Exploting autocracies

Is it right or wrong to exploit autocracies ?

Would you buy certain products from a company or brand if you knew they exploited their employees ?

Would you delibrately buy stocks in a company that you knew where using child labour, extablished in an autocracy or didn’t follow laws and regulations ?

Isn’t this again a clear example of materialism for one but also about ignorance and naivety

why should I care about that

as if that would happen too me…

Peace Prize

For many, many years now the Nobel Prize has been aworded to people that have managed to create something big or dared to be different.

Nobel was Swedish and almost all of his prizes has been recieved in Sweden yet one has been given out in Norway (expect for the Peace Prize…

.Now there’s this debate about allowing the Swedish board to pick the winner for the Peace Prize as well. Some experts say that those who so far has been aworded the Peace Prize wouldn’t have been given it and that it doesn’t correspond to Nobel’s thinking.

Belov a minor selection of previous Peace Prize winners:

1. Tawakel Yarman, Leymah Gbowee, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2011)
2. Liu Xiaobo(2010)
3. Barack Obama (2009)
4. Al Gore, International Committe on Climate Change (2007)
5. Shirin Ebadi (2003)
6. Jimmy Carter (2002)
7. Kofi Annan, United Nations (2001)
8. Kim Dae Jung (2000)
9. International Campain to ban landmines (1996)
10. Yasser Arafat (1994)
11. Nelson Mandela (1993)
12. Aung San Suu Kiu (1991)
13. Mikhail Gorbachev (1990)
14. 14th Dalai Lama (1989)
15. Alva Myrdal (1982)
16. Mother Theresa (1979)
17. Betty Williams (1976)
18. Henry Kissinger (1973)
19. Willy Brandt (1971)
20. Martin Luther King Jr (1964)
21. Dag Hammarsköld (1961)
22. Hjalmar Branting (1921)
23. Woodrow Wilson (1919)
24. Henri La Fontaine (1913)

For a complete list : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_Peace_Prize_laureates

Maybe I’m not the one to judge but do think that all of them really deserved the prize ? And would it really be better if the Swedish Nobel Committee did the nomination instead of Norway ? 

It’s a cultural thing

in some cultures people alters their bodies and even decorates it with tattoos , piercings and plastic surgeries… In other cultures the same things could cause dissaproval because it may be associated with something different. But hey, I confess that I’m no better then anybody else I’m also addicted in this “new” trend… but does it really matter what label your clothes are or if you follow the latest fashion trends?

A high demand causes the price to raise… we all know that, I guess. But isn’t it a bit silly how many some people are willing to spend to decrate their bodies while some people, many I assume might not even have food for the day, children might not be able to attend school and may have to work instead. Many might end up as young brides , and then there are also those who are forced to work for almost nothing…

I guess it’s worth some thinking because it does put things into perspective…

Acta agreement

Acta is supposed to protect us from illegal copies of label goods as well as hackers so far so good… But this actually something that seems to only favour the Western and industrialized world from getting fake goods and illegall copies of copyright material.

But what about the other things that might get affected by this deal, like African people who suffer from AIDS and HIV, can we really expect them to be able to pay as much for the real medication… What will happen to these people now ? These people now risk getting no treatment and the likelihood of an increasing spread of HIV and AIDS is likely to increase even more.  This could mean that HIV and AIDS spread in Africa will begin to increase and more children and infants risk becoming orphans…

Again – is fake copies really such a bad thing, what if it could potentially save a life ? It seems like this law is created as a protection against     fake goods solely for purpose of the West. It’s true that money should matter but is it really such a big deal ?

I wonder what the consequences of this law will bring…

Seen from one perspective this law could be useful, I’m not saying that isn’t. But at the same time it does seem like something that West created to protect their money and themselves from fake goods that obviously isn’t worth as much, Right ?

Crazy things

Have you heard about the Korean women that became addicted to plastic surgery and somehow ended up injecting cooking oil into her face ?

Or about the young man who died while playing a video game and nobody not before his computer time was up… Apparently that unfortunate guy died of heart attack because of a heart condition. But he was way too young…

Or what about the Swedish guys who decided to create a Jeans label with production in North Korea… Apparently they’re called NoKo Jeans… Would you buy them or not ?

And more serious things now; Greece may be forced to leave EMU and return to drachmer… Have you ever been to Greece ?

And Whitney Houston suddenly died, Kevin Costner delivered a speach on her funeral service…

Why do we spend so much time on shallow things like shopping, appearance and things caused by what I think is consumerism which basically is a phenomenon created by the industrialization in the West… Life’s to short to worry about things like that, you never know when life will end…

Do you think it is consumerism or egocentrism that is to blame ?

Overfishing and whaling

In times like these when experts disagree about what you should eat; eat less meat, cut down on fast carbohadrates  (white floor, rice , potatoes & pasta) , eat more protein to burn fat, eat more fish or vegetarian meals… and so on.

Of course fish is healthier than red meat and maybe even chicken. But consumer’s growing demand of fish like cod , tuna, salmon and Baltic herring means that these fishes are overfished and if something doesn’t change they may become endangered species and eventually extinct… Did you know that tuna is overfished because of the increasing popularity of sushi ? There’s supposedly only one fish that still exists and lives in abundance and that would be the monkfish a very ancient fish in fact.

Whales too risk the same destiny as some fishes do even though many environmental organizations have condammed it and many countries thinks it is unlawful there are still two countries that counties to hunt whales. And that would be Japan and democratic Norway…

Electricity, diesel, nuclear power plants

I’m not sure if the same can be said for the rest of the World or Europe alone or if it’s solely Sweden who struggle with this issue every single year. Most Swedes don’t worry about salaries , bills or health related issues. No, far from it!!! Of course we do worry about those things to but a majority of Swedes worries for another thing instead; the electricity price. Weither or not they should adjust it to a fixed rate or have it untied, the fixed rate is better if the winter is expected to be extremely cold while untied rate is generally better as long as you don’t need so much electricity.

What do you worry about every month?

And in Sweden like most countries , we get our electricity from nuclear stations which at least one Swedish politicial party think  are a big issue. Because this party in particular favours a more environmental friendly thinking, with more equaility for men and women. Do you think that nuclear stations are good or bad – in the long run?

For a long time now, many years in fact Swedes have recieved a tax reduction when they have used diesel cars instead for regular cars that runs on petrol. An expert advised the Swedish government to remove the tax reduction because it isn’t needed anymore and it would benefit the Swedish economy if the diesel was available for the same price like petrol.

Would you prefer a diesel car over a petrol car if you could recieve a tax reduction ?

Julian Assange

Mr Julian Assange the creator of Wikileaks has been confined to house arrest since Sweden issued an extradiction order on him because he is accused of rape in Sweden. Some say this is a false accusation made by people who’d like to hurt him or possibly wants to hurt Wikileaks more. Great Britain is still showing no sign on complying to the extradiction order to have him brought to Sweden – to face the charges. Now in Mr Assange’s defense Sweden is in turn accused of having a insecure legal system since the extradiction order didn’t come from a judge but the orders was instead given by a prosecutor. And apparently Sweden isn’t the only European country that has a judge issue extradiction orders , 8 or so other Europan countries does as well.

Is the international extradiction order not to be followed what then ?

Injustice

There’re many injustices in the world, some people have no possibilities to go to bed feeling full, some don’t even have a place to sleep that could call their own. Isn’t it weird that 1/3 of the world’s population have access to most of the world’s resources ?

Some people grow up becoming spoiled , turning into shopoholics and gameaddicts which to me is nothing but a consequence of the industrial world. While others grow up poor, maybe they can’t go to school and get mandatory education and instead have to stay home and help around the house and drop out of school to start working to help earn a living for their family. Poor girls, especially may be even more volnerable compared to boys, because daughter’s to poor families might be pressured into marriage with a much older man.

Many children in the world don’t know anything about peace, maybe they were born into a war so all they know are death and destruction.

Not to long ago it was the memorial day for Fadime Sahindal (who was killed by her own father because she brought disrespect to the family name and didn’t obey her father) also Pela Atroshi had been a victim of the same crime. These two young women all made the Swedish politicians realize that  honour related crimes should be put on agenda as it seemed to be a big problem for girls from other cultures.

Adoptee Search Talk

A somewhat funny video about adoption specifically US adoption with the seeled records.  Intercountry adoption = international adoption does not generally have seeled records but agencies can still prevent adoptees from looking in their files.