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R e f l e c t i o n s & O b s e r v a t i o n s
US out of Iraq – Questions to answer
Myanman returns to market A fresh look at globalisation
FEBRUARY 2012
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editorial
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Fracking and Myanmar –underground riches
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The example of US forces withdrawing from Iraq in December is further proof of this hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens killed and over four thousand US forces also fatalities.
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A new year doesn’t bring new issues, or concerns (unless it is fracking) just the same old, same old which keeps on bothering the hell out of Mother Earth. We still have unrest in the Middle East in one form or another and next year will be the same. The Arab Spring is well underway with a few more dictators still to be overthrown and lots of people killed and society structures decimated as it continues. The example of US forces withdrawing from Iraq in December is further proof of this – hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens killed and over four thousand US forces also fatalities. This campaign – a waste of life, criminally entered into and conceived – was just an example of power. Of Bush, Blair, Howard and their allies’ unrelenting campaign to control the energy reserves and make money. Rumsfeld, Rice and a host of other people knew there were no weapons of mass destruction and yet none of them are answerable. I suppose a positive note is Myanmar’s opening up to the world (Page 5) indicating that they want a normalcy about their lives which has not existed for a long time. Think North Korea and undoing the knot around the throat of the people. The opportunities for development that will come out of this mineral rich country will make a lot of caterpillar and tractor people very happy as they set about developing the infrastructure. The pockets of the generals are sure to benefit making the recent indications of ‘fair elections’ very welcome indeed. And then there is Fracking (read about it on Page 26) – horizontal drilling into metals to release energy – which is on everybody’s mind, or so it seems. This technology actually multiplies the world’s supply of natural gas which emits less in the way of greenhouse gases when being burnt than other carbon fuels.
contents Summit explored decommoditisation.
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Toward a cultural community in NE Asia.
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Jump Start - the experience of being alive.
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Uzbek cotton: Time to drive child labour from value chains.
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Natural gas: Getting fractious over fracking.
Reflections and Observations
the Mirror’s Faces MANAGING EDITOR Doug Green RESEARCH WORDS PRODUCTION & DESIGN Karl Grant ADMINISTRATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS Media Hawkes Bay Ltd
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US out of Iraq –lots of questions to answer
One of the most convoluted wars in history for America, its coalition parties and the Middle East ceased in December of last year following the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. And isn’t there a lot to answer to?
The second President Bush and former Prime Minister Blair of the United Kingdom really concocted a great reason to rid the world of Sadam Hussein and destroy his’ weapons of mass destruction’. This false illusion caused the social destruction of a country and many of its people and the deaths of thousands of coalition forces who died believing they were doing good for their country. Again we have a tragic clean up on our hands; a nation rebuilding its shattered infrastructure through continuing civil unrest and the nations where the forces came from wondering if it was even a little worthwhile. An international disgrace of the highest order with plenty of people worthy of being charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity. The withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq has been a contentious issue within the United States since the beginning of the Iraq War. As the war has progressed from its initial 2003 invasion phase to a multi-year occupation, U.S. public opinion has turned in favour of troop withdrawal. As of May 2007, 55 percent of Americans believed that the Iraq war was a mistake, and 51 percent of registered voters favoured troop withdrawal.
of setting a timetable for withdrawal. However, in this area responses can vary widely with the exact wording of the question. Surveys found that most preferred a gradual withdrawal over time to an immediate pullout.
2004 U.S. Presidential election The issue was one on which John Kerry and George W. Bush differed in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Kerry said in August 2004 that he would make the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq a goal of his first presidential term. However, he did not offer a deadline or a timetable, and proposed an increase in deployment size in the immediate future. In the debate, he said that he reiterated that withdrawal was a goal, if an initial troop increase works. In the debate, Bush did not offer any timetable or estimate of troops, either increasing or decreasing, but said only that the commanders of the troops in Iraq had the ability to ask for whatever force they needed.
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Again we have a tragic clean up on our hands; a nation rebuilding its shattered infrastructure through continuing civil unrest.
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In general, this is consistent with his earlier remarks. When questioned about troop strength, Bush and then-Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld said that they were using the troops asked for by the general staff.
Congressional proposals and acts On 17 November 2005, Representative John Murtha introduced H.J.Res. 73, a
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In late April 2007, the U.S. Congress passed a supplementary spending bill for Iraq that sets a deadline for troop withdrawal, but President Bush vetoed this bill soon afterwards. All US Forces were mandated to withdraw from Iraqi territory by December 31, 2011 under the terms of a bilateral agreement signed in 2008 by President Bush. The U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq was completed on December 18, 2011 early Sunday morning. Immediately before and after the 2003 invasion, most polls within the United States showed a substantial majority supporting war; though since December 2004 polls have consistently shown that a majority now thinks the invasion was a mistake. In the spring of 2007, surveys generally showed a majority in favour www.themirrorinspires.com
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The three largest coalitions which organised demonstrations against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), and Not in Our Name (NION), all called for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops.
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resolution calling for U.S. forces in Iraq to be “redeployed at the earliest practicable date” to stand as a quick-reaction force in U.S. bases in neighbouring countries such as Kuwait. In response, Republicans proposed a resolution that “the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately,” without any provision for redeployment, which was voted down 403–3. On 16 June 2006, the House voted 256– 153 in a non-binding resolution against establishing a deadline for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Republican then-House Majority Leader John Boehner, who argued against a deadline, stated “achieving victory is our only option”, and “we must not shy away”. On the other hand, Democratic then-House Minority Leader and current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi argued that a deadline is necessary, and stated “’stay the course’ is not a strategy, it’s a slogan”, and “it’s time to face the facts.” On 27 March 2007, Congress passed H.R. 1591, which called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq by March 2008. However, President Bush vetoed the bill
and the House of Representatives failed to override the veto. Congress then passed H.R. 2206, which provided funding for the Iraq War through 30 September 2007 and was signed into law by President Bush on 25 May 2007. On 9 May 2007, Representative Jim McGovern introduced H.R. 2237 to the House: “To provide for the redeployment of United States Armed Forces and defence contractors from Iraq.” The bill failed with a vote of 255 to 171. On 12 July 2007 the House passed H.R. 2956 by a vote of 223 to 201, for redeployment (or withdrawal) of U.S. armed forces out of Iraq. The resolution required most troops to withdraw from Iraq by 1 April 2008. On 18 July 2007, after an all-night debate, the Senate blocked the passage of a bill that would have set a troop withdrawal timetable with a vote of 52–47.
McGovern-Polk proposal Former U.S. Senator George McGovern and William R. Polk, director of the University of Chicago Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, published a detailed proposal for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in their book, Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now. A sizable excerpt was published in the October 2006 edition of Harper’s magazine. This plan was completely abandoned The three largest coalitions which organised demonstrations against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), and Not in Our Name (NION), all called for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops, “out now.” The anti-war movement debated whether to support existing proposals in Congress. The UFPJ legislative working group endorsed Murtha’s redeployment proposal “because it is a powerful vehicle to begin the debate on the war,” though the organisation as a whole has not taken a position. On the other hand, “Murtha has not adopted an antiwar position. He wants to redeploy militarily to strengthen the hand of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East.”
Burner Plan The Burner Plan, formally entitled A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, was a 36-page policy paper presented 17 March 2008 by Darcy Burner and www.themirrorinspires.com
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Burma returns to market
Along the Rangoon River, where tigers and elephants once roamed, two 12-yearold boys dig through heaps of brick and debris, looking for metal to sell. “Money,” says one, thrusting a fistful of antique reinforcing bar at me. The other stoops to the ground and hits the ReBar with a small hammer, breaking apart the mortar that once held the slender rod in its place. Almost overnight, a colonial-era wall, dividing the river from the city, was demolished. Those who need money the most have come to pick through the rubble at dawn. When the Myanmar Port Authority announced unprecedented dredging of the Rangoon River in early 2011, a contract to widen the Strand Road quickly followed. It was a vital link connecting timber farmed upcountry to waterways that carry the wood away, and has long facilitated the export of this precious resource. The road was built by the British nearly 150 years ago, and is the city grid’s southern anchor — a line laid down along a faraway river to make “order” seem part of nature. It was the last land stop for the colony’s exotic exports. Today, the road is too old and too narrow to bear the weight of Burma’s predicted export upswing. Thus the multi-million-dollar upgrade, adding as many as 10 additional lanes in high-traffic areas. Soon the number of boats docking in Rangoon (now Yangon) will treble. Individual cargo limits will rise from 15,000 tons to 35,000 tons of deadweight per vessel. With the dredging, the port of Rangoon, the link between upper Burma and the lower Irrawaddy regions, will become vital once again. In the 1920s and 1930s Rangoon was the second busiest immigration port in the world, trailing only New York City. Indian, Bengali, Armenian and European workers and merchants arrived in astounding numbers, hoping to make their fortunes in Burma. Parochial schools popped up overnight like a healthy fungus. Department stores opened. Stained glass and hand pressed ceramic tiles were imported, wrought iron lifts installed. But unlike New York, Rangoon fell into
by Elizabeth Rush
the boom and bust cycle that defines so many of the 20th century’s great cities.
Burma’s new plans Britain pulled out, the economy faltered, and a military dictatorship attempted to reassemble only what the threat of violence could unite. History shrugged and turned away. In 2010 a scanty 297,000 tourists arrived at Rangoon International Airport. The actual number of people emigrating is negligible. Today, Burma is the poorest country in South Asia. But if the new Strand Road tells us anything it’s this: Burma is making plans to re-enter the international arena. Six years ago, when the Rangoon City Development Committee (YCDC) released their strategic development plan, they earmarked the Strand Road as a heritage and conservation zone. The development plan suggested relocating the majority of port functions south to Thilawa (25km outside of the city), turning Rangoon’s reclaimed waterfront into a pedestrian promenade, and refurbishing the historic buildings lining the northern side of the road. When asked how the road could go from being a historic district to an export superhighway, the then director of building for the YCDC answered strategically: “The Strand Road is now only for, how shall I put it, transport… we hope it helps facilitate growth for medium and heavy industry.” Already the road is flanked by billboards — for Max Cola, New Zealand Milk Powder, Samsung, Herbal Shampoo, and Gold Roast Coffee Mix — targeting Burma’s growing middle class. The number of teenagers with income enough to purchase Rancid T-shirts is on the rise. But somewhere beyond the seductive power of plastic tchotchkes and imported television programmes, Burma’s future waits. Asia World Co Ltd, a conglomerate through which a surprising percentage of Chinese investment enters the country — with projects from the Sino-Burmese oil and gas pipeline to the recently halted Myitsone dam, and a deep-sea
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Six years ago the colonialbuilt Strand Road in Rangoon was scheduled to become a historic district down by the river. Right now, it’s an improvised boardwalk, a place of construction and modest fun. Next year, it’ll be a multilane export superhighway. As it goes, so does Burma.
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A wider Strand means an accelerated flow of commodities through the Port of Rangoon and an exponential rise in Asia World’s profits.
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Below: US Secretary of State, met recently with Aung San Suu Kyi.
port in Kyaukpyu — paid for the Strand’s extension. Over 40% of Rangoon’s container trade moves through Asia World wharves. A wider Strand means an accelerated flow of commodities through the Port of Rangoon and an exponential rise in Asia World’s profits. With a fivefold increase in freight handling predicted, Asia World (run by Steven Law, perhaps the second wealthiest man in the country) stands to make an absurd amount of money.
they are all about foreign money and we don’t see much of it.” While the road receives extraordinary attention, little is done to update the sporadic electricity supply or the century old sewage system. Every day young boys — wearing soccer shorts and nothing else — unclog the roadside troughs by hand.
’These changes don’t touch the people’
Mounds of black muck affront the passers-by until another municipal worker, pushing a wheelbarrow, comes to cart it away. Half a block to the south, water is hosed over the fresh concrete on the new Strand Road, making the mixture set faster than if it were left alone.
Despite intermittent attempts to deny the connection, Rangoon’s residents know Asia World is managing the road’s expansion. Public opinion about the project is unanimously nonchalant. Even though it’s uncommon that any aspect of the infrastructure is overhauled, no one exhibits pride over this rare blip on Rangoon’s municipal radar. A librarian, U Zaw Win, said of the expansion: “These changes really don’t touch the people,
The offloading of this postage-stampsized country’s material wealth is no news. What comes from Burma’s soil — rubies, gold, copper, opium, teak — has long been lusted after overseas. But the rate at which these materials leave is rising. Over the last two decades, the junta slowly implemented an open-market policy, leading to a tenfold increase in trade. Capital from China, Korea, India, and many Asean (Association of Southeast Asian
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theEMirrorE Nations) countries flooded in and Burma’s resources flowed out. But if investment is the word of the day, then courting it from all corners of the globe has driven recent, progressive social changes. In November 2010 Burma held its first public election in nearly two decades. The process was hardly democratic — Aung San Suu Kyi, representative of the historic opposition and Nobel peace prize laureate, was banned from participating, and rumours circulated about the ballots being rigged. Yet in 2011 parliament met, and to everyone’s surprise those “elected” acted as accountable to those whose votes they had won. More shocking, journalists were allowed to sit in on the second round of proceedings in August.
Starting to level things In September 2011 the government instigated a “cash for clunkers” plan. Turn in a car built over 40 years ago and receive a voucher halving the exorbitant import taxes that make a new car unattainable for most. It may not seem democratic, but it begins to level things. Owning a car built after 1971 is no longer a privilege reserved only for those with the extraordinary wealth that comes from government favouritism. Six thousand prisoners were recently released, some of them political dissidents. And President U Thein Sein halted the controversial Myitsone Dam project. The reason? Damming the sacred Irrawaddy River “is contrary to the will of the people”. Some understand the recent developments as representative of the new president’s unabashed desire to display his power; others see the dollar signs flashing in the ex-general-turned-politician’s eyes. Intellectuals rejoice over relative — if untested — freedom from fear for political dissidents, while most display a reserved casualness about whole affair. It will take more than a few fast drops in a bucket to make people hopeful after 20 years of military rule. Their inner lives, their expectations, their hopes for their families and their futures: these the people of Burma have long kept in check so that they might not be disappointed every day. These are the worlds few are willing to hand over without a real and lasting transformation. If Burma is positioning itself to attract investment from areas of the world that have long supported sanctions, who will
reap the potential benefits? Who besides the cronies who bought over 80% of the state’s assets in a fire-sale auction on the eve of the 2010 elections — everything from ice factories to petrol stations; besides Tay Zaw and his Htoo group (property development, shipping, mining, hotels and tourism), and Stephen Law and Asia World, and Chevron (one of the few US corporations operating in Burma despite sanctions); and besides the Korean and Chinese developers erecting condominiums in Rangoon with relative, break-neck speed.
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If Burma is positioning itself to attract investment from areas of the world that have long supported sanctions, who will reap the potential benefits? Who besides the cronies who bought over 80% of the state’s assets in a fire-sale auction on the eve of the 2010 elections.
Might the West again begin to make a buck in this far corner of the globe? According to The New York Times, Caterpillar, the US-owned bellwether of potential international investment, met members of Burma’s trade bureau last summer to discuss business opportunities. The IMF last autumn concluded a fortnight’s mission to Burma, investigating exchange rate policies and international payment and transfer protocols. As Burma re-enters the world, it will slowly disentangle itself from historical appearances. Soon this country will no longer seem so remote and so brutal. Let us consider the possibility that with our increased investment the people of Burma might not only be guaranteed a decent wage and imported soda, but a livelihood, once the teak is felled and the rubies set in gold.
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In Rangoon, construction of the Strand Road slowed with the monsoon season. In the evening, the half-finished road filled with impromptu soccer games and the chatter of couples strolling. Electricity flickered on and off, televisions were rolled outside, generators whirred, and people gathered at small plastic tables to drink tea, eat fried gourds and watch Korean soaps. The city perched on the edge of the unknown. When the road is finished, the improvised boardwalk will close. The patter of bare soles on concrete will be replaced with the rumble of eighteenwheelers. “Teak,” says Moe War Than, a Burmese intellectual: “the money reaped from its shipping was once the driving force behind colonisation. Today it is the same old problem, but with a new ruling party.”
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other 2008 Democratic congressional candidates, in cooperation with some retired national security officials. The plan outlined policy measures the candidates pledged to support in the United States presidential election, 2008.
2008 U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces
bilateral Agreement With the In 2008, the US and Iraqi government collapse signed the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces of the Agreement which implements that all discussions US forces would withdraw from Iraqi cities by 30 June 2009 and that All US about Forces would be mandated to withdraw extending from Iraqi territory by 31 December 2011 under the terms of a bilateral agreement. the stay of On 14 December 2008, then-U.S. any U.S. President George W. Bush signed the troops, on 21 security pact with Iraq. In his fourth and October 2011, final trip to Iraq, the president appeared with Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki President and said more work is to be done. Obama President Obama’s speech on 27 announced February 2009 the full On 27 February 2009, at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, withdrawal President Barack Obama announced a of troops deadline for the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq. According to the from Iraq as president, by 31 August 2010, after nearly scheduled seven and a half years of United States military engagement in Iraq, all but a before.
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“transitional force” of 35,000 to 50,000 troops would be withdrawn from the Middle Eastern nation.
President Obama defined the task of the transitional force as “training, equipping, and advising Iraqi Security Forces as long as they remain nonsectarian; conducting targeted counterterrorism missions; and protecting our ongoing civilian and military efforts within Iraq”.
August 2010 partial withdrawal On 19 August 2010, the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division was the last US combat brigade to withdraw from Iraq. About 50,000 US troops were to remain in the country in an advisory capacity. According to the US, to help train Iraqi forces in a new mission dubbed by the US as “Operation New Dawn,” which ran until the end of 2011. The mission that ended 19 August 2010 was dubbed by the US as “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” at a projected cost of more than $900 billion and 4,415 US troops killed in action. Over 100,000 Iraqi civilians were www.themirrorinspires.com
estimated to be killed, according to the Iraq Body Count website. President Obama announced the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom in his Oval Office address on 31 August 2010. With the collapse of the discussions about extending the stay of any U.S. troops, on 21 October 2011, President Obama announced the full withdrawal of troops from Iraq as scheduled before. The U.S. retains an embassy in Baghdad and two consulates with around 4,000 to 5,000 State Department employees. President Obama and al-Maliki outlined a broad agenda for post-war cooperation without American troops in Iraq during a joint press conference on 12 December 2011 at the White House. This agenda includes cooperation on energy, trade and education as well as cooperation in security, counter-terrorism, economic development and strengthening Iraq’s institutions. Both leaders said their countries will maintain strong security, diplomatic and economic ties after the last U.S. combat forces withdraw at the end of 2011. President Barack Obama paid tribute to the troops who served in Iraq on 14 December 2011, at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina. As the last of the American troops prepared to exit Iraq, he said the United States was leaving behind a “sovereign, stable and self-reliant” Iraq. On 15 December only 4,000 U.S troops remained in Iraq. The latest 500 soldiers left Iraq to Kuwait under cover of darkness and under strict secrecy. The United States has one remaining soldier, Staff Sergeant Ahmed K. Altaie, still missing in Iraq since 23 October 2006, and has offered a $50,000 reward for his recovery. ❙
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Is globalisation on the retreat in 2012?
During the past two years, the world has experienced its deepest economic crisis since the 1930s. But – despite the fears of many experts – there has been no major outbreak of protectionism. Globalisation, the economic and political mega-trend of the past three decades, is still firmly in place. However, when Barack Obama visited India, the US president warned his hosts that the debate about globalisation has re-opened in the west. The reasons for this are obvious. The western world has come out of the Great Recession in much worse shape than emerging powers. In the US, unemployment is still hovering close to 10 per cent. The European Union is faced with a rolling sovereign debt crisis and social unrest. The western powers can feel themselves losing economic and political strength, relative to the emerging world. Americans and Europeans are increasingly ill at ease with the “new world order” that emerged after the end of the cold war. As a consequence, a backlash against globalisation is forming – and it is likely to grow in strength. “Globalisation” involves the erosion of national barriers to the free flow of goods, capital and people. That process has accelerated during the past 30 years, as international trade, cross-border investment and migration have all boomed. But the pressure to reimpose barriers in all three areas is now growing in advanced economies. The backlash against immigration is particularly visible in Europe. In Britain, the new coalition government has promised to reduce the number of immigrants from hundreds of thousands a year to tens of thousands. International banks and multinational companies are already complaining that their businesses are being badly affected. Over the past year anti-immigration parties have made breakthroughs in the Netherlands and Sweden – and a book lambasting the cultural effects of immigration has become a huge bestseller in Germany. In the US, the populist Tea Party movement has increased the pressure to crack down on illegal immigration from Mexico. The re-regulation of capital movements is also moving up the international agenda, amid talk of a “global currency war”. As all the world’s major powers seek to export their way out of economic trouble, so tensions have grown.
America complains that China is deliberately undervaluing its currency to maintain a vast trade surplus that is contributing to US unemployment. The Chinese retort that the US is printing money in an effort to drive down the dollar. Questions about the future of the euro have raised the spectre that capital controls might one day have to be reimposed within Europe, as part of a managed effort to break up the single currency. On a more minor, but practical level, some emerging markets – most notably Brazil – imposed controls on inflows of “hot money” last year, to prevent their currencies being boosted to hopelessly uncompetitive levels. Since a new global compact on currencies is unlikely in 2011, this trend is likely to gather momentum. The most watched development, of course, is the threat of trade protectionism. Free-traders could get something to cheer in 2011, with the passage of a US-South Korean trade agreement. But the most important trading relationship in the world is that between the US and China – the world’s two largest economies – and here the auguries are much less promising. Last September, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow US companies to petition for duties to be imposed on Chinese goods, in retaliation for China’s currency policy. The bill may not make it into law this year. But whatever the fate of particular pieces of legislation, the overall conditions for a growth in protectionist sentiment are liable to strengthen during the course of 2011. The Chinese show little sign of making the concessions on currency that would change American minds. US unemployment remains stubbornly high. And protectionism as an economic philosophy is being gradually rehabilitated, as leading economists increasingly argue that tariffs can be a justified response to “mercantilist” policies, such as those China is accused of. Globalisation prospered and took root during a period when all the world’s major powers were experiencing strong economic growth. It is threatened by a new world, in which emerging powers are palpably doing much better than the established economies of the west. The threat to globalisation will grow unless and until there is a co-ordinated global recovery. ❙
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Despite the fears of many experts – there has been no major outbreak of protectionism. Globalisation, the economic and political mega-trend of the past three decades, is still firmly in place.
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Summit explored de-commoditisation
Fair trade is popular because it creates positive social impacts, whilst organic is considered a highly ecological form of production.
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Below: Sustainable development a major focus of summit.
The de-commoditisation of food ingredients by sustainable development was a major focus of the Sustainable Foods Summit (www. sustainablefoodssummit.com), which took place in San Francisco on 17-18th January 2012. Growing consumer demand for sustainable products is leading many ingredients to become de-commoditized. A growing share of food commodities – such as coffee, tea and bananas - are now marketed as value-added (sustainable) products. Organic Monitor finds the same development is now occurring for ingredients. Sustainable ingredients are gaining currency as growers look at valueadded production methods to raise income, whilst food & beverage companies consider ways to reduce their environmental and social footprints. Companies are also looking at sustainable ingredients because of the growing importance of sustainability reporting as well as pressure from the media and retailers. Most strides have been made with coffee, the second largest traded commodity in the world. Almost 10 percent of coffee in North America and Europe is now certified according to organic, fair trade, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ Certified or similar standards. Major brands and retailers have made pledges to source sustainable coffee, with many making social investments in developing countries. Sustainable sourcing is also becoming important for cocoa, vanilla, sugar and other ingredient commodities. Large chocolate manufacturers, such as Cadbury’s and Nestlé have made commitments to source fair trade cocoa. UTZ Certified extended its ‘Good Inside’ program to cocoa in 2007. With large
companies like Cargill and Mars coming on board, cocoa could become the most traded sustainable food ingredient in the world. Converting existing supply chains to organic, fair trade and other sustainable ingredients can be a lengthy and sometimes complex process. It can thus be easier to set up new supply chains for such ingredients, as many suppliers of novel ingredients have discovered. Organic Monitor research finds that many novel ingredients from Africa and Latin America are increasingly produced by sustainable methods. African specialties – including baobab and shea butter – are mostly fairly traded from women’s cooperatives. Argan oil, described as ‘liquid gold’, is almost entirely produced accorded to organic cultivation methods. Intensive media coverage about the destruction of rainforests has been a factor behind the emergence of Amazonian sustainable ingredients. The American company Sambazon is sourcing organic açaí berry products from over 10,000 family farmers in the Amazon. As well as becoming the world’s largest supplier of açaí ingredients, the company makes a range of finished products. New sustainable ingredients like Inca inchi oil are also emerging from the region. They are invariably fairly traded and / or certified organic. Sustainable ingredients are becoming prominent in the food industry. However, there are major differences between their environmental and social footprints because of variations in sustainable production methods. Fair trade is popular because it creates positive social impacts, whilst organic is considered a highly ecological form of production. UTZ certified provides greater traceability and provenance, whilst Rainforest Alliance conserves biodiversity. Consumers are increasingly seeking sustainable foods, yet a major question hangs over whether existing schemes (eco-labels) are meeting their rising expectations. Also, is the way forward, convergence of existing eco-labels in terms of environmental and social parameters? Or will existing eco-labels seek to keep their parameters separate, possibly leading to divergence? ❙
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Toward a cultural community in NE Asia
By Joohong Ahnn The author is University Distinguished Professor at Hanyang University, Republic of Korea.
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Despite increasing our importance for each other everyday in trade economics, the environment, culture, tourism and even shopping, we have not been able to build a desirable level of security regime in Northeast Asia.
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For me, in the flood of news a headline bears special importance for Northeast Asia security. The guideline reiterated by President Hu Jintao about boosting the “cultural soft power” of China recognises that “culture has increasingly become a major element bringing together the people and the creative power of Chinese nationality”. Underlining the importance of culture it was stated by leaders in the field, that culture is a “fundamental attribute of a nation” and “a major driving force for economic growth”. Actually, the guideline could be an important factor if we extend our scope to the regional level. Generally speaking, there are at least two aspects in security regimes among nations: the hard ones like military strategic balance, diplomatic relations including treaties and organizations, and the soft ones including culture governing relations among people, the attitude toward one another, implicit assurances about expected behavior of the other side, common values - implicit and explicit both - shared identity, and the sense of attachment or belonging. Despite increasing our importance for each other everyday in trade economics, the environment, culture, tourism and even shopping, we have not been able to build a desirable level of security regime in Northeast Asia. Our general approach to most of the issues is still narrowly nationalistic with little communal, let alone universalistic, element. Our discourse for governing relations among nations and people is still full of vocabularies of the past - either of the 19th century or of the first half of the 20th century varieties, alliances, rivalries, balance of power and hegemony. Even our approaches to the understanding of the recent past are widely at variance with one another, even conflictual if not adversarial.
There are military aspects in the relations among countries, too, with each side concerned with the military development of the others. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)’s military development is also a www.themirrorinspires.com
big concern for the region. Northeast Asia is becoming increasingly important for the world in terms of trade and economics, but we are still short of any desirable level in moral and political leadership, or in the realm of “soft power” just as President Hu said. In 1924, Dr Sun Yat-sen asked Japan in his last public lecture at Kobe to choose between following in the footsteps of Western powers in pursuit of hegemonic power or becoming the bastion of righteousness in this region. The question still haunts the discourse on the security regime after all the experiences of human sufferings of the last century. It may sound like a play with words. But the question should be more properly put in terms of “hegemonic power” or “leadership” in international relations. It is not a novelty for hegemonic leadership to be communal and not limited to a single power. We should build peace in the mind of the people in the region. And culture, if properly nurtured, is the key to security and peace. We need to enhance people’s awareness about the existence of a cultural community in the region. For long there has been a community of culture among us
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that revolves around Chinese characters, Chinese classics, and common textbooks for civic education, literature, art and religion. Most of our national cultural achievements may be viewed best in the proper light when considered not as a separate occurrences but in the context of constant flow of mutual influences and exchanges, a phenomenon commonly described by cultural historians as a process of interfertilisation.
wisdom and know-how in facing the uncertainties of the contemporary world.
It is true that with the onset of modernization this aspect of the region has been in abeyance for some time. However, the common cultural root among nations of this region cannot be over emphasized not only for historical reasons, but also for the sake of the present and the future.
The rate of reliance on its own cultural products has increased in the region’s cultural market: Popular among the people are mostly Japanese literature and animations, Chinese films and drama and music from the ROK. I hope we would coordinate conscious efforts in education and in other activities to underline our common cultural roots.
It will be incumbent on the nations of this region, especially China, Japan, the DPRK and the Republic of Korea to cooperate to preserve, interpret and develop the essence of traditional culture in a way it is meaningful to us. Our common cultural heritage is not only for scholarly research, it also provides us
MEET DISCUSS EVALUATE DECIDE
A community of culture can also be active in the cultural industries not only for commercial purposes, but also for preparing the people for the kind of peace and security regime in the region which would eliminate “poisonous fantasy” or “the most powerful anaesthetic” element from nationalism.
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It is true that with the onset of modernization this aspect of the region has been in abeyance for some time.
Moreover, the common identity or values we may commonly pursue in the region cannot be limited to Northeast Asia. They should be able to appeal and spread their influence beyond the confines of the region too. ❙
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ACT POSITIVELY!
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School limits
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by John Marsh
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More and earlier teaching won’t redress childhood disadvantages, and not everyone will be able to go to university, or get graduate level jobs afterwards. Rebalancing the future will require a different approach.
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Just as the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests began to spread to other cities in the US and beyond, the respected, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a study that confirmed the reason that protestors had taken to the parks: rising economic inequality. The CBO found that from 1979 to 2007, aftertax income for the median household grew by 35%; the average income of the top 1% of households grew by 275% (1). The day after the study’s release, a columnist for The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, published an opinion piece, “Occupy the Classroom” (19 October), in which he acknowledged economic inequality in the US. But instead of calling for changes in taxes and regulations or jailing bankers, as OWS preferred, he argued: “The single step that would do the most to reduce inequality [is] an expansion of early childhood education. One common thread, whether I’m reporting on poverty in New York City or in Sierra Leone, is that a good education tends to be the most reliable escalator out of poverty.”
education to secure economic equality. Gregory Mankiw, a former advisor to President George W Bush, acknowledged on National Public Radio in November the increasing “gap between the rich and poor”. He also suggested a primary cause of economic inequality was “the educational system. The problem is that we haven’t been producing enough educated people to keep up with the increasing demand for high skilled workers.”
Limits to schooling Except for God, Americans recognise no power higher than education. But can education reverse growing economic inequality? As with the existence of God, evidence is lacking.
But another was that “whether in America or Africa, disadvantaged kids often don’t get a chance to board that escalator”.
As rhetoric, slogans like Head Start (early childhood education), Race to the Top, and Leave No Child Behind work. As policy, they fail. We may not be able to level the educational playing field that much. Over the last decade, a considerable body of research has shown that even before kindergarten, children from poor families have already fallen behind children from affluent families. More often than not, schools lock these gaps into place, rather than reducing them.
This call might have seemed odd in the context of the OWS protests, since among the few concrete demands of protesters was student loan forgiveness: many of them, despite riding that escalator, had not found a good job (or any job) upon graduation. Yet in offering education as the key to reducing economic inequality, Kristof kept good company.
As journalist Dana Goldstein wrote: “The research consensus has been clear and unchanging for more than a decade: at most, teaching accounts for about 15% of student achievement, while socioeconomic factors account for about 60%” (2). There are limits to what schools can do. They can mitigate, but they cannot overcome the aptitudes children bring with them to start their formal education.
In April Barack Obama had reiterated his goal of “making sure we are giving every one of our children the best possible education” since that was “the single most important factor in determining whether [children] succeed”. Education is “the key to opportunity. It is the civil rights issue of our time”.
Those who look to education to solve inequality are fighting over what determines how a child does in school. If we cared about overcoming the effect that poverty and low incomes have on educational achievement, we shouldn’t tinker with the 15% of education but go directly to the source, the 60% of socioeconomic factors.
Remarkably, in a country where the political parties can hardly agree on the time of day, even those at the opposite end of the political spectrum look to www.themirrorinspires.com
If you want poor children to do better in school, forget about their education, just make them less poor.
But the path from educational to economic equality faces a more daunting challenge. Even if education could overcome the effects of poverty and give every student an equal chance of attaining a college degree, that will not affect the economy into which children will enter. In the US, which job will provide the most new openings by 2018? Cashier. Second most? Retail salesperson. Third? Waiter or waitress. Fourth? Customer service representative. The next three? Registered nurse, food preparation and service worker, office clerk. None of these jobs requires a degree. With the exception of registered nurse, which needs an associate degree, none requires more than short- or mediumterm on-the-job training. And only being a registered nurse pays enough to keep a family clear of the poverty threshold. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2018 only about 25% of jobs will require a college degree: the others will make do with work experience or onthe-job training, and pay accordingly.
We cannot all go to college Regardless of how equal we make educational opportunity, someone must ring up purchases, sell merchandise, take breakfast orders, placate disgruntled customers, cook eggs, answer the phones. A majority of us, in fact. Jobs like these are here to stay. We cannot all go to college. Or, we can, but some of us will still need to work at McDonald’s or at any of the other nearly 3m food preparation and serving jobs in the economy, each of which pays on average $16,430 a year. More education will not mean more money for those who must take any of the lowskill, low-wage jobs that dominate the US labour market.
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Just as we fight over the 15% of achievement that a school can control, we fight over who will get the good jobs and who will be doomed to the bad ones. If those who argue for education as the solution have their way, at best a few more children from poor families will graduate from college and find a good job.
If the labour market is a zero sum game when it comes to jobs for college graduates, and it mostly is, that means a few more children from middle-class families will take the bad job a child from a poor family would have otherwise held. (The children from wealthy families will be fine either way.) Why don’t we make the bad jobs better? By focusing on educational opportunity and equity, we may ignore a far larger injustice, tens of millions of workers spending their lives unemployed or underpaid. Obama and others who preach the gospel of education like to say educational opportunity is the civil rights issue of our time. They should remember that in the 1963 March on Washington, when Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, protesters held signs that read “Jobs and Freedom”.
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Obama and others who preach the gospel of education like to say educational opportunity is the civil rights issue of our time.
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Marchers made sure to include “Jobs” on their placards because they knew that jobs mattered — how many, what they paid, who held them, and whether those who held them could join a union. Things haven’t changed. ❙
Bad jobs, not bad education, are responsible for increasing economic inequality. Income has flowed to the top 1% because it has stopped flowing to the base (the bottom 40% of earners). www.themirrorinspires.com
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Bamboo and rattan anchor revival Bamboo and rattan plants are at the centre of major initiatives in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that are combatting global warming, fighting soil erosion, protecting forests, and enhancing communities’ access to water.
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New bamboobased building techniques developed in Latin America and since transferred to Uganda and Kenya have similarly reduced reliance on threatened forests while avoiding the use of concrete, a major producer of carbon dioxide.
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When IDRC first supported pioneering research on these plants in 1979, the world knew little of their positive environmental potential. But this is changing thanks to work undertaken by the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), created by IDRC in the early 1990s as an extension of earlier IDRC-sponsored research. In Allahabad, India, bamboo planting restored the fertility of soil degraded by brick mining, so farmers once again can grow crops. That project, which won the 2007 Alcan Prize for Sustainability, also raised the local water table by seven metres within five years. A new bamboo plantation in China’s Guizhou province reduced soil erosion in a mountainous area by 75%, while making degraded farmland and forests viable again. Meanwhile, manufacturing charcoal from sustainable bamboo in India, Tanzania, Ghana, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and the Philippines has prevented the deforestation that results when trees are cut to make fuel. New bamboo-based building techniques developed in Latin America and since transferred to Uganda and Kenya have similarly reduced reliance on threatened forests while avoiding the use of concrete, a major producer of carbon dioxide. How bamboo and rattan plantations can capture carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere is the subject of ongoing research.
Network based in Beijing The first-ever international workshops on rattan and bamboo in 1979 and 1980, both held at IDRC’s Singapore office, blossomed soon after into the Bamboo and Rattan Research Network, the precursor to INBAR. Housed initially at IDRC, in 1997 INBAR became independent – and also the first international research organization to be based in Beijing. Since then, IDRC has supported INBAR’s work through a series of grants. From the beginning, the researchers recognized the unique environmental role of these traditional Asian crops, which are “actually a palm (rattan) and a kind of big
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grass (bamboo),” INBAR director-general Coosje Hoogendoorn explains. “Like grass, you can cut bamboo and it will quickly grow back.”
Those grass-like qualities account for bamboo’s restorative roles within the environment. Bamboo has roots, for example, that remain in the ground after the poles are cut. Those resilient roots can prevent soil erosion, condition soil, and draw water closer to the surface in areas where the water table is low. Bamboo plants also absorb at least as much carbon dioxide as trees, providing a renewable buffer against global warming.
Income from incense Another aspect of INBAR’s current approach that began within IDRC is the use of bamboo and rattan as a platform for practising “sustainable development.” Sustainable development means, essentially, that economic reward and environmental stewardship can be mutually reinforcing. And so, the research agenda for bamboo and rattan — which have numerous economic applications — has focused largely on finding ways for poor communities to add value to raw materials by creating finished products. This helps keep jobs and income in communities. For example, one IDRC-supported INBAR project works with women in Tripura, India, who used to craft the raw bamboo sticks that were made into incense sticks elsewhere. Now, the women have taken over the rolling, scenting, packaging, and even marketing of the finished sticks. “It has been possible for women with virtually no income to get a reasonable income that helps them take care of their families,” Hoogendoorn says. That, in turn, has provided added incentive to use pro-environmental materials — a win-win proposition, where economic success and environmental improvements are achieved together.
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Jump Start - the experience of being alive
As the first rays of light shine over the horizon, Royal NZ Air Force (RNZAF) Base Auckland wakes up with a sleepeyed yawn to the cough and splutter of an engine. A group of grinning teenagers walk up the runway. These kids are about to experience the feeling of being alive. The ramp of the Air Force C130 Hercules is dotted with brightly coloured jumpsuits and parachute rigs. Huge smiles decorate the austere background of green and grey, and nervous laughter fills the tarmac. Groups pose for photos with the plane towering behind them, wiping sweaty palms and hiding fear behind silly expressions and poking tongues. Two by two the pairs walk up into the plane and seem to disappear into its gaping mouth. The door is shut and ear plugs are squeezed in to deafen the roar of the monster aircraft. The huge metal beast flexes its muscles. Inside a group of teenagers hold on tight and prepare for takeoff. Jump Start is an annual New Zealand charity event that gives 50 youths from CanTeen and Project K the chance to jump out of a C130 Hercules at 10,000ft. It began in 2007, when Tim Fastnedge (Director of Plastic Machinery supplier Techspan Group) was President of the New Zealand Parachute Federation. Now once a year the Air Force provide Tim with a C130 Hercules as “jump ship” for the event. The Airforce base at Whenuapai is transformed into a hub of people in bright red t-shirts. Tents, BBQ’s, a loudspeaker, observers, jumpers and RNZAF members are overshadowed by a swarm of teenagers with happy faces watching skydiving footage.
The first Jump Start in 2007 was the first time a civilian had ever jumped out of it. The view from the top is like nothing else. The ramp opens up to a panorama of earth and sky and the roar of four 4,900 HP engines. The constant clicks of cameras capture what will be a once in a lifetime experience for the 50 teenagers. There are shaking hands and nervous shuffles, silent screams and looks of pure terror on the ramp. But wide eyes and terrified gasps quickly turn to huge grins and waving arms. They forget they’re falling and feel what it is to fly. After each plane load has landed, certificates are given out to each young person who has jumped. CanTeen and Project K are gifted the funds raised by the sponsoring skydivers. The whole thing is low key, but relaxed and full of camaraderie. Fifty teenagers leave at the end of the day with great big smiles on their faces. They’ve visited a world where their problems don’t matter. Out in freefall there is no pain, there is no sickness – there are no worries. Just that moment, right there. And there’s a huge freedom in that. They get to experience what it truly means to feel alive.
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After each plane load has landed, certificates are given out to each young person who has jumped. CanTeen and Project K are gifted the funds raised by the sponsoring skydivers.
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Jump Start 2011 has raised over ten thousand dollars for the charities and the dates are already set for the 2012 event. ❙
The New Zealand skydiving community pulls together to back Jump Start every year, with tandem instructors and cameramen travelling from all over the country to Auckland for the event. The teenagers love it! To them the skydivers can do what others can’t Fly. They pull the fingers at the laws of gravity and take the kids to a world of blue skies, clouds, and speeds of more than 200km/h. The C130 Hercules was bought by the RNZAF in 1965, ordered in 1963. www.themirrorinspires.com
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Fourth International Water Conference in Thailand
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The Conference is being planned in collaboration with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.
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The Conference gathers major water and energy utilities representatives, financiers, environmental specialists, and international experts to discuss all aspects of water resources development. It will be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 26th – 27th March 2012. With a fast growing economy and a large agricultural sector, energy and water supply continue to be important issues in the Kingdom. The Kwai Noi project (with a 75 m-high CFRD and a 80 m-high earth core rockfill dam) was recently completed to provide irrigation waters to the area. More than 4500 MW of hydro capacity is installed around the country with a further 500 MW planned. Mini hydro schemes are being installed at some major dams built principally for irrigation and flood control.
Kwai Noi River
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In addition to the country’s own schemes, Thailand is also an important market for the hydro production of neighbouring countries, with cross-border schemes now proposed or completed in Lao PDR, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. By importing capacity, Thailand is playing a major role in the socioeconomic development of its neighbours.
The Conference is being planned in collaboration with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. Speakers will represent the major water and energy utilities of the Asia and Pacific regions, as well as financiers, environmental specialists, and international experts on all aspects of dams and renewable energy. Delegations from about 50 countries attend these Asian events, to discuss all aspects of water resources development of particular relevance to the Asian region.
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Uzbek cotton: Time to drive child labour from value chains
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Stronger legislation and successful awareness raising are helping in the fight to eradicate child labour from cotton’s supply chain, says Patricia Jurewicz
During the recent International Cotton and Textile Fair in Tashkent, not a single western buyer signed a contract for Uzbekistan’s cotton, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. This boycott demonstrates the strength of a pledge signed by more than 60 apparel manufacturers, brands and retailers to eliminate forced child labour in the cotton industry. Many companies have implemented policies banning Uzbek cotton from their value chains and some have started to pilot or adopt value chain traceability practices to enforce these policies. Still, tracing the origin of cotton fibre remains a challenge for the industry. According to the WSJ article, Russian buyers bought 40% of the Uzbek cotton available during the fair, with the remaining 60% going to buyers in China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, South Korea and Singapore.
Child labour scrutiny Since the cotton passes through the opaque hands of numerous traders, spinners, weavers and sewers before it is packaged and sold, this cotton could eventually find its way into shirts or socks in western markets. Now is the time for fashion industry leaders to scrutinise their value chains down to the dirt. It’s been nearly five years since retailers first started speaking out against forced child labour in Uzbekistan and we need to continue to make change through the power of unified coalitions. Having buy-in throughout the entire global value chain, where all of the dots are connected, is essential. The time of transparency has come. Consumers and legislation are demanding it. Consumers are demanding to know more about the goods they are purchasing and, thankfully, new technologies are being adopted to give this information to
them right at the point of purchase.
Appropriate technology An app from GoodGuide allows consumers to use a smartphone’s builtin camera to scan product barcodes and receive ratings regarding health, environment and social responsibility. Other emerging platforms include a crowd-sourced directory of product value chains and carbon footprints through SourceMap. And Free2Work just introduced an app that rates companies based on their efforts to address forced and child labour in its value chains. Other websites looking to provide more data on human rights and/or environmental sustainability in product value chains include Products of Slavery, Slavery Footprint, Earthster, FootPrinted, Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Sustainability Consortium. Soon it will not just be socially responsible investors or NGOs who are ranking and rewarding companies for their environmental, social and governance efforts. Consumers will be able to reward companies at the checkout counter as well. Be forewarned: it’s a matter of months if not days.
Transparency demands Furthermore, US legislation is starting to demand more transparency. The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act (SB 657) applies to retail sellers and manufacturers operating in California with over $100m in annual worldwide gross receipts. These companies will be required to publicly disclose their efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from their direct value chains for tangible goods beginning in 2012. A similar law is now being introduced at the US federal level (HR 2759). For companies to address the violations in Uzbekistan, comply by the California law and prepare themselves for greater disclosure for consumers, they will need to strengthen their relationships with the other participants buried in their value chains.
By Patricia Jurewicz Patricia Jurewicz is the director of the Responsible Sourcing Network .The Responsible Sourcing Network is a project of As You Sow. RSN’s mission is to foster global value chains that are accountable to the people and natural habitats they touch at the raw commodity level. RSN is presently working to end forced child labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry, and transform the conflict minerals trade in Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Many companies have implemented policies banning Uzbek cotton from their value chains.
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China’s dark power
by Any Bourrier
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Although China plans to diversify its fuel sources, the nation at present runs mostly on domestic coal cheaply mined — cheap, that is, provided the costs to water, atmosphere and human life are not factored in.
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The China Railway High-speed (CRH) train travels at over 300km an hour between Beijing and Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province. This northern province, with roads congested by overloaded lorries en route for cities, was China’s principal coalproducing region for a long time, until it was overtaken by Inner Mongolia. Everything is stained with coal: the sad grey villages, the landscape and the people, whose faces and bodies are blackened from working down the mines. Even the water is black: washing the coal after extraction pollutes rivers and groundwater, making it unsuitable for irrigation or drinking. The look of the mines has hardly changed for centuries, even though they are being modernised. Huge heaps of coal at the entrances wait to be transported by lorry. Blackboards on the office walls carry the day’s slogans for the work team leaders and reminders of the decisions of the all-powerful State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, currently run by Zhao Tiechui. The number of mining accidents has risen again since 2010, when there were 1,403 accidents and 2,433 deaths, according to official figures Even though China plans to build more nuclear power stations and hydroelectric dams, coal remains its main source of electricity, preferred by business, particularly locally. According to the Beijing Development and Reform Commission, Beijing residents will consume 20m tons of coal a year by 2015, compared to 11m tons in 2010 (when there had already been a rise in use).
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China is one of the world’s biggest coal producers (reserves are estimated at 118bn tons), with deposits concentrated in the north and northeast, where there are no major problems of extraction. It is cheap to extract, and seen as the best way to provide the energy needed to boost growth. The industry provides a lot of employment, particularly in rural areas where there is always high demand for jobs. Over the past decade China has diversified its supply of coal, thanks to its new privileged relationships with emerging economies such as coal-rich South Africa and Colombia, and it is also interested in Australia’s opencast mines. But at present, China gets 60% of its supply from its own mines. According to the state news agency Xinhua, it has around 12,000 mines operating across the country, but there could be twice that number, taking into account clandestine mines. There have been several ambitious projects to merge the many scattered mines and unify production. In 2006 the National Development and Reform Commission announced a plan to build five or six giant conglomerates, by amalgamating or closing small mines in the main coal-producing provinces. Two of the conglomerates were Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group, with 88,000 employees, and Datong Coal Mine Group, listed on the Shanghai stock exchange. In 2011 China officially had 24 large staterun mining groups, formed by mergers between mining companies and the closure of small, mainly private, pits, where most accidents took place. The number of mines in China went from 87,000 in 1995 to 26,000 in 2005 and 12,000 in 2010.
’Safety is our heavenly principle’ A plan to open a huge mine in Gansu province, with exploitable reserves estimated at more than 7bn tons, was announced in February 2010. Named Ningzheng, after the district where it is located, it covers an area of 1,100 sq km, and is expected to produce 20m tons of coal a year. It is already the largest coalmine in the world. These huge projects and mergers are always justified by safety arguments to reassure public opinion. Slogans on the brick walls of the pits at Shanxi or Henan proclaim: “Safety is our heavenly principle” and “Let us celebrate the reform of the mines”. But the conglomerates have not yet proved effective. While the record level of 6,995 deaths in 2009 has not been matched, the rate of accidents has been risen over the last two years, and this has led to public anger. The families of dead miners were compensated for the first time in 2007 after an explosion, each receiving $34,520. Since then compensation has become more common. But this has led to local criminal gangs killing miners in fake accidents to get compensation paid by the authorities or pit owners. There have been several scandals in Hebei, Yunnan and Sichuan, where organised gangs, often in league with pit bosses, have killed with impunity, either down the mines or in the makeshift huts where mingong (internal migrant workers) live. In 2003 film director Li Yang told their story in Blind Shaft, a film of the novel The Pit by Liu Quingbang. It exposed the rise in crime in this subterranean world, where the law of the strongest prevails, and it won several international awards. In 2010 Chinese media exposed the story of 62 mentally handicapped people who had been sold by a private care home to work as slaves in the mines of Sichuan. The case led to a dramatic trial. Public anger has forced the authorities to take a tougher stance. After an explosion that killed 35 in Guangxi in September 2010, prime minister Wen Jiabao ordered mine owners to go underground to share the risks faced by their employees, and make sure safety regulations were respected.
Safer extraction As a less spectacular, but more effective, measure the government wants to make coal extraction safer by capturing methane, the gas responsible for most
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lethal explosions. According to Huang Shengchu, director of the China Coal Information Institute, China has decided to allot $275m every year to subsidise the degassing of mines, before coal extraction. The captured methane is transported to power stations where it is purified so it can be used as a fuel. There have been a few successful experiments, such as at Jincheng, in Shanxi province, where a large methane power plant attached to a mine has been operating since 2008.
The search for technological solutions to the pollution caused by intensive coal use is not new. For several years, environmental campaigners have been blacklisting power stations that burn pulverised coal. China has become the world’s biggest emitter of CO2, but to shake off its sulphur-spewing image, the authorities are looking at “clean coal” technology to curb atmospheric pollution. China has mastered supercritical combustion, where vapour under high pressure gives the highest energy output and the lowest greenhouse gas emissions. China is building one of these power stations every month, at 30% less than the cost of a conventional power station in the US. Although China’s leaders have signed the Kyoto Protocol, they believe they have the right to the same historic privileges the industrialised countries had to develop their economies, even if this does lead to a rise in CO2 emissions. According to Greenpeace, greenhouse gas emissions could double by 2030, reaching 3bn or 4bn tons a year. Greenpeace says that, for every ton of coal produced, 2.5 tons of water are polluted, hence the increased scarcity of this resource: 25% of China’s wastewater comes from the coal washing process, which discharges huge quantities of toxic metals. This pollution has dramatic health effects: according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 190 million people suffer from illnesses linked to contaminated water, and 30,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by this pollution.
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Slogans on the brick walls of the pits at Shanxi or Henan proclaim: “Safety is our heavenly principle” and “Let us celebrate the reform of the mines”.
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China is looking at ways to diversify its supply of energy, including solar. In its 12th Five Year Plan (2012-16) the government has set the objective of reducing carbon intensity by 17% in five years. The need is urgent, as Chinese coal is helping to suffocate the planet. ❙ www.themirrorinspires.com
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To save the world’s drinking water
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Groundwater in Asia, South America, and Africa is now widely contaminated with arsenic. Arsenic contamination of the drinking water for 35 million people in Bangladesh is especially well-known.
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Professor. Dr. Sherif A. El-Safty, a Principal Researcher of the Materials Recycling Design Group, Research Center for Strategic Materials, National Institute for Materials Science developed a nanomaterial which enables simple detection and removal of arsenic from drinking water. This nanomaterial responds to warnings that as many as 60 million people live in contaminated areas in Southeast Asia without safe drinking water.
in Bangladesh is especially well-known. Long-term ingestion of this water causes serious disorders of the skin, nervous system, and cardiovascular system, and can also cause health problems in the form of frequent development of cancers. Although the United Nations and the governments of individual nations have taken countermeasures over many years, it was difficult to develop an arsenic removal method that is inexpensive, simple, and easy to use in treatment of everyday drinking water.
The nanomaterial is a further developed for heavy metal ion sensors for lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), etc. and adsorbent materials, which Dr. El-Safty developed previously for a rare metal adsorption/recovery materials such as cobalt (Co), palladium (Pd), etc. and radioactive element adsorbents for cesium (Cs), strontium (Sr), etc. As a Principal Researcher whom he originally livid at the Middle East, where a clean water is particularly precious, Dr. El-Safty devoted himself to the development of this material in order to save the world’s drinking water.
In the developed technology, the inner walls of nanoporous substances, namely a high order mesoporous (HOM) structures, are densely packed with a functional group which is sensitive and selective for capturing arsenic. When even a trace amount of arsenic is present in water, these nanomaterial captors can quickly adsorbed and removed arsenic. As a distinctive feature, the detection/removal of arsenic can easily be confirmed because the color of the nanomaterial captors changes in the adsorption stage with the same frequency of human eyes, showing the user that the removal has occurred.
Groundwater in Asia, South America, and Africa is now widely contaminated with arsenic. Arsenic contamination of the drinking water for 35 million people
As one particular advantage of this technology, the potential use is not limited to large-volume water treatment plants. Because its features include high sensitivity, low cost, visualization of results, light weight, and high speed, it can also be used easily by individual persons. As a result, the threat of arsenic can be greatly reduced when the development of new water sources in the developing countries and elsewhere is achieved. Efforts will be made to popularize this new device in many urgent regions, as a technology that can secure the safe water on an everyday basis. ❙
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L by Susana Fortes Harper Collins
$26.99
Waiting for Robert Capa
ove, war and photography marked their lives. They were young, anti-Fascist, goodlooking, and nonconformist. They had everything in life, and they put everything at risk. They created their own legend and remained faithful to it until the very end… A young German woman named Gerta Pohorylle and a young Hungarian man named Endre Friedmann meet in Paris in 1935. Both Communists, Jewish, exiled, and photographers, they decide to change their names in order to sell their work more easily, and so they become Gerda Taro and Robert Capa. With these new identities, they travel to Spain and begin to document the Spanish Civil War. Two years later, tragedy will befall them - but until then, theirs is a romance for the ages. Based on the true story of these legendary figures and set to be the next film by awardwinning director Michael Mann, with Eva Green starring as Taro, Waiting for Robert Capa is a moving tribute to all journalists and photographers who lose their lives to show us the world’s daily transformations. Author Susana Fortes has won many awards, including the 1994 Premio Nuevos Narradores, the Premio Primavera, the Premio de la Crítica, and, for Waiting for Robert Capa the Premio Fernando Lara 2009. Her novels have been translated into almost twenty languages. She currently teaches at a secondary school in Valencia and is a regular contributor to EL PAIS, as well as various cinema and literature magazines. ❙
Great by Choice Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck
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Jim Collins Morten T. Hansen Random House
$60.00
Alastair Campbell Random House
en years after the worldwide bestseller Good to Great, Jim Collins returns with another groundbreaking work, this time to ask: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? In Great by Choice - based on nine years of research, buttressed by rigorous analysis and infused with engaging stories - Collins and his colleague, Morten Hansen, enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times. No mere sequel, Great by Choice distinguishes itself from Collins’s prior work by its focus not just on performance, but also on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today. With a team of more than twenty researchers, Collins and Hansen studied companies that rose to greatness - beating their industry indexes by a minimum of ten times over fifteen years - in environments characterized by big forces and rapid shifts that leaders could not predict or control. The research team then contrasted these “10X companies” to a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to achieve greatness in similarly extreme environments. The study results were full of provocative surprises, such as: • The best leaders were not more risk taking, more visionary, and more creative than the comparisons; they were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid. • Innovation by itself turns out not to be the trump card in a chaotic and uncertain world; more important is the ability to scale innovation, to blend creativity with discipline. • Following the belief that leading in a “fast world” always requires “fast decisions” and “fast action” is a good way to get killed. • The great companies changed less in reaction to a radically changing world than the comparison companies. The authors challenge conventional wisdom with thought-provoking, sticky, and supremely practical concepts. They include 10Xers, the 20 Mile March, Fire Bullets then Cannonballs, Leading above the Death Line, Zoom Out, Then Zoom In, and SMaC recipe. Finally, in the last chapter, Collins and Hansen present their most provocative and original analysis: defining, quantifying, and studying the role of luck. The great companies and the leaders who built them were not luckier than the comparisons, but they did get a higher Return on Luck. This book is classic Collins: contrarian, data driven, and uplifting. He and Hansen show convincingly that, even in a chaotic and uncertain world, greatness happens by choice, not by chance. ❙
Pressures of Power, The Countdown to Iraq
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he Pressures of Power is the fourth volume of Alastair Campbell’s diaries, and perhaps the most eagerly awaited given the ground it covers. It begins on September 12, 2001 as world leaders assess their response to Al Qaida terrorist attacks in New York and www.themirrorinspires.com
$62.99
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Washington the day before, a day which wrote itself immediately into the history books: 9/11, and it ends on the day Campbell leaves Downing Street. In between there are two wars, first Afghanistan, still going on today, and then, even more controversially, Iraq. It was the most difficult decision of Blair’s premiership, and perhaps the most unpopular. Campbell describes in detail the discussions with President Bush and other world leaders as the steps to war are taken, and delivers an intimate account of Blair as war leader. He records the enormous political difficulties at home, and the sense of crisis that engulfed the government over the suicide of weapons inspector David Kelly. And in the meantime Blair continues to struggle with two issues that have run through all of the Campbell diaries in government fighting for peace in Northern Ireland, and trying to make peace with Gordon Brown. And Campbell continues to struggle with trying to balance one of the most pressurised posts in politics with the needs of a family and a partner who wants him to leave it. The Pressures of Power is as raw and intimate a portrayal of the pressures and responsibilities of political life as you are ever likely to read. ❙
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Among the Islands
wenty-five years ago, a young curator of mammals from the Australian Museum in Sydney set out to research the fauna of the Pacific Islands. Starting with a survey of one of the most inaccessible islands in Melanesia— Woodlark, in the Trobriands Group—that young scientist found himself ghost-whispering, snake wrestling, Quadoi hunting and plunged waist-deep into a sludge of maggot-infested faeces in search of a small bat that turned out not to be earth-shatteringly interesting. With accounts of discovering, naming and sometimes eating new mammal species; being thwarted or aided by local customs; and historic scientific expeditions, Tim Flannery takes us on an enthralling journey through some of the most diverse and spectacular environments on earth. Among the Islands is the third book in a loose trilogy of Flannery’s adventures, following on from Throwim Way Leg and Country. ❙
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By Tim Flannery Text Publishing
The Monkey and the Dragon
emoir, biography and travel book, The Monkey and the Dragon is a story about China like nothing you’ve ever read. This is a book about friendship, music, politics and life on the edge. Linda Jaivin first met Taiwan pop star Hou Dejian in 1981. His song ‘Heirs of the Dragon’ was the unifying anthem of an awakening generation in Taiwan, Hong Kong and on mainland China. In June 1983 Hou defected to communist China, a stunning and bizarre move which shocked his friends and fans. In 1989 he was one of the last hunger-strikers on Tiananmen Square where he saved the lives of thousands of protestors, and later, with Linda’s help, took refuge in the Australian Embassy in Beijing. After seventy days he returned to the streets but wouldn’t be By Linda Jaivin silenced. In 1990 the authorities abducted him and put him on a fishing boat bound for Taiwan where he became a fengshui master. He still writes the occasional song. ❙ Text Publishing $A34.95
Unstuck In Time: A Journey Through Kurt Vonnegut’s Life & Novels
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n Unstuck in Time, Gregory Sumner guides us, with insight and passion, through a biography of fifteen of Kurt Vonnegut’s best known works, his fourteen novels starting with Player Piano (1952) all the way to an epilogue on his last book, A Man Without a Country (2005), to illustrate the quintessential American writer’s profound engagement with the “American Dream” in its various forms. Sumner gives us a poignant portrait of Vonnegut and his resistance to celebrating the traditional values associated with the American Dream: grandiose ambition, unbridled material success, rugged individualism, and “winners” over “losers.” Instead of a celebration of these values, we read and share Vonnegut’s outrage, his brokenhearted empathy for those who struggle under the ethos of survival-of-the-fittest in the frontier mentality—something he once memorably described as “an impossibly tough-minded experiment in loneliness.” Heroic and tragic, Vonnegut’s novels reflect the pain of his own life’s experiences, relieved by small Gregory D. Sumner acts of kindness, friendship, and love that exemplify another way of living, another sort of human utopia, an alternative American Dream, and the reason we always return to his books. ❙ Random House $50.00 www.themirrorinspires.com
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Natural gas: Getting fractious over fracking
By Jon Entine
That changed with an innovation known as “fracking” – using horizontal drilling to fracture tight rock formations deep underground by injecting, under immense pressure, water and chemicals mixed with sand or ceramic, allowing methane gas to escape.
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Environmental campaigners that are raising fears over shale gas extraction might just be cutting off their nose to spite their face, argues Jon Entine Who would have thought the Friends of the Earth would befriend Vladimir Putin, or at least unwittingly encourage his monopolistic mania? Or that Greens would put vanity environmental politics ahead of the needs of the developing world? But that’s just what’s happening. The driver for this unlikely alliance is the boom in natural gas production from shale rock. Natural gas from shale has been produced for more than 100 years in the Appalachian and Illinois basins of the US, but the sites were often only marginally economical. That changed with an innovation known as “fracking” – using horizontal drilling to fracture tight rock formations deep underground by injecting, under immense pressure, water and chemicals mixed with sand or ceramic, allowing methane gas to escape. It’s a disruptive technology, but it multiplies the world’s supply of natural gas, which emits less in the way of greenhouse gases when being burnt than other carbon fuels. It also offers a geopolitical windfall – preventing the rise of new energy cartels unless environmental advocacy groups succeed in injecting precautionary sludge into the wheels of change. In 2003, when Russia passed the US as the world’s natural gas producer, Alan Greenspan, US Federal Reserve chairman at the time, urged a rapid expansion of natural gas imports to compensate
for a growing shortfall. “We are not apt to return to earlier periods of relative abundance any time soon,” he warned. Putin & Co were soon talking up the inevitability of a natural gas monopoly to rival Opec.
Energy squeeze Moscow has proven itself willing to use gas reserves as a weapon. It cut supplies to Ukraine in January 2006 during a row over prices. In mid-winter 2009, European countries received no Russian gas via the Ukraine for three weeks while Moscow and Kiev argued over pipeline fees. But tremulous fears of a gas squeeze are so yesterday. Over the past decade, a wave of drilling around the world has uncovered trillions of cubic metres of shale rock gas. As a consequence of finding massive shale reserves buried deep under Appalachia, from Tennessee to New York, the US is now building new terminals – not to handle imports but so it can export to Asia a growing gas bounty – more than twice the size of Saudi Arabia’s massive oil reserves. Ten years ago shale gas represented 1% of US gas supplies. Thanks to new drilling technologies it’s now 20%, and is on schedule to hit 50% by 2020. The US and Canada together have more estimated gas reserves than Russia, the Middle East and Venezuela combined – enough for more than a century. Europe receives one-third of its natural gas from Russia. Its economic stability may yet rest on Poland, home to an estimated 1.4tn cubic metres of shale gas. ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil have begun drilling near Gdansk. There are also substantial reserves in Germany, India, South Africa and Australia. New discoveries have forced Moscow to slash prices to formerly captive customers – by 30% to Ukraine, for instance. It has also led to price reductions for the developing world, which is groaning under the weight of rising commodity costs. While Britain is not yet dependent on Moscow, by 2012 it will begin importing substantial quantities via Nord Stream, a new Gazprom-owned pipeline. The discovery of substantial deposits of shale gas near Blackpool in Lancashire by Staffordshire-based Cuadrilla Resources,
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combined with fears of Russian instability and dominance, has touched off a gas rush. That’s led to protests by the usual green suspects. “Finding gas in the Bowland shales [in the UK] could be a disaster for the environment,” says Friends of the Earth, claiming there is an “unknown risk to wildlife”. Greenpeace, while not as adamant, has expressed similar concerns. In a Machiavellian twist of ideological politics, it appears only the extreme wing of the environmental community can save the Russian cartel – and looks keen to do just that. Environmentalists complain that the shale gas boom will slow the transition to renewable energy. They have proposed a moratorium on extraction until the “environmental and financial unknowns” are answered – say in 30 years or so. They echo Gazprom’s claim that gas fracturing poses extreme environmental dangers. It’s the hackneyed precautionary strategy. Litigate new technology to a standstill based on frightening but farfetched scenarios, then claim that corporations should not be given the goahead to mine because they face growing legal and environmental risks. The critics take their case to Wall Street and the City, claiming that the legal risks – which they manufactured – are too great to justify the gamble of funding the new technology.
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The belief that shale gas poses hazards to aquifers has been generated almost entirely by publicity surrounding the polemical documentary Gasland, which was a hit on the liberal circuit last year. It looks at the impact of fracking in the US in the mid-2000s before environmental regulations were in place. Its most memorable scene shows a Colorado homeowner downstream from a shale mine igniting his chemical-laden tap water with a lighter.
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The dumping of waste water near water supplies, rare to begin with, is now being addressed and more carefully regulated in the US.
Too simplistic? It’s great cinema but dangerously simplistic public policy. The dumping of waste water near water supplies, rare to begin with, is now being addressed and more carefully regulated in the US. Tough laws make it unlikely it would ever happen in Canada, Europe or Australia. And more mines sites are using deepwell injection or evaporation pits to limit environmental impacts. The greens are right, however, in saying the shale boom is indeed likely to upend the economics of renewable energy. But that’s arguably for the good. Renewables still can’t compete without heavy subsidies, which are hard to justify when there are cheap, plentiful substitutes that undercut dirty coal – even if gas is not as politically popular as wind or solar.
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Long term, this transition fuel should work in ➼everyone’s favour. With less of an urgency to waste
money on inefficient, short-term subsidies, hardpressed governments can justify pouring more money into research and development so renewables can eventually compete on their own. Pragmatic progressives on the left, such as the Environmental Defence Fund (EDF) and some ethical investor groups in the US, cautiously support the new technology. “Investors believe that companies can profitably minimise fracking’s water contamination, gas leaks and other material risks by adopting best management practices and by phasing out the most toxic chemicals,” says Mindy Lubber, president of Boston-based Ceres, an international network of investors and public interest groups.
Trilogy Travellers pack valued at $39.90 Whether you are off on a short weekend away or a long-haul flight overseas, Trilogy Travellers includes the perfect selection of five travel-friendly skincare essentials, to counteract the dehydrating and unbalancing affects of travel and to ensure you arrive at your destination feeling refreshed with a glowing complexion. Trilogy Travellers includes a Cream Cleanser, a Vital Moisturising Cream, a Ultra Hydrating Body Cream, a Hydrating Mist Toner and a Gentle Facial Exfoliant. Trilogy is a New Zealand skincare company that uses natural ingredients to care for skin of all ages.
The EDF’s expert on the new technology, Scott Anderson, agrees. “If wells are constructed right and operated right, hydraulic fracturing will not cause a problem,” he says in an interview on the activist news site Energy and Environment. But couldn’t this view be seen as abandoning renewables? “At the EDF, we don’t pick fuels. We are realists; we recognise that fossil fuels will be around for a while,” Anderson says, noting that states in the US have considerable experience in regulating well construction and operation. Anti carbon-energy legal hounds might be able to tie fracking into knots for purism’s sake, but the environmental consequences would be severe and the developing world would take the biggest hit. It would be a sign of maturity if stubborn eco-romantics reconsidered, and began using their considerable clout to back achievable incremental change. Winning Pyrrhic victories that do little to ease the world’s addiction to dirtier energy sources helps no one. *Jon Entine is a senior fellow and director of the Genetic Literacy Project at the Statistical Assessment Service, George Mason University, and runs a sustainability consultancy, ESG MediaMetrics. ❙
New Weleda Discovery Pack valued at $29.90 To celebrate their 90th anniversary, Weleda have produced a Limited Edition Discovery Pack containing six of their fabulous skincare minis. It’s a great starter kit for those new to Weleda or as a gorgeous gift for someone special. Included are the Sea Buckthorn Hand Cream, Pomegranate Firming Serum, Skin Food, Citrus Body Wash, Salt Toothpaste, Wild Rose Body Oil and an Iris Facial Lotion sachet. For futher information on subscribing go to page 13 Or email: words@xtra.co.nz www.themirrorinspires.com
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Is the world becoming a better place?
It has been ten years since the September 11 terrorist attacks shocked the world. Over these past ten years, the world has been swayed by the “war on terrorism” through events such as the attacks on Afghanistan and the war with Iraq, triggered by 9.11. Obama’s having assumed the presidency has not changed the fact that the Middle East is a battlefield, and the Middle East peace problem has remained at an impasse. There came the sudden Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, Egypt’s “January 25 Revolution” that was inspired by the Jasmine Revolution, and the regime collapses in Arab nations, all while those in the Arab nations were still filled with a sense of stagnation toward the state of affairs. As authoritarian Arabian regimes, which had been believed to never budge, were overthrown by mass demonstrations, media and intellectuals in Europe and the US have become optimistic that democratization would start to spread in Middle Eastern nations in a domino effect. One wonders, however, if spring has really come to the Arab world. At the moment, it is a little too early to be joyful about spring having come to the countries where the regimes were overthrown. Spring in Arab nations, centered on the ones in North Africa where the regimes have collapsed, is an unstable season where sandstorms continue for tens of days before the flowers start to bloom.
The Eastern European Revolution and the “Arab Spring” The optimistic view that the media in Europe and the US have in calling the political changes in Arab nations the “Arab Spring” is due to their seeing these changes the same way they saw the Eastern European revolution of 1989. To be sure, there is one thing that the “Arab Spring” and the Eastern European revolution definitely have in common—namely, the fact that rigid regimes were toppling one after another from demonstrations by the public. However, the backgrounds of the revolutions in both regions are fundamentally different. What the people of the Eastern European nations hoped for were the
political freedom and prosperous societies that came with it. Clear visions of the new structures to be established were spread over the Western European nations just next to them. All that needed to be done next was to go ahead with the ideal models. However, the situation is completely different with Arab nations. Of course the Arabian people wanted political freedom and prosperous societies as did the people of the Eastern European nations, but what they wanted the most was, in a word, fair societies. The forming of the unjust societies that the Arab people renounced was actually not so long ago. Except in Libya, in which no constitution or assembly existed and the dictator known as Gaddafi was synonymous with the state, the IMF’s structural adjustments have been embraced and huge pushes toward market economies have been made in countries with fallen regimes such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen since the 1990s, when Eastern European nations were struggling to work toward building market economies. State enterprises were dissolved and the middle class was impoverished. A new class of businessmen emerged, on the other hand, and they took important positions in the ruling party with the help of enormous amounts of funds, and crony capitalism—where they became cronies to presidents and their successors while gaining political power as well as economic benefits— was progressing. In other words, the regime collapses in the Arab nations described above also represented denial
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One wonders, however, if spring has really come to the Arab world. At the moment, it is a little too early to be joyful about spring having come to the countries where the regimes were overthrown.
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3 0 EtheEMirror ➼ of the paths that the Eastern European
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nations had followed under the name of democratization, the neo-liberal economic systems.
Facebook have played a major role in Instability after the the toppling Revolution As the paths that the new nations of the should take are still unclear, the interim governments. governments designed to run the nations
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after the regime collapses are groping in working on their national frameworks while negotiating with people including groups that constituted demonstrators (referred to as “demonstration groups” tentatively), opposition parties, religious groups, and others who had been
Eating is an agri-cultural act…. your health, economic and cultural wealth start with seeds sown in the field, the ‘ager’
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isolated from political spheres in the past. However, the policymakers in these times of instability are facing difficulties that have never been experienced before. New tools of information transmission that apply social networks typified by Facebook have played a major role in the toppling of the governments. Facebook is effective in mobilizing unorganized people and bringing down something huge, but it is extremely ineffective when it comes to coordinating and outlining diverse opinions. The demonstration groups that are negotiating with the interim governments are lacking clear structures of leadership and are repeatedly undergoing factional splits and reorganization. The citizens have discovered, however, that demonstrations and sit-down protests are fast and effective ways to exert enormous pressure on government. As a result, there are frequent demonstrations by young people who may block off the roads when their demands are not met, and often even turn into mobs. This is particularly noticeable in Egypt.
Sea Voyages without Compasses These confusions could be seen as acceptable losses if they were labor pains in the establishing of Arabian-style democracy. The interim governments of countries such as Egypt are compromising with the sometimes emotional public opinion at the moment, however, while still unable to find the right path to the building of new systems between real society and public opinion. History has shown what continued compromise with public demand leads to. Egypt’s second president Nasser gave in to the public’s demand for the overthrowing of Israel and went to war with Israel, though he had been reluctant about entering into the war. This led to the devastating defeat of Egypt and other Arab nations with the occupation of the West Bank of the River Jordan and East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula (gradually returned to Egypt after 1982) and worsened the Palestinian problem, which still continues to this day. The future of the Arab nations and regional stability depends on how well future political leaders can persuade the sometimes emotional masses. The world may have once again entered a new age of turmoil, ten years after 9.11. ❙
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Eco marketing: What price green consumerism?
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Two decades later, green marketing remains with us, more intense than ever. Is green yet more than a fad?
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Remember the innocent days of the 1980s ethical consumer movement? New Age entrepreneurs rode the green wave into the hearts and malls of the world. The promise? Buying pricey ice-cream or hair rinse made with Brazil nuts (or the stocks of the companies that made those products) would make the world a better place.
people with a social dilemma: they have to be willing to pay premium prices – not for their own direct benefit, but for the greater good,” says professor Shruti Gupta of Penn State University, a world expert in ethical behaviour. “While people love to voice their idealism to survey companies, the cold facts are they almost always put their self-interest first.”
That myth crashed. Consumers, it turned out, were not willing to buy idealism in a bottle if it came at a premium. Two decades later, green marketing remains with us, more intense than ever. Is green yet more than a fad?
Take Elizabeth Romanaux, a consultant from New Jersey interviewed by the American Association of Retired People for a magazine piece about green buying. She considers herself environmentally conscious. She recycles. She composts. But she won’t pay a premium for an ecofriendly hotel room or cleaning products. “It isn’t that I can’t afford them,” she told AARP Magazine. “It just goes against my grain to pay more.”
The Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability annual survey estimates that 13-19% of American adults are dedicated green buyers – a $290bn market. The US-based Cone Communications estimates that 70% of American consumers consider the environmental impact of their purchasing. The UK and Europe show similar numbers. According to marketing experts, however, these figures are wildly overstated, reflecting attitudes, not buying patterns. “Buying green products presents
“Consumers will buy pricier green products,” Gupta says, “but only if they are convinced that the sacrifice – higher prices – signals some measurable value.” We need proof that a green product or service is “as effective and of the same quality” as alternatives, says Kate James of Grail Research, a consumer research company. Grail reports that although 85% of US consumers claim they buy green, fewer than 8% actually do. According to marketing firm Ypartnership, although eight in 10 vacation travellers consider themselves “eco-conscious,” only one in 10 books travel based on green considerations. Ecoconsumerism remains a marginal purchase or luxury indulgence except for a dedicated few.
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A 2008 study funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council found that 30% of consumers reported they were very concerned about environmental issues but they struggled to translate this into purchases. As a result, the market share for “ethical foods”, one of the most visible segments of the green market, has yet to crack 5%.
Jaded greens Baby boomers, who launched the green movement, are now the leading sceptics. Many have metaphorically traded in their Beetles for luxury hybrid BMWs, but deceive themselves they are still buying green. Crowd Science, which uses internet surveys, says 25% of seniors say shopping green “makes no difference”; most of the rest are indifferent. To eco-cynics green consumerism is the ultimate oxymoron, akin to “corporate responsibility”. The genuine solution, of course, is to buy less – by significantly reducing consumption of goods and resources. Three years ago, as green fever was peaking in Hollywood – green was declared the new black – Vanity Fair published its annual “Go Green” issue timed to Earth Day. Muckraked.com estimated that the issue, printed on non-recycled paper,
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used 2,247 tonnes of trees and produced 4,331,757 pounds of greenhouse gases, 13,413,922 gallons of wastewater and 1,744,060 pounds of solid waste. Vanity Fair scrapped the green theme issue in 2009. The green marketing trend is certainly not all smoke and mirrors. The boom in environmental marketing has meant more scrutiny of companies looking to differentiate themselves. No longer limited to ecolabels and recycled packaging, green marketers have been forced to raise their game in transparent and creative ways, focusing on eco-innovation and actual corporate responsibility commitments to enhance their brand identity. They need to document their green credentials.
Perhaps the most encouraging twist is not the fragile green buying trend but the turn by manufacturers towards a more sustainable style of business – thank you, Wal-Mart and GE. “I believe the real growth in environmental consumerism will be in the business-to-business space, not in selling to consumers,” says Gupta. “For them it’s not paying premium prices, it’s making investments in sustainable production that significantly lowers longrange costs. Greening the supply chain saves them money.” ❙
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Three years ago, as green fever was peaking in Hollywood – green was declared the new black – Vanity Fair published its annual “Go Green” issue timed to Earth Day.
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From page 19
Uzbek cotton: Time to drive child labour from value chains
A first step is to understand the challenges of the spinning factories and textile mills.
Why not visit the spinning, weaving or knitting factories and talk to the staff. Are they using Uzbek cotton? What characteristics do they like about it? Do they have alternatives so they don’t have to buy it? What are their biggest obstacles to overcome so they stop purchasing Uzbek cotton?
Cooperate with mills Working on the Uzbek cotton issues for the past five years, Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN) recently started Strategic Mills and Spinners Initiative (SMSI), a project to address these questions. RSN is coordinating a group of companies to approach an aggregated list of mills to start working through the challenges of identifying and avoiding
Uzbek cotton. More companies are invited to join, since addressing issues at the conventional cotton harvesting level and tracing it through the complex global value chain is too burdensome for any one company to resolve alone. We’ve just witnessed the power of partnerships in our coalition of the 60 brands signing the pledge coupled with a half dozen NGOs working to end child slavery. The result: not one western contract for Uzbekistan cotton. Technology, legislation, and momentum around egregious abuses make the time ripe to start creating an industry-wide transparent accountability process. Now is the time to commit to breaking the slavery chain secretly imbedded in the value chain. Together, we can take real action. And then, just hopefully, this will be the last editorial you’ll read on forced child labour in Uzbekistan. ❙
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Why not visit the spinning, weaving or knitting factories and talk to the staff. Are they using Uzbek cotton?
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Why Chinese coal miners are still dying
Paul French enters the dark world of China’s coal industry. Paul French has been based in China for more than 20 years and is a partner in the research publisher Access AsiaMintel.
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Wherever it takes place, coal mining is a dirty business. However rigorous and enforced the safety regulations are, digging out the precious black stuff remains a hazardous occupation. But it’s more hazardous for some than others. Recently I was in the UK when a miner died at a colliery in Yorkshire just weeks after the death of four miners in a Welsh pit. The story was headline news and calls for an inquiry were vociferous. Coalminers dying in a developed economy like the UK are now a rarity, a shock and a big news story.
Tragic accident
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This accident made the news – 17 is a big enough death toll in China’s long history of deadly mining disasters – but often mining tragedies are effectively not news but rather just part of China’s everyday economic story.
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Compare this with China where, a week after the tragedy in Britain, at least 17 men were killed after a massive build-up of gas and coal exploded in a privately owned and operated colliery in southwest China’s Guizhou province. This accident made the news – 17 is a big enough death toll in China’s long history of deadly mining disasters – but often mining tragedies are effectively not news but rather just part of China’s everyday economic story. According to the Guizhou Daily newspaper, safety rules at the mine had been breached and inadequate safety measures were in place. Three members of the mine’s management have been arrested. China digs up one-third of the world’s coal output but accounts for more than 70% of accidents. To be fair, if you’re shocked by today’s mining deaths in China, consider that deaths per million tonnes dug are now a relatively low 0.89, compared with a very scary 6.1 in 2000. In China, improvements have been made since the public outcries that followed what seemed like almost daily tragedies around the turn of the millennium. However, in China’s private mines the death rate remains much higher than in state-run facilities, running at about 10 workers per million tonnes of coal mined. Thankfully, the majority of mines are of the safer publicly owned variety. Simon Powell, head of sustainable research for investment bank CLSA in Hong Kong and author of a recent report, “Still Dying for Coal? A Chinese Industry
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Half Way There”, identifies three problems with the industry: a lack of investment, a lack of safety processes and a continuing focus on short-term profits. All three of Powell’s “causes” hold true, but there is also one other the report doesn’t dwell on – the endemic corruption in China’s coal industry that perpetuates those three factors.
Murky underworld You could read of the Guizhou tragedy and then refer to another coal-related story that appeared in the margins of the Chinese press around the same time. This told the story of a former senior executive at China’s third-biggest stateowned coal producer, the Datong Coal Mine Group,who was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting $1.43m in bribes. Stories of bribery and corruption in China’s mining industry – blind eyes being turned to safety and investment in an industry fuelled by a drive for profits – leaves this graft to fester. And this is a festering that turns fatal for too many miners. China needs coal. Despite the massive push towards alternative energy in China – Beijing’s 12th Five Year Plan set very ambitious targets for renewables of a 15% share of energy in China’s overall supply by 2020 – coal will remain crucial to keeping the Chinese economic juggernaut on the road.
Improvements So the mining industry is here to stay. But how to improve it further? CLSA’s Powell in his report says the industry is “half way there” thanks to Beijing shutting down the worst offenders, crackdowns on notoriously treacherous illegal mines employing untrained migrant workers and a raft of new safety legislation. To get all the way, Powell believes one method might be for other provinces to look at Shanxi’s fund to promote sustainable mining. A fee, charged to the mining companies, brings in about $2bn a year, which is then used to develop alternative industries, improve mine safety and start to tackle the issue of the environmental degradation coal mining leaves in its wake. It’s a small start, but a positive one, and Beijing will need to continue to root out the corrupt mine managers and officials to ensure the momentum continues. ❙
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