Category: Politik

Nej til krig mod Syrien – nu med britisk parlament

Det britiske parlament giver mig ret. In your face, Cameron!

Forfatteren Arne Herløv Petersen kommenterer krigsplanerne således:

– Bandekriminaliteten i København er forfærdende. De slås indbyrdes, og de kaster sig over uskyldige forbipassende og slår dem til lirekassemænd. Hvad skal vi dog gøre?
– Nu har jeg det. Vi går op i Rundetårn og smider nogle store sten ned over fodgængerne.
– Hvordan skulle det dog kunne hjælpe?
– Næ. Men så har vi da sendt et signal.

Fri os for krig og nyttesløse signaler. Hvis der skal gøres noget, så lad os gøre noget konstruktivt i stedet. Noget, som ikke med sikkerhed vil forværre situationen.

Boykot Legoland

Legoland ejes af kapitalfonden Merlin, der ejer en masse lignende forlystelsesparker rundt om i verden og år for år indhøster svimlende overskud.

Disse penge tjener de på bekostning af deres ansatte, som de alle andre steder end i Danmark betaler sulteløn. For nylig kom flere hundrede tyske Legoland-ansatte af samme grund til Billund for at demonstrere mod Merlin-koncernens udnyttelse af dem.

Avisen.dk skriver:

Utilfredse tyske ansatte kan glemme alt om en overenskomst med Legolands ejere, koncernen Merlin. Det skriver Fagbladet 3F.

– Det er fuldstændigt udelukket, at vi vil indgå en overenskomst med en fagforening i nogen af de lande, vi har attraktioner, siger Sally Ann Wilkinson, der er kommunikationschef hos Merlin.

Lørdag besøgte to busser med vrede tyske Legoland-ansatte forlystelsesparken i Billund for at protestere over lønninger på 60 kroner i timen i Legoland i Günzberg i Sydtyskland. Fagforbundet NGG fortæller, at mange af de ansatte tjener så lidt, at de er nødt til at modtage socialhjælp ved siden af deres løn.

Fagbladet 3F skriver endvidere:

Det er betænkeligt, mener arbejdsmarkedsforsker Henning Jørgensen fra Aalborg Universitet.

– Det er en meget udansk måde at opføre sig på for Legoland. Vi har en tradition for aftaler mellem arbejdsmarkedets parter. Uden en overenskomst har de ansatte ingen kollektive rettigheder. Det bliver i stedet et arbejdsgiverparadis, hvor firmaet bestemmer uden indblanding fra andre, siger Henning Jørgensen.

Kirkbifonden, der ejer 34 procent af Merlin, er som erhvervsfond omfattet af en høj grad af skattefrihed. Fonden meddeler, at den har fuld tillid til Merlins ledelse i sagen.

– Det er en amerikansk strategi, der har bredt sig til Europa, hvor flere koncerner fjerner sig fra aftalemodellen. Det underminerer den model, det har taget 100 år at bygge op i flere europæiske lande, siger Henning Jørgensen.

Fagforbundet NGG fortæller, at mange ansatte i Legoland i Günzberg tjener så lidt, at de er nødt til at modtage socialhjælp ved siden af deres løn. I øjeblikket kører de en retssag om fyring af en tillidsmand i forlystelsesparken.

Kirkbi-fonden er de oprindelige Lego-grundlæggeres familiefond. Det er tankevækkende, at de skattefrit kan skovle penge ind, som de tjener ved at betale så lave lønninger, at deres ansatte må søge bistandshjælp. Jeg har i hvert fald sat mine ben i Legoland for sidste gang.

Terroreksperter: “Komplet vanvittigt” at evakuere ambassader

Cory Doctorow skriver på Boing Boing:

By an amazing coincidence, the worst terrorist attack that never happened since 9/11 is not happening right now, proving that everyone who was worried about out-of-control NSA spying had lost the plot. Which is ZOMGTERRISM. So 28 US diplomatic posts have been evacuated (that is to say, “experienced an ordered departure”), including ones in places like Mauritius or Madagascar, where al Qaeda has nefariously never operated as part of its devious plan to lure everyone there into a false sense of security.

Well, some people are cynical and just don’t believe it, despite all the overwhelming secret evidence that we’re not allowed to see or know about or hear about or even have described to us. People like State Department counterterrorism advisor Will McCants, who called the evacuation of the diplomatic posts “Crazy Pants” (“you can quote me”). Loose cannons like Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who called the terrifying and nonspecific warnings “absurd hyperbole that is coming almost entirely from reckless commentators or ill-informed or ill-spoken [Capitol] Hill folks…no one who really knows al Qaeda or its history thinks that this is as huge a deal as portrayed—and certainly nothing remotely close to the worst thing we have seen since 9/11.” But what the hell does he know?

“It’s not completely random,” said another expert of the administration’s reaction, “but most people are, like, ‘Whaaat?'” Other terms used to describe it in addition to “Whaaat?” and “crazy pants”: “willy-nilly,” “baffling,” “tenuous,” “head-scratching,” and “who really knows, anyway?” White House spokesman Jay Carney wasn’t helping any: “What we know is the threat emanates from, and may be focused on, occurring in the Arabian Peninsula,” he said yesterday. “It could potentially be beyond that, or elsewhere. We cannot be more specific.” So, just stay away from everywhere, thanks.

But we have to do something, don’t we, because isn’t this “the most serious threat [Sen. Saxby Chambliss has] seen in the last several years,” reminiscent of “what we saw before 9/11”? Actually, “[t]hat is absurd hyperbole that is coming almost entirely from reckless commentators or ill-informed or ill-spoken [Capitol] Hill folks,” or so said Michael Leiter, but what does a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center know about counterterrorism? “I don’t think this was purposeful hype,” Leiter continued, “but no one who really knows al Qaeda or its history thinks that this is as huge a deal as portrayed—and certainly nothing remotely close to the worst thing we have seen since 9/11.”

Security Expert: Broad U.S. Terror Alert Is “Crazy Pants” [Lowering the Bar]

Og ja, hvis man var rigtig kynisk, kunne man få den tanke, at panikken faktisk handler om at få os alle til at synes, at NSAs overvågning af alt og alle er fjing fjong. I alle tilfælde har terroreksperterne og Doctorow ret i, at så overbevisende ser det heller ikke ud.

Kvinden, der næsten døde af at lave din iPad

Håber, den ligger godt i hånden:

Tian Yu

Tian Yu tried to kill herself in 2010, as did 17 of her Foxconn colleagues. Photograph: University Research Group

At around 8am on 17 March 2010, Tian Yu threw herself from the fourth floor of her factory dormitory in Shenzhen, southern China. For the past month, the teenager had worked on an assembly line churning out parts for Apple iPhones and iPads. At Foxconn’s Longhua facility, that is what the 400,000 employees do: produce the smartphones and tablets that are sold by Samsung or Sony or Dell and end up in British and American homes.

But most famously of all, China’s biggest factory makes gadgets for Apple. Without its No 1 supplier, the Cupertino giant’s current riches would be unimaginable: in 2010, Longhua employees made 137,000 iPhones a day, or around 90 a minute.

That same year, 18 workers – none older than 25 – attempted suicide at Foxconn facilities. Fourteen died. Tian Yu was one of the lucky ones: emerging from a 12-day coma, she was left with fractures to her spine and hips and paralysed from the waist down. She was 17.

When news broke of the suicide spree, reporters battled to piece together what was wrong in Apple’s supply chain. Photos were printed of safety nets strung by the company under dorm windows; interviews with workers revealed just how bad conditions were. Some quibbled over how unusual the Foxconn deaths were, arguing that they were in line with China’s high rate of self-killing. However conscience-soothing that claim was in both Shenzhen and California, it overlooked how those who take their own lives are often elderly or women in villages, rather than youngsters who have just moved to cities to seek their fortunes.

For the three years since, that’s the spot where the debate has been paused. In all the talk of corporate social responsibility and activists’ counter-claims that the producers of iPads and iPhones are still sweating in “labour camp” conditions, you hardly ever hear those who actually work at Foxconn speak at length and in their own terms. People such as Tian Yu.

Og jo, det er Apples skyld, at forholdene er så dårlige:

The suicide spate prompted Apple CEO Tim Cook to call on Foxconn to improve working conditions. But there is no record of him providing any money to do so, or even relaxing the draconian contractual conditions imposed on Foxconn. Asked about it yesterday, Apple’s press office said it did not discuss such matters.

Uffe Elbæk: Danmark skal give Edward Snowden asyl

Hatten af for Uffe Elbæk, der så vidt jeg ved er den eneste politiker fra et regeringsparti, der endnu har talt for at give Snowden asyl i Danmark.

Politiken skriver:

Den tidligere kulturminister Uffe Elbæk (R) ser gerne, at Danmark tilbyder den amerikanske whistleblower Edward Snowden, der for tiden er hovedperson i en udleveringssag mellem Rusland og USA, asyl.

»Jeg ville i hvert fald være stolt, hvis Danmark ville give Edward Snowden asyl. Det ville være en demokratisk markering af de store«, skriver Uffe Elbæk på Facebook i aften.

»Og er fuldstændig enig i skribentens holdning angående Snowden og skribentens forundring over den politiske stilhed, der har været her i Danmark om sagen«.

Jeg var faktisk ikke meget på linje med Elbæks kultursyn og synes ikke, han fik udrettet det store som kulturminister – men dette fortjener han ros for. Håber, at denne holdning vil brede sig også til ministrene.

Alan Moore om crowdfunding, overvågning og Internet

Citat:

I remember watching “Fall Out,” that final episode of “The Prisoner,” on I think a Wednesday night when I was around 13. And I can remember that scene where the whole series seems to break down into an absurdist collage. Where McGoohan’s Number Six finally confronts the mysterious Number One, who has been unseen throughout the series but is now a hooded figure. McGoohan pulls off his hood and there is a crude, rubber ape mask underneath. McGoohan pulls off the ape mask, and there is Patrick McGoohan underneath, laughing maniacally. Even at the age of 13, I dimly remember what that meant, that moment when he reveals that they are the same. It was answering the question, “Who is the one who restricts us and makes us all prisoners?” And I think McGoohan’s answer to that was incredibly liberating. It’s us, isn’t it?

Læs det hele.

Edward Snowdens erklæring om baggrunden for hans handlinger

Kilde: WikiLeaks.

Hello. My name is Ed Snowden. A little over one month ago, I had family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. That is the power to change people’s fates.

It is also a serious violation of the law. The 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes and treaties forbid such systems of massive, pervasive surveillance. While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice – that it must be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law.

I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945: “Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.”

Accordingly, I did what I believed right and began a campaign to correct this wrongdoing. I did not seek to enrich myself. I did not seek to sell US secrets. I did not partner with any foreign government to guarantee my safety. Instead, I took what I knew to the public, so what affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I asked the world for justice.

That moral decision to tell the public about spying that affects all of us has been costly, but it was the right thing to do and I have no regrets.

Since that time, the government and intelligence services of the United States of America have attempted to make an example of me, a warning to all others who might speak out as I have. I have been made stateless and hounded for my act of political expression. The United States Government has placed me on no-fly lists. It demanded Hong Kong return me outside of the framework of its laws, in direct violation of the principle of non-refoulement – the Law of Nations. It has threatened with sanctions countries who would stand up for my human rights and the UN asylum system. It has even taken the unprecedented step of ordering military allies to ground a Latin American president’s plane in search for a political refugee. These dangerous escalations represent a threat not just to the dignity of Latin America, but to the basic rights shared by every person, every nation, to live free from persecution, and to seek and enjoy asylum.

Yet even in the face of this historically disproportionate aggression, countries around the world have offered support and asylum. These nations, including Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless. By refusing to compromise their principles in the face of intimidation, they have earned the respect of the world. It is my intention to travel to each of these countries to extend my personal thanks to their people and leaders.

I announce today my formal acceptance of all offers of support or asylum I have been extended and all others that may be offered in the future. With, for example, the grant of asylum provided by Venezuela’s President Maduro, my asylee status is now formal, and no state has a basis by which to limit or interfere with my right to enjoy that asylum. As we have seen, however, some governments in Western European and North American states have demonstrated a willingness to act outside the law, and this behavior persists today. This unlawful threat makes it impossible for me to travel to Latin America and enjoy the asylum granted there in accordance with our shared rights.

This willingness by powerful states to act extra-legally represents a threat to all of us, and must not be allowed to succeed. Accordingly, I ask for your assistance in requesting guarantees of safe passage from the relevant nations in securing my travel to Latin America, as well as requesting asylum in Russia until such time as these states accede to law and my legal travel is permitted. I will be submitting my request to Russia today, and hope it will be accepted favorably.

If you have any questions, I will answer what I can.

Thank you.