· May, 2007

Stories about Labor from May, 2007

Syria: A Letter from a Syrian Worker in Lebanon

Golaniya posted a letter from a Syrian Worker in Lebanon. “In Lebanon, our hopes are now starting to flee away. We are outcasts. We receive all kinds of cursing and swearing from people. We sometimes got hit and killed. This happens when politicians, deliberately and non deliberately, make their loaded...

Kuwait: Pedicure Bliss

Ansam from Kuwait announces the launch of a new service – a pedicure service done right in the convenience of your home. “This is amazing… specially for Kuwaiti people! We like to have everything at our doorsteps!” she notes.

Oman: Minimum Wage and Omanisation

Omani blogger Suburban questions the effectiveness of setting an Omanization quota for corporations in order to reduce the reliance on expatriate labour and provide greater work opportunities for Omani national citizens. Suburban argues that the stringent rules for laying off non-performing Omani employees along with the proposed increase in the...

Jordan: Woman Chief of Court Appointed

Jordanian blogger Tololy announces the appointment of a woman chief of court in her country. “Good news; now we have women police officers, nurses, doctors, engineers, journalists, garbage-truck drivers, professors, teachers, mini-Sheikhs, nuns (obviously), managers, ministers, parliament members, and chiefs of court,” she notes.

Hong Kong: A Mall in Central

  29 May 2007

Chia ching, a mainland Chinese reporter, wrote in her blog that IFC (international financial center) is a mall in central Hong Kong (zh). It has been raining for at least 4 hours and the workers have been standing and working outside the mall for 4 hours, drying the floor which...

Bahrain: The ‘two seas’ are now a concrete jungle

From 'blog wars' to work ethics, the Bahraini blogosphere is bubbling with new ideas and excitement. Ayesha Saldanha sheds more light on discussions taking place this week about Bahrain's jungle of concrete, compensation for the victims of the capsized Al Dana dhow, the historic Bab Al Bahrain (Bahrain Gateway) and much more.

Bahrain: Minimum Wage

“Increasing the minimum salary will only be a temporary solution against families and individuals that are being affected by inflation, but this will only be done by dropping employment opportunities and decreasing the quality of the work experience for those very workers affected – and is hardly a reason to...

Singapore's Myanmarese Go Online for Double Taxation Petition

  26 May 2007

Myanmar residents abroad have to pay an additional tax to the Myanmar government in addition to the tax they pay in their host countries. Failure to pay this this tax results in Myanmar embassy denying them consular services. Myanmarese residents in Singapore are using their blogs and other online means to get support for a petition to avoid this double taxation.

Bangladesh: No under-30 maids to the Gulf

  25 May 2007

a bengali in TO points to a recent move in India banning women under 30 to work as maids in the Gulf. “Renuka Chowdhury, the Indian minister of women and child development, has called for a ban on women under 30 to work as maids in the Gulf in a...

Arabeyes: Breast-Feeding Dilemma

Imagine having to breast feed your colleague at work - five times - to ensure that your relationship remains professional! This is the fatwa (religious edict) that had Arab and Muslim bloggers buzzing with excitement and anger this week. Read the rest of the article to see how some of the region's bloggers reacted to the ruling, which has since been withdrawn.

Japan: Bridging the Generation Gap

  22 May 2007

What with all the news last week of beheadings, shoot-outs and baby dumping — and subsequent soul-searching on the part of Japanese bloggers, at a loss for what to make of the nation's younger generation — I felt that it would be appropriate this week to highlight a slightly more...

Russia: “Discrimination”

It sometimes takes more than money and time to have your computer fixed in Moscow: good looks, lots of patience and a special sense of humor may prove helpful as well. LJ user kmaka reports on a recent conversation with a technical support service representative.

Puerto Rico: Leadership

  17 May 2007

“What happens when you have managers that will not extract opinions from employees AND employees that are so deferential they will not offer them”: El Gringoqueno thinks he has identified the simple problem with Puerto Rico.

Iran:Ahmadinejad,Worker and a Bitter Joke

Leonlog says[Fa] once Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,Iranian president, was visiting a factory where a worker told him that there is a long distance between her home and factory and employer does not pay for workers’ transport.According to the blogger,Ahmadinejad told her a bitter joke ” do you want we bring factory close...

South Korea: FTA Renegotiation?

  15 May 2007

Jamie from Two Koreas quotes from local newspapers on the possibility that the Kor-US FTA will have to be re-negotiated to better take into consideration a number of labour and environmental issues.

Europe: Balkan Blogs on Eurovision

A small roundup of the Eurovision-related posts from the Balkans: Pustolovina: Adventure in Serbian writes on the victory for the “new Serbia” and on “a night of belonging”; East Ethnia writes on the complex politics behind this year's Serbian winner Marija Serifovic; Bosnia Vault writes about the contest's youngest participant...

Japan: Japanese 30-somethings not happy

  14 May 2007

shigeto2004 refers to and gives an analysis on the result of an online survey conducted by Japanese newspaper Yomiuri on workers in their 30s. This entry is followed by an active thread of responses. [Ja]