Uncategorized

Overworked to Death

“karōshi” or death by overworking has been a controversial matter in Japan stemming back to the beginning of the twentieth century. In this article by Global voices, activist at JR Rokkomichi Railway Station spread their message of how a previous suicide that occurred at the railway station was related to the overworking of an employee by a company. Specifically at JR Rokkomichi, in 2016 Maeda Hayato threw himself on the tracks after reportedly working more than 100 hours of overtime at his company. Japan’s work culture has shown to value hard working employees that are devoted to their work however, “Pawa hara” or power harassment of that work ethic by companies has lead to suicides rates of a reported two hundred people a year. It is considered Power harassment when employers use forceful or persuasive tactics to get employees to work over the limit they are legally mandated  to work thus leading to karōshi.

 

Source – Global Voices: https://globalvoices.org/2018/04/07/how-power-harassment-and-karoshi-continue-to-cause-serious-problems-for-japanese-workers/

Strike causes French railway chaos, with more to come

One major French railway was brought to a stop about a week ago in Paris due to a workers’s strike. Weekly two day strikes are being scheduled by unions for the next three months, according toe SNCF (the national railway authority), leaving France with only 12% of their trains running during those times. This will affect not only national, but international travel as well, as trains are expected not to run to Italy, Spain, or Switzerland. National traffic is expected to increase exponentially during these strikes, as many rely on the railways as their main form of transportation. The article mentioned that the strike left passengers scrambling, with many having to hitch rides on the highway and share travel tips online. It also left the train stations and tracks teeming with passengers. However, the strike was necessary to the unions: “Labor unions say Macron — a centrist former investment banker whom critics consider the president of the rich — is threatening hard-fought French rights that workers in other countries envy, as well as damaging the whole idea of public service.” This is deemed one of the worst industrial strikes in French history, with airlines even participating.

This article highlights multiple perspectives. One it touches on is the perspective of the strikers themselves, and their reasoning for the strikes. It provides direct quotes from strikers and Francois Grasa, leader of the FO Cheminots (Railway Workers) Union. It also shows how the passengers and civilians were very much impacted by this strike. While it didn’t focus on this perspective as much, the article does mention the perspectives of Macron, the French president.

The article uses statistics to provide evidence of how the strike is affecting civilians, as well as the French economy. It provided numerical data on how many trains and planes aren’t being used. It also provides numerical data on how passengers were affected by the strikes. In addition, it uses anecdotal evidence by providing quotes from each side of the story.

 

Works Cited

 

Charlton, Angela. “Strike Causes French Railway Chaos, with More to Come.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 3 Apr. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/04/03/strike-causes-french-railway-chaos-more-come/483625002/.

 

“France Train Strikes Disrupt Travel as Rail Workers Protest Reforms.” USA Today, www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/04/03/strike-causes-french-railway-chaos-more-come/483625002/.

 

Global News Post #6 – Switzerland

“Switzerland – Where five-year olds learn to shoot”

by Marc-André Miserez

April 6th, 2018

Learning how to shoot a gun has become a popular sport for many young Swiss teenagers. There has been a long history of the Swiss government subsidising shooting clubs to target the teenage youth in the hopes of increasing their future “weapon-savvy” recruits for the Swiss Army. Just two years ago in 2016, the Swiss government changed the legal age at which one can attend target shooting lessons at a range from seventeen years old to just fifteen years old. Christoph Petermann, the deputy chief of communications at the Swiss Target Shooting Federation, stated in the article that because the government lowered the legal age of access to shooting lessons, shooting as a sport has started to become popular again among the Swiss youth.

According to the NGO Small Arms survey, Switzerland has the third-highest rate of firearms per civilian in the world – behind the United States and Yemen. The Target Shooting Federation of Switzerland is the fourth-largest Swiss sports federation – behind football, tennis, and gymnastics, with 130,000 shooters [58,300 of these shooters are licensed among the 8.4 million people of Switzerland]. There has been a definite increase in the number of Swiss citizens who are registered and licensed shooters, since the government lowered the legal age limit – supporting Petermann’s observation of the sport becoming more and more popular among the youth. This article provides many different facts and statistics, some like the ones I mentioned above have been noted in the article with their references, but other stats appear in the article without any references. The facts and stats that are listed in the article without any references seem to be, in my opinion, all stats that would be in support of the young generation of Swiss citizens learning how to shoot and gaining a license to do so. For example, one stat in the article found on the swissinfo.ch website is, “Of countries not at war, only the United States has more guns per capita than Switzerland, according to the Small Arms Survey. Yet, Switzerland has far fewer gun deaths. In the US, there were 36,000 gun fatalities in 2015 (of which 22,000 were suicides), according to official statistics. That is 1.1 deaths per 10,000 inhabitants. In Switzerland, over the same period, there were 310 gun deaths (of which 300 were suicides): 0.4 victims per 10,000 inhabitants.” This statistic puts Switzerland in a very positive light to an outside reader, with no further knowledge about the country, especially since these statistics are being compared to those from America [who has had a lot of gun violence in the recent media]. Again though, I found it very interesting that within the article, there is no reference of where these statistics have come from, which makes it natural that I am to assume these statistics came from the Swissinfo.ch website.

I think also, because of all of the recent gun violence within the American media, there are many comments and statistics within this article about gun violence and how adversely different the Swiss gun atmosphere is compared to America’s. Throughout my time reading this article, I felt that I was reading an article, about guns and Swiss youth, while being persuaded by the author that it is okay and much more of a safe topic in Switzerland, because of how other countries [like America] are being compared to Switzerland throughout the entirety of the article. These details make me feel that this article does have some political influence and sway on the reader to favour what Switzerland is doing within their gun industry and to support the laws and bills the Swiss government has passed in favour of the gun industry. Even the title,”Switzerland – Where five-year olds learn to shoot”, is a pull to get the reader to indulge in this article, because no one would let a five-year-old learn how to shoot a gun if it wasn’t okay, right? Even though there is no mention of five-year-olds learning how to shoot, the youngest age legally allowed is fifteen-years-old within Switzerland.

Works Cited:

Miserez , Marc-André. “Switzerland: Where Five-Year-Olds Learn to Shoot.” SWI Swissinfo.ch, Swissinfo.ch, 6 Apr. 2018, www.swissinfo.ch/eng/gun-fun_switzerland–where-five-year-olds-learn-to-shoot/44018466.

Keystone Photo. “Switzerland: Where Five-Year-Olds Learn to Shoot.” SWI Swissinfo.ch, Photo Reference. Swissinfo.ch, 6 Apr. 2018, www.swissinfo.ch/eng/gun-fun_switzerland–where-five-year-olds-learn-to-shoot/44018466.

Global News Post #6: BBC: Greece is trying to stop the brain drain

BBC: Greece is trying to stop the brain drain

(Image from Shutterstock)
Blog Post by Allen Bryan
Summary: This article is essentially a take on a BBC post from a Greek journalist. It begins by talking about the current brain drain situation within Greece and issues that have arisen from it. It mentions how since 2010 when Greece was on the brink of bankruptcy, many smart younger individuals fled the country in search of jobs elsewhere. The number listed is 180,000 college graduates have left since then. The article then switches focus a little bit talking about the devastating effects that brain drain can have on Greece, and on poorer nations as a whole. The issue mentioned is that brain drain is “unsustainable for the economies of poorer nations”.  The article then talks about a Greek computer company based in London that receives money from Marathon Venture Capital due to the fact that they higher Greek businessmen. It also mentions how Marathon is funded by European investors and also how this company is making efforts to try and lure young citizens back to the country. The article here states how brain drain may actually be a positive thing in a sense as the country can benefit from the return of these younger citizens and their new skills. This could open the door for many opportunities in the country and Marathon is trying to find a way to expedite this process by opening 2 to 3 new companies and highering roughly 1,000 employees each.
Evidence: This was tricky to me as this was the first time I had found a Greek article that was essentially a review of something posted by the BBC. When it comes to the evidence, the article posts a lot of numbers, but there is really no link or reference to where they originated from, which is concerning. What is good is the reference to the company, Marathon, that is attempting to make progress and fix this issue. This allows the reader to go to the site of this company and verify, from their own mouths, if these numbers and whatever else is correct. The fact that the reader must do extra research for verification purposes, however, is not very beneficial in the overall reliability of the source. This article has an author at least, which is a nice change of pace from the last couple of articles found, but still no citation of the picture which seems all too common within Greece. This makes me believe that there is no law or precedent in the need to cite these images in this country, or else it wouldn’t be so common. Doing a quick reverse image search, however, I was able to find out that this image came from a stock image site. Other pieces of evidence may include the references to the activity in other countries and the European Investors in these efforts, but once more these would need to be further investigated to verify. One last thing to keep in mind is that this article was completely translated from Greek into English by Google translate. Because of this, it is important to keep in mind that some things may be lost in translation and to take everything with a grain of salt as what the translation says may be different from what the author meant to say.
Perspectives: This article is cool as there are many obvious perspectives. The first and most obvious is the Greek perspective and that of the author of the article. Here, we can see how this is very much a Greek problem and the author does a fairly good job at showing the reader the different issues and problems that arise from the current brain drain situation within the country. There is also the BBC perspective as it seems to originally be from this news source. We can see this perspective in the London reference and the computer company that is stationed there that higher Greek businessmen. There is also the perspective of a large number of young Greek graduates that are economically forced to look for work elsewhere. We see this in the fact that they are essentially forced to leave the country even though they have a college degree. We also see this in the reference that they would be willing to come back if given the opportunities; that Marathon is trying to provide. Lastly, there’s the perspective from the companies such as Marathon. This is prevalent throughout the article as the bulk of it talks about this companies efforts to try and lure these young graduates back into the country to help solve the problem of brain drain within Greece.
Citation:
Fourla, Dimitra-Marilla. “BBC: H Ελλάδα Προσπαθεί Να Ανακόψει Το Brain Drain.”Δημοκρατική Της Ρόδου, Dimokratiki.com, 6 Apr. 2018,
     www.dimokratiki.gr/06-04-2018/bbc-h-ellada-prospathei-na-anakopsei-to-brain-drain/.

Global News Post 6 – Italy

Venice mayor proposes charging day-trippers

Venice mayor proposes charging day-trippers

When you think of Italy, often near the top of the list of most popular tourist attractions is Venice, the famed lagoon city where you can ride a gondola through the various canals that serve as streets. However, something not many people realize about this city is it has many problems. Some of these problems include the city slowly sinking, the environment is being damaged, and cruise ships that come too close to the city. Another important problem that is often overlooked is the quality of life for the locals. The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, has tried to come up with a solution for “the city’s tourism woes” for a long time now, but has been accused of failing to do so, with over 125,000 people visiting Venice over Easter weekend.

Brugnaro’s latest idea involves only allowing locals to stay there. In an interview with Corriere, he says “the solution is obvious: those who live, work or have a place to sleep in the city can enter, the others must stay away”. His proposal includes making tourists pay a fee to visit the city and even closing the city off on crowded days, though it would appear this could be difficult to uphold. Seeing as these ideas have been under construction for a long time now, it is unclear as to whether or not they will actually happen.

 

Works Cited:

“Venice Mayor Proposes Charging Day-Trippers.” The Local, The Local, 5 Apr. 2018, www.thelocal.it/20180405/venice-mayor-proposes-charging-day-trippers-to-alleviate-overcrowding.

Global News Post #6: Argentina

https://www.rionegro.com.ar/argentina/caputo-si-hubiera-querido-favorecerme-me-hubiera-quedado-en-el-sector-privado-CK4738567

“Luis Caputo expone una comisión bicameral del Congreso. (Foto: Archivo),” Río Negro, 4 Apr. 2018, www.rionegro.com.ar/argentina/caputo-si-hubiera-querido-favorecerme-me-hubiera-quedado-en-el-sector-privado-CK4738567.

 

On April 4th, Argentina’s Minister of Finance, Luis Caputo, spoke with a tense Argentine Congress about the country’s public debt and addressed his personal involvement in offshore investments. Upon receiving criticism from opposition (Kirchnerist) politicians, who insist that he is operating under a conflict of interest and is thus unfit to hold office, Caputo defended himself by saying that if he had wanted to seek personal gain, he would have stayed in the private sector rather than assume the position of Minister of Finance. Prior to managing Argentina’s finances, Caputo had an extensive involvement in the private sector having worked as head of trading for JP Morgan Argentina, for Deutsche Bank (for East Europe and Latin America), and managed funds for AXIS, a private communications company in Argentina (“Luis Caputo”).

On the subject of offshore investments, Caputo commented that possessing such investments is not a crime when their ownership is not kept secret from the public. He claims that he has never owned any offshore company and assured Congress that all his activities have been recorded with Argentina’s Anti-corruption Office and the Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos (AFIP), a federal body which handles income taxes. Despite his claims, evidence was uncovered last year that Caputo has a stake in the U.S.-registered company, Noctua Partners LLC, and that he did not report his holding in this and other “offshore companies that manage hundreds of millions of dollars in tax havens” on his taxes in 2015 and 2016 (Delfino & Crucianelli ; Bio). Regarding this, Caputo admits that is a fiduciary holder in the company, not an owner, and believes that maintains that he has not committed any crime, demonstrated by his willingness to take the issue to court to obtain proof of the integrity of his practices.

As for Argentina’s debt, Caputo declared that only 30% of it is contracted with the private sector and multilateral organizations and that the overall debt is strong because of their lengthy repayment windows. He also made it very clear that although one of the main goals of the Argentine government is to eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor through sustained growth, that it takes time to undo 75 years of mismanagement.

This article comes from Diario Río Negro (Rio Negro Daily), a center-right newspaper with a provincial focus, but that also reports on national news stories such as the one presented in this post. The fact that this new story is potentially revealing corruption within the Macri government shows, to an extent, a transparency of the media. This news story was also reported in other popular news sources in Argentina, such as Clarín and La Nación, that are also center-right and which are believed to support the views of President Macri, further adding to a sense of transparency. This makes sense when considering that although Macri appointed Caputo and is likely informed about Caputo’s dealings with offshore countries, he has also adopted a standpoint of working against corruption and thus allowing such news stories to be reported would be advantageous for his image. Overall, the evidence that this article uses are predominantly quotes from Caputo’s exposition before Congress and neither criticizes or appraises Caputo’s actions outright, leaving it to the audience to make sense of the situation as I have attempted to above.

Works Cited:

Bio, Demian. “SEC: Despite Denying It, Finance Minister Caputo Owned Company That Appeared on ‘Paradise Papers’.” The Bubble, 12 Mar. 2018, www.thebubble.com/sec-caputo-owned-company-paradise-papers/.

“Caputo: ‘Si hubiera querido favorecerme, me hubiera quedado en el sector privado.’” Río Negro, 4 Apr. 2018, www.rionegro.com.ar/argentina/caputo-si-hubiera-querido-favorecerme-me-hubiera-quedado-en-el-sector-privado-CK4738567.

Delfino, Emilia, and Sandra Crucianelli. “Caputo Concealed Cayman Island Offshore Firms from Argentine Authorities.” Buenos Aires Times, Editorial Perfil, 19 Feb. 2018, www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/caputo-concealed-cayman-island-offshore-firms-from-argentine-authorities.phtml.

“Luis Caputo.” Ministry of Finance: Presidency of the Nation, Gobierno Argentina, www.minfinanzas.gob.ar/en/ministry/minister/.

Global News Post #6-China

The article targets to point out the consequence of dropping One-Child policy to allow couples who are both the only one kid at home to give birth twice because of a shrinking labor force in current China. “Chinese Communist Party (C.C.P.) …hoped that the new policy would bring three million additional births a year through 2020 and add more than 30 million workers to the labor force by 2050.”In case of this new policy, Mainstream demographers believe that relaxing the birth control policy will not lead to a surge in population. It will also bring about many benefits such as the normalization of the sex ratio at birth and the relaxation of social conflicts. From the survey sample distribution, the number of people thinking that the two children should be implemented accounted for 58.23%, more than half, and the number of people who chose to continue to adhere to strict one-child only accounted for 9.17% of the overall ratio.

 

However, according to the news report, after the full-fledged two-child policy was opened, some experts predicted that “the Chinese population will usher in an explosive growth. In 2017, China should have at least 20.23 million people born.” What is the truth? Not long ago, the National Bureau of Statistics released a set of data: “In 2017, China’s total birth population was 17.23 million in the year, a decrease of 630,000 from 2016; the birth rate was 12.43‰, and the neonatal and birth rates were both lower, and the ratio of two children was 51.2. The above data shows two points: 1. The number of births of two children is far below the expected value (a digital gap of 3 million); 2. In the case of a decrease in the total birth volume, the number of two children increases, but it means that one child was born. The number was severely declining, and the data hit the experts’ predictions. The reality is that after 80s, they do not want to chase their second child, and even after 90s, they do not want to be born. Indeed, today, after 80 and 90, they are faced with all sorts of colors. The pressure is on the social status quo of high housing prices, high investment in education, highly competitive workplace environment, and incomplete medical and social security.

 

Fincher, Leta Hong. “China Dropped Its One-Child Policy. So Why Aren’t Chinese Women Having More Babies?”The New York Times. Feb 20, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/opinion/china-women-birthrate-rights.html Accessed April 2, 2018.

 

Marta Monteiro. “Second Child Policy for New Born Babies.” The New York Times. Feb 20, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/opinion/china-women-birthrate-rights.html. Accessed April 2, 2018.

 

Global News Post 6 – India

When fear rules: How journalists are at receiving end for speaking out against the State

The article begins by summarizing the events that lead to the arrest of a crime report in Mumbai named Tarakant Dwivedi in 2011. He was arrested under the Official Secrets Act for a story he wrote that exposed how arms and ammunition were being stored poorly in a storage container after the events of a terrorist attack that lasted 3 days and led to the deaths of 164 people. The Official Secrets Act is supposed to be used for acts of treason, such as spying for an enemy state. The case of Dwivedi is thus clearly not an instance where this act was required, so journalists held a protest after there was a long legal battle to get him out of jail and asked the Home Minister (essentially leader of domestic security) to withdraw the case. The government did nothing. This raises the question of how this series of events could happen. The author then goes on to explain how Mumbai prides itself on free speech, but it has been a battleground for issues on the topic. The author explains another incident where a cartoonist, Aseem Trivedi, was arrested for cartoons he displayed during an art show for the India Against Corruption movement under the sedition law (if someone brings hatred or contempt or excites dissatisfaction toward the government). Again, there were protests and the case was dismissed.

The author explains how freedom of expression is essentially the ability to express your thoughts in public or private without fear of your own safety or of those close to you, and it is the state’s duty to protect this. However, the government has failed to do so; by remaining silent in events similar to those mentioned above, or even worse, targeting citizens for free speech themselves. By not protecting the people (for example, when artists have shows vandalized or writers have books burned or banned), an environment of self-censorship from the art world is created. They state: “As a consequence, there is no public discourse without threats, there is no argument without the fear of being physically assaulted or mentally broken on social media, and the State continues in its ways without an active watchdog.” Also, in the era of social media, fear is heightened by “trolls” making death threats. The author explains that the role of journalists is to report facts, and if they are attacked for doing so, that is attacking the strength of freedom of press. He ends with a somewhat pessimistic outlook by saying that it appears the conflict over freedom of expression does not appear to be ending anytime soon, but the people need to fight back without fear in order to avoid an authoritarian government from forming.

This article really focuses on one perspective; that of complete freedom of press, expression and speech. The author himself explains that he feels personally impacted by the current climate of freedom of press, and thus has chosen to participate less in discussions on the matter. As a journalist, his opinion isn’t coming out of left field, however, so it doesn’t feel out of place in the context of the article. The evidence he uses is sound; he mentions multiple cases of journalists or individuals getting arrested or attacked for issues of freedom of press/speech/expression, and also explains some of the current laws in India. The article does not link to any sources, but further research does validate these stories. Overall, I think the author raises an interesting discussion on the issue of freedom of expression in India.

 

Works Cited:

Image/Article Source: Kalbag, Sachin. “When Fear Rules: How Journalists Are at Receiving End for Speaking out against the State.” The Hindu, The Hindu, 17 Sept. 2017, www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/when-fear-rules/article19705378.ece.

Global News Post #5 – Puerto Rico

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-treasury-puertorico/puerto-rico-reaches-deal-to-access-u-s-disaster-loans-idUSKBN1GY2ND

“Mnuchin spoke at a press conference at the Teatrito of La Fortaleza, after meeting with the governor and some members of his team. (GFR Media)”

With the recent natural disaster in Puerto Rico, the island is still trying to recover and make repairs to damages caused by the hurricane. The article talks about a recent deal the U.S. made with Puerto Rico to help give aid through means of a disaster loan. Initially the U.S. Congress allocated around $4.9 billion in loans for the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, however the Puerto Rico did not have access to this money. While the article did not address as to why Puerto Rico was not able to access these recovery funds, one would assume it has something to do with the billions of dollars of debt the island currently has, which led them to claim bankruptcy back in the summer of 2017. Despite the amount of debt the island has, they had reserves in the amount of $1.7 billion. When the U.S. Treasury and FEMA found this out they agreed to let Puerto Rico to have access to the disaster until March 2020, however only when Puerto Rico’s reserves dipped $1.1 billion. The announcement of the deal came after months of letters back and forth between Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rossello, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, when Mnuchin visited the island.

The long-disputed distribution of the funds for the island’s recovery seems reasonable in light of their recent status of filing for bankruptcy and the billions of dollars of debt they are currently in. As well as that, the island has cash reserves they did not disclose to the U.S. government, which would appear to be able to assist in recovery efforts meaning Puerto Rico may not need all of the money the U.S. was willing to let the island borrow. Unlike many of the other articles that discussed the recent negotiations between the U.S. and Puerto Rico, this article brought light to many of the issues that the two governments had that prevented Puerto Rico from borrowing the disaster loans from the U.S. Other articles made the U.S. out to be power hungry and unfair in not allowing the island to access large sums of money, however this article was clear in the conveying some of the reasoning behind why the U.S. had some reservations when the Puerto Rico asked for the money back in October 2017. The article did however, leave out that the U.S. and Puerto Rico still are having ongoing discussions as to whether the island will be allowed to be eligible for disaster loan forgiveness, that many other countries are eligible for, due to Puerto Rico’s mishandling of past government funds.

González, Joanisabel. “Mnuchin Reaches an Agreement with the Island.” El Nuevo Dia, 24 Mar. 2018, www.elnuevodia.com/english/english/nota/mnuchinreachesanagreementwiththeisland-2409091/.

Global Post News #5 Turkey

Turkey, EU to meet at tough summit in Varna

 

In Bulgaria, Turkey is set to meet EU officials to discuss a range of issues. Turkey has the intentions to ease the acquisition of visas for its nationals. Erdogan also wants to discuss Turkey’s candidacy to the European Union even if his political actions don’t meet the EU’s criteria. Another goal for Erdogan is to “upgrade customs union that were cited as Brussels’ promises in return for Turkey keeping Syrian refugees on its soils in a 2016-dated agreement.”.

However, the demands are quite unachievable. The EU who needs the green light from every 28 members and it seems that not every country wants to upgrade the customs union.  Junker is also disappointed by Turkey’s slowness to implement fundamental freedoms or even respecting them.

The atmosphere of the summit should also be sullen. Turkey’s recent illegal occupation in Cyprus won’t convey a cooperative mood. The article which is center-left is not very optimistic for the summit and is critical towards Turkey.

 

Source :http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-eu-to-meet-at-tough-summit-in-varna-129283