Global Voices » Economics & Business

Sri Lanka: Social Media Success Stories

Rezwan — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:17:17 +0000

Amitha Amarasinghe discusses the use of social media by the corporates in Sri Lanka and ponders whether there are any social media success stories in Sri Lanka.

Macedonia: Pondering Future Consequences of ACTA

Filip Stojanovski — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:19:31 +0000

While the authorities in Macedonia remain silent on the country's stance on the ACTA, bloggers, such as Airborne, emphasize the need to gain more knowledge [mk], as the traditional media mostly ignore the issue: “Maybe, one of these days, we'll just simply wake up in the ACTA-ruled world.” The new media attempting to fill this gap in local languages include Metamorphosis and IT.com.mk. Endek blog advocates [mk] standing up for Internet freedom by joining international protest movements.

Brazil: Comments On A New Wave of Privatization As Airports Are Sold

Raphael Tsavkko Garcia — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:15:13 +0000

Blogger Mauricio Caleiro comments [pt] on a new wave of privatization - “masked” as “concessions” - led by Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff who, during the electoral campaign, said she was against this instrument. So far three of the biggest Brazilian airports were sold to private companies.

Hungary: Goodbye, Malév!

Marietta Le — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:10:19 +0000

Malév, Hungary's state airline since 1946, ceased operation on February 3, 2012, due to bankruptcy. According to news reports [hu], even the airline's employees were informed about the shutdown just an hour or so in advance. Some passengers learned the news when they tried to check in at the Budapest Liszt Ferenc Airport.

Hungarian citizens were shocked by the news, because even though the national carrier’s bad financial situation was well-known, Malév's rescue plans were being negotiated during the past few weeks. Many claimed the cause of the company's ill fate was bad financial management. In January, even the 2007-2010 state financial aid to the airline was deemed illegal by the European Commission. Eventually, business partners lost their trust in the company, and this tipped the balance on Friday when Dublin and Tel Aviv airports refused to give take-off permissions to Malév flights.

A Malév commercial, music composed by Gábor Presser

According to A REPÜLÉS Szakmai blog (THE AVIATION Professional blog) [hu], the last Malév flight landed in Budapest on Friday at 08:46 UTC (09:46 AM in Hungary), arriving from Helsinki. The words that the pilot said to the air traffic controllers have been shared by Hungarian netizens on many sound- and video-sharing sites:

Pilot: On behalf of the last Malév flight’s crew, we would like to thank you for the good, several-decade-long cooperation. See you.
Air Traffic Controller: We also thank you and wish you a good rest, I hope we will meet.
Pilot: Hope so, under some different name.

According to AIRportal.hu [hu], on Friday evening 14 Malév planes were returned to their lessor ILFC at an airport in Ireland. (See here for Malcolm Nason's photos of the Malév planes at Shannon Airport in Ireland.)

Csaba Demeter, a pilot who was among those flying the planes back, shared his story on Facebook [hu]:

[…] Around midnight we arrived to EINN [airport code for Shannon Airport, Ireland], landed one after another and rolled nicely, to salute in this way the past period. We stopped one after another, on rolling-roads, on parking spaces, we stopped them, unpacked and turned off the lights, our planes were in the darkness. It was an awful feeling, WE HAD TO LEAVE THEM THERE. We were hoping for a call [saying] COME HOME WITH THE PLANES this was just a dream or a bad joke. But nothing like that came. THEY STAYED THERE. All of them. :-( […]

People shared their thoughts on the sad fate of the national carrier. Csaba’s memories on Fékszárny blog [hu] tell the best what Malév meant for the citizens of this small Central European country:

I flew a lot with them, I have many good and many bad experiences as well. I wouldn’t tell about those because there is nothing special among them. Why I very much loved to fly with Malév and it always enjoyed priority in contrast to the others is that they were OURS. After being away from home for a long time they were the first signs of coming home. The mentioned white-blue painting with the Hungarian tricolor, the greeting at the door and the Hungarian newspapers. I usually spent 2-3 weeks abroad and not in cities and comfortable hotels, but in deserts and other great places. So coming home was always a big joy and its first messenger was the crew of the Malév flight. After a long, stressful trip even my eyes filled with tears when landing at the Ferihegy [airport]. It was a very bad [feeling] to look at the pictures and read the news on the internet. Let’s hope not all is lost, it would be good to see the red-white-green planes again.

Csaba

According to Véleményvezér blog [hu], the national carrier “got into the perfect storm” of Hungary's economic dynamics:

[…] Malév got into the perfect storm from this perspective: it should have survived almost a decade of economic stagnation and almost a decade of mismanagement; whilst the two phenomena amplified each other. It did not survive and this is yet another nail in the coffin of our dreams and illusions about the leading position of Budapest and Hungary in the region.

Until a new Hungarian carrier is founded, Origo news site reports [hu] the pilots of the “Malév Hungarian Airlines Virtual” will keep on “flying” with the Malév call signs.

Thumbnail and featured image show Malév airplane, by Flickr user hugovk (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Italy: More Protests Against Austerity and Information Deficit

Ylenia Gostoli — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:25:08 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

The many protest movements that followed the implementation of austerity measures in a number of European countries dealing with the sovereign debt crisis, should have taught us that when a national economy is left at the mercy of interest rates and financial markets, sooner or later you can expect its people to express their discontent. Especially in a country, like Italy, already strained by years of government mismanagement, and where to the budget and democratic deficits, an information deficit needs to be added to the equation.

Since mid-January, Italy has been swept by a wave of protests, which began in Sicily with the mobilisation of farmers, truck drivers and fishermen, mostly small business owners, later joined by the Sicilian population at large, including waged workers, students and the unemployed. The movement goes by the name of Forza d'Urto [it] (”shock force”), better known as “the Pitchforks Movement”.

The Pitchforks Movement, image from Facebook.

From January 16, trucks brought the island's roads and motorways to a standstillfor six days through at least 26 blockades, disrupting the circulation of goods and bringing business to a halt, with long cues for petrol and empty supermarket shelves.

The protests later spread to other regions [it], with strikes and blockades all over Italy. In Rome, during a fishermen demonstration in front of the Chamber of Deputies, three demonstrators were reported injured. A mass mobilisation against the austerity package implemented by Prime Minister Mario Monti and his cabinet, lamenting especially the steep rise in the price of petrol. However, during the first few days of the protests, the Italian media was largely silent, except for a few local newspapers, as Marco Cedolin points out in his blog Il Corrosivo [it]:

I media mainstream in queste stesse ore tacciono, reputando (e lasciando intendere) che in Sicilia non stia accadendo nulla che meriti attenzione, tutto tranquillo e nessun problema.
Davvero la protesta in questione è una vicenda d’importanza ed incidenza così minimale da non meritare neppure un servizietto di 50 secondi, di quelli che comunemente vengono dedicati perfino al nuovo tatuaggio sfoggiato dal vip di turno?

Mainstream media are currently silent on the issue, judging (and implying) that nothing worth of attention is happening in Sicily right now, everything is calm and there's no problem.
Is the protest of such marginal importance that it doesn't even deserve a 50-second report, one of those that are usually reserved to discussing the latest tattoo sported by some random celebrity?

The sectors on strike are protesting against the government liberalisation package, but are also united by a sense of disenfranchisement from the whole of the “political caste”: fishermen who claim to be no longer able to sustain the costs of running their business because of excise tax; truckers who can't afford to transport goods at the low fee determined by open market competition because of rising petrol costs. Because of this, the mobilisation was met with a lot of skepticism and accusations that it merely represents a set of narrow interests.

On Fuori Onda Blog [it] David Incamicia reflects this position, which tends to criticise the movement for putting all the blame on the current government, which last November inherited from Berlusconi a country with a broken economy and a shattered international reputation:

Le piazze in rivolta avevano certamente motivo d'essere fino a qualche settimana fa, quando l'irresponsabilità di “un sol uomo al comando” e la sua ostinata resistenza al potere hanno finito per rendere ancor più dura e di difficile risoluzione la pesante situazione sociale del Paese (…)

Ma oggi, proprio per evitare il tracollo definitivo, occorre che tutti giochino nella stessa squadra (…) Gli egoismi vanno rimossi senza se e senza ma. Così come l'ancora poderosa demagogia che arringa a destra e a manca.

Those taking to the squares certainly had every reason to do so until a few weeks ago, when the irresponsibility of a “one man-leadership” and his stubborn refusal to give up power only made a resolution even more difficult for the country's already tense social fabric.

But today, precisely in order to avoid an irreversible downfall, everyone needs to play in the same team (…) Selfish interests need to be removed with no ifs and no buts. The same goes for the strong demagogic discourse coming from right and left.

While those keen to seize the opportunity to voice criticism of the current government (like the far-right party Lega Nord, now at the opposition) seem to ignore that the farmers movement (or Pitchforks Movement) was actually born last summer [it], and that fishermen have been organising strikes since 2008, there persists an inability (or lack of willpower?) to define the nature of the movement, which paves the way to confusion and exploitation for different political ends.

During the strikes, mainstream media focused on alleged mafia infiltrations [it] and the death of a trucker in Asti [it], while on Facebook the pages devoted to or associated with the movement proliferated, revealing, among other things, a number of links [it] with the neofascist movement Forza Nuova, which supports the Pitchforks. Commonly used hash tags on Twitter were #fermosicilia, #forzadurto e #forconi.

The following comment by Veneti stufi [it] on what labels itself the movement's official Facebook page [it] is representative of this confusion:

Non capisco più nulla, pagine colme di rabbia e non di vera indignazione/protesta, ma quali sono i VERI FORCONI? Il sito non è attivo, ognuno in rete dice tutto ed il contrario di tutto, USATE la rete e coinvolgete le persone, non date modo di strumentalizzarvi.

I don't understand, I see pages full of rage rather than real indignation/protest, who are the REAL PITCHFORKS? The website is inactive, online everyone says everything and the opposite of everything, USE the web and get people involved, don't give anyone the chance to exploit you.

However, at the various marches organised in various cities around Sicily, including Gela (in the video) and Palermo, there were students, the unemployed and young people with all kinds of political affiliations, as demonstrated by the following press release [it] signed by the Studentato Autogestito Anomalia [it] (Anomaly autonomous student centre) e dal Laboratorio Vittorio Arrigoni [it] (Workshop Vittorio Arrigoni), two of the city's main social centres:

La protesta popolare che si sta diffondendo in Sicilia come tutte le proteste di questo tipo sono complesse, di massa e contradditorie, ma di sicuro parlano il linguaggio della lotta contro la globalizzazione, contro equitalia e lo strozzinaggio legalizzato che sta mettendo in miseria larghe fasce della societa' siciliana , contro la casta politica di destra e di sinistra (…)
Noi, militanti di centri sociali e di spazi occupati della citta' di Palermo, sosterremo la lotta di “forconi” e autotrasportatori perchè frutto di una giusta battaglia e perchè ricca di positive e “incompatibili” energie; per questo, come sempre, saremo al fianco di chi lotta contro la crisi e questo intollerabile sistema.

Sicily's popular uprising, as every protest of this kind, is a complex and contradictory mass mobilisation, but it surely speaks the language of the fight against globalisation, against Equitalia (the government body responsible for tax collection) and its legalised usury, which is reducing large chunks of Italian society to poverty, against the “political caste” of both the Left and the Right (…)
We, militants of the social centres and of Palermo's occupied spaces, will support the struggle of Pitchforks and truckers because is it the result of a just battle and because it is full of positive and “incompatible” energies; because of this, as always, we will side with those who struggle against the crisis and against this intolerable system.

According to Marco Cedolin [it], the protest deserves attention because it tries to go beyond the ideological divide:

Non so quanta “fortuna” avrà la protesta dei Forconi che sta paralizzando la Sicilia, così come non conosco le prospettive di una movimentazione che sembra manifestarsi (per la prima volta in Italia) realmente trasversale, abiurando i partiti e tentando di mettere nel cassetto le divisioni settarie fra “rossi e neri” che da sempre minano alla radice qualsiasi battaglia in questo disgraziato paese, conducendola ogni volta sul binario morto della diffidenza e dei distinguo.

I don't know what will be of the Pitchfork protest that has been paralysing Sicily, as well as I'm not sure about what to expect from a movement that (for the first time in Italy) seems to represent diverse political interests, rejecting political parties and attempting to set aside sectarian divisions between “red shirts and black shirts” that have always undermined every struggle from its very start in this wretched country, mutual suspicion and differences leading each time to a dead end.

The failure of public opinion to comprehend the nature of the protests is also, and perhaps especially, the failure of the mass media to tell the story, another legacy of the Berlusconi years (Italy is 61st in Reporters Without Borders' world press freedom index 2011-12, and one which politicians still hesitate dealing with [it]. For Davide Grasso, writing on the blog Quiete o Tempesta [it], the Pitchfork protest was:

l’ennesimo successo a metà del sistema italiano dell’informazione. Successo nel combattere le aspirazioni dei soggetti sociali che scelgono la strada della protesta ma fallimento (opposto e speculare) nel comprendere e riportare un rilevante fenomeno sociale.

yet another half-baked success of the Italian information system. Success in repressing the aspirations of those who choose the path of resistance, but failure (its opposite mirror image) in comprehending and reporting such an important social phenomenon.

Lastly, Nicola Spinella writes on Agoravox [it]:

Il celebre motto “divide et impera” rivela ancora oggi, dopo due millenni, la propria immortalità: è bastato agitare davanti al popolo il fantasma della mafia infiltrata nelle fila degli autotrasportatori, assimilarli a sigle dell'estrema destra, per ridurre la protesta ad un fuoco di paglia. Difficile pronosticare uno scenario futuro per tutta un'Italia scossa dal salasso Monti e da un ventennio di malgoverno berlusconiano.

The famous maxim “divide and rule” has today revealed, after two millennia, its timelessness: drawing people's attention to mafia characters infiltrated among the ranks of the truckers, and associating them with far-right acronyms was enough to reduce the protest to a flash in the pan. It is difficult to predict what the future holds for a country drained by Monti and twenty years of mismanagement under Berlusconi.

The dialogue between the government and the movement appears to have reached a standstill, and a new wave of protests was due to start on Monday 6 February, with sit-ins in a number of sicilian towns and cities. A few of these have been reported, but it looks like the planned occupation of seaports and oil refineries has been postponed. Long queues at petrol stations in Messina were reported on Saturday 4 February, allegedly in preparation for the strikes.

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

Ukraine: Netizens React to Popular File-Sharing Website's Shutdown

Tetyana Bohdanova — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:27:18 +0000

On January 31, 2012, Ukrainian Internet users learned that the country’s biggest file-sharing site, Ex.ua [ru], was shut down due to repeated copyright violations. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior, among the companies that filed a lawsuit [uk] against Ex.ua were Microsoft, Adobe, Graphisoft and others.

Ex.ua was one of the most popular websites in the country and accounted for 15-25% [uk] of Ukraine’s in-country traffic. It required no paid subscription and attracted millions of users who freely shared pirated video and audio files, games and software.

The news of the site's shutdown caused quite a stir online, with many netizens criticizing the government for going after Ex.ua and calling for its restoration.

Christina Vinovska (@chris_vinovska) tweeted a common appeal:

return #exua immediately!

While many echoed her plea, others decided to take action both offline (photos of the Feb. 1 protest in Kyiv are here) and online.

Thus, following the release of the online statement about Ex.ua's shutdown by the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry's website went down and remained periodically inaccessible due to “an increased number of visitors and possible DDoS attacks” [uk].

By that time many Twitter, Vkontakte and Facebook users were actively sharing detailed instructions [ru] on how to overload the servers of selected websites. The target list included websites of Ukraine’s President Victor Yanukovych, the pro-presidential Party of Regions, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Parliament, and others.

What seemed to begin as a number of decentralized attempts, quickly turned into a mass organized effort, with Ex.ua supporters forming a “Free Ex.Ua” [ru] group on a popular social network Vkontakte [ru], which gathered over 6,000 members during the first hours of its existence (currently, there are over 41,000 members).

By February 1, the Presidential website was completely down [uk] and the Ministry of the Interior had to announce [uk] that it was going to use its two Facebook accounts until its official website was restored. By mid-day of February 1, Ex.ua had to appeal [ru] to users to stop the attack that succeeded in disrupting the work of nearly all major governmental websites:

Dear users,

Administrators of Ex.ua call on you to stop all illegal activity against governmental websites. […]

At the same time, a heated discussion of Ex.ua’s supposed illegal activity was taking place online.

Facebook user Sergei Sidorenko wrote [ru]:

In response to the mass mourning of the Ex.ua’s untimely death, I would tell you something different from what half of the Internet has been yelling about:

I do not have a single piece of licensed non-free software on my computer
I watch only pirated films
I jailbroke my Apple iPod soon after the purchase
Even the licensed Windows installed on my laptop I soon [removed] and installed a pirated one, because it was more convenient for me

But I have to admit that shutting down Ex.ua was the RIGHT THING. And I don’t understand those who now yell, “Yes, they were pirates, but was that a reason to close them?” […]

Guys, if we want to live a civilized [life], let’s at least not condemn the obvious attempts to establish legality.

In defense of Ex.ua, Yaroslav Fedorak of Blogosphere.com.ua wrote [uk]:

Yes, I really do believe that according to today’s legal framework, file-sharing website Ex.ua was conducting an illegal activity and sooner or later would have been closed. But don’t be too quick to throw stones at me! The problem here lies in the legal framework itself, which is hopelessly outdated and no longer meets the needs of the current super-dynamic and hyper-volatile environment.

Amidst such discussions, it was not long before Ukrainian Internet users began to question whether the authorities themselves were following the letter of the law. Giving in to increased media attention, the Ministry of the Interior had to admit [uk] that it was also using pirated software, while holding negotiations with Microsoft to end this practice. Netizens were outraged.

Yurko Chervony (@skinik) tweeted [uk]:

They should first shut themselves down, and not #ex.ua “[The Ministry of the Interior] admitted that half of the software [they're using] is illegal” tinyurl.com/7tjq7c8

Many netizens shared an online comment [uk] by Oleksandr Severyn of Maidan.org.ua:

When marauders fight with pirates, pirates become national heroes

Other netizens, however, believed that the government's action against Ex.ua was motivated not so much by the copyright violations, but by the website hosting [ru] an extremely popular parody video [uk] mocking the Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych.

Pavlo Rizanenko (@rizanenko) tweeted [uk]:

Our authorities closed #exua because they did not want to have an uncontrollable information resource on #UaNet [Ukrainian Internet – GV]. Piracy was just an excuse rizanenko.livejournal.com/983.html

Whatever the actual causes of its shutdown, following the unexpected mass reaction of Ukrainian netizens, Ex.ua was back online [ru] as early as February 3, when the investigators concluded [ru] that piracy allegations did not have to result in blocking of the site's domain name.

Many netisens viewed it as a positive case of online consolidation and organization of Ukrainians.

Serge Lavrinchuck (@Lavrinchuck) tweeted [uk]:

The #EXua story, of course, has its positive sides. When else the Ukrainian people would have united like this to attack government websites?

Numerous observers referred to the attacks as the “online revolution” [ru]. Maksym Savanevsky, editor of the Internet business and SMM website Watcher.com.ua, wrote [uk]:

What has changed in the society in the past 60 hours.

Most important: the citizens have had a taste of their victory. They have felt that “together they are many, and they cannot be defeated”. It is difficult to recall similar events since 2004 [Orange Revolution – GV].

Yes, the scope was not the same. Yes, everything happened online, inside warm apartments. But it has been a while since the authorities looked so helpless in the face of the people’s simple desire to get something they thought they deserved.

Still, others were critical of the society mobilizing in defense of a pirate website. Jouranlist Serhiy Shcherbyna wrote [ru]:

Where are you, the renowned [citizens], when honest, normal businesses are being bluntly taken from ordinary mid-level entrepreneurs? […] Why nobody touches the Tax Inspection's website for their regular [pressure] on business?

Why would you not [disable] the Interior Ministry's website when people are being killed at [local police stations]? Why would you not [disable] the Kyiv City Administration's website for [icy] roads on which people are breaking arms and legs every day?

Why are Ukrainians able to protest only when their social benefits and [free stuff] are taken away? Freedom of speech, the lawlessness of the authorities, politically-motivated [imprisonments], a half-dead economy and, most of all, a country that is nearing a collapse, all this is not causing such an outrage.

While the online polemics continue and the future fate of Ex.ua remains unclear, as of February 6, the website is operational and works on restoring its full capacity.

Thailand: Flood Impact on Rice Production

Mong Palatino — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:42:08 +0000

Aim Sinpeng writes about the impact of last year's massive flooding in Thailand on the country's rice production. Thailand is the world's largest rice exporter.

North Korea : Two Japanese Indicted for Exporting PC to North Korea

Lee Yoo Eun — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:18:00 +0000

North Korea Tech blog wrote about two Japanese people who were indicted for exporting personal computers to North Korea, thereby violating the Japanese government’s trade sanctions.

Venezuela: Reflections on Consumption and Advertising

Silvia Viñas — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:26:56 +0000

The blog El Ultimatum Hiperboreo [es] shares some thoughts on the western culture of consumption in Venezuela as seen through the advertising that seems to fill the pages of one of the most important Sunday magazines in the country.

China: A Death Sentence to Hide Government Corruption?

Oiwan Lam — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:35:04 +0000

Wu Ying, named China's sixth richest woman in 2006, lost an appeal against her death sentence at the Zhejiang Higher People's Court on January 18, 2012. Many citizens have pleaded online for Wu's life believing the death sentence was meant to silence her from exposing corruption by government officials who may have loaned her embezzled public funds.

Suspicions grew stronger when Dong Yang City government submitted a joint letter to the courts recommending she be executed.

The 30-year old was first arrested in March 2007, charged with “illegal fundraising” of RMB 770 million (approximately USD 122 million). In December 18, 2009, the charge was changed to “financial fraud”, and she was sentenced to death by the Jinhua Intermediate People's Court. In Wu's first trial, there was no lawyer to represent her, and all trials including the appeal took place behind closed doors.

Human rights lawyer, Teng Biao, has written a very long article [zh] explaining some of the details known about Wu Ying's court case.

Wu Ying stood trial for financial fraud and was sentenced to death. Screen captured photo from NTDTV

A loan shark list

Wu started a beauty parlor business in Dong Yang city at the age of 22 in 2003. Her business then expanded to entertainment business and property investments. As is common for private entrepreneurs in China, she had difficulty obtaining loans from banks and had to raise funds by other means. In December 2006, her business had cash flow problems and she failed to pay back a debt to loan sharks. She was kidnapped, robbed and received death threats soon after she was released. Local police officers did not investigate her case. Instead, several months later, she was arrested.

During Wu's detention, she exposed a list of government officials who had illegally lent money to her. Three of them received long jail sentences. Later, local newspapers revealed [zh] that Wu had shared a list of 137 names of which 103 had lent her more than RMB 500,000. The speculation is that many local government officials may have been implicated. Officials who receive bribes, or obtain funds by other illegal means, are suspected of lending money to private businesses at high interest rates.

Inevitable illegal fundraising

Teng Biao points out [zh] that under the current financial system it is inevitable for the private business sector not to commit “illegal fundraising”; in other words, most of the successful private businesses in China have probably committed Wu Ying's “crime”:

民营企业却难以得到银行的支持，只能靠处于灰色地带的民间借贷。数据表明，银行的短期贷款中，民营企业只占不到20%。据全国工商联一项调查，有90%以上的民营中小企业表示，无法从银行获得贷款。全国民营企业和家族企业在过去三年中有近62.3%通过民间借贷的形式进行融资。

Without support from the banks, private businesses have to borrow money from the market. According to statistics, only 20% of short term bank loans go to private businesses. A bank survey shows that more than 90% SMEs [Small and Medium-sized Enterprises] said they had failed to obtain loans from banks. More than 62.3% of family businesses obtain their capital from the market.

An unjust system

Blogger Li Ming points out [zh], that if Wu must die, many more would follow:

吴英该杀，那么温州诸多“跑路老板”也该杀，借高利贷一掷千万金的“太太豪赌团”，以及所有把集资用于铺张挥霍的老板，都该抓来杀掉。有的富豪集资营运失败，享受救助待遇，而同属一类的吴英或遭遇杀头待遇，此大不公，此即法之大恶大暴。

If Wu must be killed, the runaway bosses in Wenzhou must be killed too. Those gamblers who borrow money from loan sharks, those bosses who show off their wealth with corporate money must be killed too. Now we have a group of business losers enjoying the government's bailout, while Wu Ying in a similar condition has been sentenced to death. This is so unjust. The law is evil.

Yao Shujie, an overseas scholar, observed more injustice in mainland Chinese society [zh]:

吴英只是对11人造成损失，而上市公司的老总们，却是给上亿无辜的股民造成巨大的损失。本质上，吴英和这些上市公司的老总，对人们造成的伤害，并没有任何差别。所不同的，吴英被判死刑，上市公司老总们，却照样拿数千万的年薪，照样升官。

还有，像许宗衡和刘志军这样的贪官，涉案金额高达百亿人民币，给国家和人民带来的灾难和对社会所产生的不良影响，比吴英的破坏力高出千百倍，却没有被判死。

12年前，赖昌星高达700亿元的惊天大案，因为逃到加拿大躲了11年，去年引渡回国时，却拿到了一块外国人给的免死金牌。

同样是一个国家，有道是，判死吴英，笑死无数贪官和赖昌星。

Wu Ying has only inflicted damage on 11 people. In the case of the listed companies, their failure would bring harm to millions of people. There is no different between Wu Ying and the CEOs of the listed companies but Wu has been sentenced to death, while all these CEOs are taking millions of paychecks and bonuses, and have a bright future waiting for them.

Corrupt officials such as Xu Zhonghang and Liu Zhijun, their cases involved tens of billions of RMB and the harm they caused is a thousand times more serious than Wu's. They were not sentenced to death.

Twelve years ago, Lai Changxing committed a RMB 70 billion corruption scandal. Since he managed to escape to Canada for 11 years, he received amnesty from the death sentence upon his return.

In one and the same country, people have such different fates. No wonder some think Wu's death sentence is a [source of] great entertainment to corrupt officials and Lai Changxing.

Is the death sentence really about Wu Ying's economic activities? Independent writer, Ye Kuangzheng, from Beijing does not think so [zh]:

地方官员联名要判吴英死刑，不仅为了灭囗，也是杀鸡儆猴，看谁进去了，还敢乱咬官员！吴英案仍有数亿资金未追回，匆忙杀了吴英，钱如何追回？难说背后没有潜藏的利益链。与吴英案有关的官员，为何至今未判？即便吴英罪大恶极，也应等资金和案情水落石出了，再做定夺不迟。

The government officials' joint letter demanding Wu Ying's death is not just to silence her but to threaten others. Who else dares to expose the corruption of government officials during their detention? There are millions of dollars missing from Wu's bank accounts - who has taken the money? Once Wu is dead, who else can give us a clue? Are there interlocking interests behind all this? How come some of the government officials involved in the case are still uncharged? Even if Wu did deserve such a harsh penalty, we should still wait until the full truth is revealed before seeing her die.

Ukraine: Ex.ua is Back Online

Veronica Khokhlova — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:10:32 +0000

Ex.ua, a file-sharing site that the authorities shut down two days ago, is now back online [uk], though its content is still inaccessible. @bl4ka tweets [ru]: “The DDoS revolution has won! […]” @VsemPohuy tweets [ru] about the DDoS attacks that followed the shutdown, and the situation in the country in general: “Ex.ua's back, it's now okay to stop DDoS-ing the sites of [the Interior Ministry], the president, etc. That students continue to be killed at police stations, that's [no big deal].” Journalist Pavel Sheremet writes [ru] about “the hackers' revolution”: “There was [Orange Maidan], then [“Tax Maidan”] […]. Now there's a Maidan on the internet.”

Venezuela: Hugo Chávez's Daughter Stirs up Social Networks

Laura Vidal — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:11:12 +0000

With the hashtag #Rosinesing [es] you can follow the reactions to a controversial photograph that President Hugo Chavez's daughter published on Twitter where she is using a wad of US dollars as a fan. Many comments reflect the outrage of those who must go through lengthy and cumbersome procedures to get dollars since the 2003 exchange controls that prevent Venezuelans from accessing foreign currencies. Lechuga Verde [es] posts the original photo and numerous, creative versions made by various netizens.

Cambodia: Mass Fainting in Garment Factories

Mong Palatino — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:35:41 +0000

The Asia Floor Wage network is organizing Cambodia’s first ever People’s Tribunal on Minimum Living Wage and Decent Working Conditions for garment workers. The tribunal is scheduled on February 8, 2012, in Phnom Penh:

The garment industry in Cambodia represents 90% of all exports. However, despite its relative economic importance, workers receive only half of what is needed to safely support their families and the statutory minimum wage is currently the lowest in the Mekong region.

One of the major issues which will be discussed is the poor working conditions in factories which resulted in fainting incidents in numerous workplaces:

Another issue of concern currently facing garment factories and their workers has been mass fainting. In 2011 year alone, the Free Trade Union has reported some 2,300 workers fainting in 5 Cambodian factories… Investigations and company statements have varied in their conclusions on contributing factors, but many have highlighted physiological causes such as low blood sugar, malnutrition, dehydration, food poisoning and over-exertion.

Workers of King First Factory rushed to hospital after fainting. Photo from Community Legal Education Center on Facebook.

Joel Preston identifies the prominent global customers of King First Factory:

In the same year, King First Industrial confirmed their list of major customers and customer base to include:

“Wal-Mart, Target, Reebok, JC Penny, Urban Outfitters, Simply Vera, Abercrombie & Fitch, Anthropology, Cold Water Creek, Chico's, Catherines, Express, Federated/May Department Store, P.V.H, Hollister, Ruehl, L&T, Cato, George, Bisou Bisou, Greendog, Lane Bryant, Alfant, Charter Club, Metro 7, East 5th and American Rag.”

Despite the gargantuan profits being reaped by Cambodian garment factories, their parent companies and international buyers alike, King First Industrial Co. Ltd seems unable to provide their workers with a safe and healthful working environment. Contraventions of occupational health and safety expectations are interrelated to the pitiful wages that these workers receive.

The Community Legal Education Center also posted photos of workers who fainted in factories owned by Hung Wah (Cambodia) Garment Mfg. and Huey Chuen. The Fair Labor Association investigated the fainting cases in Huey Chuen and discovered that workers were compelled to work for very long hours:

Management and workers indicated that for the period March 27 to April 9, workers completed four hours of overtime on weekdays as well as on March 25, April 1, and April 8. Workers on the second floor indicated they felt compelled to work all night starting at 7 a.m. on Friday morning and finishing at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. They also indicated they worked on Sunday 27 and April 3. Workers on the first and fifth floor did not work overnight but did work four hours of overtime on weekdays and Saturdays and Sundays.

LTO Cambodia thinks the mass faintings could be a case of mass hysteria:

The mass fainting are, for lack of a better term, ‘mass-hysteria,’ but by that I don't mean to diminish their significance. These factory workers are largely poor young women, often country girls, working in gray, stuffy, unpleasant conditions, homesick, pressured by family and harsh supervisors and doing mind-numbingly repetitive work for very little money (averaging $55-$61/month,) often for long hours.

Campaign to improve conditions of garment workers. Photo from Clean Clothes group.

Aside from the fainting issue, the tribunal hopes to address the complaints raised by 200,000 garment workers in Cambodia who went on strike last year. Below are the other goals of the tribunal:

- Establish the State of Decent Labour Standards, specifically focusing on Women Workers, in the global garment industry including the issue of fair pricing for manufacturers
- Present the impact of gender as a factor in determining the political economy of the global supply chain
- Provide leverage for building worker collectivity with bargaining power within the global supply chain and contribute to strengthening grassroots mobilization
- Contribute to strengthening the conditions of workers, in particular women workers, in the garment global supply chain

A petition was initiated urging H&M clothing company to join the tribunal:

H&M decided when cotton prices rose during 2010 and 2011 that they would kindly cover the costs so their customers wouldn’t suffer higher prices. Unfortunately, the courtesy doesn't extend to their suppliers working in Cambodian garment factories, 90% of whom are women.

Mongolia: The Mining Projects Leaving Herders Without Livelihoods

Juliana Rincón Parra — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:01:13 +0000

Mining projects in Mongolia promise development of social and economic infrastructure and a way to alleviate poverty, but on the wayside, local communities near the mines are feeling the negative impact as their environment and traditional livelihoods are affected.

The environmental NGO CEE Bankwatch Network has been reporting on mining projects both in Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia, projects which have been encouraged by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Bankwatch's concerns, voiced in ‘Rushing into gold can leave people behind, EBRD‘, are around resource depletion, particularly water, and changes in commodity prices:

Whether the promised revenues will help Mongolia to develop badly needed welfare services and build an economy that can sustain the depletion of its resources or sudden changes in commodity prices is an open question however. The dominance of the mining sector has already raised fears of a “dutch disease” or “resource curse”.

Open pit mining in Mongolia. Image by Flickr user pjriccio2006 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

This short video was made by CEE Bankwatch Network in eastern Europe, Urgewald from Germany, the Bank Information Center in the United States and Oyu Tolgoi Watch from Mongolia, who traveled to Mongolia to study the environmental and social impact the Ukhaa Khudag coal mine in Mongolia's south Gobi desert is already having:

If the previous video showed how things are starting to go with mining in Mongolia, in Kyrgyzstan they already have a long history of negative effects mining has had on the environment, health and local communities.

The next video goes into the glaciar region of Kyrgyzstan and visits the areas surrounding the Kumtor open air gold mine, which has been operating for over 15 years. Cyanide poisoning and water contamination is what the communities have; none of the promised development and benefits have reached them.

Both the Mongolian and the Kyrgyzstan mining videos and background were written about in ‘Earth's riches, people's troubles. Mining in Central Asia‘:

The cases in question – the Oyu Tolgoi and Tavan Tolgoi mines in Mongolia and the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan – are both important contributors to their country's national income and both receive (or in case of Oyu Tolgoi may soon receive) support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(EBRD). Both, however, pose risks to the local communities that can't be compensated in monetary terms.

These countries are not the only ones facing development with the negative impacts mining brings. In nearby Tibet, villagers managed to halt a mining project being established in one of their sacred mountains.

The topic is controversial; how high a price can a community pay for development of their country? Vladlena Martsynkevych, Bankwatch's Central Asia Officer writes:

The extractive industry can very well contribute to a country’s economic development and bring desired employment and revenues. At the same time mining is a highly disruptive activity with considerable negative impacts on the environment and the livelihoods of local communities. In countries with underdeveloped democratic structures, lack of institutional capacity or simply corruption, the damages can quickly overweigh. Benefits can then bypass the local level and end up enriching the involved companies and – not least - the technological progress and wealth in developed nations.

Ukraine: Government Sites Under Attack; “Freedom to Ex.ua”

Veronica Khokhlova — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:09:21 +0000

The official websites of the President of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Internal Affairs Ministry, and the Party of Regions are either completely down or work with interruptions today. Some of the coordination of the collective effort to take down governmental sites, apparently in response to yesterday's shutdown of Ex.ua, seems to be taking place on the “Freedom to Ex.ua” Vkontakte page [uk, ru], which, according to Serhiy Pishkovtsiy [uk] of Watcher.com.ua blog, “gathered nearly 7,000 followers in just a few hours” today; right now, there are 19,604 followers, and this number continues to grow every minute [update: 42,126 followers on Feb. 3].