units, but I try to use metric on YT.

[@marhawkman303]

@@PlainlyDifficult I'd argue for time pressure and legacy infrastructure on the bingo. The company making the factory work... was throwing stuff together in a hurried and haphazard manner, because they were trying to speed refit an old building not meant for their purposes.

[@perstaffanlundgren]

That did not sound very safe a.a. Where did the water come from? was the stairs outside of the building emalop?

[@Merennulli]

@@perstaffanlundgren If you meant what I posted, rain. The stairs are a "grand staircase" in front of a very large building, all of which accumulates rain. Think of the enormous set of stairs you see people having speeches on in front of the US capitol. You don't want torrents of rain going down the stairs, so they are designed to have space under the stairs to channel water away into a storm drain from the building and the whole of the grand staircase. The repair process removed the enormous stone slabs that were the steps of the grand staircase, exposing that concrete storm drain. When they jackhammered away parts of it, it created areas where water could collect and pour through the holes they made in the process. That's normal and to be expected with this kind of project, so you normally cover the area with plastic sheeting to channel the water away. They didn't do that part and we had a very heavy rain that day. Edit: Sorry, forgot to answer about the building envelope. The part of the grand staircase involved is not in the building's envelope. The grand staircase begins 100 feet outside the door and ends on the third floor 50 feet inside the door.

[@lobanrahmantonoy4130]

I am from Bangladesh. As this was a big event, the international community was aware of the accident. But, each year, hundreds of fire incidents take place in unplanned industries. Many workers die because of these accidents. No one really cares as shown in this incident.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It’s really tragic this world is lacking compassion

[@UhOh-pt7sk]

@@PlainlyDifficult sounds like a worthy topic for a future video perhaps 🤔

[@Jens-Viper-Nobel]

@@UhOh-pt7sk and @PlainlyDifficult A future video is not the case we need here. We need a movie of international standard, and we need it to start out with some of the lesser known fires and collapses killing garment workers to highlight the issue of corruption, and then have actors portray people who were actually killed and injured and survivors in this disaster. As true to real horrific events as possible, but also clearly a movie following the now normal pattern of disaster movies internationally so that the garment workers become people we know and can relate to and make the movie bond with. Much like the movie made about the shirt factory fire.

[@Kaiserboo1871]

Unfortunately, that tends to happen in industrializing societies. America and Europe went through those same growing pains. Luckily, Bangladesh is a democracy and has a free press which will eventually lead to a progressive movement that will reform the worst aspects of Industrialization away.

[@darylb5564]

The international community should make a video to bring awareness of how little this country cares for its citizens….

[@TraTranc]

Building owner before: _"It's safe bro."_ Building owner after: _"Balls."_

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Balls indeed

[@BazingusBoi]

​@@PlainlyDifficultIndeed balls

[@Kalvinjj]

And just like with the Sampoong shopping center collapse, the "it's safe bro" idiot wasn't in the oh-so-safe building.

[@DomoKuchikan]

My bingo card spelled BALLS

[@ballsdeep2520]

Hello guys

[@Whatifadragonwasaguy]

I remember this one VERY distinctly because of an incredibly tasteless article that Slate published afterwards titled "Different Places Have Different Safety Rules and That's Okay." Horrific structural failure that was completely avoidable.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Yea that sounds like an awful article gravity still occurs in the third world!!

[@TioDeive]

The ones who writes this kind of article don't need to risk their skin to make a living. Put this same person in unsafe conditions and poor living standards he/she might think twice before uttering such stupidities.

[@Heike--]

Slate is a Left site. Stories like this are red meat for the racist Right to point to to stoke xenophobia and hate.

[@krystianzyszczynski4115]

Slate..... a garbage publication

[@WhiteWolf-lm7gj]

Jesus Christ. Yeah, it's okay to have different safety rules when they're appropriate for the location the work is done (terrain, humidity, etc), not when they're failing to keep people safe entirely

[@Molkatoftime]

I did a report on this in college back in 2019 for a public speaking assignment and *none* of my classmates had ever even heard of this event. Needless to say, they were pretty horrified to learn about it. Stunned silence in the whole room. I hope it made a lifelong impact on them.

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

Just a comment on the equipment that they were loading into this building: I own an industrial sewing machine, and that sucker weighs close to as much as I do. (I'm not very big, but it's a solid piece of equipment!) One is fine in my little studio, but I can't imagine how many they packed into every floor of that building, as tightly as they could, plus the people to operate each of them, and *then* the generators to run them. Also, people who don't work with textiles usually underestimate how much fabric weighs - a single bolt of cotton can weigh a couple hundred lbs easily. With all this adding up on every floor of the building, plus all the vibration from all that machinery, I can easily see how an unreinforced building being used beyond its purpose or specs could fall apart from being overloaded with sewing machines and fabric alone. Making clothes isn't easy, and fast fashion is killing people who deserve so much more for their skills.

[@johndoerr8853]

A low end factory level sewing machine can weigh anywhere from 90 to 700lbs depending on it's use. A simple leather sewing machine I had weighed over 250lbs and it was your low end. The cost of the needles/punches made it very expensive to run on HQ leathers.

[@moosemaimer]

At the complete opposite end of the scale, I used to work in an office located in an old mill building (apparently one of if not the first steel-reinforced concrete mills). The company bought additional floor space on the level below the office, and so they cut a hole in the floor to put in a staircase. The floor was a good 40cm+ of concrete with 4-5cm steel rods running through it, and it took the crew a solid week of overnight shifts to cut through it (try taking a call with that going on!) The shoe factory that the building was constructed for were not taking any chances, but all we had were cubicles and a few racks of network equipment.

[@Bob-Whiting]

Well said Thingy ol' boy!

[@m1gr3nA]

​@@johndoerr8853you assume they used industrial machinery. i doubt that. same goes for hole punchers etc. they most likely used the cheapest ones. but those still weight a lot. even the portable ones will weight 20+kg. assuming best case scenario where they used those and about 500 working with them it's additional 100t, plus materials, plus ready products... it's a lot.

[@JoeRogansForehead]

Nonsense , I can easily fit 28 bolts of cloth in my backpack when I play RuneScape .

[@canonip3000]

Offering 200$ per death should be a crime as well... Like wtf, an iPhone is worth 5 human lives?

[@freedomfirst5557]

I'm sure a human life is worth a couple of cents to some people. Humans are the most inhumane of living creatures.

[@logic.and.reasoning]

Unfortunately you are correct, but stating what is completely obvious in our day. Compassion vs Greed is governed by....our governments... BUT our governments are meant to serve the people, not rule. We need to get back to honest people looking after societies affairs, not the rich getting richer. The share market is a scam that let's the rich gamble openly, but worse, take money from those smaller people they actively tell to invest, so that they can win. Any money MADE on the stock market, is LOST by someone else. CIA. Homeland security, are nothing compared to the hidden giants of data collection...which then can influence AT WILL the markets. Its a huge scam we unfortunately will have to lose everything to break.

[@daviddavidson2357]

5 Bangladeshi lives Different exchange rates for different countries.

[@overthelunforyou8592]

bamgladesh is the cheapest country on earth so 200$ gets you through some month or two, theoretically. which doesn't make the compensation any better.. just, yeah..

[@up0820]

What humans? I didn't see any.

[@paul6925]

Not only was it badly built but I think that might be the ugliest design I have ever seen. Truly an accomplishment

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It really was trash

[@BlueRGuy]

The building k!lled itself after finding out it's appearance 😭

[@paul6925]

@@BlueRGuy Dark 😂

[@TimSlee1]

It's pretty average looking by Indian standards

[@MrJames1034]

I think the design was a masterpiece. It's literally the building representation of the fashion industry; boring, soulless, mass produced, and ugly.

[@johndoerr8853]

I was told yesterday "You have to bleed for fashion". Sometimes they don't mention of it's their blood or that of a couple thousand third world workers.

[@turidoth]

Talk about a fashion disaster

[@scottkrafft6830]

Or, before the 1880s, everything fashion related was hand-made by skilled artisans, providing for even more jobs that were also more stable and sustaining than sweatshops. Yes, it cost more, but so called "luxury" goods are made side-by-side with clothes sold at Wal-Mart.

[@john-ic5pz]

@scott the economics of "piece work" sewing was abominable though, basically decentralized sweatshops as the artisans were paid next to nothing per piece...in the UK at least.

[@broadwaybaby348]

Garment workers organizations asked for a 10 cents levy to be added to each piece of clothing to go towards improving working conditions. The clothing manufacturers refused to pay this tiny additional cost. As a consumer I would have gladly paid more for my clothing to make their lives better, but I was never asked,

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Same as would i

[@ressljs]

It's crazy how the USA is still tearing itself apart trying to come to terms with it's history of slavery. And yet we so casually accept our supply chains and lifestyles sit atop a global network of de facto slavery.

[@JoshuaTootell]

No, we won't. We will see something cheaper on the shelf next to it, and buy that instead. Profits to the shareholders are what matters most.

[@Smedley1947]

As I often say, the United States STILL has slavery, but they just offshore it so it's not visible when it's 12,000 miles away.

[@Smedley1947]

The entire world is run for shareholders and everything else be damned. Including the planet itself and the people on it.

[@ply61]

In the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City, there was a clothing factory that left their workers locked up with chains in the doors, when the quake struck, parts of the building collapsed too with many women trapped inside and many died inside the rubble. The owners of the building wouldn’t let anyone get close to it because of the conditions of work for the seamstress… but they did demand the army to help them remove and transport their machinerie away from the place. There’s a monument where the seamstress died, but not much of it is remembered; my grandma used to work close to there on a dining place, so she got to hear all the stories from firefighters, volunteers, policemen, neighbors and those lucky enough to survive that day.

[@SD-vy7gj]

Was the owner skinned alive

[@ply61]

@@SD-vy7gj nah, he had connections with people from the government and it was all passed off like an “unfortunate accident “

[@FlyWithFitz81]

Having worked at a major clothier who was found to have purchased items from here. I am very saddened for how this incident failed to spark a revolution in how the rich world procures textiles. We still value "value" without considering human cost.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Unfortunately greed never changes

[@FlyWithFitz81]

Awesome series and snark. Thanks for all of this.

[@TheCatherineCC]

nonviolent protest works!

[@solandri69]

The rich procuring textiles from developing countries isn't the problem (it's how capitalism sends money from rich countries to developing countries). The problem is how that money is distributed. I'm very pro-capitalism, but this is a persistent problem with it. The economy grows the quickest when you pay workers a fair wage. Henry Ford stumbled onto this by accident. When other manufacturers intimidated laborers into not working for him, he offered to pay $5/day - nearly double the prevailing wage. Rather than cripple his profits, this higher wage had the opposite effect. His workers were suddenly able to afford the cars they were building. That required Ford to build more cars to meet increased demand, which meant he had to hire more workers. And those workers could buy cars, requiring him to build more cars. And so on. This feedback loop catapulted Ford into one of the wealthiest men on the planet. Economic efficiency is maximized when you pay a fair wage. But owners commonly underpay their workers, resulting in economic inefficiency and the region remaining mired in poverty. The GDP per capita in countries stuck in this state tops out at around $5k-$15k per capita. A handful of owners become wealthy (relative to others in the country). But overall they are big fish in little ponds. If they'd just pay their workers more, their country's GDP would grow into the $30k-$50k per capita range. They'd own a smaller percentage of the country's wealth, but they'd be much wealthier overall.

[@Heike--]

Neoliberalism - capital roams the world in search of opportunities. But we still have outdated national borders that keeps people in place. If ppopulation could move around the world as well all these problems would go away. But xenophobia among whites is strong and prevents this from happening, just look at the UK.

[@SeanPat1001]

Years ago, a local producer of pecans shut down his factory because of concern over the cumulative effect of years of vibration. He felt the building was no longer safe. Even if the original building had been built perfectly, adding the floors at the top would’ve added stress to the structure that was never considered in the original design.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It was a shit show

[@SeanPat1001]

@@PlainlyDifficult I don’t know, manure could be useful. I lived in Hawaii for five years. Because of the incredibly high price of land, people would add a story to their homes. The way they did this was to Jack their houses up and build a new story under the existing house. In that way, they had a floor that was built strong enough to support the floors above it. Not practical for big buildings, but illustrates the principle that if you want to add a floor to a structure at the planning stage, you add that floor to the bottom to assure that you have some thing strong enough to support the rest.

[@EXROBOWIDOW]

Well, there's the Millennium Tower in San Francisco. It's a skyscraper with million dollar condos, built in an area of the city that was "reclaimed" land on the edge of the bay. Not only that, but the builders substituted a heavy reinforced concrete structure in place of the original glass and steel structure. Modern San Francisco's answer to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, I guess. There have been KZbin videos made about it, with questions asked about the suitability of the "fixes" being attempted. When it falls down, it will likely collapse onto neighboring buildings. Yes, I am a pessimist.

[@millermike5739]

​@@EXROBOWIDOWthe thing is, in the US if the people fixing it fail, they'll spent decades if not the rest of their life in prison. So they won't take any chances. If they say it will work, that's because they spent millions on experts from all over the world. If there was a chance it could collapse they would demo it.

[@Techno_Idioto]

At least that man understood that safety trumped profit.

[@MarianneKat]

This is but one reason I have reduced buying any clothes. Also, my civil engineering dad would never have signed off in this building when it was built, much less modified. You really make me appreciate his perfectionist civil engineering heart. ❤

[@drkatel]

👍🏼I started learning to sew about 3 years ago when I retired and for the past couple years all my clothes are sewn or thrifted/upcycled. It’s a drop in the bucket but it’s satisfying.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I can imagine that is very rewarding

[@radiorob7543]

Living in a nudist colony would reduce buying clothes. 🍑

[@SeamusDonohueEVEOnline]

Regarding the Bingo card: I would add "Legacy Infrastructure" and "Cost Cutting". "Legacy Infrastructure" because the building was not originally designed for industrial use. "Cost Cutting" because when the building was converted to industrial use, the conversion was done in an extremely shoddy manner.

[@Aurril]

You could arguably add "Fatigue" as the concrete developed fatigue cracks due to vibrations and overload.

[@SeamusDonohueEVEOnline]

@@Aurril I can see that, sure. Need a ruling from @PlainlyDifficult , though, since it's his bingo card. John, does "Fatigue" only mean human fatigue or does it also include material fatigue?

[@Emigdiosback]

I remember the woman who survived for 17 days buried. Reminds me of the Sampoong Dept Store disaster

[@the_kombinator]

I read the book on that one while in Korea - Goddamn - so much more detail....

[@FagOfTheForest]

The Sampoong Dpt Store still haunts me. I've watched a few videos on it and the details never get easier to swallow.

[@jiribrabec2100]

let's say you deserve at least a comment for the nonexistent advert. legendary video as always, thank you, sir

[@kewldood9746]

Yes, I agree

[@mimsydreams]

This is one of the many reasons I try to avoid places like Shein and Temu. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to avoid them all. With all the drop shipping and shady crap happening in this world, it's hard to find a truly ethical way to buy clothes that's affordable on a budget. But I still avoid the bad places I KNOW of.

[@zyxw2000]

I buy from LandsEnd and LLBean, mostly.

[@wesleynewton1589]

11:33 thanks John from the currently cold, rainy center of the U.S.A.

[@igostupidfast3]

We never really got rid of dangerous factories and pollution. We just moved them elsewhere like the homeless.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Very true

[@nlwilson4892]

It isn't really about cheap fashion as the really expensive brands also have clothing and shoes made by people working in sweat shops for low wages, they just make far more profit than Primark. If memory serves me right, Primark paid out to all workers in the building, not just their own. Whilst Benetton denied their clothing was made there when it was. Also a note about people being trapped and dying before being rescued. If someone receives crush injuries below the lungs they can often stay alive for many hours, maybe even a day as long as whatever crushing them keeps the pressure on. But they have no chance of surviving however quick they are rescued. Obviously there will also be those that can be rescued successfully.

[@Smedley1947]

I assume you're speaking of the rhabdomyolysis caused by the crush of muscle tissue which releases toxins as it dies. I'm sure many people who are rescued quickly succumb to rhabdomyolysis.

[@kiarawhalen1544]

"After this short advertisement" and no advertising was brilliant, speaking of brilliant... I must applaud you for not selling your soul to them!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

👌

[@TimSlee1]

I thought it was just my ablock doing its job

[@somethingelse4424]

"Oh no... Oh well. Oh wow!" -Me, Just now

[@alankeith7866]

Greed is always the root cause of events like this. The construction company should also be accountable, as I'm sure they knew that the building was unsafe.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Greed never changes

[@treyblaze22]

​@@PlainlyDifficultthis is basically a worse version of the sampoong department store collapse. 😡😡😡😡

[@1pcfred]

A construction company can only build what their customer wants. They're not responsible for the design or what the structure is used for after it is done.

[@deanchur]

@@1pcfred And much of the time in countries like this there's a mandate from the higher ups to speed up construction and keep the budget down; still happens all the time in China (hence how "tofu dreg" became a thing).

[@1pcfred]

@@deanchur I've heard of weird stuff that goes on in China. Time is money in the racket. So everyone has an incentive to finish jobs quickly, unless it's time and materials. Then we take our time.

[@sarahr9894]

Man I recently watched a "ten years later" documentary catching up with survivors and those who are supposedly holding the companies to higher standards. It was pretty depressing. No justice, truly.

[@lorenzotrujillo4750]

This is like one of the only channels i actively monitor for posts

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you! Spread the word!!

[@emmahenry3995]

I remember working for Primark when that happened, and we were pretty much threatened with our jobs if we spoke about it to any journalists. If someone came into the store asking questions we were told to walk away and say nothing or face disciplinary if we talked. I was 22/23 yrs at the time and needed the job but made me feel like dirt! Now if I can help it I buy second hand, clothes swap, make my own where I just wanna do my small part to not contribute to that industry

[@robertturner4955]

Corruption kills, over and over again.

[@semadt]

Unfortunately it doesn't usually kill the ones profiting from the mess, just poor people who mostly have little choice.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

Mankind loves to destroy its own. All in the name of... merch? 🤔 #CLASSY

[@tremensdelirious]

I taught this as a case study at a college. How More Developed Counties are using Less Developed Countries to get cheap goods. Check the price of goods if these supply chains weren’t used

[@bmstylee]

People complain about products made in 3rd world countries but definitely aren't interested in paying $70 for a T-shirt.

[@tremensdelirious]

@@bmstylee also worked for a ethical travel company. Price of trips where local suppliers get a decent kickback, and money invested in community is eye watering. You want immaculate ethics then you pay for it

[@meatharbor]

@@tremensdelirious Kinda weird how how the economic system that's "uplifting" these countries simultaneously makes it prohibitively expensive for them to participate in that system without surrendering to foreign exploitation. Also no ethical consumption under capitalism and whatnot. I just woke up so I'm using my lazy slogan token for the day.

[@ConvictedFelonDonaldTrump]

Neoliberal economics has destroyed this entire world.

[@notorioustori]

​@@bmstylee Yet, some retailers charge $70 for a tshirt. If that tshirt lasts a decade, I'd buy it. The thing about cheap clothing is cheap material and bad stitching. It becomes part of the "poor" tax because you're still spending well over $70 over the course of time for multiple poor quality tshirts than for 1 well tailored shirt. Of course, that's not at all addressing the overconsumption of clothing, where some people insist on having the same shirts or shoes or dresses in multiple colors or purchase one outfit piece by piece that only matches itself. When I was a kid, folks would go down to the fabric store and purchase those outfit kits, some fabric, and sewing equipment and pretty much make their own clothing. We were taught how to sew in Home Ec. Now, it's "cheaper" to just hit up Temu or whatever online store for subpar clothing to wear a couple of times before it disappears in the back of a closet. It's all so unsustainable.

[@HiFiGuy197]

Maybe Fatigue should get a bingo mark? That building was tired.

[@Adjudicator1]

I believe the fatigue on the Bingo Card refers to Human fatigue. So it may not be the correct context. But structural fatigue as a pun is too good to pass up. Furthermore, I will add that Cost Cutting has to be marked, given the cheap and shoddy materials and the skimping of reinforcement of the building. The architects and structural engineers planned the building, but it was also built in a cheap way possible.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

You could say both really! That building was shagged out!

[@HPD1171]

@@PlainlyDifficult it was a very tired building indeed and when buildings get tired they do not care who is in them but they at least put effort into letting you know they are calling it quits. too bad it gets ignored

[@wagnerrp]

I would suggest Cost Cutting as well. Clearly they didn't spend any money on an engineering survey regarding the changes, or a proper foundation, or any number of other inadequate building techniques.

[@IAMPLEDGE]

@@Adjudicator1 you can be certain the workers there were exhausted. I bet they weren't on a 35 hour week with a minimum of 4 weeks paid holiday.

[@yerabbit6333]

I've seen this case covered before, but you explained the structural issues so clearly - that just makes it so much more horrifying.

[@paulforder591]

Constructing a seven-story building on unstable ground, without a proper permit, and four small generators on the upper floors...now that's a disaster waiting to happen--and it did.

[@k9killer221]

Apart from everything else, it's good practice to put standby generators in the basement, not several floors up. In the 1970s there was a complete office building collapse in Singapore because, partly, they increase floors and put massive airconditioning units on the roof.

[@matthewrichardson2467]

They tried that at Fukushima. As I recall it didn't turn out too well and everyone was saying how they should have had the backup generators up higher... I guess you can't win whichever way you do it!

[@1p2k-223]

​@@matthewrichardson2467maybe the Fukushima generator room was waterproof (like a ship's lower floors) it would have survived and kept the plant cooling running

[@EXROBOWIDOW]

Until you get a flood in the basement!

[@sebwalsh7592]

The irony that I got an ad for Temu half way through.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

😂😂

[@sarajoolae8197]

YEPP. NUFF SAID

[@bentboybbz]

People forget that starting an engine, especially large diesel engines, can cause problems, you are taking a large amount of metal and spinning it from a stop to pretty high speeds, even worse when they aren't the best quality and are not balanced very well to begin with, they also have a large rotor in the generator which might not be balanced very well either..... it's sad that there were many signs of imminent failure and they were noticed and reported and people were forced to go back to work......human ls committing horrible crimes against humanity as usual 😢

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Very true

[@Smedley1947]

Humans often aren't good people.

[@grapeshot]

I remember when I was in high school it was a terrible fire and a chicken processing plant in Hamlet North Carolina that killed 25 workers they worked in deplorable conditions also.

[@elizabethsohler6516]

I wonder if they were migrants. I think US workers would be more inclined to speak out.

[@grapeshot]

@elizabethsohler6516 No, they were not migrants they were black and white. But the management treated the place as if it were their personal plantation.

[@CalamityJay-ez2mq]

​@@elizabethsohler6516 I mean, there are still children as young as 14 working in meat processing plants across America in 2024 and instead of fixing it they're changing the laws to make it legal, so like, it's not surprising

[@elizabethsohler6516]

@@CalamityJay-ez2mq Sadly you"re right. The battle has to be refought.

[@CalamityJay-ez2mq]

@@elizabethsohler6516 unionize and get involved in politics fam, when the top 10% own the same amount of wealth as the 20th to 80th percentile (the entire American Middle Class) there's clearly a problem

[@josephfolkemer]

I got so fed up with trying to figure the building out based on you drawing, it didn’t make sense, I thought it an unfortunate interpretation on your part. Then I had to look up the building irl. wtf…

[@mbvoelker8448]

As a former sewn products worker I can attest to the insane amount of vibration that our machinery could make. We literally didn't notice an earthquake (2011 Virginia quake -- we were in NC and the shaking was quite noticeable). As we said to each other the next day after we'd found out, we've have only noticed if the place STOPPED shaking. Add that to a corrupt and poorly regulated building industry and disaster is inevitable.

[@proksalevente]

Hi John! I really enjoy your videos. I'm sad that the person who forced the workers into the obiously unsafe building hasn't faced a more harsh punishment.

[@catmedic]

Overcast but comfortable day in the New York City metropolitan area... Always enjoy the research, quality, and humor.

[@reggiebenes2916]

Mostly US and European clothing being made in the factories. Definitely Benetton clothing, despite what the CEO said, and despite the fact that virtually nobody realizes that Benetton still makes clothing.

[@hyrondongle2473]

Thx for your videos. I admire your skill to explain often complicated mattters in a understandable way. With respect for the casualties involved!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@WhoamI-yz9nx]

It honestly really depresses me that most of the mass market clothes we get, in most countries, is made in conditions that are just like this. And most people aren't even aware of it or don't really care. And with addition of fast fashion with styles and collections changing every season and clothes intentionally made not to last, it's scary to think the amount of human suffering some generic looking shirt you bought at a retail store costs. I've been getting all my clothes almost exclusively from thrift stores or second-hand for years now, not only for that reason though but also because I'm poor and mass market clothes are just super boring and shitty

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Sadly people only care about about saving a quid or two

[@schnetzelschwester]

And tons of garbage are thrown into the environment. New clothes that couldn't be sold are piled up in Atacama desert to rot, but they will last for hundreds of years in nature. Mountains of "donated" clothes in Ghana or other African countries. Fast fashion kills.

[@henryturnerjr3857]

So, they built it illegally without permits, etc. and the government or authorities just said, "Oh well, it's built now, so never mind." 😮

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Pretty much yea

[@MyHandelsMessiah]

That's how third world countries are, especially when the owners bribe or know the officials

[@monkofdarktimes]

That's why police always escort them under heavy guard because the mob has and already done mob justice

[@RobKaiser_SQuest]

That absolutely happens in the "first" world too, it's not usually as simple as going ahead and doing all the work then shrugging your shoulders, but IME dishonesty when applying for building permits then begging forgiveness afterward happens on the majority of commercial projects, and works.

[@uglybetty8747]

@@RobKaiser_SQuestagreed

[@DerUfo]

I enjoyed watching your show...in a currently cool and cloudy part of Toronto Canada.. thank you

[@ChaosMagnet]

Hi there, neighbour! Waterloo, here!

[@GaryBickford]

I just read about a factory in South Carolina. Raw cotton comes in one end. It is washed, combed, turned into thread, and woven into fabric. Then it is dyed, cut, and sewn into clothing and packaged for shipment to customers. This vertically integrated, automated system employs five people - mostly maintenance and software - and produces clothing at much less cost than Bangladesh.

[@masonaxenty4869]

“It turns out there’s a lot more to life than being really really super good looking”

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I agree

[@CMK1097]

Thank you for bringing the Rana Plaza disaster. It's absolutely shocking this tragedy is being forgotten only because it happened in Bangladesh.

[@myth-termoth1621]

So if I understand correctly, they built an extra 5 stories (with no shear walls) on top of a building originally designed with 4 floos and shearwalls ? That would mean that the top 5 floors have little to stop them twisting, and the load on the pond corner is 2 or 3 times higher than it was designed to hold ? It would seem astonishing that it didn't collapse while the extra floors were being added.

[@braddofner]

Pittsburgh thanks you for another awesome video! I have watched many of your videos. They are all full of research and very well produced. The time and effort you put into the videos shows in their quality. Its consistent across every one I have watched as of yet. I look forward to many more!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you! Tell your friends!!

[@cris_261]

Enjoyed watching this video from a sunny part of Northern Utah.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Bonjour

[@solandri69]

In case you're curious why they built on top of an existing building, Bangladesh has the highest population density of any non-city country. 170 million people (more than half the U.S. population) in an area the size of Illinois. Or slightly larger than England with more than 3x the population. There simply isn't enough land.

[@Phiyedough]

That is another similarity to industrial revolution UK. People had large families so there were young people to look after and financially support the elderly family members.

[@deineroehre]

This is done in other countrys, too! But if you do this in any say european country or the US, there is a thoroughly check made if the building can be extended. And if it is not possible - it simply isn't allowed or the building is torn down and built from the scratch to the newer standards. That is the right way to handle extensions if the need arises, especially since this building was doomed from the beginning due to poor construction. In the long run, third world-countrys need to get rid of bribing and overpopulation, but this is a difficult task. Bribing is the biggest problem in these countrys, they could have achieved so much more without bribing and curruption.

[@jamesm3471]

Plainly Difficult = Simply the Best on the platform, at what they do when it comes to disasters and major mishaps! I’ve enjoyed every single upload!

[@chrisgrantham2648]

Idk, he's very good but i find fascinating horror way better, he also covered rana plaza check his version out you'll see what I mean.

[@Volvo_EG]

I think they both are very good but do not forget Disaster Breakdown. They are literally making documentaries about disaster and it is fantastic work. Little other style then Plainly Difficult and Fascinating horror but also really good. PS: Brick Immortar is also extremely interesting for ship disaster - it is also more on longer documentaries like Disaster breakdown. It is fascinating how much fantastic stuff we get for free on KZbin.

[@IAMPLEDGE]

As this place supplied cheap clothing for the West I would definitely add 'cost cutting' to the bingo card. Places like this exist due to the squeeze on manufacturing costs.

[@jghost2125]

I think "cost cutting" would apply. The original building was poor constructed, then kept adding onto it.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I agree I missed that out!!

[@oldcynic6964]

I'm not sure I agree with that. Shock Horror ! It was designed as a retail plaza with a bank on top. The fact that it stayed upright for years when overloaded with seven extra floors and thousands of tons of generators, sewing machines and fabric tells me that the original design and construction were fit for (the original) purpose.

[@Awesomekillezrs]

It's always a good day when you upload! I'm gonna recommend the 1991 Union Square derailment and 1987 Chase Maryland train collision and the 1980 Norco bank robbery! Keep up the good work! I enjoy your video as always

[@bmstylee]

Lac-Mégantic had a pretty bad derailment. Well bad would be an understatement.

[@AL-so5tl]

it's glad to see that your channel will hit the 1M subscriber mark soon, great work!

[@AstraEatsBears]

It's a good weekend when Plainly Difficult posts

[@tuvelat7302]

I don't remember ever hearing about this. Thank you for sharing this story.

[@soral94]

As always amazing content with a smooth flowing voice. Also you music is amazing reading music!!

[@UncleJoeLITE]

Good evening, been expecting this one!

[@robmclaughjr]

Thanks for all your great content

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!!

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

also, whilst not covered here, there was a lot of victim blaming of the workers in the aftermath, with claims the vibrations were a result of the machinery being poorly kept or oil being sold off on the side, or that there were unauthorized modifications by workers to improve air circulation, or many such stories... most of these claims, whilst widely spread in the owner affiliated media, were never proven, but, they left there mark on the compensation trails and associated opinion non-the-less.

[@jeg5gom]

This is a tragedy. I say this while confident of having at least a dozen clothing items at home stating “Made in Bangladesh”. So much for integrity. Great video.

[@lewisdsd]

John, you should really take a look into the Mexico City’s 1985 earthquake… Not only was a catastrophe at a full city scale, it also affected specifically at textile workers for almost the same reasons you explained in this video!

[@TheEllington666]

I was just having a quick look at the merch, and I love it, but could you do something with the famous “balls” speech bubble?? I’d love something like that! Excellent video as always, thank you John ❤

[@revenevan11]

How quickly the media moves on and the broad general public forgets. Glad you covered this one! Absolute greed, I remember this happening when I was in school in the 2010s and everyone trying not to buy clothes that said "made in Bangladesh" on the tag, at least for about a month until they forgot. I even remember kids checking each other's tags in study hall the day after it was on the news.

[@Furtuim]

As always thank you for an informative video

[@PlainlyDifficult]

My pleasure!

[@PrettyLittleDeadThing]

I remember this day. I was in 5th grade at that time and living in another part of Dhaka. For like a week everyone was glued to their TVs,day and night. It was just so horrible to watch. So many people,not even just men and women but also children as a lot of children also work in the garment factories. I remember this one particular woman who was stuck under a huge piece of rubble, only her body from chest up was exposed. One of the volunteers held her hand and tried to comfort her for hours, gave her water and food but they couldn't get her out. She died. Many people had to be amputated to be rescued. We just saw the death toll getting higher and higher...a lot of people are still missing, even their remains can't be found. Victims of Rana Plaza were barely given any sort of compensation. They are struggling to this very day, especially those that had to be amputated. The government is a huge fucking joke. I'll never forget this incident. There was another more recent incident of 16 people getting burned alive in a shoe factory.....gosh I just...they say safety guidelines are written with blood but how much blood is it gonna take for us to finally take human lives more seriously than cutting corners and saving money? Shit is ridiculous.

[@kalashnikov_47z]

I'm a Bangladeshi and I remember those days 😢 We watched the news every day for a month to see if anyone was rescued from collapsed building!

[@XSpImmaLion]

Great intro... this is something I always try to explain to people who keeps using racism, jingoism and general ignorance when they talk about "the jerbs they stolen" and whatnot whenever people start talking about industrial complexes operating in countries like China, India and other Asian nations. Plus when it comes about defining the industrial revolution era. The ugly truth about globalization and "modern" times is just what John talked about in the intro - the horrible work conditions in factory floors of the industrial revolution era never truly ended - it just got offshored, so that consumers get to enjoy a degree of separation from it. Plus cheap labor and zero regulations of course. It all got neatly packaged and sent to countries like China and India, and now that China is becoming a modern nation, it's being further offshored to countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, perhaps some African nations, a lot is going to Mexico, Brazil, and so on. So the reality is that whilst the industrial revolution era and it's complete lack of worker rights, child and slave labor, horribly dangerous factory conditions, industrial toxic pollution, and all sorts of bad things are rare in developed nations these days, it never truly ended, because it only got offshored to poorer nations. People should try keeping this in mind when they complain about product quality coming from these nations. Or when people complain about these countries "stealing tech" from the big brands who treated workers like cheap industrial revolution era labor. I often hear the response that, well, at least they have work, yadda yadda. I'll tell you - that's the exact type of mentality that justifies abuse in every level. I bring food to the table, so I can beat my wife all I want, because without me she would be miserable. I can give whatever education I want to my kids, including no education at all. If it wasn't for me opening a factory in this poor nation, they'd be all working in the fields and going hungry. Understand the problem with those? Privileged people don't get to set the rules and standards, that's what human rights are for. People don't need you throwing poisoned food on the table just because you are in the status quo, just because of your goddamned money or privilege - people need basic human rights and dignity. You don't get to play the white knight while trying to profit from human misery.

[@loganmeline9233]

This makes me sick. It's so hard to buy responsibly sourced ANYTHING.

[@care4jcutube]

Wow that's a horrible loss! Although I love your concise reports, I wish this one had more detail

[@tinygrim]

Thank you

[@elmolewis9123]

Where was their union to prevent this? ... Oh, yeah...

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Sadly not

[@StrayVagabond]

Whaaaa? But... Capitalism? Businesses will regulate themselves?? Who could have possibly seen this coming???

[@t4nx1l]

It's been 11 years alot has changed since then but also a lot of things are still the same. Today its safer than before the working conditions are better also, but workers dont get paid on time, wages are very low, you can get fired if you protest

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Still more room for progress

[@asteverino8569]

Thanks for another look into effed up ways of doing things. You do this well l

[@MysterDaftGame]

Hello John. Have you covered the 2 nuclear accidents of the French NPP St-Laurent-des-Eaux ? 2 partial meltdown of 2 Natural-uranium-graphite-gas reactors. It could be intresting

[@GMxTekhe]

You definitely missed cost cutting on the bingo card. Such a horrid, preventable tragedy.

[@pillettadoinswartsh4974]

I also feel bad for the first-responders, who will likely never get those images, smells and sounds out of their minds.

[@woeba]

Love the channel. Request: Texas City disaster, even thought it is like the Halifax Explosion

[@jooleebilly]

Love it, John! What I mean to say is that it's horrible, and I wish I didn't remember that disaster, but you did it justice. And we should remember those people who died and the greed that killed them.

[@kempedkemp]

Gave you the thumbs up because I like this channel's documentaries . . . generally. I can't bring myself to watch this one. I think dead souls may have come into my head telling me not to.

[@felipecardoza9967]

Recently the city i live in tore down a large building that was a printing concern; it was specifically built for the turn of the last century printing presses it contained. The columns were MASSIVE. It helps when the owners and bosses have to occupy the same building; just saying.

[@sdrape4964]

For a building that was built in 2006, it looks like it had been abandoned for decades.

[@tinygrim]

Thank you 👍

[@richarddr1234]

The phrase "fashion disaster" used to mean something benign to me. Now, it does not. RIP to the victims.

[@cadillacdeville5828]

Thanks John😊.

[@merc7105]

Thank you.

[@Archangelm127]

You missed "cost cutting" on the bingo card. I'm no engineer, but I'm pretty sure that's why the upper floors were built with such little reinforcement.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Good spot!!

[@lindsaylohan8001]

£200 to the family’s of each victim is insulting , £200 !!!! Not even enough to cover a grocery shop for a month and they think that’s enough to give a grieving family who lost a loved one

[@dominicsangeet7302]

I remember this happening and seeing it on live tv, it was pretty traumatising seeing bodies being recovered throughout the upcoming weeks and the actual death toll was over 1500.

[@jakobrebeki]

I think you nailed it with the bingo card. this was a bad one. Well covered and well done. thanks John....

[@user-yi3yx2fn7g]

Just a year or so after this, there was a huge fire in another garment factory. Just as in the waist factory, windows could not be used due to iron bars to hinder escape, and emergency exits were locked to prevent theft.

[@user-we1uo8ou8c]

If you told the Brits that an additional £5 per shirt or trouser meant safe working conditions and better pay for the workers in Bangaldesh, they would refuse citing 'cost of living crisis'!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Sadly true!

[@Federalist2159]

Great video

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@proimsat]

That is a stunning amount of people that lost their lives, this is also the first time im hearing about it which is quite sad, it should have been a much bigger deal

[@MatthewCrawford0]

Cost cutting certainly played a part in my opinion (Bingo Card)

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Very true