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…

Obama’s contender

Has the time come for a political change in the US ? Barack Obama is not as popular anymore and have supposedly lost many votes, because he might no have been ble to keep his end of the deal so to say. But then could anyone make big pomises and always deliver on them ? Isn’t a president’s job supposed to be difficult for a reason, how would it be if anybody would be able to become a president of the US…

The Republican’s candidate likely to be the next contender for the US presidential post is Mitt Romney. The Us election will be held later this year in November… Who do you think will win between Barack and Romney ?

Adoptees deported by the US

Did you know that the US had no law that naturally made US adoptees gain US citizensip – not unil 2001 such a law was established. However it didn’t include adult adoptees, adoptees that was adopted prior to 2001 and those adoptees can sometimes be deported ack to their birth country. IF they commit a legal offense, is inprisoned or found guilty for a minor offense.

At least 3 Korean adoptees have been deported back to Korea, but the US government says that many adoptees have been subjected to deportation back to their birth countries. Apparently US adoptees are generally not aware of that their citizenship still is kept while they are adopted to the US.

Moral ethics and legal settlements

The Swedish government are seriously contemplating aiding a Saudi missil factory with arms its called Project Simoom and was established as early as 2007… Do you think its allright for Sweden to participate in a cooperation like this ?

BP who has been found liable for the Deepwater Horizon accident, off an oil leak of enormous proportions have reached a settlement but the trail is still to held. And estimates that the accident will cost BP 37 – 38 million dollars. Two of the part owners in BP are Andarko Petrolium and Misui & Co while Cameron International and Schlumberger was involved in the drainage of the oil.

The sentence for the Norwegian man who commited Norway’s first terror crime in modern history has been completed and he is to be tried for terror crimes and is apparently awaiting a 21 years inprisonment or lifelong treatment. This case is extraordinary for Norway because as many as 77 people lost their lives in on of the attacks and 4 other people also died in a attack linked to the first one.

Rumors

North Korea announced a while ago that they are focused on continuing their military practice (which they do on a regular basis). Now, they say they will end their nuclear programme… A total 180 degrees turn around, personally I’m not convinced…

Serbia have been accepted as EU candidate for future acceptance… and Croatia is to be EU’s 28th member state… And it seems like Iceland is contemplating changing their currency to dollars…

Bradley Manning, Svetlana Gannushinka, Yulia Tymoshenko, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Helmut Kohl. What do they all have in common ? Well, they seem to all have nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize…

The Oscar gala of 2012

This years Oscar’s winners were as follows;

• Best Picture – The Artist (Michael Langmann)
• Best Director – Michael Hazanaivcius
• Best Actor –  Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
• Best Actress – Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
• Best Supporting Actor – Christopher Plummer (The Beginners)
• Best Supporting Actress – Octavia Paz (The Help)
• Best Writing Original Screenplay – Midnight In Paris (Woody Allen)
• Best Writing Adapted Screenplay -The Decendants  (Alexander Payne,Nat Faxon, Jim Rash)
• Best Animated Feature – Rango (Gore Verbinski)
• Best Foreign Language Film – A Separation (Iran) Asghar Fardi
• Best Documentary Feature –  Undefeated (TJ Martin, Dan Linday, Richard Middlemas)
• Best Documentray Short Subject – Saving Face (Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy , DanielJunge)
• Best Live Action Short Film – The Shore (Terry George, Oorlagh George)
• Best Animated Short Film – The Fantastic flying Books Of Mr Morris Lessmore (William Joyce, Brandon Oldenburg)
• Best Original Score – The Artist (Ludovic Bource)
• Best Original Song – Man Or Muppet (The Muppets) Bret Mackenzie
• Best Sound Editing- Hugo (Phillip Stockton, Eugene Gearty)
• Best Sound Mixing -Hugo (Tom Fleishman,John Midgley)
• Best  Art Direction – Hugo (Dante Ferretti, Franceska Lo Schiavo)
• Best Cinematography – Hugo (Robert Richardson)
• Best Makeup – The Iron Lady (Mark Coulier, J.Roy Helandf)
• Best Costume Design – The Artist (Mark Bridges)
• Best Film Editing – The Girl With The Dragoon Tattoo (Angus wall, Kirk Baxter)
• Best Visual Effects – Hugo (Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, Alex Henning)

Do you follow aword ceremonies like the Oscar Gala, The Grammy Awords and the MTV Awords ? Do you care about who wins or not? Personally I think that’s good that these talented people get some kind of reword and recognition for their hard work and efforts. But I do think that society should raise the salaries for some vocations like teaching, health care, legal system and security. 

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…

Lost generation

Less children these days are involved in sporting activites nevermind, that some of them are more expensive then others like ice hockey, soccer, tennis or golf.  Instead of plying soccer with your friends after school children nowadays seems more likely to stay indoors locked up in their rooms occupied with computer games. There’s no need to met and play with your friends in person not when you can hook up online and if you ever would need to talk with them you could call or text them or why not use Skype…

This is a problem of increasing concern since many sport clubs are having to tackle the problem of fewer people = less income. How are you supposed to get the younger generations still not in their teens interested in sports and outdoor activites ? X – Box 360 or Playstation doesn’t count as a sport activity at least not now…

Will we have no more Wayne Gretzky’s, Maradonas, Tiger Woods or Ian Thurpe’s ???

Is this a problem linked to the fastfood’s growing popularity, the current reccession, the lack of time or the fact that technology and computer games these days are much more advanced ?

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 ?