July 2010
55 posts
Solar Energy is Now the Better Buy (Solar vs Nuclear) →
ncwarn.org
Electricity from new solar installations
is now cheaper than electricity from proposed new nuclear plants.
PDF study.
(via ur5)
"An ocean without a Shore...": What is Love? →
newfilosofee.tumblr.com
I recommend reading The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm to understand the concept of love in western society. Fromm sold millions of copies of this book.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about Love and Dating and what I look for in a guy. I just want to make a few things clear. Love is bigger than us and we won’t ever really understand it.
As for dating, I don’t look for someone. I just live my life. If someone comes along who is…
“A simulation/game to demonstrate the flaws in society being organized into hierarchies, like governments, countries, internet service providers, businesses that control cell phones and other communication devices. Could this lead to real world changes after people see how hard this simpler problem is to solve? Can they agree on anything, having the ability to censor eachother by setting the price for parts of text the others want to say?”
—Free Speech Just Pay Shipping
People shouldn't be hypocrites.
I guess you have thrown every Made in China product out of your window? :)
When Apple uses cheap labor it’s Apple’s fault. But when every other brand uses cheap China labor it’s the consumers fault.
People shouldn’t be hypocrites. Most of the people that condem the foxconn factory own stuff made in China by the same chinese hands. Why ? Because consumers want the cheapest possible products.
sum1: Obviously I’m not a saint. On the other hand I am very consciously consuming. I buy organic food whenever I can, I drive no car (I ride a bike), I don’t fly, I boycott the most exploitative corporations like Nike, Coke, Nestle. I don’t buy bottled water, I use a filter on tap water instead. I use energy from renewable sources (water, solar, wind etc.) and I attempt not to buy products from bloody dictatorships like China. Lately I even switched my bank to an ethical one.
Sometines I have no choice. I can only afford Chinese products in many cases.
Most Apple/Foxconn customers are rich enough to choose. They prefer not to. They consciously choose to buy Made in China although they know China is a bloody dictatorship. They even pay twice or triple the price just to be able to join the Apple cult. Apple products are faulty, they overheat, the batteries explode, hell the iPhones don’t even connect but people love it.
People die for your Apple products and you simply don’t care. You would kill for an iPhone.
“VIOLENCE is to work 40 years for peanuts and wondering if you will ever retire.
VIOLENCE is state bonds, stolen pension funds, the stock market scam.
VIOLENCE is to be forced to take out a home loan which you end up paying back like it was gold.
VIOLENCE is the right of an employer to fire you any time he or she likes.
VIOLENCE is unemployment, insecurity, 700 euros salary with or without social security.
VIOLENCE is workplace “accidents” because bosses reduce their costs at the expense of their employees’ safety.
VIOLENCE is taking psychotropic drugs and vitamins to cope with exhausting hours.
VIOLENCE is to be an immigrant, to live in fear that you are likely to be deported any time and experiencing constant insecurity.
VIOLENCE is to be an employee, housewife, and mother at the same time.
VIOLENCE is to be groped at work and told: “Smile, we are not asking you for much, are we?”.” —
VIOLENCE is state bonds, stolen pension funds, the stock market scam.
VIOLENCE is to be forced to take out a home loan which you end up paying back like it was gold.
VIOLENCE is the right of an employer to fire you any time he or she likes.
VIOLENCE is unemployment, insecurity, 700 euros salary with or without social security.
VIOLENCE is workplace “accidents” because bosses reduce their costs at the expense of their employees’ safety.
VIOLENCE is taking psychotropic drugs and vitamins to cope with exhausting hours.
VIOLENCE is to be an immigrant, to live in fear that you are likely to be deported any time and experiencing constant insecurity.
VIOLENCE is to be an employee, housewife, and mother at the same time.
VIOLENCE is to be groped at work and told: “Smile, we are not asking you for much, are we?”.” —
Leaflet by the liberated town hall of Agios Dimitros, Greece, December 2008 (via introtoclasswar) (via clitorisaurusrex) (via guerrillarachel)
When people fight back, it’s considered violence. When the status quo is maintained, it’s called doing business.
(via bradicalmang)
In sociology most of it is called structural violence.
Artist Spotlight: Jef Aerosol
Jef Aerosol
via
I saw this piece of street art during my 2008 trip to Paris not knowing the artist or what it even was about exactly. A few months ago, I looked over my Paris album again on my computer and came across this picture once more. I could find nothing distinct about it that would help me in tracing its origin until I noticed the repeated stencil of “Risque De Rêve” next to the stenciling of the boy. Looked it up on the internet and I discovered the French artist Jef Aerosol. http://www.flickr.com/people/jefaerosol/
My picture:
It’s fascinating because he has these signature stencils he does all over the world. He just repeats those same figures in strange places. I think it’s genius!
Sicily, Italy
Great Wall of China
Beijing, China
Rome, Italy
Venice, Italy
Paris, France
France
The “flute player” is one of my favorites.
I think I like the “sitting boy” the best. I don’t know why.
(via ladyrhirhi)
Street Artist Targets Apple on Human Rights
Fake Ipods have started appearing on London walls after a recent spate of suicides at a Guangdong factory. Each piece by Xlyo depicts the conditions faced by the Chinese workers who produce electronic goods for a range of manufacturers, including Apple.
Taiwanese-owned Foxconn is the world’s biggest electronics outsourcing manufacturer, operating 20 plants and employing more than 800,000 workers in China. The Shenzhen plant in Guangdong province houses 400,000 workers, making products from iPhones and iPads to PlayStations for international brands like Apple, Sony, Hewlett-Packard and Dell. Analysts estimate that about 70 percent of Apple’s products are manufactured there.
Foxconn’s military-style regime, which is typical of export factories in China, requires workers to live in dormitories with up to 10 people a room. A single dormitory houses 5,000 workers, and there are many dozens of them. Workers are only allowed to enter their own rooms with electronic badges and are not allowed to cook, or have visitors or sexual relations. The dorms have no air conditioning in order to pressure workers to do extra overtime during the summer, as there is air conditioning on the factory floor.
Like other exporting companies, Foxconn’s basic monthly wage of 950 yuan ($US140) is in line with Shenzhen’s official minimum wage. Employees must work hours of overtime each day to make about 2,000 yuan to meet basic needs.
Thirteen suicide attempts since January, half of them during May, inside Foxconn’s huge plant at Shenzhen, a major manufacturing hub in southern China, underscore the brutal exploitation of Chinese workers by the world’s largest corporations. Ten workers have died, most of them just 18 to 24 years old. In the latest tragedy, a young man slashed his wrists in one of the factory’s dormitory last week.
… most of the 13 workers who tried to kill themselves jumped from buildings because they were unable to bear the stress, alienation and humiliation they experience daily.
While Foxconn’s plant in Shenzhen is like a mini-city, there are many such huge factories in China. Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Co at Dongguang, another manufacturing hub in Guangdong, for instance, employs 50,000 to 60,000 workers in a single plant. About 80 percent are just 18 to 22 years old, also working 10 to 12 hours a day. The company is the world’s largest sport shoes manufacturer, producing for brands like Nike and Reebok, with most of its 280,000 workers in China.
More on the art by Xylo at Hyperallegenic, more on the artist’s inspiration here.
HELP [Murderer] Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani →
petitiononline.com
You forgot the most important part of the story, the murder of her husband. While I don’t support the death penalty I hate the liars who alway claim somoene gets sentenced to death for nothing in Iran. Fight your own US death penalty first, plus in China where all your stuff comes from:
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was interrogated in 2006 for the murder of her husband. In the interrogation session, Sakineh confessed to committing adultery with Nasser and Seyyed Ali, the two men responsible for her late husband’s murder.
To: To save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is kept in perison since 2005 in Tabriz prison in Iran. She is accused of having committed adultery with a married man and henceforth is sentenced to being stoned to death while her crime has not been proved.
We condemn this judicial sentence and ask for international help for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. We hope that someday in near future stoning people to death be eradicated from all judicial laws.Signing this petition takes 30 seconds tops, Please do it.
Antiwar.com: Costa Rican Govt Approves US Occupation →
news.antiwar.com
In another example of the growing militarization of the war on drugs, the Costa Rican government has given the US permission to launch an invasion of up to 7,000 Marines, ostensibly to “fight drugs.”
Under the terms of the agreement, US troops “will enjoy freedom of movement and the right to carry out any activities needed to fulfill their mission.” In addition to the ground troops, the US will be deploying 46 warships and hundreds of helicopters.
The war economy marches on.
First Amendment suspended in the Gulf of Mexico as spill cover-up goes Orwellian →
naturalnews.com
Journalism is a felony crime now. Finally some change from the Obama administration.
CNN reporter Anderson Cooper says, “A new law passed today, and back by the force of law and the threat of fines and felony charges, … will prevent reporters and photographers from getting anywhere close to booms and oil-soaked wildlife just about any place we need to be. By now you’re probably familiar with cleanup crews stiff-arming the media, private security blocking cameras, ordinary workers clamming up, some not even saying who they’re working for because they’re afraid of losing their jobs.”
“Privileged bodies, whose mobility is unrestricted worldwide, get to decide where capital goes, where factories are built, where coal is mined. In the wake of advanced, global capitalism, of course not everyone can move through the world freely, because if they did, what’s to stop them (us) from moving to places where wages are livable, land is unpolluted and resources are plentiful? Because at the end of the day, that’s what Western immigration laws are about: protecting access to centuries of amassed (stolen) wealth, and perpetuating a system wherein white bodies can move through the world at will, taking what they need.”
—Tassja, “Different Kind of Border Patrol” (via tart-tart bonesarecoralmade ourtropes skirtonfire) (via thatdangergirl)
