All posts by nedhamson
Breaking News from Thailand
How Cameron and Clegg are outsourcing British jobs to India, Poland and Morocco
(not satire – it’s the UK today!)
The coalition government has decided to outsource thousands of civil service jobs in the DWP, Defra and Environment Agency to a French firm called Steria.
You’ve probably not even heard of Steria but they’re an up and coming outsourcing company which promises to save organisations money by providing “a flexible model built on offshore service delivery” (Steria’s own words).
In Steria’s case, “offshore service delivery” means moving jobs to its massive offshore ‘global delivery centres‘ which are located in Noida, Pune and Chennai in India, Katowice in Poland and Casablanca in Morocco.
This shipping of British jobs abroad should be a big scandal – but it won’t be.
It should also be something both the Right and Left are united in condemning. But it won’t be.
It won’t be for the simple fact that – with the exception of…
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The Ultimate Lebanese Fail: Our Politicians
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares
Once upon a time, I was a political person with a clear politician affiliation. I didn’t hide it. I wasn’t ashamed of it. If anyone had a problem with it, it wasn’t my problem.
I supported a party I had thought out to be the victim of current times. The rhetoric of the person in charge appealed to me. I thought he had a flawless run through a few years. Everyone else, on the other hand, was busy making mistakes all over the place. How could people not see that? I kept asking myself.
It may not be true. But I’d like to think I grew up since then. And it took me a long time to realize that it was okay to feel this betrayed, this deceived.
That same party I supported feels desolate and strange to me today. I’m not sure if the rhetoric that appealed to me…
View original post 987 more words
Kittitian Author nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
Preserving A Part of Puerto Rican History – The “Cuatro”
The Republican War With Stupidity – Stupid 2 – Republicans 0 – Birtherism Alive and Well With Republicans – ‘GOP Lawmaker Says Obama Not a Traitor to Kenya’
Silence is assent!
These are Republicans. Until you hear Boehner, McConnell, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz speak out against this talk, their silence in accepting of it.
‘North Carolina state Rep. Larry Pittman (R) was videotaped telling a crowd of supporters that President Obama isn’t a trator to his country — if that country is Kenya’.
‘Said Pittman: “Someone had posted something with a picture of Barack Obama and across it said ‘traitor.’ And, you know, I don’t always agree with the guy, I certainly didn’t vote for him but I gotta defend him on this one. I just don’t think it’s right at all to call Barack Obama a traitor. There’s a lot of things he’s done wrong but he is not a traitor. Not as far as I can tell. I haven’t come across any evidence yet that he has done one thing to harm Kenya.”
From : http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/10/25/gop_lawmaker_says_obama_not_a_traitor_to_kenya.html
Is it sustainable to buy more? poster girl illustration
IPS – Genocide Replaces Separatism in Tamil Diaspora Vocabulary | Inter Press Service
Focusing so greatly on genocide puts a full reckoning of the war at risk and muddies chances for reconciliation, said Alan Keenan, a Sri Lanka analyst at the International Crisis Group.
“It is certainly possible that one might someday be able to prove in a court of law what happened in Sri Lanka was genocide,” Keenan told IPS.
“But the current use of the genocide framework makes it harder for Tamils to have a discussion about the various ways that the LTTE contributed to their community’s catastrophe. And by painting things in such a black and white fashion, it also makes it harder for Sinhalese to accept their own community’s responsibility for atrocities.”
Weiss, whose book, “The Cage,” lays out a detailed case for charging the Sri Lankan government with war crimes, believes no lasting solution can be reached without an investigation and eventually a truth and reconciliation process that puts the crimes of both sides out in the open.
Yet the current political set-up, fueled in no small part by the diaspora, gives the Rajapaksa government little incentive to cooperate.
“Part of the problem is their culpability is intimately entwined with allegations of war crimes,” said Weiss. “It makes it very unlikely that the current government will be going down the path [of a true investigation] unless they can sell an amnesty package.”
This leaves diaspora groups in a painful bind. Do they prioritise engagement via the TNA and national politics or focus their attention on a distant and slow-moving international system, beholden to the whim of unfriendly U.N. Security Council members?
The diaspora and Tamils in Sri Lanka can postpone self-reflection in part because the government has continued with land grabs and human rights abuses and exhibited a general intransigence when it comes to reconciliation, said Keenan.
“If the Sri Lankan government gave reforms that would treat Tamils as equal citizens, that would give Tamils more space to criticise their own past leadership,” said Keenan. “As long as the government is being so harsh, it’s hard for Tamils to look at their own leaders’ mistakes.”
via IPS – Genocide Replaces Separatism in Tamil Diaspora Vocabulary | Inter Press Service.



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