Het gaat slechter dan we denken

Spits 26/10/2009

Venezuela, Honduras, Peru, Ecuador: Media Lies and "Oversights"

It may be useful to assess the dangers of the systematically hostile attitude of the overwhelming majority of major European and North American media companies in relation to the current events taking place in Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela. This hostility is only matched by an embarrassed, complicit silence with regard to those involved in the putsch in Honduras or the repression enacted by the Peruvian army against the indigenous populations of the Amazon.

Lees verder bij Global Research

Funding Sweatshops Globally

by Stephen Lendman

In July 2008, SweatFree Communities (SFC) released a report titled, "Subsidizing Sweatshops: How Our Tax Dollars Fund the Race to the Bottom, and What Cities and States Can Do" in which it studied 12 factories in nine countries that produce employee uniforms for nine major companies.

Widespread human and labor rights violations were revealed, including child labor; illegal below-poverty wages; few or no benefits; forced or unpaid overtime; hazardous working conditions; verbal, physical, and sexual abuses; forced pregnancy testing to be hired and while employed; excessive long working hours causing physical ailments, stress, and harm; denial of free expression, association, and collective bargaining rights; and elaborate schemes to commit fraud and deceive corporate auditors.

In April 2009, Subsidizing Sweatshops II followed to provide more evidence of a global problem. It tracked developments in four factories from the first report and four new ones in five countries on three continents producing uniforms for nine major firms in China, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and America.

Two cases relied on investigations by independent factory monitors. Three others used personal worker interviews conducted by "credible local unions and non-governmental organizations with expertise in labor rights." Three more are based on SFC-conducted interviews.

In all cases, the global economic crisis materially increased worker hardships leaving them more vulnerable, in jeopardy, and unable to secure their rights. Most often, the following violations were found:

-- children as young as 14 forced to work the same long hours as adults and under the same onerous conditions;

-- wages so low, they only cover one-fourth to one-half of essential needs;

-- workers in at least two factories not paid overtime;

-- because of excessive production quotas, workers forced to skip breaks, not go to the bathroom, and work sick through grueling 12-hour or longer days;

-- unhealthy work environments in stifling heat and thick fabric dust detrimental to health;

-- numerous sewing machine accidents causing wounds and loss of fingers; and

-- instances of severe repression against union supporters and organizers, including harassment, intimidation, firing, and blacklisting from further employment elsewhere.

The report's findings "are corroborated by scores of academic research and industry investigations." Human and labor rights violations are the norm, not the exception. Monitoring alone won't change them, but perhaps public disclosure can help.

Lees verder bij Global Research

Russia and Iran Now OFFICIALLY Talking of Dumping Dollar for International Trade

After the Independent reported that Middle Eastern oil producers, plus China, Japan and France have all agreed to start trading oil using a basket of currencies - instead of the dollar - starting in 9 years, spokesmen for those governments denied it.

The Independent's reporter explained why the governments were denying the rumor.

But now the governments themselves are starting to admit that they are switching out of the dollar.

Lees verder bij Washingtons Blog

ALBA-landen willen af van de dollar

Linkse Latijns-Amerikaanse leiders hebben overeenstemming bereikt over het gebruik van een nieuwe intra-regionale handelsvaluta, Sucre genaamd, in plaats van de Amerikaanse dollar.

De Boliviaanse president Evo Morales, die gastheer was van de leiders van de Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA), zei dat het "document goedgekeurd was".

Lees verder op Zaplog

Nederland Belastingparadijs-Zembla

Nederland is een van de grootste belastingparadijzen ter wereld. In 2007 werd een bedrag van 8000 miljard euro, ongeveer een tiende van de totale wereldhandel, door Nederland gesluisd.

‘Nederland Belastingparadijs’ : zondag 18 oktober om 21.50 uur op Nederland 2.

Zembla

Maar de AOW is te duur?

Zie ook hier

Nederland luilekkerland voor multinationals

HILVERSUM, 18 OKT 09 - Nederlandse multinationals betalen weinig of geen belasting over hun winsten. De schatkist loopt daardoor 16 miljard euro aan vennootschapsbelasting mis, ofwel 2200 euro per Nederlander.

Dit blijkt uit een onderzoek van de Universiteit van Utrecht op verzoek van het tv-programma Zembla. Grote ondernemingen moeten 25,5 procent van hun winst afdragen, maar volgens hoogleraar belastingrecht Geerten Michielse betalen ze gemiddeld slechts 6 tot 7 procent.

Lees verder bij Ravage Digitaal

Indect bespioneert Europese burgers

Uit een presentatie van de coördinator van het project, gehouden op de European Security Research Conference (SRC09) in Stockholm, blijkt dat Indect niet alleen het openbare deel van internet monitort en analyseert, maar ook individuele computersystemen. In de loop van het ontwikkelingstraject zullen er volgens de presentatie in bepaalde steden proeven worden gedaan met surveillancesoftware van Indect.

Er worden geen sites met name genoemd in de informatie die tot nu toe over Indect beschikbaar is, maar het is aan te nemen dat netwerken als Hyves, Twitter en Facebook worden gebruikt om in kaart te brengen wie met wie communiceert en welke informatie wordt uitgewisseld. Dat zijn immers de plekken waar miljoenen, en soms tientallen of zelfs honderden miljoenen, internetgebruikers bij elkaar komen om met elkaar te praten.

Bron en volledig artikel: NRC