Szegsetics: Page add-on: Failure in Congress of Sex Opennes in USA military ranks

Click up the new add-on to our Editorial Stance #1 (scroll down to the last item).

Politics: Iran and South Caucusus: Seeking to shepherd Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia into Iran's orbit

In the widely respected online and print journal, Foreign Policy, an important 2-page dispatch on the Georgian Republic, Azerbaijan, and Armenia (the trio are often gathered in the significant geopolitical expression "South Caucusus") is offered by author Haley Sweetland Edwards, "Iran's Near Abroad: Beset by global sanctions, Iran's leaders go local" (Sept20,2k10). [Here "local" means "regional."]

The nations of the South Caucasus -- all of which receive U.S. aid, investment and support to one degree or another -- have accepted Tehran's recent overtures of friendship graciously, but cautiously. Georgia alone has received a whopping $4.5 billion from Western funders in the past two years, and can't afford to burn bridges with Washington.


"We're in a kind of Bermuda triangle here. Georgia needs U.S. support, but it needs friendly relations with its neighbors, too," says Alexander Rondeli, president of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies in Tbilisi. While the United States has watched Iranian influence in the region closely, it has not yet insisted its allies cut ties with Tehran. "They understand we are a small nation, stuck in the middle. We have Iranian investors, Israeli investors, Turkish investors. We can't afford to alienate anyone. It is in our interest to keep Russia from having all the cards here," Rondeli says.

While Georgia is nominally Christian (Georgian Orthodox Church) and Armenia with its affiliated enclave deep in Azeri territory, Nagorno-Karabakh are also nominally Christian (Armenian Apostolic Church), Azerbaijan is Shia Muslim.


The resulting tug-wars also turn on Russia's extra-territorial ambitions as evidenced during the Bush Administration, when Russia used its split-off  Georgian provincial ally of South Ossetia, to justify armed invasion of Georgia proper. (Oct8,2k08) Now, Georgia is entering into economic deals with Iran, which is only some 800 miles away, while attempting to ward of the voracious Russia, and also retaining its foremost ally in the world, the USA.  (The Bush Administration wisely decided not to give armed support to Georgia at the time, and for the longest time Pres. Obama shrugged off the country and its people.)


Why the Georgia-Iran deal-making? 


-------------------------------------------------------
Rookmaker Club for Geopolitical Strategy
-------------------------------------------------------


Georgia seeks to break out of its cul-de-sac situation on the level of economic development.  Again, while the USA funds its ally, it can't offer what Iran can.  Says analyst-reporter Edwards, the reason for the Iranian move toward rapprochement with Georgia and vice versa is "energy."  Georgia presently at Russia's mercy on that score.  With a pipeline and a railroad financed by Iran, Georgia woud be able to asserta a bit it's economic and development independence.


At the moment, of coourse, Iran's leader Ahmadhi-Nejab is holding forth at the United Nations in New York City.  Wall Street Journal carries this news note as a teaser to lure subscribers (you can get the full article without paying up, darn 'em!).  The unavailable article, "US opens window for Iran talks" is by Jay Solomon and Richard Boudreaux (Sept22,2k10)

The Obama administration said Iran has offered new signs of a willingness to negotiate on its nuclear program, as Washington and other world powers pressed at the United Nations for an immediate resumption of a dialogue with Tehran. The comments, made by senior U.S. officials on Wednesday, came a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told American journalists in New York that he saw no "alternative" but to resume negotiations with the international community on the nuclear issue.
Still, U.S. and European officials said they remain skeptical of Tehran's desire to negotiate an agreement to end or limit the Iranian [nuclear project].

Couple this with revelations in the new Woodward book, Obama's Wars, that he thinks the USA can simply "absorb" terrorist attacks with his foot-dragging in the defense of Israel when Iran constitutes a "near and present danger" to our only ally in the MidEast, to put the Obama-Clinton envisaged talks with Iran and also the Bush policy being followed in regard to the Georgian Republic, into a geopolitical context, you will find yourself with much musing to pursue on these present realities.


-- Politicarp

Calendar: Upcoming: World Business Forum -- pols, biz nabobs, & 'renowned intellectuals' -- Oct 5-6 NYC

6th Annual World Business Forum
The forumn is an annual global business summit held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The World Business Forum brings together an incredible lineup of speakers, the topics being specifically tailored to provide you with the latest insights on three overarching areas critical to the success of any organization.

Economy – Trends – Change

Leadership – Performance – People

Strategy – Innovation – Communication

The yearly summit brings together over 5,000 attendees, consisting mostly of senior executives, from over 50 countries to hear the debate and discussions of top political and business leaders as well as renowned intellectuals about the current issues and challenges of the world business environment and global economy.

This year’s speakers include Jim Collins (Good to Great), Jack Welch (GE), Charlene Li (Groundswell), Vijay Govindarajan (Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators), Steve Levitt (Freakonomics), former Vice President Al Gore and others. The two day conference will be held October 5 – 6, 2010. You can register to attend the World Business Forum at the website. Hope to see many of you there.

--EconoMix

EconomicsUSA: PovertyUSA: New stats from recent Census

The 2010 Census, taken again during the last summer in accord with the requirements of the USA Constitution, has produced a deeply sad statistic. Figures tell us that poverty has grown in America. MarketWatch's Ruth Mantell reports "Poverty rate highest since 1994: Census" (Sept14,2k10)

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The poverty rate rose to 14.3% in 2009, the highest since 1994, up from 13.2% in 2008, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. Last year there were a record 43.6 million people in poverty. Meanwhile, real median household income in 2009 was $49,777, not statistically different from the prior year. Real median income fell 1.8% for family households, and rose 1.6% for nonfamily households. Also, the number of people with health insurance fell to 253.6 million in 2009 from 255.1 million in 2008, the first year that the number of people with health insurance has decreased since 1987, when the government started collecting comparable data. The number of uninsured rose to 50.7 million from 46.3 million.

A commenter Growth33 chimes in:

will get worse if US doesn't bring back the poor peoples' job, the manufacturing.

'Free Market Experiment' USA poor/middle class are guinea pigs of the Wallstreet. Sad but true. I love the this 'Free Market Bluff' that shifted poor jobs abroad.

1) China devaluing currency
2) Japan devaluing currency
3) USA devaluing currency since 2000 or something [like that].
4) Every nation is ready to devalue their currency when needed. What happened to the free market dictating the market?

5) China restricting multinational corporations from growing and prospering.
6) Airbus receiving EU's subsidies, Boeing in USA [likew+z]
7) Bush steel tarrifs, import taxes.
8) Russia bans wheat exports
9) OPEC's controlling of oil price, quotas on nations for oil productions etc.
10) China, India and the rest of the world will shutdown the import gates if they suffer the kind of deficit and trade imbalances USA suffers. Thats a gurrentee. Countries around the world already have so many restrictions on imports etc ... especially China.

The joke is on the USA poor and middle class. Shifting their jobs to cheaper countries in the name of free market ....

I've fixed a few spellings, a bit of grammar, and removed an incendiary fragment of a sentence.
Yahoo!

But the commenter turns the discussion to remarks attempting to answer the question "why?" What caused the growth of poverty in America?, which the census stats reveal. It's a question worth asking.

Further reports ...:

"Poverty rate at h+est level in half-century, data show" WaPo (Sept16,2k10)

-- EconoMix

PoliticsUSA: Primary Elections Part 2: Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Wisconsin

The first newshorse to which I have had reference on this story today (two days after the primaries as we get set for the general election) was an item offered up by Reuters via Yahoo! News, written by an ideologue unconcerned in executing his slant in his articles, John Whitesides, "Republicans take stock after Tea Party stunner" (Sept9,2k10). The article is not overall about Republicans taking stock; it's about Democrat leaders' opinions about Christine O'Donnell's displacing the aged Reblcn Establishment's hold on Delaware's politics. In response to this distortion of a news reporter's function, Rep. Michael Castle shoud have ret+red, he's long been plodding and drifting into incompetence. Why do these power-mongers think they deserve more than 18 yrs as the people's representataives?, automatically moving from drudgery in the House to seniority in the Senate. No one in Congress (House or Senate) that long, can stay in touch with the populace that in the first instance it's his/her duty to represent. O'Donnel did a service to the Republic by knocking out of office her party's forever man (one of them).

For Whitesides and his article-editors Cynthia Osterman and Paul Simao, the campaign was about moderates vs extremists. The "reporter" obviously has the Republicans in the center of his targetting, altho he makes a ploy toward "evenhandedness" when he says both Dems and Rpblcns are threatened by extremists (but he doesn't document the Democrat "extremists," who not only dominate their party, but control the country). But, more important, is Whiteside's failure to define his terms: what is an "extremist" in the script he follows?

What's the meaning of Whiteside's reportage that Democratic anti-Republican arguments

bolstered ... [the idea] that the Republican Party has been taken over by extremists, giving [the Dems] hope moderates and independent voters who are sour on Democrats will not find Republicans to be a suitable alternative in November.

Fat chance! But the normative formulation of the issue is not "extremists" in either party. It's the positive advocacy of lower taxes, lower spending, and ....

The author goes on with his haphazard thesis by stating "Republicans had proven they did not have room for anyone who does not conform to their narrow agenda." That's a spurious brain-dead summation of what Democrats are thinking. If you're a liberal Republican in a liberal state, you still can can run in the Republican Party, altho you'd better be a millionaire, as is also the case in the Democratic Party. What's changed is that Republican conservatives and some Republican moderates are aiming toward "lower taxes and spending [hence smaller govt]," and I m+t add, paying down the sovereign national debt [hence solvency].

One can't blame Whitesides for exploiting Karl Rove's self-serving exploitation on TV (Fox News -- I saw the Rove performance "as it happened"), Rove's exploitation of his party's new candidate for the Senate in Delaware. I cringed as he tried to throw filth on Christine because she's a politically ambitious pauper, just paying down some of her debts now. She ran twice before, the most recent was a campaign to kick Joe Biden's then-held Senate seat, she garnering 35% on that trial run. She paupered herself in the three campaigns, old debts dragging on, while she worked as a conservative Rpblcn activist. The basis of her creds. In contrast, all these overwrawt rich guys (like Rove, like the Republican Paladino in New York, like Schumer on 'Crat side in NY), these guys can always finance their own political projects, they may to a man despise someone like Christine who's clawed her way onto the political scene without a dime. Only a political vision. California's Tea Party Express to the rescue! I guess she figures that, so what I've been broke until now. I have ideals, and I can get an interesting well-paying job to advance those ideals -- lower taxes, lower spending, and again I add, paying down the debt. That such a woman shoud ret+r the old geezer Castle without him getting even one term in the Senate, Karl Rove can't stand it! He's revealed his own elitist side, his age cohort and his Old Boys connections in the Republican Party -- he really doesn't want a new, younger generation, especially a younger woman, taking leadership among Republicans.

If the Dems can return on old lecher like Rangle to Congress (he won his 'Crat primary), then a young lady who sacrificed a lot to pursue conservative political action, she can hold her own against the Dem Senate candidate in Delaware, another rich guy. Not everyone in the Senate has to be a patrician, independently wealthy, bloated with noblesse oblige.

But, in any case, half the country hates Rove because he was Chief of Staff to Prez Bush the Younger. I supported him all thru his ordeal under the cloud of accusations Valerie Plame sent his way. Amazingly, his conventional wisdom no longer has the salt many once credited him with. A stale mind cawt in his own establishmentarian predilections when it comes to his own Party.

Further reports ...

"Christine O'Donnell: The GOP establishment's new BFF> Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor (Sept16,2k10). "Christine O'Donnell was a surprise win in Delaware's GOP Senate primary. Now, Republicans from all over are rushing to close ranks and support her." Whitesides' tendentious myopia is is exposed, Rove's presumptuous snottiness is shot asunder.

While another source puts the gears to the Whiteside hypothesis:

"Coud Christine O'Donnell actually win in November?" (Linda Feldman, CSM, Sept16,2000).

In a CNN interview the day before Tuesday's primary, O’Donnell spoke positively of Clinton “in the context of female solidarity and empowerment,” Loudell writes. “A deft move.”

The tea party movement boasts many h+-profile women, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) of Minnesota, and Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle. And even though the GOP boasts fewer female candidates for congressional and gubernatorial seats than the Democrats, the imbalance is smaller than usual, and so 2010 has the feel of a “GOP Year of the Woman.” Ms. Angle’s continuing competitiveness against Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada, even after being ridiculed nationally for her unorthodox views, provides more evidence that O’Donnell cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Next time in this series on the Primaries, I'll take up the Primary Election in New York state which, in the case of the Republicans, saw the defeat of politician Rick Lazio (formerly a Congressman from the Staten Island district), and the win of independently-wealthy businessman . The Dems anointed the dynast Andrew Cuomo who was Attorney General for the state, in his last round. I have as little patience with the chauvinists like Rove when they put down the "integrity" and "morals" of a woman, nor very patient with geezers like Castle who hang around too long, nor patient with the dynasts like the second round of Cuomos, or the Kennedys, or the Bushes, or ....

PoliticsUSA: Primary Elections: Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Wisconsin

Democrats who won their primaries in previous races are rarely these days pursuing ad campaigns that mention Obama not at all, distancing themselves from even the troika (Pelosi, Reid, Obama) healthcare legislation passed in the last Congress and signed by the President.  In the primaries yesterday, there weren't many Dem candidates wearing the mantle of ram-the-bill-thru-&-don't-waste-time-reading-it.

Republicans, contesting with one another the chance to represent their political party in the November general elections, were enshrouded in the new problems posed by the anti-incumbent wave that pits the throw-the-bums-out approach against that of the stand-pat incumbents like Sen John McCain (Arizona), the Republican establishment in several cases (including Karl Rove who blasted anti-incumbent Christine O'Donnell among last n+t's winners in Delaware), and rank-and-file members who rank party unity as the prime political virtue (unlike Fox News commentator, Sean Hannity, a conservative die-hard who ton+t harrassed a party-unity conservative, Dana Perino).

Were I a Republican, I woud not want to throw out moderates and liberals who persist in the party; were I a Democrat, I woud distinguish my loyalty to the party's leader from approval of the law-ramming illiteracy that pervades the overly legalistic legislation just passed, unreadable due to its sheer length as well as its head-spinning legalese.  There's something to be said for reporters, whether in mainstream media or bloggers / iPhoners, who don't join a party and try to keep an irenic spirit in the face of the seemingly-everlasting, special-pleading political warfare that saturates almost every corner of our society.

Tomorrow evening, I hope to review some of the contests and winners of primaries.  I've already seen most of the results, but I want a bit of time to assimilate the patterns that have emerged.

-- Politicarp

dictionary:

special pleadingnounargument in which the speaker deliberately ignores aspects that are unfavorable to his/her point of view• appeals to give a particular interest group special treatment :
    we heard his special pleading for his aging constituency.

Juridics: USA: Proposed anti-democracy union law may die on the docket

Congressional newspaper/webs+t, The Hill, reported yesterday (Michael O'Brien, Sept 14,2k10) that the Obama AFL-CIO consortium in the House of Representatives may not be able to muster the votes to choke democracy in labor representation, as it has planned.

Obama: Chances of passing 'card check' now are 'not real high'

By Michael O'Brien - 09/13/10 02:42 PM ET

Controversial "card-check" legislation doesn't have a good chance of passing through Congress, President Obama acknowledged Monday. 

Obama, during a question-and-answer session about the economy in a backyard in Fairfax, Va., said the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, or "card check") likely doesn't have the 60 votes right now to make it through the Senate.

"The opportunity to get this passed right now is not real high," Obama said.

The president noted his administration is supportive of EFCA, though the window of opportunity to push through the union organizing bill has diminished over time. Labor groups had been hopeful it was one of the first items on which Democrats in the House and Senate would act after winning big majorities in the 2008 elections. 

With this fall's elections likely to give Republicans stronger footing in the House and Senate — if not a majority in one or both houses — the chances of EFCA advancing come next year are seen as fading.

Obama told the AFL-CIO in early August that his administration would "keep on fighting" for the card check bill, which Republican and business interests have rallied against. But the president also pivoted to note that many of the problems in organizing rules that EFCA sought to address might be fixed through administrative action. 

In the opinion of this observer, the card check scheme is a full-fledged totalitarian manoeuver to establish one philosophy of labour representation and to block permanently any really-alternative unions based on latent forces for change in the American workforce's system of unionization.  Read more ...

It's no secret that a nonsectarian Christian re-unionization of workers has long been advocated by refWr+t.  Certainly this horizon of hope is possible across the USA.  Opportunities to campaign publicly were offered by the tangle of events in the auto industry in recent years, where the hegemony of the UAW was not broken and opened to alternative unions (plural streams of representation at General Motors for its workers), altho the taxes of all Americans were deployed to keep the company going and its workers employed at public expense.  My guesstimate is that a Christianly-principled union coud garner upwards of 20% of workers'   votes at that company.  Closed shops must go!

Another situation occured at the un-unionized workplace of West Virginia workers where safety measures were in abeyance and the anti-union company was found to be complacent in protecting mineworkers, deep in WV's Bible Belt.  Surely, a Christian alternative union that excluded no one and forced no one coud have been powerfully and effectively offered to the miners who have long resisted joining the secularist United Mineworkers (I'm not trashing this union, because my grandfather worked under their auspices for year).  They're still good guys in my perceptions (altho I haven't kept up with the 60 years of internal developments in the UMW, since Grandpa Frank died of black-lung disease in the Pennsylvania coal region).  To have been brawt the Good News for WV's workforce still languishing unorganized and un-unionized in many of its mines, coud have made labor history.

Many other instances, especially in locations in America where the Christian demographic is relatively large, coud be listed.   A social-studies researcher coud wr+t a Master's thesis on the correlation between faith-commitment demographics and unionization / nonunionization patterns, locality by locality of h+ Christian presence, employer by employer in each locality.  I think such a study woud tell us something important about opportunities for a wave of pluralization of labor representation.  There is a very small Chrsitian labor union in the USA, the Christian Labor Association USA.

Christian Principles are in our founding and guiding philosophy, the CLA is not a church or a church-based organization. We accept and represent members of all faiths. Members are attracted to the CLA by its labor relations policies, its principles, its common-sense approach to workplace issues, and by the services it offers. We believe in justice in the workplace, whether it's about pay, benefits, work relations, or conflicts that arise, people expect and deserve to be treated fairly.  ... The CLA works to promote harmony between Employer and Employee. This makes us a unique organization. The CLA is a labor union, certified by the National Labor Relations Board and similar state and local agencies. Our right to act as bargaining agents for employees is protected by law. The CLA is not affiliated with a large international union, but democratically governed by its membership. The CLA promotes harmony among all workers. Our method of operation allows for the crossing of trade lines, eliminating craft disputes. The CLA realizes that the livelihood of the employer and employee is derived from the same source.

CLA-USA has been around since 1931, but of course it has had its own internal development (amidst strong and hateful resistance from America's monopolistic unions which don't have room in their values and practices for a pluralization of representation so that cooperating multi-union representation can flourish, affording to each worker membership in a union formed on the basis of different life-principles in the sphere of work relations.  That woud entail inter-union negotiation in many places -- automakers, miners, airline workers, construction s+ts, docks and American-flag ships, industrial farms, you name the trade or profession -- as it occurs in the Netherlands, France, many other European countries, many developing countries.

Rather, in America (Canada, UK, Australia) unions woud rather retreat into arrangements that further curb democracy in workers representation, such as the Obama govt and the AFL-CIO masters have proposed.  May the pining legislation die on the vine!  May the True Vine prevail, also in labor relations in America.

-- Lawt

Enviro: Building: USA's green wave flowing to Canada in construction industry

In a recent column, Korky Koroluk pinpoints connection between govt-triggered green wave in USA with its gradual adoption north of the border in Canada (July 8,2k10).

U.S. green wave is moving north

It’s often possible to predict what will happen in Canada in a year or two or three by watching what’s happening in the United States now.

That’s why our construction industry should be aware of an executive order signed by U.S. President Barack Obama last October. The order sets out numerous green requirements for the U.S. federal government, requiring various government agencies to meet a number of energy, water and waste-reduction goals.

These apply only to federal buildings, of course, but the resulting impact for the construction industry could be profound since government construction is a trend-setter.

Building Information Management, or BIM, is an example of a new technology that was growing slowly until the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) made BIM compulsory for all government buildings. That meant that any company that wanted to bid on a government building had to have BIM capability.

BIM’s growth rate took off. And since more contractors were able to use BIM, more private-sector buyers of construction began to demand it as well.

That has meant more Canadian buyers aware of BIM and the advantages it offers, so its use is growing in Canada, as well — just not as fast.

Read more ...
You can expect something similar to happen as the U.S. government places more and more emphasis on green construction.
For example, there now must be a 26-per-cent improvement in water efficiency by 2020. New emphasis will be placed on sustainability requirements. And there is a net-zero-energy requirement for all federal building projects by 2030.

In a recent speech to members of the U.S. Green Building Council, GSA administrator Martha Johnson said among the organization’s objectives are helping help other federal agencies make greater strides in sustainability, identifying environmentally friendly initiatives, and increasing federal building performance.

The GSA, she said, is setting its sights on “eliminating the impact of the federal government on our natural environment.”
She outlined a number of areas in which the GSA could take a leading role, including cultivating green-oriented public-private partnerships. And it could use the federal government’s stock of buildings as a green proving ground for new sustainable-building and design technologies.

But she placed most emphasis on the search for a zero environmental footprint.

Both industry and the government, she said, had to be willing to fail, and to learn from and share those experiences, and in the process, work together to develop new tools.

All of this sounds great to anyone keen on environmental protection, and scary to anyone wary of increased government involvement in industry. So it’s important to understand that the executive order does not allow agencies to create new regulations governing the private sector. Indeed, it’s really just an extension of what various agencies already do for their internal operations, like the GSA’s internal requirement that their buildings meet the LEED Silver standard.

But although there may not be new rules, the executive order makes clear that the administration is going to require all agencies to enforce existing rules. And by encouraging the promotion of green public-private partnerships, the government is using a powerful lever on the way to sustainable buildings.

All this means that the American building construction industry will have to accommodate a lot of change just during the next 20 years.

Given the Canadian tendency to look southward for innovation, it seems likely that many of the things that are just beginning to happen in the U.S. will slowly find their way into Canadian practice.

Korky Koroluk is an Ottawa-based freelance writer. Send comments to editor@dailycommercialnews.com

Labour: Dutch Christian Union: CNV sends a specialist team to work for labor r+

Here's a programmatic statement of the Christian Labour Central of the Netherlands (CNV) regarding that union's goals and principles in its work with labour in developing countries.  I don't agree with every jot and title of the text, but I do support it and the projects for which it presents the underlying principles and strategic policies it has chosen to guide its work on four continents -- Central and East Europe, Latin America, Africa, and South East Asia.

The webpage is titled "CNV International."

Contribute to a world that works

Labour rights worldwide

For more than a hundred years CNV has endeavoured to improve work and income in the Netherlands. In this, CNV always attempts to engage in dialogue to achieve its objectives. Fortunately this is possible in the Netherlands because here, trade union rights are generally respected. Elsewhere in the world, the situation is less rosy.

In many developing countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe, workers rights are trodden underfoot . Even if workers rights have been established in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and treaties of the international labour organisation ILO, for example. This is why CNV supports international trade unions that defend the rights of working women and men in developing countries.

Read more ...

Calendar: 9-11: In Memoriam, may the victims rest in peace, and the living not rest on their laurels

Calendar: 9/11: In memoriam, requiescat, rest in peace, I believe you are rockin' the bosom a' Abrahamn, sleepin' the dreams of Jesus ...

India: Sri Lanka: Principals who direct some 50 Christian colleges & universities gather today

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA— A conference of Principals of colleges and universities in India that was previously scheduled for May in Bangkok, Thailand, is now rescheduled for September 9-12, 2010, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The reason for the re-location is due to the April advisory of India's govt, recommending  that citizens avoid nonessential travel to Bangkok where explosions had killed one person and injured dozens in the city’s main financial district; the travel advisory continued into the month of May.  So, thereupon, the three sponsors of the planned Principals' Conference -- IAPCHE, the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), and the Student Christian Movement of India (SCMI) -- hastily tried to re-organize the event in another location, but were not able to effect the change. The organizers then agreed to change the date and venue.

Invitation

Therefore, we re-issue our warm invitation to institutions world-wide to join Indian principals (presidents) at the 4-day event with the theme Strengthening through Networking. India is the country with the most IAPCHE institutional members. These institutions have a long history of carrying out their mission in a pluralistic national context, where Hinduism and Islam are the majority religions, and where Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism have significant communities as well. 

IAPCHE had sponsored an earlier all-India assemblage when more than 50 Indian institutions gathered at a conference in Bangalore in 2009 and agreed to meet again in 2010. This conference is an ideal opportunity for IAPCHE institutions world-wide to make connections with the 50+ Indian institutions; the conference gathered in Sri Lanka last n+te, opening the second such Principal's conference -- this time on the island off the Indian subcontinent in Sri Lanka's capital of Colombo.

We believe that this gathering of colleges founded on Christian values will further our institutions’ mission. Possible benefits include establishing contacts for international students’ admissions, and twinning/joint programs among these h+er ed institutions.  A concept paper and conference brochure was made accessible at Iapche's webs+t. (www.iapche.org). 

About Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a presidential parliamentary democracy with a developing economy. In May 2009, the Sri Lankan government declared victory over the Tamil Tigers (an apparently terrorist organization, now defunct, aimed at establishing a separate territory and nation for the island's Tamil population), following more than 26 years of civil conflict.  Sri Lanka's Tamil population is perhaps best viewed in its inter-linguistic and inter-ethnic context, where it is in the minority:

According to the latest estimates Sri Lanka has a population of about 20 million. The ethnic division of the population is: Sinhalese 74% (this comminity is also anciently descended from a people indigenous to India -- largely Buddhist), Tamil 18% (a peopled ethnically related to the Tamils of southern India, including the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala -- which has a large Christian population), Moor 7% (descended from Arab Muslim immigrants from across the Indian Ocean), Burgher (a community descended, in part, from the Dutch colonists of long ago and inclusive of a synod of 30 Christian Reformed Churches and local missions, as well as of Burgher-descended Catholics), Malay, and Vedda 1%. Major languages in Sri Lanka are: Sinhala 74% (official and national), Tamil 18% (national), other 8%. English is commonly used in government and spoken competently by about 10% of people. Population density of Sri Lanka is 792 persons per square miles.

 Despite the history of conflict, Sri Lanka’s beaches, hill country, and archeological sites continue to attract thousands of visitors each year from around the world.  This is remarkable because the Asian Tsunami (December 26, 2004) caused severe damage and loss of life to several coastal areas of eastern, southern, and southwestern Sri Lanka but the affected areas and resorts have recovered. The capital city of Colombo has good tourist facilities.


-- Rewritten by refWr+t from IAPCHE's Contact newsletter (June,2k10)

Water: World Water Week 9/5-11: International Conference Sept 5-7, Stockholm, Sweden

The Cambodian city of Phnom Penh just won the award sponsored jointly by the WWW and the Stockholm Water Supply  Authority:

In recognition of its world class performance in water supply and self-sufficiency, the Cambodian Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) under the leadership of General Director Ek Sonn Chan has been named the winner of the Stockholm Industry Water Award 2010.

Historically, the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, thrived by the rivers of Tonle Sap and the Mekong.  However, decades of conflicts left the water supply system running low until the 1990s. In 1993 Mr. Ek Sonn Chan was appointed as General Director of the city’s Water Supply Authority (PPWSA).  Together with his team, he managed to refurbish the whole supply system, introduce cost-effective billing and payment collection methods, as well as world class management to provide water to almost all of the city’s residents.

"The PPWSA has successfully fought corruption and shown this can be achieved in a developing country on a large-scale basis using simple but effective management techniques that are based on well-accepted business principles and strategies. As a self-sufficient company, operating without subsidies from the state, PPWSA today provides 24-hour service and 90 per cent coverage to a city of 1.3 million and fully recovers its costs as it continues to develop both its infrastructure and management," said the International Award Jury in its citation. The PPWSA will receive the award during the World Water Week in Stockholm 2010, September 5-11.

I've been observing September 5-7 and will keep the practice this whole week by drinking only water for these days, and praying with each glassful for those without clean healthy water, that thru worldwide action the Lord may bless the thirsty lips of everyone on the planet.   If it's thru us that this change will come, the broad masses of us in the industrialized West, then the Lord has given us a tall order indeed! I'm not sure we're up to the task.

At the hub-conference in Stockholm and in the aftermath, vying r+t nopw for our attention, the 8 themes below will be workshopped by leaders of the movement to provide clean water everywhere.

Topics for World Water Week 2010 workshops:

• Workshop 1: Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control
• Workshop 2: Shortcutting Historical Pollution Trends
• Workshop 3: Water Quality for Human Health
• Workshop 4: Improved Water Use Efficiency through Recycling and Reuse
• Workshop 5: Management of Groundwater Abstraction and Pollution
• Workshop 6: Minimising Land Use Based Water Pollution
• Workshop 7: Resilience, Uncertainty and Tipping Points
• Workshop 8: Origins, Pathways and Accumulation of Pollutants - An Urban Perspective

Join with others near you, and with us at refWr+t in observance now and in action in the months to come.

Leadership of the WWW conference:

•    Prof. Jan Lundqvist, Stockholm International Water Institute (Chair)
•    Dr. Husamuddin Ahmadzai, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
•    Prof. Lotta Andersson, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
•    Prof. Paul P. Appasamy, Karunya University, India
•    Dr. Akiça Bahri, International Water Management Institute
•    Prof. Mohamed Dahab, Water Environment Federation and Nebraska University, USA
•    Prof. Malin Falkenmark, Stockholm International Water Institute
•    Dr. Line Gordon, Stockholm Resilience Center
•    Mr. Jack Moss, World Business Council for Sustainable Development and AquaFed
•    Prof. Peter Rogers, Harvard University, USA
•    Prof. Hubert Savenije, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
•    Dr. Thomas Chiramba, UNEP 
•    Prof. Thor Axel Stenström, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control and  
•          World Health Organization
•    Mr. Martin Walshe, Global Water Partnership
•    Prof. Xiaoliu Yang, Peking University, China
•    Mr. Anders Berntell, Stockholm International Water Institute
•    Ms. Katarina Andrzejewska, Stockholm International Water Institute (Secretary)
•    Mr. Michael Moore, Stockholm International Water Institute

. The S     -- Owlb

PoliticsFrance: Labor: French left masses workers to stop govt on pension default

Paris was awash with massed workers who were fi+ing the Sarkozy govt's plan to hold-off retirements and pension pay-outs for 2 years (from 60 to 62 years old).  The over-riding concern of govt is an actuarially-forecast Greek-style state-bankruptcy in France as a result of a demographic shift, where longer lives of the elderly increased pension expenses beyond what govt can afford -- while removing elders from the workforce and removing their income  taxes from the govt's own income-sources prematurely, as far as budget balance in concerned. "The Interior Ministry said more than 1.1 million people demonstrated throughout France," while a sponsoring union put the number at 2.5 million.

The picture captures the scene in Lyons to the southwest of Paris.  The massive force of workers' outrage was expressed in huge demos and rallies across some 220 cities of what's called 'metropolitan France.'  But Sarkozy believes the retirement / pension choke-measure  is necessary to keep the country solvent.  The unions, led by the largest of the flock, the Communist-run CGT (Confédération général du travail - General Confederation of Labor), have little interest in maintaining the economic viability of French society, nor in the financial stability of the French state.

Among the other leftist unions active in the protest were FO (Force Ouvrière = Work's Force) and CFDT (Confederation francaise democratique travailleur = French Democratic Confederation of Labor). "The CFDT was created in 1964 when a majority of the members of the Christian trade union Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens (CFTC) decided to become secular (cf. the once-Catholic trade union in Québec, CSN). The minority kept the name CFTC." Thereafter CFDT wandered into various alliances with leftwing political parties. "In 2003, the support of the new CFDT leader François Chérèque of the [govt's] plan of pensions reform caused an internal crisis. Some CFDT members left the confederation and chose the CGT or the [politically] autonomous trade unions Solidaires unitaires démocratique (SUD) (Union SNUI-SUD Trésor Solidaires - apparently concentrated among financial sector workers, and politically unaligned). However, the CFDT participated with the other confederations in the 2006 conflict about the Contrat première embauche (CPE)." More recently, the Christian labor union of France won 8.69% of the vote in the employee's college during the 2k08 professional elections (whereas the CFDT won in excess of 20%). The "employees' college" is a foundational institution of labor-representation pluralism in France, altho even in this respect French pluralism is far more volatile, whereas in the Netherlands it is far more stable. UK, Canada, USA, and Australia have no labor-representational pluralism, sad to say.

In any case, the hot issue of pension reform is among those which have brawt down President Sarkozy's standing in the general opinion polls, where he presently garners only 30%.

UPDATE (Sept 9, 2k10l 3:24 AM Eastern Dayl+t T+m):

"French Protest against raising the retirement age from 60 to 62,"  Booker Rising: news site for Black Moderates and Black Conservatives (Sept8,2k10).

Strikes in France, London foreshadow more protests," AP via Yahoo! News (Sept7,2k10)

Prime Minister Francois Fillon reminded the French that it could be worse: In nearly all European countries, the current debate is over raising the retirement age to 67 or 68, he said. Germany has decided to bump the retirement age from 65 to 67, for example, and the U.S. Social Security system is gradually raising the retirement age to 67.

On another recent public issue in France, see earlier rW2 post on Muslim worship blocking some streets in Paris:  "PoliticsFrance: Pisteutics:  Islam (ists?) flaunt French law, mass prayer in streets" refWr+t 2 (Sept5,2k10). See the video there, carried by CBN.

Calendar: Labor Day: The need for global reformational action in labor relations and Christian unions

                                                                                         

It's Labour Day today in the USA and Canada.  Not all the world celebrates wage-earmers, whether unionized or not, on this day.  Many celebrate Labor on May 1, the day elevated especially by socialists and Communist-founded unions, as in France, to name but one instance of the contrary practice.  But the day observed by the different r+ts is not so important because not all countries observe either day, or any at all.  Does Saudi Arabia observe Labor Day at all?  Why do I doubt that?, having no info on the matter yet.  Because Saudi Arabia with over a million foreign workers living in special compounds, not permitted for housing to mingle with the Muslim population nor permitted to establish Christian churches or Hindu temples to practice the r+ts of their respective faiths, is a labor- and religion-intolerant society.  All that said for the sake of our calendar, let's turn to a few instances where reformationals and all Christians shoud be supporting a distinctive world project of unionization.  In the mentioned countries below, the need for Christian organization may not seem feasible but remains requisite.

The information in most of the items below, comes from The Global State of Workers' Rights: Free Labor in a Hostile World, a recent report by Freedom House, with text prepared by Arch Puddington, Freedom House's director of research.

China

China tolerates only state-endorsed and CommunistParty-led unions which tilt their representation function to benefit first the interests of the state and the party.  Wildcat strikes (there is no provision for legal strikes, even in matters of health and safety) and other spontaneous actions break out, often for reasons not only related directly to labour conditions, wages and benefits but too often for intertwined reasons of the repression of the workforce segment who are repressed due to China's pro-Han ethnic represssion -- especially in the situation of the Uigher Muslim minority in western China where the Han immigrants have taken over (Tibet is another instance of Han Chinese takeover, but I've heard of no wildcatting labour actions there).

China, at the same time, has a huge Christian minority, where again the state has set up official churches ultimately supervised by party-members under the auspices of the govt's agency to control religions.  The Christian minority is numerically dominated by house churches and unsequelched free churches with their own church buildings.  The state constantly interferes with free religion in China, just as in the case of free labor unions, which like the free churches, must operate clandestinely or semi-clandestinely.

China needs Christian labor organizations outside the control of the state and respective of other free unions with which it must function cooperatively wherever possible, morally and strategically.  A future Christian labour organization in China must work not only for its own freedom of function but also in that project, work for a genuine pluralism in labour representation.  The model for that is not the USA or Canada or England or Australia in their present configuration of labor relations, but is better advised to use the model of the national Christian labor federation in the Netherlands (Christelijke Nationaal Vakverbond -- CNV -- English language webpages) , where law permits and encourages a genuine cooperative pluralism of all unions in the country.  A single shop floor in a large factory, for instance, woud have several unions chosen by the several segments of the workforce there, all of which woud have reprsentation on the greivance and negotiating joint committee (most negotiations, however, take place thru the national labour "centrals" in tandem with business and government).

See also:  China's workers raise stakes (The Call, Jun22,2k10)

Belarus

A new frontier for labour organization with normative labour representation of Christian inspiration.

Burma

Another new frontier for normative labour representation of Christian inspiration.

Cuba

A repressive regime has released from prison some veteran Christian labour activists, who were organizing an independent Christian union clandestinely just a few years back.

Workers are not permitted to organize outside the state-controlled labor federation, and Cuban law does not grant workers the right to strike. Those who do join independent trade unions face beatings, loss of employment, confiscation of property, and imprisonment; a number of the current generation of political prisoners are locked up for workplace dissent. Because the state controls the labor market, it determines pay and working conditions for almost all workers. In the small private sector, foreign investors are required to contract workers through state employment agencies, which pocket up to 95 percent of their salaries. The minimum wage in 2008 was about 225 pesos -- about $9 -- per month. Workers are also required to keep an eye on their colleagues and report any "dissident" activity.

Eritrea

Another new frontier for normative labour representation of Christian inspiration.

The Eritrean regime uses the same tactics common among authoritarian states -- controlling unions, crushing strikes, suppressing collective bargaining -- but goes a step further by imposing forced labor and national service on its citizens. This harsh system effectively renders meaningless the country's legal protections for workers; citizens between ages 18 and 50 can be made to perform compulsory labor in any given year and are required to serve in the military or civilian work programs for an indefinite length of time determined by the government. 

Equitorial Guinea

Another new frontier for normative labour representation of Christian inspiration.

Dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema makes little effort to conceal his contempt for trade unions. Several years ago, his government told the International Labor Organization that "there were no trade unions in the country because there was no tradition of trade unionism." Obiang -- reelected last November with 96 percent of the vote -- and his cronies have enriched themselves on oil revenues while ordinary citizens subsist on less than $1 a day. The government has refused to recognize several nascent labor organizations and has violently repressed protesting workers.

 Laos 

 Like other unreformed post-communist societies, Laos is a one-party state in which practically all significant institutions, including the Lao Federation of Trade Unions (LFTU), are controlled by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. The LFTU's quasi-state function gives it a dubious dual role, controlling workers while it is supposedly defending them. The government, meanwhile, unilaterally sets compensation for government workers; for private-sector employees, collective bargaining, while called for under labor law, barely exists in reality.

Libya 

Civil society and freedom of association were among the first casualties of the 1969 coup that brought Muammar al-Qaddafi to power. Qaddafi's brand of socialist revolution has meant the elimination of unions that aren't controlled by the regime. The government sets minimum wage rates, work hours, night-shift rules, and other workplace laws. Collective bargaining barely exists, and strikes are illegal. Foreigners, constituting about one-third of the workforce, are victims of systematic discrimination.

North Korea 

 Strict state control of work is, unsurprisingly, a basic fact of life in North Korea; it's written into the country's constitution. Work is obligatory, and failure to meet the state's workplace standards can result in a five-year stint in the gulag -- or, in some cases, a death sentence. The officially sanctioned trade union federation is given the responsibility of mobilizing and regimenting workers to meet production quotas and adhere to work discipline. Collective bargaining, needless to say, is not an option. In some enterprises, workers are paid episodically, receiving nothing for months on end..

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia, which bans all political parties, also offers one of the world's most inhospitable environments for workers' movements. The labor code denies them the right to form unions, bargain with employers, or strike; anyone who does those things risks imprisonment or, if he or she is a foreigner, deportation. Migrant workers, mostly from South Asia, are treated with particular harshness and are paid much lower wages than are Saudi and Western workers. Their workplace conditions are often so deplorable that some actually try to get arrested and deported. Exploitation and mistreatment is rampant among the 1.5 million female domestic workers, many of whom are effectively forced laborers.

Sudan 

Sudan's 1992 Trade Union Act handed the government-controlled Sudan Workers' Trade Union Federation a monopoly over organization, or what passes for it under the regime of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Strikes require government approval, which is never granted. There is no collective bargaining. Activists who operate outside government-sanctioned channels face arrest. Workers in Sudan's oil industry are closely monitored by the intelligence service, and their movements are restricted. Forced labor is common, as is the conscription of men and boys into the country's armed forces; women and children are often forced into domestic servitude and sexual slavery.

Syria 

Syrian labor groups are required to belong to the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), a nominally independent organization that is funded by the government and closely linked to the ruling Baath Party (its president is a senior party member). When several Syrian journalists came under threat from the government for reporting on sensitive subjects, the officially sanctioned Journalists' Union refused to support them. Strikes are legal but rare, and can result in jail terms for labor activists; in any case, the GFTU rarely calls them. Collective bargaining hardly exists.

Turkmenistan 

Since gaining independence in 1991, Turkmenistan has an unbroken record of rigged elections, suppression of the press, and marginalization of civil society. Private property has only recently been introduced, and corruption is rampant. Given this background, it is hardly surprising that the country keeps its trade unions safely under the state's thumb: The state-sanctioned Center for Professional Unions is led by a presidential appointee, and individual unions under its umbrella function as government appendages. On the bright side, the government did ban children from working in the cotton harvest in 2009.

Uzbekistan 

Although Uzbekistan's laws theoretically permit independent unions, in practice union activity is controlled by the brutal regime of Islam Karimov, the Soviet-era holdover who has run the country since 1990. The leaders of the state-run Board of the Trade Union Federation of Uzbekistan are Karimov appointees. There are no independent unions, and collective bargaining, though legal, seldom occurs. Although the Uzbek Constitution forbids forced labor, the authorities are said to compel university students, medical workers, schoolchildren, and government workers to assist in bringing in the annual cotton crop.

Vietnam   

In theory, working people enjoy a broad array of rights in Vietnam. The government has adopted a labor code that calls for union recognition and collective bargaining. In reality, however, workers enjoy few of them. To begin with, they cannot form unions of their own choosing, but rather must join a union affiliated with the Vietnam General Conference of Labor: a pliant, state-controlled entity that functions as a pass-through for the Communist Party. The legal hurdles to calling a strike are monumental. Virtually all recent protests were wildcat strikes, reflecting workers' mistrust of their union representatives. The government cynically allows these protests -- most against foreign-owned firms -- because they give workers an opportunity to demand higher wages without forcing the government to raise the minimum wage, which authorities fear would discourage foreign investment.

Obviously, these neo-Communist and Islamic-totalitarian labour regimes are the worst-case scenarios of the world's repression of free and plurally-represenative unions.  But they constitute the greatest challenges to the coming of the Shalom Kingdom of Christ in labour relations, representation, and negotiation.  Except in the case of China, which contains a critical mass of Christian believers, some of whom already are active in clandestine and semi-clandestine free independent labour organizations.

Thanks to Arch Puddington, Freedom House's director of research, for his set of captions to the photo series for Labour Day in Foreign Policy (see the series of pix-gallery captions, "Labor Day in Hell" (14 items on as many webpages) by Arch Puddington, starting here).  The pictures are fantastic!


-- EconoMix, compiler