Banquo's Ghost
04-30-2008, 12:45
We recently had a little discussion over employment law and whether business was served ill by interference from government. A contention was made that government regulation was a substantial annoyance and should sensibly be ignored.
Several of our more libertarian members have also proposed that business is perfectly capable and willing to regulate itself, because such behaviour would be good for business, and those who acted badly would invariably come unstuck.
To me, this shows a touching faith in humanity supported by as much evidence as backs up the tooth fairy. Certainly, within an already tightly regulated market governed by law, there can be examples of business voluntarily extending the boundaries of good practice. But all the evidence from unregulated markets demonstrates that business will do its damnedest to exploit the last cent of profit regardless the human cost.
I'd be interested in counter-opinion addressing these two topical instances:
Chinese slave children sold like cabbages (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1912205/Chinese-slave-children-%27sold-like-cabbages%27.html).
Chinese slave children 'sold like cabbages'
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 2:07AM BST 30/04/2008
Thousands of children are being sold "like cabbages" to China's booming factories as virtual slave labour.
Young people – some aged under 10 – are said to have been discovered being bought and sold at a street market in Sichuan, one of rural China's most overpopulated provinces.
According to investigative reporters, the children stood in line as they were assessed like cattle, before being driven on trucks to factories in the Pearl River Delta, China's manufacturing heartland.
Southern Metropolis Daily, a newspaper based in the delta, suggests that abuses remain rampant in factories despite efforts by campaigners within China and abroad.
The abuses might have become worse as wages have finally begun to rise in recent years, prompting businesses to seek new ways to cut costs.
The newspaper was tipped off by residents living close to the street market. One local man, Mr Shao, said he had watched children being "sold like cabbages".
A reporter, posing as a clothing factory manager, was allowed to inspect would-be "employees" by patting their arms and stomachs. He agreed to pay them 3.5 yuan an hour – about 25p.
Many had fake papers saying they were over 18; but, when asked, most were between 13 and 15. One was just seven, another nine.
The newspaper said that many came from the same area of Sichuan – Liangshan county – where 76 children have been reported as missing since the Chinese new year in February.
One of the most disturbing findings was that local officials seemed to be complicit. A foreman, who produced officially stamped documents concerning the children, said: "We have the complete right to manage them, by any means. You only need to sign a work agreement with us."
The newspaper was told stories of hundreds of children being sent to electronics and toy factories across southern China.
Southern Metropolis Daily is part of the most adventurous newspaper group in China. Although run by the local government, it is encouraged to make money and breaks genuine stories to do so. Its staff have paid the price in the past, with a number being jailed on dubious bribery charges.
On this occasion, some of the allegations have been confirmed by the Xinhua news agency, the government's central mouthpiece.
In a similar case last year, hundreds of young men were found to be working as slave labour in a string of brick kilns across northern China. Lured with promises of high wages, they were locked up and, in some cases, beaten to death.
According to reports from Sichuan, some of the foremen in the latest case have now been arrested and efforts are being made to return children to their parents.
Bhopal: Hundreds of new victims are born each year (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/30/india.pollution).
Bhopal: hundreds of new victims are born each year
· Children of victims suffer but have no health cover
· 23 years after disaster, site has still not been cleaned
Randeep Ramesh in Delhi
The Guardian, Wednesday April 30 2008
Hundreds of children are still being born with birth defects as a result of the world's worst industrial disaster 23 years ago in the central Indian town of Bhopal, say campaigners. They are demanding that the Indian government provide immediate medical care and research the "hidden" health impacts.
More than two decades ago, white clouds of toxic gas escaped from American multinational Union Carbide's pesticide plant. The gas killed 5,000 people that night and 15,000 more in the following weeks - and doctors say that a new generation is being affected.
The true legacy of the disaster is only now coming to light. The Indian government stopped all research on the medical effects of the gas cloud 14 years ago, without explanation. Despite the country's supreme court ordering that the children of victims receive insurance, more than 100,000 remain without cover.
Satinath Sarangi of the Sambhavna Trust, which helps to rehabilitate victims, said that the Bhopal victims' penury and low social status meant few are prepared to help.
No one, he says, has taken responsibility for cleaning up the site and paying the high cost of medical bills.
"Because these people are poor or from a minority or lower caste no one seems to care. Their lives and their children are being sacrificed for the cause of industrial progress," Sarangi said.
Medical experts who had studied the effects of the gas on children born in communities affected by the gas cloud said there was now "no doubt of increased chance of the negative effects in children".
A 2003 study by the American Medical Association found that boys who were either exposed as toddlers to gases from the Bhopal pesticide plant or born to exposed parents were prone to "growth retardation".
Yesterday campaigners, who marched the 500 miles from Bhopal last month and vow to sit in protest in Delhi until the government acts, held a press conference to highlight a new fight for compensation for families whose children have been born with "congenital birth defects".
One of the mothers, Kesar Bhai, held her 12-year-old son Suraj in her arms. She had inhaled the noxious fumes in 1984 and was hospitalised but recovered. Her son, Suraj, was born brain damaged and cannot sit or talk.
"My husband is a labourer. We have no money to spend on our son. He cannot even eat on his own. I get free medical care for my breathing difficulties because I am a gas victim. My child does not get any help but he has been affected," she said.
Other children's growth had been stunted, said campaigners, because there has been still no clean-up of the Bhopal plant despite a promise from the prime minister in 2006. So far, less than 20% of the funds set aside to dismantle and make safe the plant have been spent.
The disused Union Carbide factory contains about 8,000 tonnes of carcinogenic chemicals which continue to leach out and contaminate water supplies used by 30,000 local people. The clean-up has been stalled by a mixture of bureaucratic indifference, legal actions and rows over corporate responsibility.
Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide in 2001, says it is not responsible, arguing that because the plant is on government land it is up to the state to clean it up. However, the Indian government's chemicals and fertilisers ministry has said in court that Dow should pay 1 billion rupees, or £13m, to dismantle the factory and restore the fields.
Backstory
On December 2 1984, the sleeping citizens of Bhopal were enveloped by a lethal fog of poisonous gas spewing from a pesticide plant owned by American multinational Union Carbide. The gas was methyl isocyanate, which when inhaled produces an extremely acidic reaction attacking the internal organs, especially the lungs. This stops oxygen entering the blood, and victims drown in their own body fluids. The Indian government is still pursuing Warren Anderson, the former chief executive of Union Carbide, who keeps a low profile in retirement in New York and Florida. Union Carbide paid a lump sum of $470m in an out-of-court settlement with the Indian government in 1989. When the money was distributed among 570,000 people in 2005, most recipients got little more than £600. Dow, one of the world's largest chemical companies, purchased Union Carbide in 2001. Campaigners then covered its Mumbai offices with red paint, saying it was the "blood of Bhopal". Dow says it never owned or operated the Bhopal plant and it has no responsibility for the events in 1984.
Why should American and European employees be spared the benefits of unregulated markets?
Several of our more libertarian members have also proposed that business is perfectly capable and willing to regulate itself, because such behaviour would be good for business, and those who acted badly would invariably come unstuck.
To me, this shows a touching faith in humanity supported by as much evidence as backs up the tooth fairy. Certainly, within an already tightly regulated market governed by law, there can be examples of business voluntarily extending the boundaries of good practice. But all the evidence from unregulated markets demonstrates that business will do its damnedest to exploit the last cent of profit regardless the human cost.
I'd be interested in counter-opinion addressing these two topical instances:
Chinese slave children sold like cabbages (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/1912205/Chinese-slave-children-%27sold-like-cabbages%27.html).
Chinese slave children 'sold like cabbages'
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 2:07AM BST 30/04/2008
Thousands of children are being sold "like cabbages" to China's booming factories as virtual slave labour.
Young people – some aged under 10 – are said to have been discovered being bought and sold at a street market in Sichuan, one of rural China's most overpopulated provinces.
According to investigative reporters, the children stood in line as they were assessed like cattle, before being driven on trucks to factories in the Pearl River Delta, China's manufacturing heartland.
Southern Metropolis Daily, a newspaper based in the delta, suggests that abuses remain rampant in factories despite efforts by campaigners within China and abroad.
The abuses might have become worse as wages have finally begun to rise in recent years, prompting businesses to seek new ways to cut costs.
The newspaper was tipped off by residents living close to the street market. One local man, Mr Shao, said he had watched children being "sold like cabbages".
A reporter, posing as a clothing factory manager, was allowed to inspect would-be "employees" by patting their arms and stomachs. He agreed to pay them 3.5 yuan an hour – about 25p.
Many had fake papers saying they were over 18; but, when asked, most were between 13 and 15. One was just seven, another nine.
The newspaper said that many came from the same area of Sichuan – Liangshan county – where 76 children have been reported as missing since the Chinese new year in February.
One of the most disturbing findings was that local officials seemed to be complicit. A foreman, who produced officially stamped documents concerning the children, said: "We have the complete right to manage them, by any means. You only need to sign a work agreement with us."
The newspaper was told stories of hundreds of children being sent to electronics and toy factories across southern China.
Southern Metropolis Daily is part of the most adventurous newspaper group in China. Although run by the local government, it is encouraged to make money and breaks genuine stories to do so. Its staff have paid the price in the past, with a number being jailed on dubious bribery charges.
On this occasion, some of the allegations have been confirmed by the Xinhua news agency, the government's central mouthpiece.
In a similar case last year, hundreds of young men were found to be working as slave labour in a string of brick kilns across northern China. Lured with promises of high wages, they were locked up and, in some cases, beaten to death.
According to reports from Sichuan, some of the foremen in the latest case have now been arrested and efforts are being made to return children to their parents.
Bhopal: Hundreds of new victims are born each year (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/30/india.pollution).
Bhopal: hundreds of new victims are born each year
· Children of victims suffer but have no health cover
· 23 years after disaster, site has still not been cleaned
Randeep Ramesh in Delhi
The Guardian, Wednesday April 30 2008
Hundreds of children are still being born with birth defects as a result of the world's worst industrial disaster 23 years ago in the central Indian town of Bhopal, say campaigners. They are demanding that the Indian government provide immediate medical care and research the "hidden" health impacts.
More than two decades ago, white clouds of toxic gas escaped from American multinational Union Carbide's pesticide plant. The gas killed 5,000 people that night and 15,000 more in the following weeks - and doctors say that a new generation is being affected.
The true legacy of the disaster is only now coming to light. The Indian government stopped all research on the medical effects of the gas cloud 14 years ago, without explanation. Despite the country's supreme court ordering that the children of victims receive insurance, more than 100,000 remain without cover.
Satinath Sarangi of the Sambhavna Trust, which helps to rehabilitate victims, said that the Bhopal victims' penury and low social status meant few are prepared to help.
No one, he says, has taken responsibility for cleaning up the site and paying the high cost of medical bills.
"Because these people are poor or from a minority or lower caste no one seems to care. Their lives and their children are being sacrificed for the cause of industrial progress," Sarangi said.
Medical experts who had studied the effects of the gas on children born in communities affected by the gas cloud said there was now "no doubt of increased chance of the negative effects in children".
A 2003 study by the American Medical Association found that boys who were either exposed as toddlers to gases from the Bhopal pesticide plant or born to exposed parents were prone to "growth retardation".
Yesterday campaigners, who marched the 500 miles from Bhopal last month and vow to sit in protest in Delhi until the government acts, held a press conference to highlight a new fight for compensation for families whose children have been born with "congenital birth defects".
One of the mothers, Kesar Bhai, held her 12-year-old son Suraj in her arms. She had inhaled the noxious fumes in 1984 and was hospitalised but recovered. Her son, Suraj, was born brain damaged and cannot sit or talk.
"My husband is a labourer. We have no money to spend on our son. He cannot even eat on his own. I get free medical care for my breathing difficulties because I am a gas victim. My child does not get any help but he has been affected," she said.
Other children's growth had been stunted, said campaigners, because there has been still no clean-up of the Bhopal plant despite a promise from the prime minister in 2006. So far, less than 20% of the funds set aside to dismantle and make safe the plant have been spent.
The disused Union Carbide factory contains about 8,000 tonnes of carcinogenic chemicals which continue to leach out and contaminate water supplies used by 30,000 local people. The clean-up has been stalled by a mixture of bureaucratic indifference, legal actions and rows over corporate responsibility.
Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide in 2001, says it is not responsible, arguing that because the plant is on government land it is up to the state to clean it up. However, the Indian government's chemicals and fertilisers ministry has said in court that Dow should pay 1 billion rupees, or £13m, to dismantle the factory and restore the fields.
Backstory
On December 2 1984, the sleeping citizens of Bhopal were enveloped by a lethal fog of poisonous gas spewing from a pesticide plant owned by American multinational Union Carbide. The gas was methyl isocyanate, which when inhaled produces an extremely acidic reaction attacking the internal organs, especially the lungs. This stops oxygen entering the blood, and victims drown in their own body fluids. The Indian government is still pursuing Warren Anderson, the former chief executive of Union Carbide, who keeps a low profile in retirement in New York and Florida. Union Carbide paid a lump sum of $470m in an out-of-court settlement with the Indian government in 1989. When the money was distributed among 570,000 people in 2005, most recipients got little more than £600. Dow, one of the world's largest chemical companies, purchased Union Carbide in 2001. Campaigners then covered its Mumbai offices with red paint, saying it was the "blood of Bhopal". Dow says it never owned or operated the Bhopal plant and it has no responsibility for the events in 1984.
Why should American and European employees be spared the benefits of unregulated markets?