Re: USA: overtime pay redux
Max says that he does not know. I will try to remember to ask at the EPI reception tomorrow. On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 12:44:57PM -0800, Eubulides wrote: > The latest issue of Business Week has a letter from Elaine Chao asserting > that EPI's estimate of 8 million workers losing OT has been discredited. > Does anyone have the skinny on this issue? Max, are you out there? > > Ian -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
South Asia free-trade zone
South Asia Nations Move Toward Free-Trade Zone By Nirmala George Associated Press Saturday, January 3, 2004; Page E01 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 2 -- The impoverished nations of South Asia agreed Friday on the framework for a free-trade zone that would encompass one-fifth of the world's population, a step that could deepen the improving relations between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan. The broad framework of the accord, which would start tearing down tariffs by Jan. 1, 2006, was reached during talks in Islamabad by foreign ministers preparing for the first summit in two years of the leaders of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives and Bhutan -- home to hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people. "We must set aside all our suspicions of each other wherever they exist and switch on the engine of South Asian growth in order to travel on the road to prosperity," said Indian foreign minister Yashwant Sinha. The free-trade agreement would allow the harmonization of tariffs and the free flow of goods and services, and the establishment of a regional development bank to promote cooperation among central banks, Sinha said. Still, with poverty endemic and a history of internal conflicts and regional squabbling that goes back centuries, such an accord faces serious challenges. While it may not produce short-term benefits to South Asia's residents, the agreement could eventually bring more jobs in a region with high unemployment. National leaders will review the accord when they meet Sunday through Tuesday in the Pakistani capital, where security is extraordinarily tight in the wake of two assassination attempts last month against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The summit of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is the first since a meeting in Nepal in January 2002. That gathering took place amid deep acrimony a month after an attack on India's Parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-backed Islamic militants. Pakistan denied the allegations. Last year's summit was canceled because of lingering tensions. The two countries have made concerted efforts since April to improve relations, observing a cease-fire in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir and restoring full diplomatic relations. A restoration of transportation links was capped by the resumption of commercial air service Thursday. Sinha said the free-trade accord could lead to greater cooperation in the future -- even a common currency -- an idea that has seemed impossible amid omnipresent poverty, civil war in several countries and the India-Pakistan conflict. "A South Asia with one currency, one tariff regime and free movement of goods, services and people is well within the realm of possibility," Sinha said. Pakistan agreed that economic union was a long-term "good objective," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan. "But in the immediate future, we must focus on conflict resolution and solution of the problems we have." The South Asian Free Trade Area has been delayed repeatedly in recent years, because of feuding between India and Pakistan and concerns by smaller nations that they will be overwhelmed by foreign investment and cheaply made Indian goods. Some of those fears were being allayed through a plan to phase in the tariff cuts over several years. The broad outlines are that the countries would have to reduce tariffs from between 25 and 30 percent to between zero and 5 percent over five to 10 years.
Re: Al-Jazeera sacks another English journalist
Al Jazeera has apparently bowed to US demands already. I guess when your facilities get bombed in Kabul and when you lose journalists and your station in Baghdad you get the message. They must be trusting souls to provide the US military with the co-ordinates of their Baghdad site. I suppose it limits collateral damage as they were in a predominantly residential area. Of course Al Jazeera has never been critical of Qatar's ruler I gather. Cheers, Ken Hanly http://www.dandelionbooks.net/archives/uncensored_news_22.html JEDDAH -- Al-Jazeera bowed to pressure from the United States government last month by immediately pulling two cartoons deemed 'inflammatory' by Washington from its websites, a senior source in the news organization has told Arab News. The two cartoons were pulled without any hesitation from both the Arabic and English language websites after a US government official complained about them, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. One cartoon was of so-called 'green card soldiers', young Latino men shown going through an immigration tunnel to emerge from the other side as US soldiers ready to leave for military service in Iraq. The other was of the Twin Towers imploding, and two giant fuel pumps rising to replace them from the ashes. Neither cartoon is now available in Al-Jazeera websites' cartoon archive. - Original Message - From: Brian McKenna To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 3:36 PM Subject: Al-Jazeera sacks another English journalist
Al-Jazeera sacks another English journalist
Al-Jazeera sacks another English journalist http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story788.shtml Posted: 2 January 2004 By: Jemima Kiss mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Former BBC journalist Shaista Aziz has become the second UK journalist to be sacked by Al-Jazeera.net in two months. Ms Aziz was an outspoken member of the Al-Jazeera team, opposing controversial new staff contracts and pushing for union representation for the group. She was given notice on 1 January. The English-language web site has a team of 11 journalists, many recruited from the BBC and the Guardian. Senior editor Yvonne Ridley, who helped to launch the news site earlier this year, was sacked without warning in November. "Shaista Aziz brought in a rich seam of exclusive stories that were followed up by the international media," said Ms Ridley. "She was outspoken, feisty and extremely professional." Jihad Ballout, spokesperson for Al-Jazeera, told dotJournalism that the decision was made purely on the basis of Ms Aziz's professional ability. "I have absolute respect for my ex-colleagues," he said. "My understanding is that the editor-in-chief made an assessment after the three-month probation and decided that perhaps she was not quite the right person." However, it has been claimed that several members of the newsroom staff were present when Ahmed Sheikh, her immediate boss, told her recently that she had successfully passed her probation. Recently Ms Aziz had made a formal complaint of 'Islamophobia' and sexual harassment against a male colleague. This case will not now be dealt with. "There is a culture of fear and intimidation running through Al-Jazeera's English web site," said Ms Ridley. "Those journalists who stand up to this also happen to be the most talented. I'm afraid journalistic integrity and skill appear to count for nothing." Staff at the Doha-based broadcaster were said to be devastated by the sacking of Ms Ridley, an experienced and well-respected journalist of more than 25 years. Ms Ridley has given power of attorney to her lawyers to take Al-Jazeera to court for unfair dismissal. "Despite my unfortunate experience, I still have lots of respect for the Al-Jazeera name and those talented journalists on the web site and television who strive for journalistic excellence," she said. "But there are people employed in the newsrooms and in the administration department who have no real journalistic background. "They are to journalism what Herod was to child care." The sacking is likely to fuel speculation that Al-Jazeera been pressurised by the United States to tone down its news content. Staff on the English-language site have alleged that news items were withdrawn after phone calls from the White House. "Everything in the world media is under pressure from the US government," said Mr Ballout. "But Al-Jazeera has never succumbed to pressure." dotJournalism headlines http://www.journalism.co.uk/index.shtml See also: http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story769.shtml http://www.journalism.co.uk/profile6.html http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story753.html
Re: USA: overtime pay redux
The latest issue of Business Week has a letter from Elaine Chao asserting that EPI's estimate of 8 million workers losing OT has been discredited. Does anyone have the skinny on this issue? Max, are you out there? Ian
Re: [political] industrial ecology
Brings to mind an interesting (perhaps) true life story. In the mid 1970s, when I was just a lad working for the Illinois Central Gulf RR in Chicago, the Chicago Sanitary Sewage District and the ICG participated in the development of a sludge train service, where processed sewage would be loaded into railcars for transport to central and southern Illinois. The sewage was to be provided to farmers for use as fertilizer. Apparently these guys had read Engels and decided to do their part to heal the "metabolic breach," or maybe it was just the chance to make money, or maybe both, because we all know that nothing is more natural than capitalism... In those days there were peace trains, love trains, soul trains, and we had our shit trains, dubbed, by some genius in the marketing dept., as ICBMs. Well, didn't work as planned, and not because of the excess quantities of toxic chemicals-- lord knows that never would have stopped our dedicated entrepreneurs-- no, it was something far more insidious and immediately visible-- tomatoes. Yes, tomatoes. It seems tomato seeds not only pass through the human digestive track sullied but unscathed, but also through the chemical and heat treatments designed to eliminate pathogens of the bacterial, viral, fungal, protozoan type. So when the farmers spread this stuff on their fields of corn and soybeans (Illinois being no. 2 I think in the production of each), guess what? Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of tomato plants sprouted, strangling the cash crops in their cradles. End of experiment, end of trains. So much for that early adventure ecological alchemy. dms
USA: overtime pay redux
Published on Saturday, December 20, 2003 by CommonDreams.org Seizing Saddam, Deregulating Americans by Seth Sandronsky In America's big media, the seizure of Saddam Hussein has been spun in step with the Bush White House as a kind of domestic proof for the war on terror, and Iraq invasion and occupation. This official spin has had a large effect on the people of America, a re-cent NY Times/CBS News Poll found. "Mr. Bush's approval rating jumped to 58 percent after Mr. Hussein was captured, from 52 percent, and the number of Americans who disapproved of his performance fell to 33 percent, from 40 percent," the NY Times of Dec. 17 reported. Clearly, the absence of anti-war news and views in the corporate communication system has roused some Americans to accept as legitimate the official version of U.S. foreign policy. Thus with Hussein imprisoned, the American public is being urged to unite behind Presi-dent Bush and focus on the future trial of the former Iraqi dictator and U.S. ally. Can America's working people also unite with the president on workplace issues? For part of the answer we turn to the labor policies of the Bush administration. Nine months ago the Labor Department moved to take away overtime pay from eight million white-collar workers. full article: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1220-08.htm Date:Thu, 1 Jan 2004 22:44:19 -0800 From:Eubulides <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: USA: overtime pay redux Labor Dept. Plans To End Overtime Controversy in March Changes Will Affect Who Gets Time-and-a-Half Pay By Kirstin Downey Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 2, 2004; Page D01 The Labor Department plans to issue a controversial final rule chang-ing the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime provisions by the end of March, according to a regulatory plan published by the agency last week in the Federal Register. The rule, which would redefine who must receive overtime pay, has drawn opposition in the House and Senate by many Demo-crats and some Republicans. "We've said all along we hoped to have a final rule completed by the first quarter of 2003, and that's still our plan," said Victoria A. Lipnic, assistant secretary of labor for employment standards. She hinted that the rules may be modified somewhat to reflect concerns raised by critics but would not be more specific. _ Have fun customizing MSN Messenger learn how here! http://www.msnmessenger-download.com/tracking/reach_customize
Re: Mad Cows and the Market
Jan. 3 Hi Mike, Thanks for the thanks. Peace, Seth Re: Mad Cows and the Market by Mike Ballard 31 December 2003 --- Seth Sandronsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Mad Cows and the Market By SETH SANDRONSKY http://www.counterpunch.org/sandronsky12272003.html Nice one Seth! I especially appreciated this section: What market ideology fogs is the social relations at and away from the workplace that prop up the market, while focusing on the prices of what people grow and make for sale. A dead German termed this process "commodity fetishism." In his view, the focus on the market exchange of commodities blurs the human energy that created them in the first place. Despite humans creating the commodity form, the former is hidden beneath the surface of the latter due to the nature of the market. Thus we know about the exports of U.S. beef threatened by MCD. But we know little about immigrant Mexican workers inside America. They, for example, labor in the Midwest meatpacking industry for non-union wages. There, "undocumented laborers, kept compliant by INS raids and surveillance, are increasingly the preferred employees," author Christian Parenti writes in his book Lockdown America. In the meantime, the MCD story is unfolding, far from over. As this history happens, a re-thinking of markets may also occur. *** You finished your article by stating: Accordingly, the market can be changed so that working people control it instead of being controlled by it. With that consciousness emerging, they can, slowly, begin the necessary work to bury MCD and other products of the market. ** Sounds like the dreaded "dictatorship of the proletariat" to me. Nice to see the concept put down so articulately. Wobbly greetings, Mike B) = "Freedom is what we make of it. If we stand against repression, authority and illegitimate structures, we are expanding the domain of freedom and that's what freedom will be. That's what we create; there is nothing to define in words." -- Noam Chomsky http://profiles.yahoo.com/swillsqueal _ Have fun customizing MSN Messenger learn how here! http://www.msnmessenger-download.com/tracking/reach_customize
Re: pen-l archives
Danke, Hans! Mike B) = Talent develops in tranquility, character in the full current of human life. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) http://profiles.yahoo.com/swillsqueal __ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/
