Almost the entirety of Saudi Arabia's sales positions are held by men, making shopping for underwear a somewhat uncomfortable experience for women. In an attempt to reverse the trend, a group of exasperated Saudis tried to take control of the lingerie business. Did they succeed? On February 13, a financial analyst and blogger from Jeddah, Reem Asaad, launched a campaign called "No to underwear salesMEN in Saudi Arabia". She called on shoppers to boycott lingerie shops across the country until the government agreed to enforce a law which allows women to work in the shops (Article 8 of decree N120). The law, put forward by the left-leaning current labour minister, Ghazi al-Qusaibi, was passed in 2006. It specified that all lingerie salesmen should be replaced by saleswomen within a year. But faced with pressure from Saudi clerics and conservative forces opposed to women mixing with men in the workplace, the majority of shops ignored the new law.
Almost the entirety of Saudi Arabia's sales positions are held by men, making shopping for underwear a somewhat uncomfortable experience for women. In an attempt to reverse the trend, a group of exasperated Saudis tried to take control of the lingerie business. Did they succeed?
On February 13, a financial analyst and blogger from Jeddah, Reem Asaad, launched a campaign called "No to underwear salesMEN in Saudi Arabia". She called on shoppers to boycott lingerie shops across the country until the government agreed to enforce a law which allows women to work in the shops (Article 8 of decree N120).
The law, put forward by the left-leaning current labour minister, Ghazi al-Qusaibi, was passed in 2006. It specified that all lingerie salesmen should be replaced by saleswomen within a year. But faced with pressure from Saudi clerics and conservative forces opposed to women mixing with men in the workplace, the majority of shops ignored the new law.
The Republican party's national organising committee was furiously backpedalling after an embarrassing document lampooning Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders as 'evil' was found in a hotel room.The PowerPoint document, reported by the Washington news website Politico, was delivered by the Republican National Committee's head of fundraising to a closed meeting of select party officials and major donors held in Boca Grande, Florida, last month.
The Republican party's national organising committee was furiously backpedalling after an embarrassing document lampooning Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders as 'evil' was found in a hotel room.
The PowerPoint document, reported by the Washington news website Politico, was delivered by the Republican National Committee's head of fundraising to a closed meeting of select party officials and major donors held in Boca Grande, Florida, last month.
The US is facing a surge in anti-government extremist groups and armed militias, driven by deepening hostility on the right to Barack Obama, anger over the economy, and the increasing propagation of conspiracy theories by parts of the mass media such as Fox News.The Southern Poverty Law Centre, the US's most prominent civil rights group focused on hate organisations, said in a report that extremist "patriot" groups "came roaring back to life" last year as their number jumped nearly 250% to more than 500 with deepening ties to conservative mainstream politics.The SPLC report, called Rage on the Right, said the rise in extremist groups was "a cause for grave concern" given their propensity to use violence during their heyday in the 90s, most notably with the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. It added that the issues driving support for such groups were increasingly populist and that "signs of growing radicalisation are everywhere".
The US is facing a surge in anti-government extremist groups and armed militias, driven by deepening hostility on the right to Barack Obama, anger over the economy, and the increasing propagation of conspiracy theories by parts of the mass media such as Fox News.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre, the US's most prominent civil rights group focused on hate organisations, said in a report that extremist "patriot" groups "came roaring back to life" last year as their number jumped nearly 250% to more than 500 with deepening ties to conservative mainstream politics.
The SPLC report, called Rage on the Right, said the rise in extremist groups was "a cause for grave concern" given their propensity to use violence during their heyday in the 90s, most notably with the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. It added that the issues driving support for such groups were increasingly populist and that "signs of growing radicalisation are everywhere".
The violence began when police tried to turn them away. No serious injuries were reported. The school was among dozens of nationwide campuses hit with marches, strikes, teach-ins and walkouts in what was being billed as the March 4th National Day of Action for Public Education.... Protesters at the University of California, Santa Cruz surrounded the car while its uninjured driver was inside. Earlier, demonstrators blocked campus gates.... At the University of California, Berkeley, a small group of protesters formed a human chain blocking a main gate to the campus. Later in the day, hundreds gathered for a peaceful rally.... At the University of Illinois, about 200 professors, instructors and graduate faculty marched through campus carrying signs that read "Defend Public Education" and "Furlough Legislators" -- a reference to recent furloughs and 4 percent pay cuts imposed on thousands of university employees.... At the University of Texas at Austin, about 100 students and staff rallied on campus to protest a 5.4 percent hike in tuition and fees approved by regents a day earlier. Protesters complained the quality of education was taking a backseat to the university's bottom line.... Read more...
Protesters at the University of California, Santa Cruz surrounded the car while its uninjured driver was inside. Earlier, demonstrators blocked campus gates....
At the University of California, Berkeley, a small group of protesters formed a human chain blocking a main gate to the campus. Later in the day, hundreds gathered for a peaceful rally....
At the University of Illinois, about 200 professors, instructors and graduate faculty marched through campus carrying signs that read "Defend Public Education" and "Furlough Legislators" -- a reference to recent furloughs and 4 percent pay cuts imposed on thousands of university employees....
At the University of Texas at Austin, about 100 students and staff rallied on campus to protest a 5.4 percent hike in tuition and fees approved by regents a day earlier. Protesters complained the quality of education was taking a backseat to the university's bottom line....
Read more...
Students also spoke out against a proposal to make PSU and other state universities more autonomous public corporations similar to Oregon Health & Science University. The State Board of Higher Education is studying the idea. Students fear such restructuring would lead to higher tuition and less access. Read more...
There were conflicting reports about what happened in Milwaukee. A campus official said students defied police orders by rushing toward the school's administrative building, pinning officers against a wall and knocking four of them down. A student organizer countered that the protesters were peaceful and claimed police used excessive authority. By several accounts, the protest began when 125 to 150 people gathered at the student union at noon, carrying signs and chanting in favor of tuition controls. Read more...
Participation rate across the US looks weak. News coverage concentrated in California, where 2,000 massed at Sacramento capitol building. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Too many young people are too careerist, and too scared of a future of unemployment and downward mobility, to seriously protest much of anything.
The prime minister, Gordon Brown, today defended the government's refusal to disclose why Jon Venables, who was convicted at the age of 10 of the murder of two-year-old James Bulger, has been sent back to prison for unspecified breaches of the conditions of his release on a life licence.Brown said he understood "public outrage" but insisted it was impossible for the specific details of the breach to be revealed.
The prime minister, Gordon Brown, today defended the government's refusal to disclose why Jon Venables, who was convicted at the age of 10 of the murder of two-year-old James Bulger, has been sent back to prison for unspecified breaches of the conditions of his release on a life licence.
Brown said he understood "public outrage" but insisted it was impossible for the specific details of the breach to be revealed.
Why are adult murderers of children given a pass in the media ? People who are supposedly in full control of their motivations and fully cognisant of what they are doing and the effect it will have ? Yet, with the exception of the moors murderers 50 years ago nobody has aroused the same hatred as two 10 year old boys who killed.
Does Brown understand the motivations of people who can hate children who kill more than adults who do the same or worse ? Does he understand how the UK criminalises children at a younger age than any of our more civilised neighbours. europe is aghast that we tried two 10 year old boys in an adult court for an adult crime and punished them as if they were as understanding of what they had done as any 20 or 30 year old contract killer.
What they did was barbarous. But they were children and did not really understand. What we did to them in turn was barbarous and we're supposed to know better.
And the public, with its foaming lynch mob mentality, is easily press-ganged by media moguls into viewing another candidate for the Goldstein two-minute hate as the be-all and end-all of those who are vermin to be attacked on sight. It's exactly the same as Germany in 32.
As John Cooper-Clarke wrote
"The people pay, the paper sells its plug-ugly sub-animal yells"
there is an interesting story to tell about why the public are more outraged about children who kill. why such stories strike deep into the psyche, of lost innocence, of threatened childhood. But you will not find it today in the newspapers. Just shrill calls for some chink in officialdom's armour so that the baying mobs can break through with pitchforks and flaming torches to rend the monster limb from limb. keep to the Fen Causeway
It was extremely interesting and written by a woman who has been researching this for some time to write a book on it - not specifically about these two but how the demonisation of children now stems back to the impact that this case had at the time. These is also another article in today's G2 on the topic. Don't have time to search for it.
Of course Gordon Brown has to say he 'understands' the outrage. If he told people to stop hyperventilating en masse in another moral panic and to fuck off and mind their own business, there'd be further outrage against him for protecting henious devil boys. Ad astra per aspera
The photograph shows a starkly handsome Chinese man walking with a model's measured gait, and wearing a rag-tag but well co-ordinated overcoat on top of a leather jacket. His eyes peer into the middle distance, in what one fan described as "a deep and penetrating way", and he strides confidently forward. But this is no catwalk model. This is a homeless man in the city of Ningbo. And now a band of web followers are calling him the coolest man in China.His good looks and bohemian dress sense have won him thousands of online fans after a resident of Ningbo posted a picture online. Web users in China have called him the "Beggar Prince", the "Handsome Vagabond", and, most often, "Brother Sharp".
The photograph shows a starkly handsome Chinese man walking with a model's measured gait, and wearing a rag-tag but well co-ordinated overcoat on top of a leather jacket. His eyes peer into the middle distance, in what one fan described as "a deep and penetrating way", and he strides confidently forward.
But this is no catwalk model. This is a homeless man in the city of Ningbo. And now a band of web followers are calling him the coolest man in China.
His good looks and bohemian dress sense have won him thousands of online fans after a resident of Ningbo posted a picture online. Web users in China have called him the "Beggar Prince", the "Handsome Vagabond", and, most often, "Brother Sharp".
Odd how, when you want to believe someone is your staunch friend, you keep screening out evidence to the contrary. So it is with our special relationship with America. They're just not that into us. Why do we find it so hard to see this? All this week I've been reading alarmed commentary about the United States "wavering" in its support on the Falklands. Wavering? Not a bit of it. America has never backed Britain's territorial claim. [....] "Only Mitterrand and the French remained staunch allies to the end."
Why do we find it so hard to see this? All this week I've been reading alarmed commentary about the United States "wavering" in its support on the Falklands. Wavering? Not a bit of it. America has never backed Britain's territorial claim. [....] "Only Mitterrand and the French remained staunch allies to the end."
Thousands of passengers reportedly are stuck along with the ships ferrying them in Baltic Sea ice between Stockholm and the Aland Islands, located between Sweden and Finland. Both countries have sent icebreakers to rescue the ships in what is being called the worst Baltic freeze in 15 years. Four ferries of the Viking Line, which routinely carries passengers between Sweden and Finland, are among the ships stuck in the ice, according to Swedish maritime authorities. Cargo vessels also have been affected, with up to 50 ships reportedly trapped. Officials blame windy conditions in the Baltic for creating conditions conducive to ice quickly surrounding surprised vessels.
Four ferries of the Viking Line, which routinely carries passengers between Sweden and Finland, are among the ships stuck in the ice, according to Swedish maritime authorities. Cargo vessels also have been affected, with up to 50 ships reportedly trapped.
Officials blame windy conditions in the Baltic for creating conditions conducive to ice quickly surrounding surprised vessels.
From an ecological perspective, of course, this system of growth at any cost, synonymous with capitalism, places the world economy in direct conflict with environmental sustainability. China's rapid growth in recent decades has also led to record rates of environmental degradation on its part. China is now close to the United States in annual carbon dioxide emissions, though far below the latter in emissions per capita. Yet, despite the seriousness of this contradiction between the capitalist economy and the planet, establishment economists generally argue against any major attempt to avert climate change, i.e., to bailout nature. At the same time they do not hesitate to advocate spending trillions of dollars to bailout banks. President-elect Obama's chief economic advisor, Larry Summers, is notorious for his anti-environmental diatribes. He has said, on more than one occasion, that it makes as much economic sense in terms of future welfare to spend on various non-environmental factors--for example, to rebuild infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.)--as to seek to preserve the environment, say, tropical forests. In addressing the global warming problem, Summers naively stated in 1992, that under "the most pessimistic estimates yet prepared...global warming reduces growth over the next two centuries by less than 0.1 percent a year."39 Yet, under the most pessimistic estimates of climatologists at that time--now proving accurate--global warming under business as usual threatened both life on the planet and human civilization itself. Indeed, nothing is more deranged than the notion of Summers and other orthodox economists that the planet as we know it can be destroyed, while the capitalist economy can continue as before. Ironically, the current slowdown of the capitalist economy may help temporarily to check some of the increasing burden on the biosphere, by reducing the rate of growth of the overall consumption of energy and materials. However, the usual response to economic crisis within capitalism is to remove protections previously applied to workers and the environment. Hence, the economic decline is likely to result in more intensive forms of ecological exploitation.
From an ecological perspective, of course, this system of growth at any cost, synonymous with capitalism, places the world economy in direct conflict with environmental sustainability. China's rapid growth in recent decades has also led to record rates of environmental degradation on its part. China is now close to the United States in annual carbon dioxide emissions, though far below the latter in emissions per capita. Yet, despite the seriousness of this contradiction between the capitalist economy and the planet, establishment economists generally argue against any major attempt to avert climate change, i.e., to bailout nature. At the same time they do not hesitate to advocate spending trillions of dollars to bailout banks. President-elect Obama's chief economic advisor, Larry Summers, is notorious for his anti-environmental diatribes. He has said, on more than one occasion, that it makes as much economic sense in terms of future welfare to spend on various non-environmental factors--for example, to rebuild infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.)--as to seek to preserve the environment, say, tropical forests. In addressing the global warming problem, Summers naively stated in 1992, that under "the most pessimistic estimates yet prepared...global warming reduces growth over the next two centuries by less than 0.1 percent a year."39 Yet, under the most pessimistic estimates of climatologists at that time--now proving accurate--global warming under business as usual threatened both life on the planet and human civilization itself. Indeed, nothing is more deranged than the notion of Summers and other orthodox economists that the planet as we know it can be destroyed, while the capitalist economy can continue as before.
Ironically, the current slowdown of the capitalist economy may help temporarily to check some of the increasing burden on the biosphere, by reducing the rate of growth of the overall consumption of energy and materials. However, the usual response to economic crisis within capitalism is to remove protections previously applied to workers and the environment. Hence, the economic decline is likely to result in more intensive forms of ecological exploitation.
