1 Slave labour seen to be universal in supply chains
(Sydney Morning Herald) All businesses around the world have some form of slave
labour in their supply chains but companies can find ways to eradicate this
abuse, says a senior official from Britain's biggest retailer, supermarket
giant Tesco.
The United Nation's International Labour
Organisation (ILO) estimates 21 million people globally are trapped in forced
labour, generating $150 billion in illegal profits in the farming, fishing,
mining, construction and sex industries. Campaigners say forced labour often
lurks along the supply chain with multiple suppliers in many different
countries involved in manufacturing, packaging and distributing products.
"I think all corporations have slavery in their
supply chains and some of those instances are absolutely horrific,"
Tesco's responsible sourcing director Giles Bolton said. "Sometimes it can
be the case, that the pressure of the competition can lead to some of those
problems, but for the most part (businesses are) part of the solution," he
said.
Mr Bolton said it was no good for companies to
boycott countries such as Bangladesh, where more than 1100 people died in the
collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in 2013. The tragedy, which sparked
urgent demands for global retailers to ensure the safety of workers, dealt a
severe blow to the poor South Asian country where millions depend on the
garment industry for an income. Up to 150,000 people lost their jobs after 220
garment factories were shut down.
"Some of the more simplistic campaigners out
there are saying, 'don't buy 10 T-shirts from Bangladesh, buy one from Italy'.
Please don't do that," Mr Bolton said, noting the garment industry had
lifted millions out of poverty in Asia.
2 World’s largest fine of $5.2bn in Nigeria (San Francisco Chronicle) Nigeria's fine of $5.2 billion against MTN, Africa's
largest telecommunications company, is billions more than any company has been
hit with anywhere in the world and may scare off investors, analysts say.
MTN was fined for having 5.2 million active but unregistered
SIM cards. The cards are a matter of national security as they can be used by
extremists. Still, the sheer size of the penalty shocked the telecoms industry.
"It is totally out of proportion," said expert John Strand, an
analyst with Denmark-based Strand Consult. "I have never seen any operator
receiving a fine of more $100 million and I've been in this business for 20
years."
Until now, the US tended to levy the highest fines
on telecom companies. AT&T is suing the Federal Communications Commission
over a $100 million fine, the largest ever imposed by that body. The fine's
size may be attributed to the fact that unregistered SIM cards are a question
of security in Nigeria and may have caused deaths.
Boko Haram Islamic extremists use cell phones to
activate bombs and coordinate other attacks, say law enforcers. Mobile phones
are also used in rampant armed robberies and kidnappings. Unregistered MTN SIM
cards were used to make calls demanding ransom in the September kidnapping of a
former Nigerian finance minister — weeks after a deadline for providers to
deactivate unregistered cards.
MTN is the biggest player in Nigeria, where it had
about 62 million subscribers before the deactivations and, according to Strand
Consult, total revenue of about $10 billion in 2014. MTN said it made $2.6
billion in profits in Nigeria last year, making the fine equivalent to two
years' profits and three times the $1.8 billion the company says it has invested
here. MTN bought its Nigeria license for $285 million in 2001.
Strand warned the fine could hurt foreign investment:
"The question is: What is the purpose in giving a company a fine of this
amount? Is it just a revenue generator for the government? I think it's a big
message to send to other investors in Nigeria: Stay out of this country."
3 How philosophy saves from poverty and drugs (Andy
West in The Guardian) When I tell people I teach philosophy to children, they
look surprised. Who can blame them? Philosophers stir their tea pondering how
we know the sun will rise tomorrow, while the working classes worry whether
there is enough money on the electric meter for today, right?
Growing up, my dad, brother and uncle were in and
out of prison for violent and drug-related crime, while my mum worked two jobs.
Teachers tried their hardest with me, but the more they told me “You have a
choice” the more they convinced me that they knew nothing about the real world.
I left school with three GCSEs. To placate my
stepfather, I said I’d join the army, but the authority made me even more
contrary, and I pulled out. Earlier that year a teacher had photocopied an
ex-student’s coursework and written my name on it. His gesture helped me
understand there were teachers who were trying to help me. So I went to an open
day at a sixth-form college where the philosophy teacher posed the question:
“How do we know we’re not just dreaming this reality?”
Marooned in my own unrelatable reality, I embraced
this chance to grapple with the true nature of things. In that classroom, my
argumentative nature was a virtue and could be moulded into more nuanced skill.
I decided to resit my GCSEs so that I could take philosophy. Largely because of
the access I had to philosophy, I was brought safely away from the edge of the
abyss that my life teetered above.
If philosophy is made more available to
working-class children, then stories like mine won’t seem so unusual. I teach
philosophy in schools because it allows young people to challenge authority and
express themselves in a way that creates rather than destroys their life
opportunities. Philosophical questions such as “Who should have power?” and
“Can you be a good person if you do bad things?” are universally evocative; if
we have the means to make them universally accessible, then we must do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment