Stories about Labor from February, 2010
Russia: Snow and the Gastarbeiter
Photos of some of the aftermath of a record-breaking snowfall in Moscow, as well as musings on whether the Russian capital needs its gastarbeiter or not – at Pictures of Moscow.
Singapore: Foreign workers
According to a finance committee report, Singapore will continue to welcome foreign workers. Foreigners comprise more than a third of Singapore population
The Balkans, Italy: Berlusconi's “Albanian Girls” Comment; Doctored Photo
Balkan Travellers re-posts a Balkan Insight piece about the Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi's comment that “his country would accept only pretty Albanian girls as immigrants.” Belgraded writes about the photoshopped photos of Berlusconi and Slobodan Milosevic: “Fours days after the [doctored] photo was published, Milosevic lost the elections by a...
Japan: A Typical Day
Matt Alt translated a diagram that shows the exaggerated schedules of a “normal” person versus that of a “NEET” (Not Employed, in Education, or Training).
Singapore: Minimum wage
Tan Kin Lian from Singapore argues that a minimum wage will reduce disparity of income in the country
Iran: Bus Drivers Union Calls for Green-Labor Unity
In Ahwaznews, an Iranian blog we read [fa]:”Starting March 6, We the Workers of Vahed Company [bus drivers] Will Wage Acts of Civil Disobedience (or white strike) to Protest the Condition of Mansoor Osanloo in Prison. We Appeal to the Iranian People and to the Democratic Green Movement–of which we...
Russia and Korea: Siberian Timbering
Robert Neff from The Marmot's Hole blogs about Korea's role in the logging of Siberian timber, in particular how North Korean are working as slave loggers in Russia.
China: Increasing Trend in Mass Incidents
Protests, known in Chinese as “mass incidents”, grew fiercer and more violent in 2009, while methods of protest grew in variation, says a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher. In a recent Southern Weekend article Shan Guangnai of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences analyzes new trends in “mass incidents”,...
Japan: Momus, on This Ageing Country
In “Growing old in, and with, Japan” on the Click Opera blog, Nick Currie (aka Momus) lists several points of what could be “a silver lining to Japan's likely silver age” but concludes that realistically, “Japan will get cheaper, smaller, poorer, purer, wiser, more itself.”
Nepal: Gulf Returnees
Migrant Rights Blog writes about the stories of Nepalis who came back home after after a stint working in the Gulf: “for every individual, there is a different story; some are tales of social mobility and achievement, others are tales of exploitation and disappointment.”
