On Nov. 3, I noticed that a new Twitter account was following me on that microblogging site, and its name intrigued me: @czyIKEAjestOK [is IKEA OK?]. It turns out that the account set up only a day before, on Nov. 2, belongs to an initiative of Polish citizens who work for IKEA via another, smaller, company called Solid Security, and who claim to be mistreated by those. They claim to be earning amounts below the national minimal wage, being assigned to work up to 16 hours daily and lacking the basic benefits, as we read on their Facebook page [POL]:

Our employers lower our wages, but also make us sign fictional contracts depriving us of the basic rights like annual leave or sick leave benefits.

When representatives of the employees entered IKEA building to turn in a copy of their petition containing the above-mentioned issues and signed by all of the affected, hoping to be able to talk to an IKEA spokesman, they were asked to leave the building by the head of security himself. This situation was filmed and is available on all of their social media sites.

The initiative's blog explains the main question they are raising via the on-line campaign [POL]:

We work for IKEA, but officially we are employed by another company. We earn low wages, we have no social fund. Buying medicine, illness is a financial catastrophe for us. IKEA washed their hands off it - officially they are not responsible. Is this OK?

It also hosts a voting where you can choose between ‘I am not bothered' and ‘ I think it's not OK' options.

‘And you, what do you think? Do you think IKEA is OK? Have your say:

I am not bothered. / It's not OK.'

On their site, in the FAQ section, we find a reason why the citizens have decided to contact IKEA directly to address their issues [POL]:

Of course we wanted to talk to Solid Security, the company which employed us, first, but we were ignored. Solid are aware of their position and the advantage they have over their employees, so any conversation is very difficult. That's why we decided to seek support at the company that pays Solid and thus can have a huge impact on their operations.

This initiative was picked up by a few on-line news portals, and was described by Interaktywnie.com (a Polish social media marketing portal)  in a news article, where commentators praised the neat build-up of the on-line campaign. Generally, however, there is a small amount of reactions on-line, which focus mainly on questioning why IKEA was targeted instead of Solid Security, pointing out that no-one is forced to work there, and waiting to see how the initiative develops.

On a portal dedicated to the industry news, Abenador states [POL]:

I have no idea if IKEA is OK or not, but when it comes to work conditions at SOLID, their employees should talk to … SOLID. Including IKEA in this argument is probably unnecessary and makes no sense (they are not the employers).

Aaa2 responds to this on a different forum [POL]:

Of course the employees did go to SOLID, too. IKEA is one of the largest clients of Solid and it is also said to be socially responsible. It cannot avoid the responsibility for employees working on their grounds, if it is so sensitive socially.

Dink points out in a board discussion:

work at IKEA is not mandatory

On Wykop (a Polish version of Digg.com), crea says [POL]:

I must say it's not a good situation…but it's a corporation, so it will be difficult to win with them..

Przemek postshis opinion on an HR portal:

As I understand, Mr Roman and his company do understand the amount of brand damage they are causing… But it's not the scale of brand damage which requires serious treatment of similar cases. I will watch with interest how this case develops, mainly in the social media.

This action conduced mainly via social media channels with usage of both visual and textual content grows in followers on Twitter, Facebook and in views on YouTube, as well as in numbers of votes on the main site. Representatives of Global Union from Sweden, USA, Italy, Ireland, Holland and other countries have expressed their concerns about the case of the Polish employees in a document published on Facebook. After four weeks since the original incident, both companies remain silent.

Wiadomości24.pl, a Polish citizen journalism portal, wrote (POL) that, according to the blogger, Fakt’s success on the Polish market was mostly achieved by violating journalism ethics.

Here is an excerpt from one of the first posts (POL) on BrukowiecStory:

I think that the creation of Fakt was the biggest hit on the free Polish media since [1989]. Before 2003, there was only Super Express, an easy, light and somehow nice tabloid. It had one advantage – they always were writing the truth. In the tabloid way, but one could still call it journalism. And the status quo remained until Fakt entered the market.

For the first time in the Polish media history we experienced a new term – creating the truth. “Nothing happens? Then create the events,” the editor-in-chief was supposed to shout to working journalists. […]

The blogger also states that he wants to register an association for people damaged by Fakt, and also that a mass lawsuit for mobbing is being planned. As of now, he has not yet published concrete information about breaking the law by the newspaper’s staff.

Beckii Cruel started to gain popularity at the end of this year thanks to some videos posted on YouTube where she appears dancing in her room, to the tune of anime songs, attracting the interest of inveterate fans of anime and manga.
After becoming a celebrity on the Internet as user xBextahx, she was invited to perform in Akihabara, the district in eastern Tokyo that is widely acknowledged as the symbol of the otaku culture [en].

bluecafe09k48 sums up Beckii's profile for us.

イギリス・マン島在住の美少女、１４歳ですね～。
マンガ「フルーツバスケット」を読んで以来、
日本のオタク文化に嵌ったのが３年前とのこと。
ベッキー・クルーエル自身が日本のアニメソングなどで踊っている動画を
ＹｏｕＴｕｂｅで公開したのが今年の３月くらいから。
「男女」がニコニコ動画に転載されたのが５月頃で、人気が爆発。

PV of Danjo (男女)

Beckii Cruel's popularity is certainly a Japanese phenomenon, as demonstrated by the fact that the only Wikipedia entry on her is in Japanese. However, the word of mouth has spread also among those foreigners who are passionate fans of Akihabara and the otaku culture in general.

GodLen, at Animevice. com, for example, comments with a bit of mock jealousy on the British idol's career.

Beckii Cruel, oh how I wish I were her, for she is the Cinderella story of the otaku world. This 14-year-old girl from England has won over the hearts of moe-loving otaku in Japan by posting videos of herself dancing to anime and Jpop songs on youtube. Yesterday she had the opportunity to dance in front of over 600 fans at the Enta Matsuri in Akihabara; amazing, and it all started with a youtube video. Now she has a DVD coming out in Japan (which you can pre-order now) that features her dancing her dance, and being overall moe.

Sankei News interview to Beckii Cruel at Akihabara Enta Festival

Beckii Cruel, who was recently chosen by candy and sweets maker Lotte to promote the Fit's Dance Contest together with other celebrities, performed live for the first time at Akihabara Enta Festival on October 25 [here are some pictures of the show].

He was 95 years old, and for the past two years he was being treated at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade.

Patriarch Pavle was chosen to head the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1990 and was the 44th patriarch.

He was said to be a humble person, who lived a simple lifestyle of an Orthodox monk. He was revered by the Serbian believers, as well as followers of other religions.

On occasion of his death, Serbia’s government declared a three-day mourning, starting Monday.

Serbian bloggers did not remain indifferent, either. They reacted to the death of Patriarch Pavle, as well as to the decisions of the government related to his passing.

Blogger Constrictorial wrote (SRP):

[…] I think that he was a human who worked, above all, for the reconciliation of people from this region […] in the time of war, he was one of the rare people who called for peace. […]

[…] I think that he was a modest man who was emitting love, sincerity and honesty. […]

At the end of his post, the blogger quoted Patriarch Pavle’s words:

Finally, as always, I must repeat what's always remains the same: be humane towards those who are constantly seeing us as their enemies; don’t hurry with hugs, but extend hands to everyone who realizes that we have to live as humans if we couldn’t live as brothers. Care for good relations with our neighbors who, even under the highest pressures, didn’t forget that we had to be oriented towards each other. […]

Teofil Pancic, a journalist, published his article titled “The Politics of Condolence” on the Pescanik web site. He wrote this (SRP), among other things:

[…] This is neither the place, nor the time for detailing about Gojko Stojcevic’s [civil name of Patriarch Pavle] character and works. No doubt that he led his Church so that it was not deviating from the widespread and tragic mistakes which inconceivably held Serbia back over the last 20 years. It is also true that other bishops, if they had been in his place, would have been more extreme. It is the fact that he, with his own lifestyle, which suited the popular, that is, idealized show about monks, acquired the mass respect of ordinary people, who are tired because they live in a destroyed society in which all the vagabonds and tramps, including those in cassocks, earn suspiciously bloody millions and drive around promoting their own banditry by various expensive cars and jeeps. […]

Blogger Aleksandar Vasovic reacted severely to the government’s decision to pay expenses to businessmen for all the workers who would attend the ceremony of the Patriarch’s funeral on Thursday. In his post titled “How much is Serbia’s mourning?”, he wrote (SRP):

[…] Why didn't the government, if it is so God-fearing, appeal to the faithful businessmen and workers to spend their one-day earnings, which it approved generously for them for the day of the Patriarch’s funeral, on the help for the poor and homeless persons, for the hungry ones and on maintaining community kitchens? […]

The Republican Broadcasting Agency has ordered state-funded electronic media to stop broadcasting musical programs because of the three-day mourning, and blogger Srdjan Mitrovic criticized (SRP) one Serbian cable operator for blocking of several channels:

SBB [Serbian Broadband] has blocked all music channels because of the days of mourning. […]

[…] I hope that they won’t remember to block cable internet because, God forbid, music could be broadcast through it. […]

P.S. On Channel TV 1000, they are showing soft porno films. Just so you know.

Since the court decision, the prime minister has launched a campaign accusing “leftist” judges, the national and foreign press, and even Italy's president, Giorgio Napolitano of political bias against him. Last week, the government introduced a bill promoted as “one of the most radical reforms of Italy's snail-paced justice system since the end of World War II”, which the opposition, magistrates, and consumer advocacy groups insist is yet another “ad personam law”, tailored to help Berlusconi avoid corruption trials.

On the same day of the verdict, October 9, a group of bloggers, citizens and intellectuals, self-defined as “not politically involved or belonging to any parties”, launched the idea of a national protest against Berlusconi demanding his resignation. They promptly opened a Facebook group under this header:

SALVIAMO L'ITALIA, SALVIAMO LA DEMOCRAZIA. BERLUSCONI DIMETTITI.

Saturday, December 5 was designated “No Berlusconi Day (NBD)”. The campaign spread quickly on the Internet with videos, blogs, and tweets, as well as offline, through word of mouth. In little more than a month over 280,000 people pledged to host a public event on “No Berlusconi Day” via the main Facebook group, with groups formed in many cities in Italy and around the world, including San Francisco and Sacramento (California), Ottawa and Montreal (Canada), Buenos Aires (Argentina), London, Madrid, Vienna, and Istanbul - where local rallies will be held on the same day.

The initiative has been featured on countless websites, as well as on Italy's leading daily newspapers, la Repubblica and Corriere della Sera. Today the leftist daily L'Unità devoted several pages to the event, including a story underlining the crucial role of citizen media in such “bottom-up initiatives”, comparing it to the protest movement in Iran and even to the Obama election in the USA. An open letter appeared in the London Times.

While the protest appeal document has been translated in 11 languages so far, including Arabic, Turk and Serb-Croat, the No Berlusconi Day blog further explains:

The No Berlusconi Day group is a large, informal, global network of ordinary citizens, spanning all political and cultural backgrounds. The coordinators of the group are unpaid and do not collectively hold specific political affiliations… Although the No Berlusconi Day group is non-political, the group and event has received public support and endorsement from a number of high-profile activists, including Salvatore Borsellino brother of the anti-corruption judge Paolo Borsellino who was murdered by a Mafia car-bomb in 1992.

Beppe Grillo, a well-known Italian comedian who launched a very popular (some say ‘populist') campaign against corruption and illegality of past Italian governments last year, has also announced his support of No Berlusconi Day on his website, attracting more than 1,300 comments, the vast majority supporting his statement:

“Mi sono rotto i coglioni di Berlusconi”. Ditelo in pubblico, al bar, al ristorante. Gridatelo in radio, ai semafori, scrivetelo ai giornali, inviate mail ai siti italiani e internazionali, alle caselle di posta dei deputati, dei senatori. “Mi sono rotto i coglioni di Berlusconi”.

[…]

E' mai possibile che gli italiani, anche quelli rincoglioniti dalle televisioni, non abbiano un moto di rigetto, un conato di vomito a vedere la Repubblica Italiana trattata come una zoccola? Il Grande Corruttore ha corrotto forse ogni coscienza? Tutto ciò che ha toccato nella sua vita si è corrotto, decomposto. E' lui l'H1N1 della nostra democrazia.

The main Facebook group features an ongoing flow of new comments:

Giacomo Spataro: GIORNO 5/12.. TUTTI I NEGOZI CHIUSI…bandiere viola fuori…e tutti a roma….

Diritto Di Parola: La manifestazione si potrà definire APARTITICA e nata ed organizzata dal basso solo se i partiti non esibiranno i propri simboli. Non raccontiamoci frottole :) W il 5 dicembre voluto dai cittadini !!!! Scendiamo tutti in piazza a manifestare per le dimissioni di Berlusconi !!!

Daniele Nuzzo: Per fare Carpooling per andare a Roma dividendo le spese.

The NBD organizers chose the color purple to identify the movement, explaining that “purple is not just for mourning, but it is also a symbol of vital energy and self-determination”. Hence some creative ideas on Facebook:

Use this image for your profile or for a t-shirt:

While actual meet-ups are underway throughout the country, the electronic tam-tam is also spreading via Twitter.

On October 31, the first volunteers took to the streets in many cities to start informing people about the upcoming event. Here is a video from downtown Rome, where a journalist from PdCI-TV interviewed the activists on the fly [it]:

No political parties have formally endorsed the protest with the exception of Antonio di Pietro and Paolo Ferrero (leaders of small opposition parties, respectively, Italia dei Valori and Comunisti Italiani), who confirmed their attendance to the Rome rally.

Will people actually take to the streets en masse? For those still in doubt, the following “Joker Silvio” video explains the “top 10 reasons why citizens should participate in the No B-Day, an event born and promoted almost exclusively on the Net” [it]: