#and corporations will do ANYTHING to avoid having to pay for labour

[english-mace]

Capitalism does not care about your right to create art, holy shit does it ever not care about that. I'm begging folks to scratch just a LITTLE deeper on this one and ask why these corporations are shilling so hard to normalize generative AI in the creative fields, PARTICULARLY in the wake of writers' strikes and lawsuits against massive corporations for failure to honour royalty agreements because -

It's wage theft. It's always been wage theft.

Set aside for a second the gut-reaction that creatives are luxurious celebrities lounging around eating grapes, because whether you think artists deserve to be paid for their art or not, it is also the canary in the coal mine for customer service wage theft.

Corporations do not want to pay call center employees. Corporations do not want to pay help desk professionals, they do not want to pay customer service representatives or secretaries or receptionists, they do not want, if at all physically possible, to pay human beings. Ever. Why would they? A corporation wins when it shaves its costs to nothing at the expense of everything but profits; a corporation is not a member of society, and only faintly is it a member of the economy - a corporation is not capable of conceptualizing that its own customers, who pay it, are also human beings who only have money by dint of employment by, shockingly, mostly other corporations (who also don't want to pay them).

The art argument is dehumanizing and paternalizing towards those with disabilities, yes. But it's also a distraction.

None of us want to live in a world where AI wins the race to the bottom. Not when our governments clearly have less than no interest in UBI or any other means of support in an employment drought such as the one bigtech firms shilling AI, and the late-stage capitalist mega-corps buying it, are in the vanguard of creating.

I first posted this in a thread over on BlueSky, but I decided to port (a slightly edited version of) it over here, too.

Entirely aside from the absurd and deeply incorrect idea [NaNoWriMo has posited] that machine-generated text and images are somehow "leveling the playing field" for marginalized groups, I think we need to interrogate the base assumption that acknowledging how people have different abilities is ableist/discriminatory. Everyone SHOULD have access to an equal playing field when it comes to housing, healthcare, the ability to exist in public spaces, participating in general public life, employment, etc.

That doesn't mean every person gets to achieve every dream no matter what.

I am 39 years old and I have scoliosis and genetically tight hamstrings, both of which deeply impact my mobility. I will never be a professional contortionist. If I found a robot made out of tentacles and made it do contortion and then demanded everyone call me a contortionist, I would be rightly laughed out of any contortion community. Also, to make it equivalent, the tentacle robot would be provided for "free" by a huge corporation based on stolen unpaid routines from actual contortionists, and using it would boil drinking water in the Southwest into nothingness every time I asked it to do anything, and the whole point would be to avoid paying actual contortionists.

If you cannot - fully CAN NOT - do something, even with accommodations, that does not make you worth less as a person, and it doesn't mean the accommodations shouldn't exist, but it does mean that maybe that thing is not for you.

But who CAN NOT do things are not who uses "AI." It's people who WILL NOT do things.

"AI art means disabled people can be artists who wouldn't be able to otherwise!" There are armless artists drawing with their feet. There are paralyzed artists drawing with their mouths, or with special tracking software that translates their eye movements into lines. There are deeply dyslexic authors writing via text-to-speech. There are deaf musicians. If you actually want to do a thing and care about doing the thing, you can almost always find a way to do the thing.

Telling a machine to do it for you isn't equalizing access for the marginalized. It's cheating. It's anti-labor. It makes it easier for corporations not to pay creative workers, AND THAT'S IS WHY THEY'RE PUSHING IT EVERYWHERE.

I can't wait for the bubble to burst on machine-generated everything, just like it did for NFTs. When it does some people are going to discover they didn't actually learn anything or develop any transferable skills or make anything they can be proud of.

I hope a few of those people pick up a pencil.

It's never too late to start creating. It's never too late to actually learn something. It's never too late to realize that the work is the point.

[chaifootsteps]

Viv also has Dark_Crowl working on HB in boarding. She currently lives in Georgia (the country), but is a Russian who was working *in* Russia while also working on HB, while there are active Sanctions going on against Russia. While Sanctions technically have no legal recourse against corporations hiring freelance individuals (as opposed to hiring through companies, which is extremely illegal), it's still an extremely scummy move for corporations to employ. Not to mention that Georgia's government is extremely cooperative with Russia's in filtering taxes earned by Russians back into Russia, so her living there really doesn't change much on just where her taxes go (this is a common way Russians try to circumvent the Sanctions).

In the wake of this Ukraine/Russia debacle, Dark tweeted "I just wanna thank Viv for hiring ppl on the studio regardless of their nationalities, gender, sexuality and etc. I don't know where I could've been right now without her and SH And I'm so very grateful that at least in this community I'm not hated for just existing." https://twitter.com/Dark_Crowl/status/1704589043885871163 It's very nice that she can afford to hide in another country and avoid trouble while her taxes on those SH earnings went to destroying someone else's apartment, someone's hospital, someone's school. How grateful that she gets a community, while other people hide in terror and burry themselves unground to avoid the horrific trauma the soldiers above ground will enact on them if they come up. That's such a tone-deaf way to look at it, and tone-deaf seems to be the word of the year for SH.

DaniDraws is calling it xenophobia against Russians, https://twitter.com/DaniDraws666/status/1704523131614843294 but completely ignores the fact that Viv's studio is circumventing sanctions, probably because Russian labour is cheaper than American labour and she doesn't care of the taxes earned off that cheaper labour goes into firing missiles at civilian buildings. I don't think that she necessarily even supports Russia, I think she's just ignorant to literally anything outside of her own goals, including how *when you pay Russians living in Russia, they get taxed and it goes into lobbing more missiles at civilians*.

TL;DR: someone doesn't deserve hate just for being ethnically Russian, but if your studio is circumventing Sanctions in order to take advantage of cheaper labour and is paying Russians living in Russia or Georgia, then congrats - you're funding missile strikes on Ukrainian civilians, they have a right to be mad. It's not xenophobia, it's common empathy and awareness for things outside of your own little fantasy red demon zone. Someone else pointed this situation out to me like a year back when they first noticed, and I never bothered bringing it up because I didn't think it needed to be said. But if people like Dani want to get on a high horse about exploiting cheap labour around Sanctions, then more attention should be brought to the fact that they're doing just that.

Too fucking right it should. Thanks for the info, and for helping bring said attention.

[juliansummerhayes]

Daily diary: Wednesday, 15 May 2024

“The motivation of the scholars to expose themselves to categorical dishevelment and ambivalence I don’t pretend to understand, though I have enormous gratitude to them for doing it, and their fiscal and existential decision-making in attending can be questioned. But they are my contemplative kin, and our companionship in the heavy weather of wondering how our corner of the world has come to be as it is is a feast in a famine. When we are labouring up another counterintuitive, habit-violating semantic or phenomenological incline, dragging the ten ton stone of what passes for sanity in the West up the hill of habit and into the light of courteous inquiry where it belongs, I often offer this cool comfort: the language will not fail you. Think about how you think, I tell them, and talk about how you talk, and patient attention to the means by which you think and talk—the language—will serve you and the world you are desperate to care for. The language will not let you down.” – Stephen Jenkinson, Come of Age: A Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (my emphasis added)

So, it’s Wednesday.

Where did the time go?

I quote again from SJ. 

But it’s true. Capital ‘T’ truth, perhaps.

The language will never fail you.

Do we pay enough attention to it?

Now and forever?

I don’t think so. In fact, we’ve become lazy in our demands to challenge the assumed lexicon.

Them’s harsh words.

Damn right.

But we should try to improve how we speak, the words we use and how we view the world apropos of our words.

And not because I say so; but what else is there when we’re trying to communicate?

Actually, I don’t like the word ‘communicate’. It sounds too pretentious, too corporate and elides any sense of the mystery that language provides.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with the way we order our lives.

Or does it?

Imagine devoting an hour a day to improving the spoken or written word.

I don’t deliberately do so, but I’m convinced that one of the reasons why I read so many books, and poetry is because I want to dial in the gods of language – yes, they do exist – and not fall into a state of ennui, despair or torpor in trying to find a way to make sense of this anthropocentric world.

But it’s not just that. I love words; and I’ll do anything to find the right ones, whatever shape, cadence and complexity they have. Does that make me a word snob? Yes, 100%. But not in a show and tell way but as a way to adumbrate something that needs attention. Or to keep alive the beauty of words and their speckled history.

Anyhow, my plans for the day are modest. And, yes, so far I’ve managed to avoid doing any decorating. Sorry Mrs S! The dogs? Well, they’ll get a walk or two although daughter #3 is picking them up later which will be nice for them and me – haha. I’m handing back my IT kit to my last employer, which means I’ve got to wait in until the DPD man arrives. That said, I’m not waiting around forever and I’ll leave the stuff outside if he’s not here by 12 noon. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain. A walk will be on the cards and I might do a bit of cooking. Oh, and I think I might look at a case that was handed down by the Supreme Court on Directors' duties – one area of law that still interests me. Yes, really. Other than that, it’ll be a slow day. I’ll read some more William Blake and be grateful for the time away from the coalface. (I have a new job to start next Monday. I won’t change my LinkedIn profile which says sweet FA about any of my employment history.)

Have a good one.

Stay safe pilgrims of misfortune and chance.

Blessings, Julian  Photo by John Carlo Tubelleza on Unsplash

[thinktosee]

Sydney and the Australian experience

On Nov. 11, 2024, I flew from Singapore to Sydney to visit my daughter, Sara and her husband, Hugh. It had been a year since I was in Sydney. For anyone who has a family member – daughter, son, mother, father, brother or sister living/schooling or working abroad, I appreciate the difficulties presented by this separation, although not unusual, in our globalizing world. Nevertheless, absence, as they say, makes the heart grow fonder. I am sure we all can agree to this. 

Immigration at Changi Airport had an unexpected, yet pleasant surprise as I quickly navigated through on Nov 11. It was passport-less. AI or facial recognition hardware had partially replaced the already efficient electronic passport and thumbing system. Singapore’s uncompromising pursuit of superlatives at any cost may hopefully lead us someday to a cabinet-less system, thus saving the tax paying public a pretty penny to boot, given the fact the Singaporean ministers are the highest paid in the world, for a city that is a fraction of the geographical size and population of NYC or Saigon. I am sure Elon Musk could help configure such an AI for Singapore and perhaps the world too. Now, that’s real progress! It’d be curiously ironic, especially since the ministers have over the years lectured the de-platformed masses about the necessity for upskilling. 

Sydney Airport was just as efficient when we landed. A pleasant experience throughout. Sara and Hugh were as loving and gracious as ever in meeting/fetching me from the airport to their wonderful home 30 minutes away in the suburbs. Australia or more precisely, Sydney is a beautiful city. If anything, the immortal worlds of Patricia Tarn remain with me throughout the years – “Australia has a work-life balance.” I’ll say! In my casual observation, formed after several visits over two decades, Australians have it nailed down pat. They work hard and diligently, and then at 5 pm, they knock off from work and head home or to the local pub, restaurant or to the gym to live the evening. I can’t imagine this ever happening in Singapore. It is just not feasible, as long as the mile-high cost of living relative to wages, and our dependence on large corporations to sustain employment persist. Some may argue that it is a cultural thing. That East Asians are naturally inclined to hard work. That may be true. However, there is hard work and then there is work to death. The latter is what we should avoid. There are better or smarter ways to make a living. Australia seems to recognize this issue, and the people have made great efforts to address it. Take for example the migrant worker in Singapore and Australia. In the former, the domestic helper is held not at gunpoint, but something close to it in the form of a financial penalty against the employer should the helper abruptly leave the place of employment or in the words of the employment agent - run away (now why would an employee run away? Only slaves do this, right?). In this respect, the employer, fearing the worst, is conditioned to assert undue control over the helper, 24/7. In the Australian experience, there are laws protecting the migrant worker against systemic or other forms of economic exploitation, whereas in Singapore the laws work to exploit them. Imagine this – a domestic helper in Singapore could not on her own volition, leave the place of her employment on any evening to visit a friend, dine at a food court, or go to the cinema. She has to obtain the express permission of her employer, which as a matter of course, is rarely given. The concept of 9 to 5 does not apply to her. Instead, it is 9 to 9 and it’s AM both ways, except for a couple of Sundays when she has her day off, after completing the chores first. A chattel she undoubtedly is. This is what we are facing in East Asia – labour exploitation forces us to look and experience work in a dehumanizing manner. The institutionally-depressed wages additionally ensure that folks work round the clock to pay for the high-cost of living. This formalized exploitation is regrettably accepted as natural! 

So what can Australia teach East Asia? Plenty I think. For a start though, we can learn how to live, from the good folks down under. But first, we will have to reform the laws and institutions that exploit us and get a head start on higher wages. And here we can also learn from our ministers. If they can pay themselves millions for doing a mayor's job, I guess so can we, right? 

[plutosventingcorner]

We Shouldn't Act Like Dead People Were Perfect In Life

Okay so those in the UK probably know what this is about, but for those who don't, just not there are TWs for murder, knife crime, brief mention of homophobia and terrorism.

Conservative MP Sir David Amess was stabbed to death in what has now been labelled an act of terrorism. I'm not going to say I wanted him dead or anything, despite my political views completely opposing his. Any death is bad.

But- he was a terrible person and we need to stop acting like he was this saint in life, like we do any time a white politician, one that may be obscure or may be Prince Phillip, dies, and especially when they're killed or Prince Phillip.

Knowing the Tory party, they're going to hide every terrible vote that this guy ever made. So I'm going to compile them here for you; or as many as I can think of.

So here we go:

>Generally voted against Labour's anti-terrorism laws (this one's just a bit ironic) >Generally voted against restrictions on fees charged to tenants by letting agents >Consistently voted for capping civil service redundancy payments >Generally voted for the privatisation of Royal Mail >Generally voted for restricting the scope of legal aid >Almost always voted for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the "bedroom tax") >Generally voted against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices >Almost always voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits >Almost always voted against spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for young people who have spent a long time unemployed >Almost always voted for making local councils responsible for helping those in financial need afford their council tax and reducing the amount spent on such support >Almost always voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability >Consistently voted for greater restrictions on campaigning by third parties, such as charities, during elections >Voted against a transparent Parliament >Generally voted against transferring more powers to the Scottish Parliament >Almost always voted against a lower voting age >Generally voted against more powers for local councils >Almost always voted against a wholly elected House of Lords >Consistently voted for reducing central government funding of local >Generally voted against a more proportional system for electing MPs >Generally voted against transferring more powers to the Senedd/Welsh Parliament >Voted for raising England’s undergraduate tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year >Has never voted on ending financial support for some 16-19 year olds in training and further education >Almost always voted for reducing the rate of corporation tax >Voted a mixture of for and against measures to reduce tax avoidance (voted against, only noted this way because of 6 absences) >Generally voted against laws to promote equality and human rights >Almost always voted against equal gay rights >Almost always voted against allowing marriage between two people of same sex >Generally voted for higher taxes on plane tickets >Almost always voted against greater public control of bus services >Generally voted against a publicly owned railway system >Consistently voted against slowing the rise in rail fares

There's a lot more than I've listed here, which you can find at this link, alongside the number of times voting for and against each policy: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/10009/david_amess/southend_west/votes

But this goes to show two things. First, a shit person in life is a shit person in death; dying doesn't change the fact you were a classist, homophobic, nationalist cunt. And second, once a Tory, always a Tory.

[antoine-roquentin]

It is​ a measure of Krugman’s increasing despair that by 2013 his jaundiced view of American class society converged with his worries about the intellectual framing of economics. As Republican and Democratic centrists struggled to fashion a bipartisan majority around a programme to slash the deficit, it dawned on Krugman that the entirety of what he had once confidently described as ‘responsible’ economic policy was shot through with class interest. Talk of fiscal sustainability wasn’t just bad economics; it was, Krugman now believed, class war by stealth. In End This Depression Now (2012), Krugman broke one of the taboos that separate mainstream New Keynesians from their left-wing heterodox counterparts. He invoked the Polish economist Michał Kalecki, whose work is commonly cited as having bridged Keynesianism and Marxism. In 1943, in wartime exile in Oxford, Kalecki had explained why delivering stabilisation policy in a sustained way, as Keynes envisioned, might not be possible in a class-divided society. At the depths of the crisis, Keynesians would be summoned by the powers that be to do the minimum that was necessary, but as soon as the worst had passed, well before the economy reached full employment, the same policies would be anathematised as undermining ‘confidence’. The balance of what was ‘sensible’ would be set by the interests of the wealthiest and most secure. Their principal concern wasn’t full employment, but profit, which dictated stimulus in a slump and restraint whenever profits were squeezed by increased wages in a tightening labour market. Five years before Samuelson, in his classic textbook of 1948, laid out his vision of the complementarity of macroeconomic management and market-based microeconomics, Kalecki had already shown why it would end in failure.

As Krugman remarked, when he first read Kalecki’s essay he ‘thought it was over the top. Kalecki was, after all, a declared Marxist ... But, if you haven’t been radicalised by recent events, you haven’t been paying attention; and policy discourse since 2008 has run exactly along the lines Kalecki predicted.’ After a short burst of emergency Keynesianism, by 2010 deficits not unemployment were the problem. And any effort to push for better conditions was immediately countered with the insistence that it would induce ‘economic policy uncertainty’ and hold the economy back. It wasn’t unemployed Americans, Krugman raged, but imaginary ‘confidence fairies’ that were dictating policy.

Krugman reassured himself by adding that Kalecki was far more of a Keynesian than he was a Marxist, but quibbles aside, Krugman’s own transformation could hardly be denied. The members of the American left he had savaged in the 1990s were now his friends. He was talking about power in the starkest terms. But the question was unavoidable: once you lost your faith in the state as a tool of reformist intervention, once you truly reckoned with the omnipresence of class power, what choices remained but fatalism or a demand for a revolutionary politics? Between those alternatives, respectively unappetising and unrealistic, there was perhaps a third option. America had, after all, been here before. FDR’s New Deal too had been hemmed in. It had delivered far less than promised, until the floodgates were finally opened by the Second World War. The Great Depression, Krugman wrote, ‘ended largely thanks to a guy named Adolf Hitler. He created a human catastrophe, which also led to a lot of government spending.’ ‘Economics,’ he wrote in another essay, ‘is not a morality play. It’s not a happy story in which virtue is rewarded and vice punished.’

‘If it were announced that we faced a threat from space aliens and needed to build up to defend ourselves,’ Krugman said in 2012, ‘we’d have full employment in a year and a half.’ If 21st-century America needed an enemy, China was one candidate. On foreign policy, Krugman is perhaps best described as a left patriot. Where he had once downplayed the impact of Chinese imports on the US economy, he now declared that China’s currency policy was America’s enemy: by manipulating its exchange rate Beijing was dumping exports on America. But to Krugman’s frustration Obama never turned the pivot towards Asia into a concerted economic strategy.

You might argue that in Covid we have found an enemy of precisely the kind Krugman was imagining. As far as Europe is concerned, an alien space invasion isn’t an implausible model for Covid. This novel threat broke down inhibitions in Berlin, and the Eurozone’s response was far more ambitious than it was after 2008. But America isn’t the Eurozone. For all Krugman’s gloom, it didn’t take a new world war to flip the economic policy switch. All it took was an election. Almost immediately after Trump’s victory in November 2016, the fiscal taps were opened. As under Reagan in the 1980s and Bush in the 2000s, all fear of deficits disappeared.

Compelling as Krugman may have found the Kaleckian vision, it does not describe the United States in the 21st century. The balance of class forces Kalecki had assumed in the 1940s no longer exists. In America in 2017 big business did not object to running the economy hot. There was no real threat of wage pressure: a flutter of strikes perhaps, but nothing serious. No chance of inflationary expectations becoming embedded in adjustments to the cost of living. No wage-price spiral. Everything to gain from tax cuts for corporations and the rich. The Kaleckian scenario, from today’s point of view, presumed too much countervailing force from the left and by the same token too many constraints on active economic policy.

Trump opened a new era of voluntarism in economic policy. You really could do what you liked. Neither external threats in the form of bond market vigilantes, nor domestic counterpressure in the form of contending social classes, were any longer effective constraints. American conservatives had never been as keen on the slogan There Is No Alternative as Margaret Thatcher or Angela Merkel. Under Trump there was simply no limit to the GOP’s opportunism. Typically, the centre and left did more intellectual work to come to terms with the new situation. The IMF’s former chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, had painstakingly demonstrated the sustainability of much higher levels of debt in a world of low interest rates. Meanwhile, Modern Monetary Theory had its moment in the sun. Blending state theories of money, radical Keynesianism of 1940s vintage and inside knowledge of the plumbing of the modern financial markets, MMT argued that debt wasn’t a problem at all. The only limit on an expansionary economic policy should be the inflation rate; otherwise the overriding priority should be full employment.

It’s telling that despite the apparent political affinity between Krugman and the proponents of MMT, its heresies revived his impulse to play policeman. After long and fruitless exchanges, Krugman declared that MMT was either silly or merely old-fashioned Keynesianism warmed over. In 2020 these doctrinal debates were overtaken by the reality of the Covid shock. In March 2020, as more than twenty million Americans lost their jobs in a matter of weeks, Congress united around a gigantic fiscal stimulus. At the Fed, the centrist Republican Jerome Powell embarked on a programme of intervention that dwarfed anything contemplated by Bernanke. And with a Democratic majority in Congress the impetus has carried through to 2021. The mantra on everyone’s lips is a blunt statement of Krugman’s position. Do not repeat the mistakes of the early Obama administration. Go large. If the Republicans have now decided to be fiscal conservatives, ignore them. There has been no opposition from big business. What the Chamber of Commerce did not like was the $15 minimum wage. Once that was dropped, it did not oppose the $1.9 trillion plan; it seems that business fears legislative intervention more than it does Kalecki-style pressure in the labour market.

The Krugmanification of the Democrats wasn’t won without a fight. There are fiscal hawks in Biden’s entourage. At one point he even counted Larry Summers as an adviser. That didn’t last: the empowered left wing of the Dems wouldn’t stand for it. But although he is no longer in the inner circle, Summers hasn’t surrendered. Opposing untargeted stimulus checks, calling for more focus on investment, he recently declared the Biden administration’s fiscal policy the most irresponsible in forty years – the result, he remarked bitterly, of the leverage handed to the left of the Democratic Party by the absolute refusal of the GOP to co-operate.

The first instinct of the wonks inside the Biden administration is to counter Summers’s arguments on his own terms. Their models show, they insist, that the risks of overheating and inflation are slight. What they don’t say is that being credibly committed to running the economy hot is precisely the point. This is what Krugman meant in 1998 when he called on the Bank of Japan to make a credible commitment to irresponsibility. To avoid the risk of a liquidity trap what you want to encourage is precisely a general belief that inflation is set to pick up. In the late 1990s Krugman, like a good New Keynesian, envisioned monetary and fiscal policy as substitutes for each other. In 2021 America is getting a massive dose of both. As the Fed announced in August last year, the plan is to get inflation above 2 per cent and to dry out the labour market. The bond markets may flinch, but if the sell-off gets too bad, the Fed can always buy more bonds.

[theateared]

I Don’t Give a Damn. ❜

Summary:  Edgar has always put his family first. Notes:  Past-life Edgar, lots of lore and (fictional) political commentary, all dialogue in Hural.

                                                       ---------------------------------

    Scritch, scritch, scritch.  Edgar heaved a sigh of relief as he finished the last of his paperwork, signature a welcome scrawl as he stared at the stack on his desk.

    Thank Raku.  I felt like I was going to go insane at any second.

    Huron had always been behind on the technological side of things.  While a lot of districts had printers and computers to lessen their workload, huros were stuck writing all of their important documents by hand.  Those that were of the utmost importance were laminated or tucked immediately into envelopes in order to protect them from damage, but there wasn’t much in the way of speeding up the process of production.  There was even a sizeable job-market for people to write these things in bulk, paid by the hour to produce copy after copy by hand.  All in all, Edgar was glad that that wasn’t his job.  It would have been a miserable existence.

    He stood up, limbs cracking as he stretched, before he proceeded to his boss’ office.  After a ginger knock and a steely,  “Come in.”,  Edgar made his way inside.

    “I finished the last of the campaign,”   he said, putting the stack down in front of him.  He watched as the man leaned forward, flipping through the pages quickly before patting it closed once more.  Though he would read it thoroughly later, he had come to trust his employee’s quality of work.

    “It would appear you have.  Good job.”   He watched as Edgar nodded, turning around to leave.   “Actually, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you.  Would you take a seat?”

    Internally, Edgar vented his frustrations.  I’m not even supposed to be here today.  I’m not even getting overtime pay.  Do you really need any more of my time?  Nevertheless, he obeyed, sitting down before him.  The last thing he wanted to do was piss Laurence off.

    “You’ve been making some good headway with the campaign lately.  The High Court is particularly impressed.  They deem you eloquent.”   He shifted Edgar’s work aside, dipping into the drawer beside him before retrieving his own stack of papers.  It was stapled together with a large metal clip, though it was nowhere near as thick as what he had just been offered. Laurence steepled his hands, chin leaned on them as he stared at his employee.   “They’ve requested your help personally.”

    Edgar didn’t know what to make of the words.  He was a quiet man, kept to himself and never really caused trouble.  There was an emotional distance in him that wouldn’t be described as typical by most.  There was no reason he could think of as to why the High Court would have any interest in him at all.

    “What with?”   he asked.  Despite Laurence being his superior, Edgar didn’t seem at all intimidated by him.  He’d noticed it from the day that this man had started to work with him.  You don’t smile.  You don’t laugh.  You don’t speak unless you’re spoken to.  But you’re efficient, and smart--  so smart.  It’s horrifying.  If you weren’t a model employee, I would have gotten rid of you forever ago because you creep me out.

    “I’m sure you know about the growing public unrest,”   Laurence began, attempting to gauge the other man’s reaction.  There was none save for a brief nod.   “People are beginning to discuss the possibility of strikes and riots because they’re ‘not being paid fairly’.  What is your opinion on that?”

    “I have no opinion on that,”   Edgar lied.     “Really?  It concerns you too.  You have no sympathy for your fellow workers?”

    “I have no sympathies of any description.”   He didn’t flinch under his boss’ hardened gaze, though he did feel inclined to elaborate.   “With all due respect, sir, it is not in my best interest to discuss political affairs openly with somebody who has the power to take my job away from me.”

    Laurence’s frustration was mounting.  Why do you never say what you’re truly feeling?  Why do you never give me anything?  Though, he had to commend the wise nature of what he’d been told.  He hummed, shuffling through his papers.

    “They’ve asked for you to write them a public notice of desistance,”   he continued, trying to move the conversation along.   “They only require you to compose the first copy. Then they will have a labour force duplicate as many as is needed.  If you agree, they have enclosed a list of points that they wish for you to include.  Your pay will come from the High Court directly.  It’s an expensive task.”

    “How expensive?”

    “They’ve offered to waive any future payments on your house,”   he replied, observing him keenly.  He was desperate to know where Edgar’s hubris laid.  Does your sin have to do with material lust?  Do you want nice things for nothing?   “It would be yours.  No need for a mortgage.  The only continued payments would be for your essentials.  Water.  Electricity. But to live there?  Free.  For life.  They consider that a fair payment in exchange for the avoidance of violent protests.”

    The gears in the man’s head were beginning to turn.  He didn’t find it difficult to stay on top of his bills.  He didn’t expect to have a house for nothing.  He also didn’t want excess properties tied to his name just because he was able to own them…  but owning the house would be good for his family.  His wife and son would always have a definitive place in Huron, and without the stress of having to maintain it.

    But why would you offer me such a ridiculous liberty in exchange for one letter?

    He knew why.  He knew it was because they anticipated some backlash.  To get an average worker like him to silence an entire struggling demographic would take more than just a lump sum.  Despite his previous statements, he did feel some sympathy for these people.  He himself was in a similar boat.  He detested the fact that his boss had been granted the power to call him in whenever he felt like, and he wasn’t even legally obliged to compensate him for it.

    You would laugh at these people  -  because you’re not part of them.  You’re not struggling.     You’re not being monopolised.  You don’t feel the pay cuts, because you get none.

    “Alright,”   he said.  He didn’t like to say it, but he knew that any outright refusal could result in the loss of everything he had worked so hard to get.   “When do they want it?”

    “If you agree to it now, you have twenty-four hours to compose a rough draft, then a further twenty-four to properly compose it.”

    Edgar went quiet.  Then he shook his head.   “I can’t do that.”

    Laurence stared, a smile threatening to spill onto his face.  Are you insane?   “Why not?”

    “It’s my son’s birthday tomorrow,”   he replied.   “I’ve told you this.  I’ve also told you I’m not working that day because of it.”

    “You work when I say you work,”   he retorted.  He expected malice in return;  a fierce declaration of freedom that he didn’t actually possess, but all he received was a dull stare.

    “I’m not putting in hours when it’s Gusty’s day.”     “He’ll have a lot of birthdays.  He won’t have a lot of houses for life.”

    “He’s young.  It matters now.”   Despite his calm approach, Edgar was beginning to get annoyed.  This man was so obtuse--  so obsessed with money and maintaining his position as the top dog that he failed to see anything else as important.  It wasn’t as if he himself didn’t have any vices, but would he neglect his son in return for some hush money?  Absolutely not.   “No.  I won’t do it.”

    “Don’t be foolish, Edgar,”   Laurence remarked.  His smile had long since faded.  The pleasant businessman front melted into something threatening, something bent on his damnation.   “The High Court is being extremely generous, and you’re about to throw it all away because you can’t spare a couple of hours to write a single letter?  You’re not being a good father because you’re not considering the long-term.”

    “Don’t you tell me what kind of father I am.”

    They were both surprised.  Edgar had not once talked back to him.  He wasn’t a suck-up, or a boot-licker, or a pet of any sort--  he was just passive.  He wanted nothing to do with the drama that surrounded the office, and he wanted no inclusion in personal endeavours.  He didn’t hunger for praise from his superiors, nor did he crave acceptance from his peers.  He just was.

    “Watch your tone,”   Laurence growled with a sneer, leaning over the desk in an attempt to invade his employee’s space.   “You’re a runt.  Got it?  You do what you’re told.  That’s what you’re here for.  I tell you to write a report, you write a fuckin’ report.”

    “I’ve done so much for free already,”   he argued.

    “I don’t give a damn!”   Laurence exclaimed with a laugh.   “I don’t care about your kid’s birthday, and I don’t care about your marriage, and I don’t care about your cushy little house in the centre of Huron.  I care about money.   I care about my employees doing their jobs.”   He leaned back in his seat, swaying idly from side to side.  Spitefully:   “You’re in tomorrow.  Whether you accept this job or not.  If you don’t, I’ll have you do something else.”

    Edgar sat there, somewhat stunned.  He couldn’t believe the audacity of this man.  He’d been part of a lot of different corporations--  had always worked hard and put his best foot forward, desperate to make a comfortable living for his wife and child.  His happiness had always come second because it was a byproduct of spending time with the people he loved.  Seeing them happy was his source of happiness.

    “Can we…  talk about this?”   he asked, voice smaller than before.   “I j--”     “No.  I suspect you’d probably want paying for it.”

    The words rattled around in his head for a while until they laid motionless in the centre of his subconscious.  His boss had made it alarmingly clear that he was nothing but a pair of hands to him.  A curious thing happened inside of him then;  something was burning.  It wasn’t often that his emotions surfaced.  He had them, he just didn’t care to let them guide him.  However, in that moment, all he could feel was sheer, unadulterated scorn.

    He stood up, hands slamming onto the desk.  He was satisfied as Laurence jumped.   “You’re part of the problem.”

    “Excuse me?”

    “You’re part of the reason that Huron is messed up.  You’re a money-hungry, possession-thirsty thief that wrings his employees dry of all their assets and treats them like machines.  You may not care about my family, but I do.  All of us care about our respective households.  You should at least understand that much, but you don’t, because you’re braindead.  You’re a fool.  And of course you side with the corruption of the High Court  -  because it benefits you.  I get nothing out of this.”

    Laurence stared in disbelief before his face twisted into a picture of rage.  He stood up from his chair, eager to tower over his inferior.   “Who do you think you are, some kind of hero?”

    “I’m just like them,”   he snapped back.   “You want my opinion on politics?  Fine.  I side with the people.  People like you are the reason that workers are considering rioting.  You don’t pay people fairly.  You pull people into the office without any prior notice, and without any extra pay, and you expect them to put their lives on hold for the sake of your desperation for a few extra quers.  As if you don’t have enough money in your pocket already.  And then what?  You stand there like a moron, confused as to why people are so upset, because you yourself don’t know what it’s like to be treated like garbage.”   He reached out, snatching the contract from the desk.  It was rolled up in his hands like a sacred scroll, then flung into the trash basket beside them.   “Why don’t you write it?  Just to get you doing some actual fucking work for once?”

    I have to get away from this man.  I feel an intense need to reach over and choke him with his tie.

    He stepped away then, smoothing a hand down his waistcoat.  The office was still and silent, jam-packed with bitter fury.  After clearing his throat, he said in his usual monotone:   “So.  I won’t be coming into work tomorrow.”

    The door was approached, though an obnoxious clatter had him turning his head.  Laurence had swept some of his belongings onto the floor in an outraged fit.  A finger was jabbed in his direction, his face growing red with how angry he was.

    “You go through that fucking door, you’re not coming back, Edgar.”

    He considered it briefly, then retrieved his work ID from his pocket and tossed it into the same bin that the contract sat in.  It sailed the distance smoothly, landing in it with a triumphant tink.

     “Good day.”      “EDGAR--”      “Suck a railroad spike.”

                                                       ---------------------------------

    Brielle knew that something was amiss with her husband as soon as he walked through the door.  Though he greeted her with his usual kiss on the cheek, going straight to the kitchen to catch Augustus before bed, there was something strange about his face.  His usual deadpan was accompanied by a rare glint of frustration, though he didn’t seem to want to talk about it. She waited until he’d had time to cool off  ( spending time with their son always seemed to do the trick )  before approaching him in the kitchen long after sundown.  He was busying himself with meaningless chores--  drying already dry dishes left on the rack was a favourite of his, as well as wiping down tables that were already clean--  when she leaned against the doorframe, tone patient but playful.

    “So.  Are you gonna talk or am I gonna have to drag it out of you?”

    “Drag what out?”   he muttered ruefully, picking up the dishes and beginning to file them into the cupboard.  He hadn’t yet decided how he was going to approach the topic with her.  He couldn’t keep it a secret forever, and part of him felt guilty for leaving it this long already.  After careful consideration, all dishes cast neatly aside, he curled his hands around the lip of counter, leaning against it with his head hung.  Quietly:   “... I lost my job.”

    He could hear her fumbling for words, stopping and starting several times before she finally uttered a small:   “What?  How…?  You were going so far in that place.”   She filled the space between them, her hand on his back.  The warmth of it seeped through his shirt, had his normally lukewarm innards feeling some semblance of heat.   “Eddie, I’m sorry…”

    The man inhaled slowly, then released it as a deep sigh before turning around to face her.   “My boss was a bastard,”   he admitted.   “I…  accidentally lied to you.  I wasn’t getting extra money for those shifts.  Of course, I didn’t find out until it was too late.  He used me.”

    She hugged him tightly, her head on his shoulder.   “Don’t take the blame for that.  You can’t stop somebody from being a scumbag.  You were just doing your job.”   In all his years working, her husband had lost a total of two jobs including this one, and one was lost on the basis of the company itself going bankrupt.  Everybody was let go of, because there was no site to return to.   “... what happened?”

    “He asked me to work tomorrow,”   he replied.   “And the initial job he asked me to do involved writing on behalf of the High Court.  I agreed at first--”

    “You agreed?”   she demanded, pulling her head back.  After careful consideration, she smacked his chest.   “Why would you agree?!  You know they’re doing bad things to workers right now, you were suffering too!”

    He sighed.   “You can’t afford to have personal feelings about politics in the field, El. Higher-ups look for any excuse at all to fire somebody nowadays.  They’re getting paranoid, think their workers are turning on them, and it’s because they are.  Of course I didn’t want to do it but I also have a family to feed.”   His hands settled on her shoulders.   “They said they’d give us the house, El.  No more mortgage.  No more excess bills.  It’d be ours.  All in exchange for one letter.  I could always join the protests at a later date, drive that anonymous notice into the mud.  I wanted to--  I just didn’t want to mess things up for you and Augustus.”

    “... ours…?”   Her eyes were round with wonder, as much as she hated that fact.  To be able to own a house…  it was a dream come true.    She was a stay-at-home mother by choice.  She and Edgar had talked themselves in circles when first deciding to have a child together.  Though she’d initially been working in the fields, she’d decided that she didn’t want to do it any longer-- not if she was supposed to be carrying a baby.  Edgar had agreed, taking responsibility for the bills while she focused on giving their child the best life possible.  She hadn’t had much to give up in the way of work anyway.  Edgar’s career had been going somewhere from the start.  He went from selling vegetables in markets and writing humble requests to the High Court for a place for a stall to being personally requested by corporations.  He was a businessman through and through, and the more closely he worked with people, the more coveted he became.  His latest venture had been on the political spectrum.  A ghost-writer for speeches.  Managing public relations for favourable, change-driven politicians that people were looking to tear down for being different. Material for party campaigns.  Now the High Court were the ones writing to him.

    “... but I couldn’t do it.  Because it had to be written tomorrow.  And I wouldn’t sacrifice Gusty’s special day for anything.  Nothing is worth that.  Not even a free house.”   Her face was receptive--  always had been--  and the love she felt for him was plain as day as she stared up at him with a look of mystified adoration.   “He gave me an ultimatum in the end.  If I walked through that door, I wasn’t coming back.  I chose to walk through it.  It was damn near the only choice I ever got in that place.”

    She couldn’t help it;  she laughed.  Her tiptoes were stood on, arms coiling around his neck as she gave in to the urge to kiss him.  He responded warmly, arms tight around her as he brought her body closer.  I don’t get to hold you nearly as much as I’d like.

    “Screw that place…”   she whispered against his lips.  He nodded hurriedly in agreement, keen to return to her.  They stood in their kitchen like that for a while, gentle but eager.  He tasted more free than he had in a long time, a poignant sense of relief staining every shallow breath he took.

                They don’t own you any longer.  You’ve been allowed to come back home.

    With his heart beating faster, Edgar pulled back enough to speak to her.   “So.  I’ll be home tomorrow.  If it wasn’t clear.”   Her quiet giggle made him smile, eyes closing as she pressed herself closer once more.  When she’d pulled away, he continued:   “We’ll have a good day… you, Gusty and me.  We’ll be a family.  And when the weekend passes, I’ll look for a new job and I’ll get one, a good one, and I won’t let them drag me in all the time like this one did.  They have no right.”

    A low croon was released as she scratched gently at the base of his horns, her own coiling around the tips lovingly.

    “Okay…”   she murmured, nuzzling her nose against his before tugging him to her once more.   “It’s been too long, Eddie…”

    Before he knew it, their positions had switched, her body sandwiched between the kitchen counter and his own, hands heated and hungry.  Yes, he thought as he felt her fingers begin to undo the buttons on his shirt, a giddy warmth sparking in his gut.  It has.

[onpoli]

When the Ontario Ministry of Labour ruled a Domino's Pizza franchise had to pay Juan Jose Lira Cervantes more than $25,000 in lost wages and benefits he thought it sounded too good to be true.

It turns out it might have been.

Seven months after the ministry ordered the franchise to pay up, he's still waiting for most of what he's owed.

"I always thought, 'I'm not saying anything until the money comes in.' Because I had my doubts," said Cervantes, a 52-year-old father of four who worked as a delivery driver for one of the pizza chain's Mississauga franchises.

Labour lawyers say Cervantes' experience highlights a legal loophole that employers can use to escape paying workers lost wages, even in instances when the ministry has ordered them to do so.

Under the Employment Standards Act, the directors of a company have individual liability. That means the directors of the corporation set up to run the Domino's franchise had to pay Cervantes up to six months worth of wages.

The directors paid Cervantes a total of $6,383.24, but still owe him nearly $20,000. The problem is that the corporation in question no longer exists. It was dissolved not long after the ministry sided with Cervantes.

The CBC’s phrasing here is flimsy, as per usual, but to be clear - the owners (allegedly) shut down their numbered company specifically in order to avoid their legal and moral responsibility pay back the money they stole from this man. Unless the provincial government steps in, they will get away with it and the worker they stole from won’t get his $20K.

[mateov1rtuoso-blog]

No, this isn't what they

No, this isn't what they want to do forever. Granted, there might be some cam models who want to do this for life, but she says that's not the case for her. She finished her degree while being a cam girl and was also accepted into grad school. Camming helped her pay her bills so she didn't need to take out a loan, but she says "I realise [sic] I wont be in my twenties forever. I'll need to work a 'real' job. And I will :) Wearing clothes.Domino has it pretty good — an American with ample property and a cushy career based on sex she enjoys. Not everyone is Domino.If you've looked at porn online (which we pretty much all have), you've likely been propositioned by advertisements for cam girl networks. They invade your peripheral vision; they pop up behind your window. The women wait for you to start staring, and, just when you're interested, they hit you up for money. You've seen them sitting at their keyboards, wearing barely anything, winking at you, typing to nobody in particular with thin, lethargic arms: bored and conventionally beautiful. The ads, with flirty video that might be live or recorded years ago, shout at you with promises of "Live Sex Chat" and "Sex Shows", with both amateurs and "pornstars" alike. It's a web red light district, and unlike some gaudy Dutch strip or seedy sidewalk, you're completely anonymous. The sex comes to you.One thing that I admittedly dont have control over, proven by the phone conversation that spurred me to write this piece, is the judgment that others will cast on my when they know that I do for money. Even those who know that as well as dancing, I am a student and hold a day job in retail. Its a shame that women are continuously told not to express themselves for fear of judgment and labeling. Why are we told that there are good girls and there are whores? In my life, I want to embrace every aspect that comes with being a woman. I want to be sexy and intelligent. I want to be passionate and headstrong but I want others to know that I feel too.

To this end, Studio 20 employs trainers, a psychologist and an English teacher. Most of the clients are North American and European, so it is essential the models can communicate with them.Today, things are different. After saving money and learning enough savvy to avoid continued exploitation, Anna is done with money-sucking studios, and so she works only about five days a month, from her own home. Five days of camming per month allow her to match the Romanian per capita income of roughly $US12,000 per year with a minuscule fraction of the labour. If she wants more money, she works more days.Even so, it’s clear that Ona Artist really likes her job. People get into sex work for various reasons, but I think that what’s left out of the conversation around sex work a lot of the time is that some girls get into sex work autonomously because they want to, because they enjoy it, and because the money is good. Ona Artist got into camming because a photo of her butt went viral and she realized she could capitalize off of it.I get a mixture of emotions. Mostly people react positively because of the way I speak about it. It's so different if you're really shy and timid and quiet about it. It immediately gives off this idea of ‘oh they're not completely ok with it.' But if anyone ever asks me, I'd be like ‘fuck yeah I webcam, I love it!' I get to mess around at home all day and I get to be as open and as genuine to myself as I can possibly be, and there's a lot of people who aren't ok with that because I'm into some very unusual things myself. I don't have to hide and pretend that I'm someone else; I can really be my true self.

This comes off as somewhere between cynicism and naive denial, but the fact that she knows of any girls at all who've raped and beaten suggests that it is, at the very least, a real occupational hazard.The massive LiveJasmin would have you believe it's owned by "Gestao e Investimentos, Lda", a company based in an autonomous region of Portugal — and has a host of fraud complaints lodged against one of its subsidiaries. But a recent tax bust against LiveJasmin's Hungarian CEO Gattyán György — one of the richest men in Hungary — and his corporation, Dolcer Holdings, shows just how muddled the corporate picture is. No doubt deliberately.Not all models work from a studio. Sandy Bell - a graduate with two university degrees - is one of a small army of women who webcam from home. She makes about 100 euros (£90) a day when she goes online to supplement her income as an interior designer. One advantage of being independent - and dealing directly with a web-hosting company - is that she earns a larger percentage of members' fees.Model, producer and co-creator of YouTube channel ComeCurious, Reed is essentially the physical embodiment of sex positivity, which she defines as trying to make people feel like what theyre doing and what theyre into isnt wrong, its normal and its absolutely fine. Shes a huge advocate for removing stigma and taboos around sex, and we caught up with her to learn more about webcamming, a line of sex work that is seldom talked about.

CONTINUED BELOW...

[berniesrevolution]

JACOBIN MAGAZINE

While the mainstream press has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, digital media appears to be stuck in a Wild West phase. It seems that Facebook is constantly running into trouble, from reports of data being mined without our consent to moral panics about foreign agents hacking Western democracy and hate crime caused by fake news. Yet as the world’s largest social media platform faces a series of crises, the opportunity has opened up to discuss its regulation.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn made a bold move onto this terrain on August 23 in a major intervention in which he announced “a series of radical ideas to build a free and democratic media for the digital age.” In a speech in Edinburgh, he outlined his vision of democratizing both the publicly owned BBC and commercial journalism. He called for taxes on tech giants and internet service providers in order to help level the playing field between the digital monopolists and public-service media.

This call for media reform was a paradigm shift — particularly at a time when the power of firms like Facebook draws rising skepticism. Today privacy violations, the panic over Russian troll farms, and concern over social media’s impact on mental health have all dented public trust in Facebook, and indeed its previously spectacular share price growth. And if in 2010 the film The Social Network cast Zuckerberg as a flawed yet forgivable genius, his recent congressional hearing was met by memes portraying him as a grasping tycoon with a robot smile.

For years governments have seemed scared of challenging the tech giants, refusing either to tax or regulate the new platforms which presented themselves in a near-magical aura. But Corbyn’s speech represents a breakthrough in the public debate on new media. Once apparently the domain of free-spirited libertarians, Silicon Valley is fast becoming a chief concern for states and governments. As social media monopolies are increasingly politicized, other proposals like introducing democratic oversight over the biggest platforms can offer a way to take control over sites that have become public utilities in all but name.

The Internet Ideology

If Britain’s Labour Party and others are finally breaking with the glorification of Silicon Valley’s libertarian ideals, it is also worth asking why this did not happen sooner. Facebook’s promise for dissenting voices has long been its capacity to bypass traditional media. Social media is, seemingly, a gift for whoever wants to challenge the establishment bias of traditional outlets. From the Left’s perspective, it has been credited with an important role in the rise of both Corbyn in the UK and democratic socialists in the US, able to break through the veil of media silence, or attacks. Yet this has, in its own way, also fed the myth that the Internet is a non-hierarchical, decentralized space; an idea which the digital monopolists frequently hide behind.

The mystique of the new tech giants allows them to skirt around the regulation governing traditional press. A founding myth of the Internet depicts a world in which start-ups grow out of dorm rooms and garages to become global platforms, advancing the creativity and connectivity of humanity. The ideological force driving this narrative is the idea that freedom of expression online is sacred — a principle enshrined in US law. But this also means that social media is not regulated like other media. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ensures that providers of an “interactive computer service” will not be treated as the publisher of content held by the service. Zuckerberg invoked this very point in July when he eschewed Facebook’s responsibility for controlling posts on the platform that denied the Holocaust.

Nonetheless, recent controversies have suggested that Facebook is anything but “neutral.” In a bid to combat so-called “fake news,” Facebook hasproudly taken a lead from US intelligence agencies in removing “inauthentic” pages, groups, and accounts. Yet in a context where less than a handful of private businesses dominate social media, Facebook can take decisions that shape the world’s biggest public sphere, with zero democratic oversight. Banning a far-right conspiracy theorist like Alex Jones may draw cries of “good riddance.” But banning the Latin American network TeleSUR, pro-Palestinian pages, and pro-Kurdish content gives a new and yet familiar imperialist slant to Facebook’s pronounced humanitarian and democratizing ideals.

At the same time, recent changes to Facebook’s newsfeed — reducing content considered to be passive, rather than interactive, in a bid to sustain use of the platform — has troubled activists who have come to depend on Facebook for publishing alternative views. These changes have underscored the site’s other monopolizing practices, such as forcing mobile users to reach content outside of Facebook via an internal browser; the browser is so slow that users frequently turn back, the better to interact on the platform itself.

A Monopoly Interest

It is, then, increasingly clear that Facebook is far from a neutral space in which users’ timelines are organically shaped by their networked interactions. Facebook is a publisher; it’s just a giant monopolistic one, driven at base by market incentives. As Zeynep Tufekci puts it, at its core, the tech giant’s “business is mundane: They’re ad brokers.” Indeed, as liberals focus the debate on user privacy and data harvesting they obscure the capitalist logics driving these practices, and what the alternatives might look like when data and global connectivity are free from private control.

It is spurious to respond to legitimate criticisms of Facebook by saying we can simply opt out if we don’t like it, or, like the Adam Smith Institute claims, that what Corbyn is saying amounts to a call to waste public money on building a “knockoff” alternative. Precisely Facebook’s biggest strength (also for users) is its critical mass; we use it because “everyone” is there and because we don’t want to — and in some cases, can’t afford to – “miss out.” Facebook functions as a public utility by sharing a mass of information and connecting as many users as possible. Its critical mass makes it a natural monopoly and that alone is bound to undermine users’ freedom of choice. But far from it thereby simply serving a public interest, it is governed by a business model centered on advertising, decisive to everything we see and do on the platform. This incentive drives the addictive logic behind the algorithms which determine whether you see more kitten pratfalls, a meme about Palestine, or a post from an old friend.

Despite Silicon Valley’s humanist pretentions, fundamentally Facebook is about getting as many people using the platform as often as possible. The longer you stay, the more ads Facebook can deliver. The more Facebook can collect data on your interactions, the more targeted, and thus valuable, those ads can be. If an already saturated Western market and the costs of self-regulation (assumed to be better than overbearing, and slow, state enforcement) might affect Facebook’s share price, it remains true that every single active user in the US and Canada was worth $97 to Facebook over the last year, or $23 in Europe. If you didn’t already know, for tech giants like Facebook you are the product — and that’s how much you’re worth.

Just like a traditional publisher, Facebook is clearly shaping what its 2.2 billion active users see. But instead of paying to produce content, Facebook gets it free from its users and other publishers. And instead of real editors, it depends an army of algorithms that are fine-tuned to keep you hooked.

A Socialist Social Media

Facebook falls far short of realizing the Internet’s true potential. Its capacity for global connectivity and the power of big data — which could be used for advancing human progress in infinite ways — is mobilized for one simple purpose: profit.

But what’s the alternative? Well, Corbyn’s proposals centered on redistributing profits from the tech giants and towards public-service media are a bold start. His vision of a British Digital Corporation is wedded to the UK’s paternalist tradition of social democracy, where “independent” journalism is thought to be a public good. But Corbyn’s speech also went a little further than this, suggesting an alternative that “could develop new technology for online decision-making and audience-led commissioning of programs and even a public social media platform with real privacy and public control over the data that is making Facebook and others so rich.”

Like the BBC itself, a social-democratic alternative to Facebook will face challenges. Facebook has enormous political influence and an industrious capacity to avoid tax. Determining what market Facebook operates in and providing a definition of what a digital monopoly actually is, present big legal challenges to taxation. Moreover, when the logic of capitalist competition is applied to media, public alternatives will struggle in an aggressive market for popular attention. Alternatives to Facebook already exist, but none have achieved the critical mass to make them viable. Even if Zuckerberg’s monopoly is broken up, the capitalist incentives driving the media environment could sustain Facebook, or platforms like it, indefinitely by constantly revolutionizing the means of addiction. It seems that without tackling these incentives head-on, the effect could be to create a tiered internet, with a healthier public sphere for some while leaving the most vulnerable to suffer the most pernicious effects of an online obsession.

(Continue Reading)

[isorogue]

Mysterious Castle is not dead

Hi, it's been a few years. Life is complex, much more complex than software development. In the last several years I've seen Mysterious Castle rot away in my brain and on my hard-drive, and wept a little at every pang of nostaligia that reminded me of how much fun it was to make and play. Being an adult in adult land with adult responsibilities is hard. Mysterious Castle land is fun and freeing, chores feel like adventures, but alas, it all depends on adult land not falling apart. I started making Mysterious Castle when I had few responsibilities and enough money to coast in a cheap apartment, working a few days a week and eating whatever I felt like when my body finally revolted against the constant coding-testing-playing cycle I was in. It was a glorious time. One day I got a job as a professional developer, and whoa, I got a pretty nice salary. Much of it went into an apartment in Toronto (crazy rent land), restaurants to take my girlfriend out on dates to, some drum machines, and clothes to disguise me as a reasonably normal city-dweller. Disguised as such, I went out and met people, hung out in cafes and bars, took a few trips here and there, and otherwise spent my time in lesiure. At least twice a week, I'd be inspired to work on Mysterious Castle, and would slog through the messy codebase to squeeze in new spells, items, enemies, and features, but it was slow going, and the slog became slower and more laboured. The experience I was accumulating began to reflect something back at me that I was trying to avoid paying attention to. Mysterious Castle was messy, like 7 years of hoarding crap in every nook and cranny messy. The code was not bad, in fact I'm quite proud of how well it has held up, and the performance I was able to squeeze from it, it's fundamentally sound. But as a project, it was a nightmare. Huge files filled with loosely related classes, a few global variables sprinkled in just for this one thing, lazily thought out function interfaces, and no proper build system to speak of. It all came to a point where adding a single feature to the world generation algorithm broke nearly everything. I had dug a hole I could not crawl out of. Every design inspiration I had came up against the turd wall of messy code, and was abandoned after a foolish quest to squeeze just one more thing into the game, like playing a doomed game of Jenga. Well. I had paying work, and was learning a lot about development each and every year. I was working with talented developers, architects, and project managers. Suddenly, a realization dawned on me. I've cleaned up messy projects at work before, not quite as big and sprawling as Mysterious Castle, but pretty big nonetheless, and written by other people. I have the skills to save Mysterious Castle from the messiness of my youthful exuberance, I know how a neat project should be structured. In January of 2019, I started cleaning up Mysterious Castle, using all the boring corporate skills I amassed during my years of professional experience. I did it in my spare time, the same spare time I had spent trying to hammer in new features 5 years ago, but a funny thing happened; I felt my velocity increasing. It felt like I had more time, because as modules were segregated, CMake scripts were written, and API boundaries were defined, I started to understand the codebase again, and could fix bugs, add features and polish performance without a cognitive overload. So what does this rambling monologue mean? Nothing much, only that the last 3 months of work on Mysterious Castle, in spare hours of the evenings and weekends, has been some of the most productive work of my life. The world generating algorithm actually makes sense, and can be played with in fun, not fear of toppling it all over. The items, spells, and races are easy to modify and expand on, the saving and loading system is flexible enough to do it snappily and securely. In short, Mysterious Castle is not dead. It's been sleeping for a while, but in that time I haven't seen anything else like it come to take it's place. And it's beginning to stir again, waking up old ideas and new inspiration for what a Procedurally Generated Tactics game can be, how much fun it can be to make, and to play. Thanks so much to everyone who bought Mysterious Castle. A free iOS update supporting new hardware is coming before the summer is through. There is no Mysterious Castle 2, I want to share the evolution with everyone who started the journey with me, back at v1.0 in September of 2011. Be seeing you.

[services112]

Pensioners vote to boycott TV licence fee

The Silver Voices group said 90% of its members aged 75 and over supported the move

Rebel pensioners have overwhelmingly backed a boycott of paying their TV licences, a poll revealed.

The Silver Voices group said 90% of its members aged 75 and over who responded to an email survey supported the revolt.

An estimated 3.7 million OAPs were stripped of the benefit in August after the Tories broke an election manifesto pledge to preserve free licences for the over-75s until at least 2022.

Director Dennis Reed, who has led an increasingly bitter backlash against the Government and BBC, said: The over-75s are now taking the only action they can to stop this universal benefit being scrapped permanently.

Remember, this benefit was introduced to compensate for the very low level of the UK state pension in comparison to other countries and to recognise the importance of television access for older people, he said.

Reed said, with the second wave of the pandemic confining millions of seniors to the safety of their own homes, the added burden of the licence fee is needed like a hole in the head. Older people have had enough of being ignored, neglected and picked upon and, through Silver Voices, are now fighting back.

Of the 600 of its members who responded to the statement: “I am 75 years or older and I am prepared, on principle, to refuse to pay my TV licence in support of the campaign to restore free TV licences for my age group”, 538 agreed and 62 were against.

Free TV licences for over-75s were introduced by Labour in 2000.

But instead of celebrating the 20th anniversary of the concession, millions of pensioners were robbed of the lifeline, now worth £157.50-a-year, after the Conservatives ditched a promise to protect the benefit.

The party pledged at the 2017 election to maintain over-75s’ free licences for the rest of that Parliament, which was due to run for five years.

But the BBC had already been handed responsibility for funding the lifeline from June 2020, under a deal agreed in 2015.

It said keeping licences free for all over-75s would cost £745million by 2021–22.

The corporation announced restrictions from August 1, meaning only over-75s who receive Pension Credit are eligible.

Mr Reed held a video call with BBC chief Tim Davie last week to try and thrash out a solution, but they were unable to reach a deal.

Silver Voices wants the corporation and the Government to strike an agreement to restore free licences.

Labour peer Lord George Foulkes, who chairs Parliament’s cross-party group on ageing and older people, hopes to avoid a “stand-off which could result in prosecutions of poor pensioners and hugely bad publicity for the BBC”.

But he added: Ultimately it is the Government’s duty to fulfil their promise to older people and the Secretary of State should broker a deal to resolve the dispute.

The Government has criticised the BBC for means-testing.

A BBC spokeswoman said: Since the policy change 2.4 million over-75 licences have been applied for, 700,000 of which are applications for free licences paid for by the BBC. We are happy to engage and work constructively with anyone on over-75s’ licences. This situation was not down to the BBC, but a solution had to be found and a tough decision had to be taken.

The spokeswoman said, we have done all we can — including the biggest consultation in BBC history — to make this process as fair and straightforward as possible and we continue to implement these changes with the greatest care.

Important:

This article is for information purposes only.

Please remember that financial investments may rise or fall and past performance does not guarantee future performance in respect of income or capital growth; you may not get back the amount you invested.

There is no obligation to purchase anything but, if you decide to do so, you are strongly advised to consult a professional adviser before making any investment decisions.

https://www.ukinvestmentguides.com/news/pensioners-vote-to-boycott-tv-licence-fee.html

[buildingdoctormy]

What To Do Before You Begin Any Construction Work.

If you are having repairs or building work done on your home, you may be exposed to the Coronavirus. Plumbers, electricians, and other tradespeople can still come to your home to make repairs as long as they don't have coronavirus symptoms. They should try to stay at least 2 metres away from you and avoid any vulnerable individuals.

If the work you're having done isn't an emergency, you should consider doing it later. Traders should only come if you are self-isolating or if someone in your home is in danger.

When preparing to have building work, renovations, or repairs done on your home, these steps should help you save time, money, and stress. They will also assist you in avoiding issues with builders, plumbers, and other contractors, such as decorators and electricians.

Step 1: Determine whether you require permission or approval.

Check to see if you require:

•  Building regulations approval. You may need this even for minor improvements, such as replacing windows or doors planning permission. It is usually needed if you are building something new or making a major change, such as an extension 

• Planning permission. It is required when building something new or making a major change, such as an extension.

If you hire a contractor who is registered with a 'competent person scheme,' you won't have to apply for building regulations approval yourself. These are schemes that have been sanctioned by the government.

If you don’t use a contractor who is registered with a competent person scheme, you must submit a building notice or a full plans application to the Building Control Body. You must also pay a fee for them to come and inspect the work you have completed.

If you need to obtain approval or permission

It is possible that you will need to hire a surveyor or an architect to assist you in applying for building regulations approval or planning permission. If you can't afford it, go to your local Citizen's Advice and inquire about applying for the Chartered Surveyor's Voluntary Service.

If you live in a protected area

If your home is in a conservation area, you must also check with your local council before doing any work on it.

If you own a leasehold

Check your lease. Before you begin work, you may need to obtain permission from the freeholder. Even if the lease prohibits you from making changes, you can still request permission from the freeholder. You may be required to pay some fees.

Step 2: How to Find Reliable Builders or Contractors

Recommendations and references are excellent resources for locating dependable contractors who do a good job. If you are unable to obtain personal recommendations from people you know, request references from contractors.

It's best to obtain:

•  2 or 3 recent examples of similar work they've completed. Avoid contractors who refuse to provide references; this is a red flag that they may be dishonest.

•  Contact information for the people they worked for - it's best to contact them because written references aren't always genuine.

Perform the necessary checks.

It's risky to use someone who doesn't know what they're doing, especially when it comes to gas or electricity.

You should make use of:

• A registered gas engineer for gas work, such as installing a boiler or cooker;

•  An electrician for electrical work, such as installing new lighting or rewiring

•  Someone in a competent person scheme for work that needs building regulations approval (unless you got approval yourself)

Pay attention to what a contractor says.

It's a good idea to double-check what a contractor says or what their website says, especially if they've knocked on your door or called to offer their services. For example, you can:

•  Request a business card or letterhead, or obtain complete contact information, and then call the company to confirm that it exists and that the contractor works for them.

•  Request proof of qualifications, such as an NVQ in construction for builders or a Construction Skills Certification Scheme card (trade associations can tell you about qualifications for particular types of work)

•  Check trade association websites to see if the contractor is a member if they say they are.

When you meet them, write down what they say they'll do - if you hire them, having a record of the job details from this conversation, as well as the written contract you'll get before they start the work, will be useful.

Step 3 : Obtain quotes before deciding who to hire.

A quote is a guarantee from the contractor that the job will be completed at a set price. Get a written quote instead of relying on a spoken quote. Some contractors will charge for bids. Make sure you find out if this is the case before proceeding.

 Before you choose one contractor, request written bids from at least three others. Comparing quotations might assist you figure out if you're receiving a good deal.

Whether or not you have a written agreement with the contractor when you say yes to a quote, it is a legally enforceable agreement between you and the contractor. However, having it in writing allows you to double-check what you committed to and prove it later if there is a disagreement.

You can't pay more than the price on the contractor's quote unless the following conditions are met:

• They made a genuine mistake when writing down or calculating the price - they have the legal right to charge you what it should have been • you ask for extra work that isn't included in the quote

• They let you know they have to do extra work and you agree to pay more for it

• They made a genuine mistake when writing down or calculating the price - you agree to pay more for it

What should a quote contain?

 A quote should have the following information:

• A summary of all the work to be done and the materials required

• Separate costs for each item and component of the work

• The length of time the price is valid for

• Whether the price includes VAT

• When a price increase is possible, such as if you agree to additional labour

 If you get a daily fee rather than a fixed total price, there's a chance the contractor will prolong the project to make more money. To avoid this, have them write the following in writing:

• How long the job will take

• How many hours a day counts as a day

• When they'll need your permission to work more days.

Verify that your contractor is covered by the appropriate insurance.

 Before you say yes to a quote, be sure the contractor is properly insured and that you have a documented contract.

Step 4 : Check to see if insurance is applied.

Inquire about insurance coverage and make sure they don't expire before the work is completed. If they are required to have insurance, they must show you the coverage.

Insurance is beneficial to have

Ask contractors if they have public liability insurance, which will cover you and them if someone is injured or property is damaged (such as your home or your neighbor's). If they don't have any, you should consider making your own.

Contractors that work for a corporation must carry employer's liability insurance; if they don't, they are breaching the law. It makes no difference if it's their own business or not. It protects both you and the firm if someone is injured on the job.

Check for additional insurance.

Other types of insurance may be available, but keep in mind that the contractor is responsible for performing the work with reasonable care and competence. If they don't, you can have the job redone or a portion of the amount refunded.

Contractors' all-risk insurance pays for the expense of replacing work that is destroyed before it is finished and before your insurance kicks in.

If the contractor offers it, you can purchase an insurance-backed warranty or guarantee as part of the job fee. Before you buy one, make sure you know exactly what it covers. It should cover the cost of finishing or repairing the work if the contractor does a poor job or goes out of business.

What to look for in your insurance

If you have house or contents insurance, check with your provider to see if you'll be covered while the repair is being done. It's possible that you'll have to pay more for insurance both before and after the work.

Your insurer will almost certainly want to know who you're hiring and what kind of insurance they have. They may advise you to purchase joint insurance with the contractor.

How to safeguard yourself and your property from harm or loss

If you don't already have home and contents insurance, it's a good idea to purchase some before the work begins. You may feel more secure knowing that you have insurance in place in case of damage or loss.

Step 5 : Obtain a written contract.

Even though it's not written down, you've formed a contract with a contractor as soon as you give them the go-ahead.

Before you give the green light, be sure you have a contract in paper. A written contract can help you receive what you paid for, or at least get some of your money back, if the contractor doesn't do what you agreed.

Check to see sure the contractor's contract includes everything you agreed on. You can write your own if they don't.

If your contractor refuses to give you with written documentation,

Contractors that refuse to put anything in writing should be avoided since they may be dishonest.

Assist with contract writing

Written contracts don't have to be written in legalese; they just have to have the following information: • you get precisely what you pay for (they can refer back to the quote for this) • everything you've agreed on, such as deadlines, clean-up, materials, and payments

Timings

Check to see if the contract includes the following: • start and finish dates • number of days the work will take and how many working hours are in a day if you've agreed on a daily rate • delays - why they might happen and what the contractor will do about them

Organizing

Check to see if the contract includes the following: • who pays for skip delivery and pickup • how and when the contractors will remove trash and clean up after themselves

Subcontractors, materials, and equipment

Check to see if the contract includes the following: • Who pays for products and equipment that the contractor purchases, and how they'll provide you with records and papers • If and when subcontractors will be used

Payments

Check to see if the contract specifies how and when you'll pay. Attempt to: • Pay with a credit card rather than cash • Pay in instalments • Avoid making deposits or upfront payments • Gain some financial protection

If your contractor is only willing to accept cash, Contractors who only accept cash or need full payment up front should be avoided since they may be dishonest or untrustworthy.

Paying with a credit card rather than cash

If you pay with a credit or debit card, you might be able to get your money back from your bank if something goes wrong, such as the contractor failing to show up and refusing to refund your deposit.

If this happens, contact your bank and request that the chargeback mechanism be used.

Paying in instalments

This is a fantastic idea, especially if the task is large, because it allows you to correct any issues before making the final payment. Make it clear when payments are due at each stage of the project.

Keeping deposits at bay

If something goes wrong or the contractor doesn't show up, don't commit to pay everything up ahead.

If they ask for a deposit to pay for goods, offer to buy them instead of paying a deposit; that way, if something goes wrong, at least you own the materials.

You may not be able to avoid paying a deposit if the work would take a lengthy time. Attempt to reduce it as much as possible, and don't agree to more than 25%.

Always obtain a deposit receipt, as well as receipts for any materials covered by the deposit.

Obtaining security

You can keep your deposit or staged payments safe until the job is finished, for example, by using a: • Deposit protection scheme: your money will be held in a safe account until both you and the builder are satisfied with the work. • insurance-backed warranty or guarantee - some contractors offer these to cover the cost of finishing or repairing work if they perform a poor job or go out of business.

Time limit for cooling off

If you change your mind within 14 days of providing the go-ahead or signing a written contract, you may be allowed to cancel the deal. You may be required to pay for some or all of the work if you agreed that it might begin within those 14 days.

Step 6 : 

Before work begins, obtain the contractor's complete contact information. It's easier to cope with any problems that arise if you know how to contact someone.

As soon as something happens that you don't like, you should: • Request that the builder or contractor correct the problem. • Ask them to put it in writing if they can't agree on how they'll solve it.

[ohsoethical]

Fashion Factfiles #3: The Sumangali System

Hey guys, happy February and welcome to another Fashion Factfiles blogpost!

The Fashion Factfiles is where we expose the brutal realities of the garment industry, the side that the big corporations and big names in fashion work hard to hide behind ‘girl power’ tees and ‘look at us recycling omg we duz care’ campaigns.

This month we’ll be highlighting an issue that many may not be familiar with, but is absolutely horrific and heartbreaking: the Sumangali System.

WARNING: Content regarding sexual abuse and suicide throughout.

Source: http://www.sify.com/news/sexual-abuse-in-textile-mill-help-us-write-tamil-nadu-women-news-national-qlbmpRabbcdgh.html 

In Tamil Nadu, India, there are about 1600 spinning mills (where fibres are spun to make yarn- like the thread you see sold in Queens market), that employ around 400,000 workers. 90% of the workers are women, with about 60-70% aged 15-18.

Many of these women are employed through the Sumangali (married woman) Scheme; an employment scheme that is essentially bonded labour (when a person is forced to work to pay off a debt) and child labour.

Indeed, this scheme involves agents from spinning mills visiting impoverished families in the villages, recruiting young girls to work in the mills for a 3-5 year contract, with a promise lump sum of money at the end of the contract that they can use as dowry (money given to the bride’s husbands family when they get married- tradition in this area).

Parents are encouraged by the money, due to the desperate conditions many of these families are in, as well as the hefty amount of money required for their daughters’ dowry. Parents are ensured their daughters will be protected and kept ‘clean’ (i.e. no funny business, so they remain good potential wives). The spinning mills also provide accommodation and food in hostels near the mills, where the girls are required to stay.

Underprivileged, illiterate, and migrant women are the focus, as they are thought to be more submissive, and less demanding of higher wages (e.g. less likely to understand labour laws in the area or unable to articulate/speak out about problems). The majority are also from low-caste (mainly Dalit) communities in Tamil Nadu, putting them at risk of further exploitation, due to the pre-existing discrimination and vulnerability to exploitation faced by those of low-caste.

Indeed, what parents and workers are not aware of, is the sheer brutality and torture the young girls face. Listed below are just some examples of the poor treatment they endure.

source: http://www.dw.com/en/rampant-abuse-in-tamil-nadus-spinning-mills-study/a-19284995

POOR WORKING CONDITIONS

Excessive working hours, with an average of 12/13hrs a day, six days a week.

"They work at least 12 hours a day, and often it goes up to 16 hours. There is no fixed resting time and the food that is served is monotonous. This, in turn, leads to the women becoming quickly weak."

“I was promised that I could continue my studies, but instead was forced to work for 12 hours in a shift. Supervisors torture girls to extract work beyond their capacity.”

Extremely poor working environment.

“I had so many respiratory problems because of inhaling cotton all day. 15 of work hours in such high humidity, heavy noise of machines, claustrophobic rooms, dirty toilets and mandatory night shifts completely spoiled my health. A couple of my friends even had accidents because of exhaustion. They had to quit the jobs in a year or so and never got paid.”

The work is physically challenging, but also dangerous.

"They are also not given any protective gear, leading to injuries time and again.”

Women are sometimes locked in bathrooms or dark basements during audits to avoid poor working conditions being revealed.

One worker aged 16 was promised a job and steady income that would help support her economically desperate family. The working conditions seriously affected her health and she fell sick, but was forced by supervisors to continue working without any medical help. Her condition deteriorated and she ended up in hospital. After her recovery, her dad persuaded her to return to work, but after a few weeks, she begged her dad to take her home saying she would die otherwise, so he admitted her to hospital. However it was too late, and she died a day later.

POOR HOSTEL CONDITIONS

Wardens of hostels make sure workers go to work irrespective of their health. Wardens have also been found to physically beat female workers. In one case, wardens were found inspecting the girls’ sanitary pads to monitor pregnancies.

The hostels are found to be unhygienic, with toilets left uncleaned for weeks and lack of arrangements to dispose sanitary pads- in one study, sanitary pads were found dumped in the corner of every bathroom.

The rooms are overcrowded, with 10-15 workers sharing one room. They often sleep on thin mats, on the bare ground.

source: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/photo-essay-how-tn-textile-mills-force-girls-bonded-labour-earn-dowry-67781

DENIAL OF BASIC RIGHTS

Extremely poor wages- according to one study, while monthly minimum wage amounts to about 113 euros, workers are paid only about 19 euros.

Workers are denied leave, even in family emergencies. 4-6 days are provided for major festivals, however workers must return within six days. Returning late will result in punishments, including wage deductions and overtime. Some workers have been exploited for more than six months for taking more than the stated days of leave.

Movement is restricted outside of their factory or hostel. 

The women have no working contracts, factory identity cards, salary certificates or anything indicating their employment, meaning factories can get away with exploiting and firing workers more easily (no legal protections for workers without official employment, making it difficult to claim their rights e.g. claiming wages they may not be given). In fact, about 70-90% are actually employed as apprentices and remain apprentices, despite the law stating only 10% can be apprentices. This allows factories to keep them as unofficial employees as well as pay them less.

Workers are denied the right to form/join trade unions or demand better working conditions. In a 2016 study, 33/743 mills had a workers committee for workers to express grievances. This is made harder by the fact that they are located in rural areas, away from any existing trade unions and organisations to help.

If management are accused of maltreatment of workers, they go to great lengths keep it quiet. For example, withholding the girl’s wages and pay her only once the family drops the case. In other cases, they make up stories about the girl having an affair, and families are shamed into silence.

SEXUAL ABUSE

Girls in the Sumangali system are extremely vulnerable to sexual abuse. This was publicly exposed in 2016, when an eight-page letter from women in a textile mill was sent to Tamil Nadu’s social welfare officer, describing the abuse they endured.

“He forces himself on us, constantly hugging us and squeezing our breasts…Any worker who resists his advances loses part of her salary. We need this job and don't know who to talk to about the abuse we face everyday. Please help us.”

The sexual abuse experienced by workers was recently brought to the courts of Madras. It was revealed that women were being sexually harassed, with no means of seeking justice and no complaints committees. Horrific accounts included young girls aged 15 being locked in a room and abused by multiple men, and one girl aged 12 who was abused and made to have abortions.

source: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/photo-essay-how-tn-textile-mills-force-girls-bonded-labour-earn-dowry-67781

SUICIDE

The conditions are so extremely dire, suicide has become frequent in this sector. 

One worker recalls an incident she witnessed a year and a half ago, where a young girl threw herself off a roof, after a supervisor pulled down her skirt in front of other workers. 

“About 30 of us saw this, but we were scared. Since the police did not file a case due to the management’s pressure, we did not think there was anything we could do.”

In 2016, a 17-year old girl was found unconscious in her room, with wound marks on her body and rope impressions around her neck. She had been working 4 hours of overtime everyday after her 8 hour shift, and was sexually harassed by a male worker. After one year she wanted to leave, but her parents convinced her to complete her contract.

After a report in 2014 highlighted the exploitation of these women under the Sumangali Scheme, the High Court of Madras ordered for it to be abolished. However, despite laws banning the employment of women under 18 years and a minimum wage being set, in reality, little has changed. In fact, a study in 2016 found that in 351/743 mills, Sumangali was still around, under different names and taking different forms.

Mills have begun luring young women into textile mills by promising free education, jewellery and trips abroad. They also encourage and ‘brainwash’ them into bringing their friends to the mills, taking over the job of the agents who would recruit among the villages. In one mill, a noticeboard was found promising workers a trip to a water theme park for every two girls they brought to the mill, and a silver anklet for every five girls.

source: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/photo-essay-how-tn-textile-mills-force-girls-bonded-labour-earn-dowry-67781

Companies alleged to be involved in the schemes include: H&M, M&S, Next, Diesel, Old Navy (GAP), Timberland, Tommy Hilfiger, Primark, Tesco, Mothercare, and ASDA-Walmart. I’m not suggesting you boycott these brands, but instead inquire about their connection with the Sumangali System, and ask them what they’re doing to ensure their suppliers are not exploiting their workers.

While I have extreme hatred for factory managers and their systematic abuse of female workers, we need to hold these brands to account also. These mills are often subcontracted, that is, the brands sign agreements with one mill to produce a certain amount of yarn, however this mill then signs agreements (subcontracts) with another mill to meet the (extremely high) targets set by brands. This means that it is the contracted factory, rather than the initial mill or the brand, that is responsible for the maltreatment of the workers. This allows brands to avoid any blame or responsibility- hence why literally EVERY brand is out here subcontracting work.

It is absolutely vile that they are exploiting the desperation of impoverished families, knowing that individuals who are struggling to just keep their families fed will be reluctantly endure such conditions in order to meet their near impossible targets, to ensure the survival of their loved ones. 

source: https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/photo-essay-how-tn-textile-mills-force-girls-bonded-labour-earn-dowry-67781

Please help us raise awareness of the suffering and strength of these women. Their stories deserve to be told.

source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/plea-to-ban-all-forms-of-bonded-labour-in-tamil-nadu/article4976950.ece

References and other important sources:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/coimbatore/sumangali-scheme-still-alive-in-new-garb-allege-activists/articleshow/62245582.cms

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/looms-repackage-sumangali-to-lure-girls-into-child-labour/articleshow/62435629.cms https://littleindia.com/forced-labor-prevalent-indian-factory-supplying-hugo-boss-report/ http://www.sify.com/news/sexual-abuse-in-textile-mill-help-us-write-tamil-nadu-women-news-national-qlbmpRabbcdgh.html http://www.firstpost.com/india/sexual-harassment-debate-rages-but-little-help-for-women-employed-in-unorganised-sector-4216457.html

http://www.dw.com/en/rampant-abuse-in-tamil-nadus-spinning-mills-study/a-19284995

Rahul, N (2017). Gender and caste at work: Evolution of a factory regime under the sumangalfi scheme. Social Change, 47(1), pp. 28-44.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-women-labour/death-of-teenage-indian-mill-worker-raises-concerns-over-bonded-labor-idUSKCN0WJ2BZ

https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/sumangali-scheme-when-marriage-assistance-becomes-bonded-labour-disguise-52320

https://www.solidaridadnetwork.org/sites/solidaridadnetwork.org/files/publications/Understanding_Sumangali_Scheme_in_Tamil_Nadu.pdf

https://www.fairwear.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/fwf-india-sumangalischeme.pdf

https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/photo-essay-how-tn-textile-mills-force-girls-bonded-labour-earn-dowry-67781

http://www.indianet.nl/pdf/FabricOfSlavery.pdf

Labour, Exploitation and Work-Based Harm by Sam Scott

[backgroundverification]

Why Tenant background verification checks are important?

From the proprietor's perspective, consistently ensure that you're getting the best leaseholder since it has been seen that couple of inhabitants don't remain genuine up and down the understanding. In the event that occupant confirmation is acted ahead of time, at that point counterfeit inhabitants could be recognized.

 Inhabitant act like the best occupant in world if background checks are done appropriately. An inhabitant individual verification is a significant piece of the leaseholder screening process generally done by foundation check organization in Gurgaon.

 Tenant Verification are imperative to convey by proprietors since it is done with the goal that a landowner can be guaranteed that the imminent occupant has enough salary to bear the cost of the lease costs of the leased property. Occupant decisions for lease, inability to make lease instalments, warrants of expulsion and decisions for ownership and cash.

 DEWII as a Risk Mitigation background verification company in gurgaon gives history confirmation administrations to individuals to help landowners or land owners, residential labourers and corporate workers too. We are here to help with the entirety of your property needs and give peaceful condition.

 •             Verify Tenant Ability to Pay Rent

 A decent occupant will pay lease on schedule, treat the property with care, be benevolent to the neighbours and show obligation. By being steady with a full inhabitant screening process, proprietor will be significantly more prone to pick a dependable occupant. Doing a check screening, basically, can give you genuine feelings of serenity.

 •             Criminal Background Records

 In the event that inhabitant confirmation has been done, at that point it is anything but difficult to the proprietors who avoid India. It's been seen that landowners lease the property and avoids the town or nation. In the event that they have done the police check, can remain liberated from strain that his property is let out to a nice individual with a decent foundation

 •             Credit History and Eviction Report

 This report uncovers important information related with confirmation for local specialist. It alleviates landowner from the suspect of individual whether tenant can pay the lease or not in future. If I talk about domestic worker then verification for domestic worker process is also conducted by verification companies.

 •             Safety

 Confirmation checks likewise help from the security perspective. Numerous psychological oppressors lease spots to remain in the city from where they plan and start fear plans of assaults in the city. Police confirmation administrations can undoubtedly discover these monsters with counterfeit personalities.

 •             Social Security and Maintenance

 In addition, appropriately done tenant verification guarantees security from multiple points of view. Inhabitants take great consideration of the leased property and pay lease on time as a result of police check process. Tenant doesn't play with the structure and doesn't make any damage the property. He remains mindful that his documentation lies with the police and his record gets darkened if the landowner enrolls any protests with the police.

 •             Driving Records and Credit History

 Generally, there are a few strategies to be followed in foundation check administrations. Find out about your candidate's vehicle enlistment number and driving history. Tragically, picking inhabitants dependent on your own emotions doesn't generally turn out great all around.

 •             Relief from Future Trouble

 Overlooking Tenant Verification services can land a landowner in a difficult situation. It gets simple to follow the departing suddenly guilty party and those personalities who surpassed a grievous wrongdoing in the leased property. When the identity presented his lawful character confirmation, the dread of a police preliminary guarantees that there are not many odds of carrying out a wrongdoing. Moreover, it can also be possible via trusted background verification services.

 •             Keep the Landlord mindful about inhabitant ahead of time

 After police confirmation occupants consistently dread of police and being up to speed and put behind the bars. On the off chance that an inhabitant has presented his official subtleties, he fears that police can arrive at the concerned region and he will lose his positions and he won't get somewhere else to remain.

 In this way, it's an ideal opportunity to think upon the well being focuses by having a correct Background confirmation checks for leaseholder. On the off chance that you are a proprietor and keen on looking for help or direction dealing with your investment property, contact with DEWII as a Risk Mitigation Company. We help landowners/land owners in comparable circumstances all the time. We guarantee a consistent income and an expanded yearly yield with less chaos.

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Expanding your eCommerce Business to the GCC / UAE Market

                                                                        Reading Time: About 7-8 minutes

GCC or the Gulf Cooperation Council is an economic and political alliance of six middle‐eastern countries namely the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman. It is one of the fastest-growing regional eCommerce markets in the world. The market size of the eCommerce industry in the GCC was slated to reach USD 20 billion by 2020.

Considering the global pandemic situation and the resultant economic slowdown, these estimates will have to be revised. What is not likely to change much is the underlying eCommerce market potential in the GCC. Consumption and economic and business activities might be down for now but like anywhere else in the world it is a perfect time for eCommerce businesses to think of adaptability and expansion. So, what do eCommerce businesses with expansion plans to GCC / UAE do now?

In this article, we will highlight nine important considerations for eCommerce enterprises with aspirations to expand their business to the GCC/UAE market.

Solid Market Research

Market research is a basic and foremost requirement in planning business entry to any new market territory. Under the shadow of COVID pandemic and lockdown, market research has assumed unparalleled expertise. The on-going global crisis has already changed customer behaviour in terms of priorities and preferences pertaining to demand for products/services, channels of delivery, method of payment, safety and hygiene assurances, etc. Thus, a thorough and updated market research becomes crucial for assessing a new market. Old research and data will not accurately reveal the current priorities and preferences of the customers.

Things look good for eCommerce business in carrying out a market research study (either on its own or via any agency) now because people around the world are spending more time on the internet. Web, search engine and social media analytics can provide fresh, relevant, and ample data.

An important consideration for the GCC/UAE market is that the market research industry there is in its nascent stages.

Good market research should aim at achieving insights for:

Demand for a product/service offering in a new territory

Size of the total market and addressable market segment

Customers’ tastes and preferences

Level of competition

Substitute products

Industry trends and forecasts

Robust Inventory Management

Managing inventory systems for a region that comprises six countries can be a challenge. It calls for well-planned inventory management systems aided by Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for ensuring smooth flow of goods, cost optimization, and consistency in performance across the supply chain. But irrespective of the geographical territory, the fundamentals of establishing a robust inventory management system do not change. As the territory gets bigger, so must the system’s capabilities.

The need for robust inventory management becomes more pertinent for the GCC eCommerce market from a marketing perspective. Several international brands already have a strong presence there. The spending power of customers is well-recognized. Customers’ expectations remain high and strong. New eCommerce players need to keep themselves up to the prevalent standards of inventory management towards ensuring that customers’ needs and expectations in this regard remain consistently addressed.

Centralized Distribution Hub from free-trade Zones in Dubai

Free-Trade Zones are areas or regions where businesses (operating in those regions) are exempted from the major types of taxes applicable in a country like corporate taxes, custom duties, income taxes, Value Added Taxes, etc. under given conditions. This is done by various countries to promote trade, business, economic activity and foreign investment. In these zones, goods can be dropped, moved, manufactured, reconfigured and even re-exported without the intervention of the customs authorities.

Here, Dubai can prove to be a good choice as UAE is emerging to be the favourite eCommerce market hub of all the GCC countries. There are 24 free-trade zones in Dubai for specific sectors and industries. These free-trade zones offer an opportunity for foreign companies to set up regional manufacturing facilities or distribution bases with complete business ownership and full tax exemptions under necessary licensing and approvals.

Under a centralized distribution hub model, companies maintain a central warehousing and distribution facility to and from which the flow of inventory takes place. There are several benefits to this model. First of all, it makes the task of inventory management and distribution organized. Secondly, if done right, it can prove to be efficient as against maintaining multiple smaller distribution centres. Thirdly, better focus can be laid on service through SOPs, better manpower, and advanced equipment and technologies. Fourthly, better 3PL service providers can be attracted because of higher inventory volume and quality of service and operational infrastructure.

Outsourcing Inventory Fulfilment to 3PL Partner

Outsourcing inventory fulfilment to a 3PL partner involves hiring a third-party logistics management company to take care of your warehousing, picking, packing, shipping and returns processing. 3PL arrangements are useful in new geographies and new markets for a foreign company. It sheds off the burden of building and establishing inventory and logistics assets in a foreign land. And resultantly, companies spare their focus on other important areas like marketing, finance, customer support, IT applications, etc.

Dubai, being an eCommerce hub has no dearth of 3PL service providers. Varying from company to company, offered services may include cargo, warehousing, distribution network support, 24×7 support, etc. catering to businesses of all sizes.

Tying up with Courier Partners for last-mile Delivery

For the last mile delivery, established courier service agencies may be hired to pick up goods from warehouses and deliver it to the end customer at his doorstep. These service providers must be professional and carry a good reputation. In a foreign land, it is ideal to go with a strong brand name.

The last-mile delivery can make or break the brand equity of a company. For instance, Amazon took everyone by surprise by introducing “one-day delivery” assurance to its customers and they made it happen and it changed the perception of a lot of naysayers towards the company.

This is an ideal strategy in supply chain management in eCommerce suggested by many eCommerce business consultants in global eCommerce solutions. Delivery has become a key differentiating factor in the eCommerce business as more and more players are entering the game. Thus, you should make sure to have the fastest delivery possible and see if customers are ready to pay a premium for such concepts as same-day delivery guarantee.

Customer Support Team with Language Proficiency

Customer support is another highly important aspect in an eCommerce business as an important element of customer experience and customer journey. In almost every eCommerce platform customers can check anything online – products, delivery status, payment refund, etc. It is only in the event of something going out of the standard route that customers get in touch with the support team. These communications are usually one to one and take place via emails or phone calls. The customer support representatives need to be proficient with the local languages to handle these communications effectively. Doing so does not elevate customer experience but failing to do so will have a degrading effect.

Local agency for accounting, taxation & regulatory compliances and advisory

The law of the land must prevail. Foreign companies need to remain in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. This is not just in Dubai but for any place of operation. These compliances could be in the areas of maintenance of accounting records as required, adherence to taxation rules, keeping the necessary business licenses and permissions updated, labour laws, etc.

Because it would be not possible for a foreign company to quickly learn and adapt to a new environment, authorized local agencies that provide helping services to businesses could be considered. Working with such agencies will significantly ease off the burden, help companies be on track, and avoid any unintentional violation of applicable laws.

Website Localization

The simple thing is that an eCommerce website or app should be built and designed keeping in mind its local users. Thus, content localization becomes important. Just as you were having a customer support team who is well versed with the local languages and dialect, you should also design your website or app in a similar way. Apart from the use of local language for writing website content, other aspects to be localized in an eCommerce website are display time, currency, customer support phone numbers, navigation buttons, cultural considerations etc. The website must also come across as familiar and friendly to the visitors for them to take an interest in it.

Digital Marketing with GCC Countries in Focus

Running a business in a foreign country is unfathomable without digital marketing especially in the UAE market which is fast-rising and emerging to be a global eCommerce hub. With a digital marketing strategy, foreign companies can spread awareness in remote market geography. Without any prior presence, digital marketing is the best way forward.

Digital marketing campaigns can be based on search engines and social media. It can also be in the form of blogs, videos, infographics, press releases, and email marketing. Here, the emphasis must be local with the target being global. A glocal strategy must be incorporated to attract more audience. This is even more pertinent in Dubai that already houses big global brands and is known to have customers with very high expectations both in terms of products and services.

One more important thing in digital marketing is to keep a tab on ROI (Return on Investment) from digital marketing campaigns. This is to ensure that investments in campaigns that are not yielding desired output are redirected to new or fruitful campaigns.

Conclusion

The GCC or UAE eCommerce market is undoubtedly attractive but can be severely competitive. These are wealthy nations, have all major global brands working at full-throttle, customers with very high expectations, business negotiations can be very tough, and state-of-the-art technologies at work. In order to launch, survive and grow in this market, eCommerce players will have to take into account all the important considerations. In this article, we made an attempt to cover nine crucial ones. We hope it gives the audience some leading thoughts on an ideal eCommerce growth strategy.

About us

Your Retail Coach (YRC) is a retail consulting and eCommerce outsourcing company in India offering a wide range of services in retail offline, retail eCommerce and retail omnichannel catering to a multitude of industries.

Your Retail Coach (YRC) helps retail businesses with their web store and online marketplace sales management strategies and practices with a focus on developing brand awareness.

YRC assists retail businesses in managing their supply chain via services and support in warehouse management, procurement, inventory management, dispatch and team management riding on proven models of logistics and use of technology.

Article Source: https://www.yourretailcoach.in/expanding-your-ecommerce-business-to-the-gcc-uae-market-9-important-considerations/