Asbest. An entire town working at a factory devoted to churning out a material that most people in the developed world consider to be a deadly poison. They'd even named the place for the product: asbestos. It was perfect.
Here, things have been hard for years, what with the European Union and the United States banning the use of asbestos in most new products around two decades ago. But the internal and Chinese markets kept the town going until the financial crisis hit. Now the factory is working only a two-day week, and thousands of people are out of work. I chatted with workers who were out drinking beer instead of doing their normal shifts; many of them didn't know if they could survive the enforced pay cuts to their already meager salaries.
An interesting read, as it covers the effects of the current global economic crisis, the lingering effects of Soviet industrial planning, as well as interesting international views.
