All of us privileged enough to live in the western world benefit in some way from the luxury of our place of birth and our culture. We don't know any different, but our arrogance and whining is pitiful when hard facts vis-à-vis standards of living are a known factor. We care not to focus on obvious injustices with human rights issues as we're dumb enough to think that we can't change anything. We change TV channel if some charity screens a distasteful image and we prefer to submerge our thoughts in the artificiality created in a millionaire soap opera series rather than the omnipresent realities less than a five hour flight away from our cozy apartments. Africa isn't just a place where they have safaris.
If any company were looked at from close quarters you'd find something objectionable, immoral or slightly jaded almost anywhere. It's not always pretty in the commercial world and I can't justify capitalism wholeheartedly although I'm an advocate of it's basic theories. There are a few big winners, some minor winners and the bigger part of the financial pyramid is made up of a bunch of folk willing to accept anything that falls in their direction because they don't have much of a choice. It sucks, but because we're human, we don't all have the same priorities and sharing isn't considered to be the same unilaterally.
You have the choice not to turn a blind eye to outrages commited by your paymaster and resign / fight from within / lobby against. Not much we can do about being microscopic cogs in catastrophic plans other than refuse to play. But that means making principled stands, and well, that Samsung TV is pretty fancy and I like my cabrio Jag and the kids are going to the best school and...
EDIT: I'd say there are more losers than anything else.
So what does Marc Rich have to say about this?
Glencore is certainly not the salvation army.
But at least, they have a HQ in Switzerland and can be held accountable to some point. Does anybody think all those state-owned Chinese companies in that business give a rat's ass about the public opinion in Western Europe?
Do you think they would have gone public unless they wouldn't be prepared to have uncovered any potential "corpses in the basement".
And people should really be more critical of journalists and journalism.
Most have an agenda, too.
I remember when working for the small consulting-company of a friend and he had dug up a "journalist", working for a rather well circulated computer-paper to make an article about IT in general, mentioning our company in the course...
We talked about various stuff and the next day he called and said "Well, this and that is what I'd like to write, can you live with it?"
What he wanted to write was obviously almost 100% the opposite of what I had said and also mostly the opposite of my personal and professional opinion. He had the article probably written already before paying us a visit and just needed to have somebody voice his agenda...
I thought: "Yeah, whatever - nobody is going to read it anyway" and agreed, grudgingly.
A couple of weeks later, another member of our Unix regular's table addressed me on the article and pointed out that it was quite obvious to him that it wasn't my "real" opinion...
To make a long story short:
Think of something, a subject, you really know well yourself, from personal experience.
Then think about how the subject and the details surrounding it are usually represented in the media.
Do you think other subjects (that you may or may not know a lot about) are actually better represented in the media?
Nope, but I expect employees of companies based here to give a rat's ass about the consequences of their efforts beyond their handsome bank accounts. I'm not holding my breath though.
Don't worry about the Journalists. Pointing out their weaknesses is a red herring.
I recently watched a show on pirate oil refiners in the Niger delta. They'd bore holes in oil pipelines, drain oil ("it's ours anyway") and refine it in crude contraptions made of 80gal drums stacked on top of a fireplace. Raw oil was seeping everywhere with nary a thought for "environment" or "work conditions".
Sometimes the locals are just as good as evil multinationals at f*king up their environment.
I am positive that they pay taxes wherever they have
operations as well.
Probably staying schtumm. Down to his last billion apparently and still not about to visit Disneyworld on vacation. Loves his "Israel loves you" T-shirt though.
I used to think that they were good programmes. Then there was a run of such programmes (from different groups, but including Panorama) on topics that I know well, very well. All of a sudden, what they were saying, what they were showing and the conclusions they were drawing didn't seem to fit.
I now view the information provided by these programmes and other documentaries much more critically.
Akin to the thread on the "X-factor being in the news", these shows are there for ratings, and nothing gets good ratings like a bit of drama and sensationalism. Shame it has to spill over into what is meant to be fact-based, unbiased reporting.
Yes, IIRC around 1M USD for the whole Congo operations in 2011. 1M USD... that's about the bonus of 2-3 Baar employees.
I believe the cost of living in the Congo is slightly cheaper than in Baar. I could be wrong though.
hahahahaha I love this thread, so full of hypocrites, you all hate these multinationals yet you live and work in a country that is one of the biggest beneficiaries of said companies, and as most expats here work these companies it just makes it even funnier. If you hate the system that much then put your money where your mouth is, resign, leave switzerland, go and help out the 3rd world people.
Ahhh... this explains why they settled down HQ's in Baar despite having operations in Congo. Helping the local tax authorities to deal with expensive live in Baar, how kind.
groan away gva, as you have not filled in your profile then I don't know if you are swiss or an expat, if you are swiss then do something about it, get the 100k signatures and force a vote, if your an expat then your benefiting from companies like glencore, don't like it, move on.
There is greater immediate consequences to them then pollution. You should read how many times after doing that they have accidentally ignited the stuff and instantaneously killed all the people anywhere near that pipe.
Also...the Nigerian river delta is far more polluted from companies like SHELL then the few boring holes. SHELL in the past has gotten more away with any kind of destruction there the these so-called pirates. SHELL has had been implicated in the execution for matter of treason, when SHELL protestors of pollution were arrested, and given a trial for treason. When SHELL representatives told those found guilty to guarantee they would cease to stop protesting them, and they refused they were executed. Almost 18 years later SHELL agreed to pay out the families of the executed men.
These Nigerian Rebels/terrorists/pirates-ARE NOT. SHELL has been a monster in that part of the world.
I do not work for any profit-making company.
I have nothing against location competition, up to a given point, where some common standards are respected.
The point of this thread is precisely the hypocrisy of some companies who allow for child labour on one side, make billions in benefits which are money-laundered at reduced tax level elsewhere in the world.
you live in a country that got rich, and has kept rich on dodgy money etc where do you think that money comes from?? just because you don't work directly for one of these companies doesn't mean you don't benefit from them. you take all the benefits from living in a 'first world' country but none of the responsibility, hypocritical no?
Another very lame bit of Journalism from John Sweeney. I like the way they had to rush this out before the new plant that Glencore have built in DRC, stops all future acid polution. Just so that this part of the Story still had an element of truth to it. This apparently goes live in the next week or 2. (Zug 4 You article) Lets put this into context. The site is 50 years old and bought by Glencore 3 years ago. It has been pumping pollutants into the environment for the last 50 years. Since buying the site, they have renovated the complete site to stop the problem.
While not angels, I would have said that this showed some of the positive actions of Multinational mining companies. Still, I am waiting for the Authorities to oust the squatters from their mine in the DRC and then everyone can jump on 'How disgraceful' band wagon and attack them for the mindless and Brutal oppression of the local tribes. I guess Mr Glasenberg will smile and say "But you wanted us to stop the child labour?"
The only positive about this is that it keeps the issue in the public eye and may pressure all Mining and commodity companies to follow a more ethical line. Shame Panaorama where unable to produce a balanced program!
I don't support child work, far away from it, I really wish it didn't exist. But sadly it does and it is sometimes necessary. Those kids are working to bring money home. If the parents were able to get more money themselves, they would.
As long as the governements of those countries don't take proper care of their populations, not much will be done. If those governments weren't so much corrupted...
I am absolutely positive that you are privy to tax dealing of Glencore
in Congo and other countries. Please.