Stories about Labor from April, 2007
Indonesia: Quiz
Are you a “capitalist pig”? asks Indcoup and invites the readers to take a quiz to prove or disprove it.
Qatar: Seven Wonders
Hamlet, who is based in Qatar, blogs about the seven wonders of his host country. Among the wonders are: ‘Wonder No. 2, “It is all about connections (wasta)” Got all the right credentials, relevant experience, proper education…etc, but you don’t know the right people, then you are in the wrong...
Dubai: Ministries Hindering Development
Dubai-based Keefieboy agrees with Dubai strongman Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoom that the Ministries of Education, Justice and Labour “are hindering the development of the UAE rather than helping it and they need a wholesale re-evaluation of what their roles should be and how they should go about doing...
Arabeyes: What Makes a Good Blog and a Good Doctor?
From discussing what makes a good blog and who is a good doctor, we move to see the reaction of a father whose son is used as a human shield and why a blogger refuses to reply to comments on his blog while he is on holiday as we skim blogs from Tunisia to Kuwait this week.
India: Life, kids and drudgery
The Mad Momma on tailoring life to suit the kids. “Someday they will hear some other mother say that she was bored at home with her children and that it was drudgery.. and my children might wonder if I felt the same about them. I know I would hate to...
Brazil: Federal Police Go On Strike
Sao Paulo-based Ricardo Carreón on Brazil's federal police strike.
Oman: Overworked Doctors
Doctors in Oman are over worked, with some putting in 50 hours of continuous work with no breaks, reports Sleepless in Muscat. “These shifts not only endanger the lives of the patients and the doctors themselves, but also result in the doctors losing out on much needed rest with many...
Bahrain: Transporting Humans?
Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif is enraged that labourers in his country are transported in the back of open trucks, in defiance of an existing law which protects them from being ferried like cattle.
China: Community embraces orphan
Late last month, a husband-wife migrant laborer couple from China's poverty-stricken Henan province working in Beijing killed themselves, leaving two teenage children to fend for themselves. Last week, Beijing-based Sohu blogger Li Yuanyuan took her camera and went to the younger child's school to see how the community has reacted.
Russia, Latvia: April 16 in History
April 16 in history – at De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis: a failed attempt to kill the Russian emperor in 1866; the first Russian trade union is created in 1905; the museum of the red Latvian riflemen opened in Riga in 1970.
Russia: Moscow
“But what makes Moscow that special?” asks The Turkish Invasion. (Definitely not its housing options.)
Saudi Arabia: Maid Gone
Saudi-based blogger Nzingha‘s maid is gone – and she can't hide her happiness. “And I'm so happy she is finally gone. I have learned a few things with this experience, one is that I will never again hesitate in firing a person if it isn't working out,” she writes.
Japan: Salarymen
In case you think a salaryman is the person in the accounting department on whose best side you want to be, the an englishman in osaka blogger brings us photos and metered prose that might clear things up.
Honduras: Real Cost of Bananas
La Gringa, sticking to the theme of working conditions, takes a look at “the real cost of bananas” in Honduras.
Bahrain: Polygamy as a national duty
We start this week with politics, or rather politicians, and the comments of one particular politician that have riled some of Bahrain's bloggers. An Islamist representative urged Bahraini men (some say in jest) to take four wives (three Bahraini and one foreign) to reduce the number of spinsters in the...
Malaysia: Maid Culture in Japan and Malaysia
The blogger at a Japanese popular culture site J-List side blog explains why his daughter was surprised that the maids at a home that they were visiting in Malaysia were cleaning the house.
Myanmar: Blood Diamonds and Myanmar
The movie Blood Diamond reminds blogger Man Actually of his younger mining days in Myanmar. “And being once a miner myself deep in the jungle far north Myanmar's very own Jade Mines, you guess! how this movie would be so special to me..Along with the Archer and Solomon, the whole...
China: Persecuting economic crimes
Capitalism is now officially approved at the Party level, but with otherwise law-abiding small-scale sidewalk sellers nation-wide operating in constant fear and in conflict with (photos) the chengguan (more photos), the urban management forces found in every city, has this ideological thaw trickled down to the streets? Not yet, says...
Honduras: Sweatshop Friendly?
Inspired by a New Zealander blogging about Honduras while in Ireland, “La Gringa” agrees with the description of Honduras as “sweatshop-friendly.”
South Korea: irregular workers
Jamie blogs about an irregular worker sit in action in Ulsan.