Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch BlogPeacemakers Trust posts news, reports or announcements of interest to people studying or working in the field of dispute resolution, conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Inclusion of an item on the media watch blog does not imply endorsement or agreement of Peacemakers Trust with views expressed by authors of posted items.
For many Indians, bribing corrupt officials is a way of life. Last year, international corruption watchdog Transparency International said almost four million Indian families had to bribe officials for access to basic services. India also dropped in Transparency’s corruption index from 72nd to 85th in a list of 180 countries. now Indians are fighting corruption using a novel idea – the zero rupee.
(...more)The Winter Olympiad in Vancouver kicks off this evening, amid great expectations and some criticism too. The world’s greatest athletes, the hopes of nations, the ideal of athletic competition are set to be showcased in one of Canada’s (the world’s) greatest cities. But, as in all such human endeavors, there is another side to the human drama of it all. The story of human beings so far beneath the glory and pageantry of Olympic celebration as to be invisible, the downtrodden and homeless of Vancouver and the world…
One news station released a video today that tells the story of the other side of Vancouver, the dark underbelly of that great city and so many others – poverty and neglect. Vancouver, while the most celebrated Canadian city as far as progress economically is concerned, is also the worst city in that country if you are “out of luck”, or need a good job…
The video below is something we should all watch, before we get wrapped up in the games and events themselves…
(...more)Google, the “do no evil” company, gained entry into the Chinese search engine market last decade by agreeing to ban search results on topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese government. To Google’s way of thinking, it could do more good for Internet freedom and the cause of human rights by working inside the country to create value for its Chinese users, employees, and business partners. To critics, Google was selling out its core principles to play in the world’s second largest economy.
So it was a shocking turn of events on January 12 when Google announced it would pull up stakes in China unless the country agreed to stop censoring search. The precipitating event: an unsuccessful cyber attack from inside China attempting to burrow into the Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents. Since the announcement, little has transpired publicly; the two sides are presumably negotiating…
(...more)Three weeks ago I blogged about bananas being packaged (in South Korea) in plastic wrappers. Extra packaging for a banana seemed odd. A week later I posted an update with an explanation from Starbucks: the plastic wrappers, they had told me, reflected Korean ‘cultural norms’ dictating that premium produce be individually wrapped.
OK, interesting answer.
But now, in a recent issue of MacLean’s magazine, there’s a story (by Kate Lunau) that gives a much more plausible explanation — and it’s about bananas being sold right here in Canada. According to Lunau’s story, retailers package banana’s for individual sale to help extend the very small window of time during which bananas are the pristine yellow colour that consumers demand, rather than either too green or too brown…
(...more)For fans of Casablanca, Google’s encounter with the Chinese government may be reminiscent of Police Captain Renault, who claimed to be ‘shocked, shocked!’ that gambling was going on inside Rick’s casino.
Although recent events might tempt many to tell Google ‘I told you so,’ the company has still garnered sympathy around the world for standing up to Beijing. And anyone who cherishes the wealth of information generated by unfettered Google searches and hates the idea that secret police might have access to the keys to their e-mail boxes should indeed wish Google luck.
Yet, regardless of the outcome of this contest between a politically vengeful autocratic government and a technologically savvy US firm, the Google episode will likely remain a crucial moment in China’s relations with the West in general, and with Western companies doing business in China in particular.
(...more)Following the film ‘Avatar’’s win at the Golden Globes, tribal people have claimed that the film tells the real story of their lives today.
(...more)Consumer spending on “ethical” products from Fairtrade food to eco-friendly travel has almost tripled in the past decade, a survey reveals today.
(...more)Toronto-based Pinetree Capital bought a few million shares of Copper Mesa Mining Corporation, making it the largest share owner of a failing company currently embroiled in a lawsuit. The takeover raised the price of its penny stock upwards to between three and five cents.
Copper Mesa, however, got a lot more than what it bargained for.
Copper Mesa, until last year, was the owner of a couple of mining concessions in the Intag region of Ecuador. But the company ran into a strong, organized opposition from communities, local government and, eventually even the national government, which eventually stripped Copper Mesa of its concessions in the country. The company then had to shed itself of its mining projects in the US to pay off debts, leaving it as empty handed as when it was first aborted.
(...more)Minerals and arms smuggling worth millions of dollars persists in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) despite international sanctions, fuelling rebel strength despite national army operations, and army and rebel soldiers continue to kill civilians, according to a new United Nations report that calls on the Security Council to take action to plug the gaps.
(...more)Five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a war fueled primarily from gold mined in the country by warlords. Scott Pelley reports. 60 Minutes, Sunday, Nov. 29, 7 p.m. ET/PT.
(CBS) One of the poorest countries on Earth is slowly dying because it’s one of the wealthiest in valuable minerals. The Democratic Republic of Congo can barely pay its own army, yet more than five million people have died there in a long war paid for by gold and other valuable minerals, contestation over which is often the cause of the deadly battles.
(...more)It’s a common refrain. Don’t blame the business schools for all the bad stuff happening on Wall Street. It’s not the b-schools’ fault, because after all, ethics can’t be taught. The first bit there is reasonable enough: the recent financial crisis is the result of a complicated convergence of factors, apparently including bad decisions by quite a number of individuals, and some poorly-structured institutions. But the latter part, implying the futility of ethics instruction at business schools, is simply wrong-headed.
(...more)This guide is a practical tool to help companies activate their human rights record and, thus, contribute more effectively to their promotion in the company’s area of influence…Companies…are today facing the great challenge to manage their impact in terms of human rights as part of their policy on social responsibility (CSR). The guide is designed as an agile tool so that companies can play a more active role with regard to human rights and positively contribute to the promotion and protection of the latter within their area of influence.
(...more)Almost one year on from the historic signing of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo in December 2008, 138 financial institutions still provide over $20 billion worth of investments and financial services to eight producers of cluster bombs. These are the findings of the most comprehensive report to date on global financial investments in these banned weapons, ‘ Worldwide investments in cluster munitions; A shared responsibility’. The report authors are calling public and private financial institutions to support the ban and disinvest from cluster bomb producers…
The publication by IKV Pax Christi and Netwerk Vlaanderen categorizes retail banks, investment banks, asset management companies and private and public pensions into a “Hall of Shame,” a “Hall of Fame” and “Runners-Up”, based on their investment policies and practices. The report also looks at legislative initiatives to prohibit investment in cluster munitions.
(...more)Legislation banning investments in cluster munitions has been passed by the following countries:
* Belgium…
* Ireland…
* Luxembourg…
For detailed information and analysis of these countries legislation go to the ‘Worldwide investments in cluster munitions’ report…. [see full story for downloads]
(...more)Details for the next International Anti-Corruption Conference, a biennial event, have just been released. It looks like Global Integrity will be taking a trip to Thailand in November 2010!
Last year’s International Anti-Corruption Conference in Athens focused on the need to create a mechanism to evaluate the effectiveness of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption [UNCAC]. (Global Integrity’s Jonathan Werve was there serving on metrics panel discussion.) Next week, the official UN project evaluation summit will consider adopting a review mechanism as recommended by the anti-corruption community. While many countries have signed the UNCAC agreement, very few have fully implemented its long list of conditions due to limited resources and/or limited political will.
(...more)Corruption’s role in armed conflict and violence has become a key concern for peacebuilding professionals. And yet, the anti-corruption and peacebuilding fields have rarely converged in a systematic way. One effort towards bringing the two communities into an engaged dialogue is the recent publication of a special theme issue of the journal New Routes on the “nexus between corruption and peacebuilding†published by the Life and Peace Institute based in Sweden (the entire issue is available for free download).
(...more)TORONTO – York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School is convening next month’s Expert Consultation on Corporate Law and Human Rights: Opportunities and Challenges of Using Corporate Law to Encourage Corporations to Respect Human Rights.
The expert consultation, which is being held November 5 and 6, 2009 at Osgoode Professional Development Centre, will bring together corporate lawyers, civil society, academics, government regulators and industry representatives in support of the Corporate Law Tools Project of Harvard University Professor John Ruggie, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights (SRSG).
(...more)A network of activists and civil society organizations called Enlazando Alternativas has published a report that contains several interesting questions to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights, John Ruggie. The report provides an overview of human rights violations committed by European companies and discusses the role of European institutions in the creation of a legal framework that “allows transnational corporations to act with impunity”.
(...more)In this month’s Underreported Struggles: Canadian mining company bows out of Chiapas; Malaysian police tear down Penan blockades; Ecuador’s Indigenous movement Mobilizes for the Water; Landowners threaten to shut down Barrick mine; Algonquins blockade logging companies.
(...more)A few days ago I asked what rights corporations should have. That posting generated some useful comments, but some of those comments, and other things I’ve been reading online, suggested an animosity to the very notion of rights for corporations and the legal personhood that goes along with it.
So, I’ll put this forward succinctly: legal personhood for corporations is not optional…
This point does not imply any particular list of rights: the items on that list, and the limits thereon, are still very much up for debate….
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