— A “former Apple executive” speaking to the New York Times about working conditions at suppliers’ plants in China. (via officialssay)
— Ronen Bergman
(Source: Guardian)
An injured Palestinian construction worker screams in pain after an Israeli army driver drove a trailer hooked to a tractor over his legs, as he tried to block him when Israeli forces stopped workers from rebuilding a house in al-Dirat village, south of Yatta in the West Bank, January 25, 2012. Israeli forces seized equipment and a trailer from Palestinian construction workers as the site falls in the occupied area C in which Israel prevents Palestinians from building on their land.
Area C, which is entirely Palestinian land and under full Israeli control, comprises 60 per cent of the West Bank and has twice as many Israeli settlers as Palestinians. Israeli authorities have allocated only 1 per cent of Area C for Palestinian development, while the number of Israeli settlements — illegal under international law — continue to expand. The Palestinian population in the area continue to diminish due to house demolitions, lack of access to water, building permits, and the occupation itself. (Getty Images)
(via withpoliticsandlove)
— Chris Hedges, Why I’m Suing Barack Obama (via chasingsunsetsandjustice)
Little known fact about Sweden, that supposed bastion of liberal idealism: If a Swedish transgendered person wants to legally update their gender on official ID papers, a 1972 law requires them to get both divorced and sterilized first.
Sweden is considered extremely gay-friendly, with one of the highest rates of popular support for same-sex marriage, and more than half the population supports gay adoption. Arguing that the current law is both unpopular and abusive, the country’s moderate and liberal parties want to see it repealed. In response, the small but powerful Christian Democrat party formed a coalition with other right-of-center parties to join in upholding the requirement for sterilization. End result: a proposal for new legislation that allows trans—a preferred term for many people who undergo gender reassignment—to be married, but continues to force them to be sterilized.
The fact that such a despicable and ignorant law could not be changed is disheartening, to say the least. Between this and Norway taking children from parents for the offense of being from a different culture, my opinion of the Nordic countries has plummeted.
— Massachusetts Senate candidate ELIZABETH WARREN, on The Daily Show (via andyouhavetogivethemhope)
(Source: inothernews, via andyouhavetogivethemhope)
“Societies with more income inequality have higher infant death rates than other societies:
Societies with more income inequality have higher rates of mental illness than other societies:
Societies with more income inequality have a higher incidence of drug use than other societies:
Societies with more income inequality have a higher high school drop out rate than other societies:
Societies with more income inequality imprison a larger proportion of their population than other societies:
Societies with more income inequality have a higher rate of obesity than other societies:
Individuals in societies with more income inequality are less likely to be in a different class of than their parents compared to other societies:
Individuals in societies trust others less than people in other societies:
Societies with more income inequality have higher rates of homicide than other societies:
Societies with more income inequality give less in foreign aid than other societies:
Children in societies with more income inequality do less well than children in other societies:
The authors sum it up pretty simply: : “Th[e] dissatisfaction [measured in this data is] a cost which the rich impose on the rest of society.”
Fantastic info- this is why we should focus on income inequity.
“The campaign that spends more money wins the house race 90% of the time and the senate race 80% of the time.”
Remember, money is speech! Poor people shouldn’t be allowed a voice.
Guess they aren’t in a merry land after all! HA!
Remember how the Toleration Act (which granted Catholics the right to worship) got repealed in Maryland???
Well now it’s started an ALL-OUT war!!!!
Lord Baltimore, the Lord Proprietor of Maryland who is…
Everyone, please note that there is a blog called Perez Hamilton about historical gossip. This just might be the greatest tumblr in existence.
Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.
A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”
Now, read the last three paragraphs again and think about what it implies for the future of the American worker. Please do read the whole article. It is important that you do, because this is Tea Party future. This is the future if the only emphasis is on jobs and maximizing profits, with little emphasis on caring for others. Look again carefully at the last three paragraphs. Workers at a Chinese factory were living in company dormitories. They were roused and given but little food. They were told to work 12 hour shifts. By the way, this is in a Communist country, which means that when you buy Apple, you are supporting not just socialism, but Marxist socialism. Oops, did you notice that there is no family emphasis? The workers were in dormitories, not in family housing. Oh, and should Father Orthoduck mention that when we buy cheap goods from China (not Taiwan) we are buying goods from a country with forced abortions? More than that, many supporters of the Tea Party are busily running campaigns against anyone who supports abortion in an even indirect way while they have no trouble buying good from a country which openly forces abortions upon people. Hmm, Father Orthoduck guesses that economic policy trumps pro-life policy because Father Orthoduck certainly does not see pro-life organizations running campaigns to stop us from buying from communist China. That is, Tea Party supporters are against what they call socialism in the USA while stronly supporting it with their economic policies and buying habits.
Yes, this is a rant by Father Orthoduck about both the Tea Party and those who say they are against socialism while inappropriately supporting employee mistreatment in countries such as China and other countries that have oppressive child labor, etc. This is what it means to be a Tea Party supporter. It means that in the USA they hoist signs that claim that Obama is leading us to socialism at the same time that they have no problems with worker wages being lowered or with products being sold in the USA that are produced by Marxist-oppressed overseas workers. It means that Tea Party supporters have no problem with a slow return to workers having to live in company housing and buying at the company store. For those of you who do not know history, I would suggest that you read the history of company towns and company stores, particularly in mining regions in the Appalachian areas of the USA, and what it took to have a decent life as a miner in the USA.
All too many Tea Party supporters claim the moral high ground while they are in fact supporting Marxism (by their buying habits) and having no problem with wages being cut and families being torn apart so that the husbands (or single women) are available 24/7 in worker dormitories to do whatever is necessary so that profits might be maximized. When profits become all that is important, then families take a much lower place. When profits become all important, then even life (whether infant or adult) takes a much lower place. This is what it means to be a supporter of laissez faire capitalism. This is what it means to be a secular Tea Party supporter. Let Father Orthoduck strongly state that if one is a Christian Tea Party supporter, then while one may support conservative economic policies, one ought to also support boycotts of any country that has strongly anti-life policies. To say that one is against President Obama for socialism while buying Marxist Chinese goods without a protest is a contradiction. One must, as a Christian Tea Party member, be concerned not simply about profits but about any working conditions that will be destructive to families (such as worker dormitories). To say that one is a Christian Tea Party member without making any mention of boycotts against China is only to show either a total uneducated ignorance of reality or to show just how shallow one’s understanding is, or to broadcast to the world that profits are more important than babies. Sadly, most Christian Tea Party members are all about slogans rather than about consequent stances. Most Christian Tea Party supporters do not even think about who their buying policies are supporting and what their policies mean to employee wages and benefits.
Who are these Tea Partiers and do they really think government is the problem by supporting these working conditions. Do Tea Partiers really want this here in the US? Those who run the organization maybe but I would think most people who blindly support the movement do so because of the message of individualism and self sufficiency. The working conditions at this facility are about the furthest thing from these ideals. Also, these conditions do exist in the US and it’s called the service industry and penal system.
It always kills me that people see American worker’s rights as a bad thing. Of course despotic authoritarian countries will be able to do more for less- that would be true of slave labor as well, but we don’t (overtly) opine for the days where we could purchase people!
(Source: azspot)
