VDay Action: Hershey and Child Labour

Raise the Bar, Hershey!

It has been almost a decade since major chocolate companies committed to ending abusive child labor, forced labor and trafficking in their cocoa supply chains, but these abuses continue today. While many major companies have started to work with third party, independent organizations to trace their cocoa and institute labor standards among their suppliers, the Hershey Company lags behind all of its competitors in this area. Tell Hershey to Raise the Bar for responsible cocoa sourcing and begin using Fair Trade Certified cocoa!

While many companies are working to trace their cocoa and institute labor standards among their suppliers, I am disappointed to learn that Hershey is lagging behind its competitors in this area. I believe you can be a leader in responsible cocoa sourcing.

I ask that you meet the goals of the “Raise The Bar, Hershey!” campaign, which include:
* an agreement to take immediate action to eliminate forced and child labor in your cocoa supply chain;
* a commitment to sourcing 100% Fair Trade Certified™ cocoa beans by 2012 for at least one of your top five selling chocolate bars that prominently displays the Hershey name; and
* a commitment to making at least one additional top five selling bar 100% Fair Trade Certified™ every two years thereafter, so that Hershey’s top five selling cocoa bars will all be 100% Fair Trade Certified™ within 10 years.

NOTE: you can also download or order a DVD of THE DARK SIDE OF CHOCOLATE! You can host a screening of this documentary that exposes the ongoing use of trafficked child labor in the cocoa industry in your community. Click here to order your DVD and click here to download a screening toolkit.

Central Asia: Decay and Decline - International Crisis Group

Central Asia: Decay and Decline - International Crisis Group
(note: the ICG is headed by Mme Louise Arbour, esteemed Canadian jurist, and the first prosecutor of the ICC)
READ THE FULL EXECUTIVE SUMMARY to see the Recommendations of the ICG and to donor organizations on the long steps to structural reform.

Quietly but steadily Central Asia’s basic human and physical infrastructure – the roads, power plants, hospitals and schools and the last generation of Soviet-trained specialists who have kept this all running – is disappearing. The equipment is wearing out, the personnel retiring or dying. Post-independence regimes made little effort to maintain or replace either, and funds allocated for this purpose have largely been eaten up by corruption. This collapse has already sparked protests and contributed to the overthrow of a government.

All countries in the region are to some degree affected, but the two poorest, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, are already in dire straits. Their own specialists say that in the next few years, they will have no teachers for their children and no doctors to treat their sick. Power cuts in Tajikistan each winter – twelve hours a day in the countryside, if not more – are already a tradition. Power failures in Kyrgyzstan are becoming increasingly common. Experts in both countries are haunted by the increasingly likely prospect of catastrophic systemic collapse, especially in the energy sector.
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are heading in the same direction. Exactly how far they have gone is hard to say as reliable data either does not exist or is secret, while extravagantly upbeat public statements bear no resemblance to reality. But Turkmenistan’s marble-faced model hospitals and Uzbekistan’s mendacious claims of prosperity are no answer to their countries’ problems. Even Kazakhstan, the region’s only functioning state, will be severely tested by infrastructure deficiencies, particularly in transportation and training of technical cadre. Any dreams of economic diversification and modernisation will have to be put on hold for the indefinite future. ..

The consequences of this neglect are too dire to ignore. The rapid deterioration of infrastructure will deepen poverty and alienation from the state. The disappearance of basic services will provide Islamic radicals, already a serious force in many Central Asian states, with further ammunition against regional leaders and openings to establish influential support networks. Economic development and poverty reduction will become a distant dream; the poorest states will become ever more dependent on the export of labour. Anger over a sharp decline in basic services played a significant role in the unrest that led to the overthrow of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April 2010. It could well play a similar role in other countries, notably Tajikistan, in the not too distant future.

Events in one state can quickly have a deleterious effect on its neighbours. A polio outbreak in Tajikistan in 2010 required large-scale immunisation campaigns in neigh­bouring Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan and triggered reports of infection as far away as Russia. Central Asia may also be negatively affected by its neighbours: a further decline in infrastructure is likely to coincide with increasing instability in Afghanistan, and a possible spillover of the insurgency there.

China Makes Fake Rice from Plastic?

China Makes Fake Rice from Plastic? Vietnam Reacts : Very Vietnam
(No action available here, just a warning...)
A number of Chinese companies have been involved over the years in various scandals involving fake or tainted goods. Perhaps the most dangerous of all involve food, including the now famous 2008 milk scandal in which Chinese-made milk was found to contain the toxin melamine. The end result was 290,000 victims who fell ill and 11 suspected cases of death. Now there are reports from Singapore media that China is mass producing fake rice, which can be potentially very dangerous.
According to the Korean-language “Weekly Hong Kong” (which many Vietnam websites are referencing as well), Singapore media claim that fake rice is being distributed in the Chinese town of Taiyuan, in Shaanxi province. This “rice” is a mix of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and plastic. It is formed by mixing the potatoes and sweet potatoes into the shape of rice grains, then adding industrial synthetic resins. Since the rice does not behave like normal rice, it stays hard even after it has been cooked. Such synthetic resins can also be very harmful if consumed.
A Chinese Restaurant Association official said that eating three bowls of this fake rice would be like eating one plastic bag. Due to the seriousness of the matter, he added that there would be an investigation of factories alleged to be producing the rice. Meanwhile, the low cost of the fake rice is allowing wholesalers to make large profits....
also see: (January 14 news)

The latest test on spice samples in Ho Chi Minh City has showed that some of them carried a carcinogenic substance, the Department of Health announced at press conference Thursday.
According to the department’s Food Safety and Hygiene Division, samples of 26 products like dried chili, watermelon seeds, chili sauce and curry powder. They were taken from different supermarkets and markets across the city between last December 20 and this January 6.three of the samples were found containing rhodamine an industrial dye.

Time for the World Bank Group to take human rights seriously | Amnesty

Time for the World Bank Group to take human rights seriously | Amnesty International
Corporations can have an enormous negative impact on the rights of individuals and communities. Through its research, Amnesty International has exposed how these impacts can range from community livelihoods being threatened or destroyed to forced evictions carried out to make way for extractive operations.

The World Bank Group, among other functions, finances the activities of corporations in developing countries. This is done through an agency called the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The IFC frequently supports industries of a particularly invasive nature, such as oil, gas and mining projects. These industries are often associated with environmental damage and human rights harm. The IFC must make sure it has strong safeguards to prevent human rights abuses as a result of its operations.

Unfortunately the World Bank Group is refusing to take human rights seriously. In May 2011 the IFC will adopt new policies to manage social and environmental risks associated with the activities it supports. Not only is the IFC proposing to adopt safeguards that are inadequate to prevent negative human rights impacts, but it is REFUSING to even make a commitment to respect human rights.

As an institution that claims to be committed to fighting poverty and improving people’s lives, and which is governed by member states that have international human rights obligations, this is entirely unacceptable.

You can find Amnesty International’s full analysis of the IFC policies here.
You can sign a letter to Mr. Thunnel, Head of the IFC, here

MP John McKay tells mining conference: Bill C-300 will see a 'legislative resurrection'

Liberal MP John McKay tells mining conference: Bill C-300 will see a 'legislative resurrection' | rabble.ca
Liberal MP John McKay was one of nine speakers at Friday's conference, the Political Economy of Mining and Resource Extraction, at Carleton University. McKay, who is the MP for Scarborough-Guildwood, spoke to a jam-packed room of close to 100 people. He talked broadly about the bill, called the Corporate Accountability of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries Act, which would have held Canadian mining companies accountable for human rights abuses and environmental destruction while operating abroad. He expressed his surprise at the reactions to his bill. He received reactions from countries around the world including Bulgaria and the Philippines. Al-Jazeera and the Globe and Mail approached him. Over 80 NGOs wrote a letter in support of the bill. McKay revealed that "some progressive companies dipped their toes in it."
It's not uncommon for MPs to be absent for votes on private members' bills. However, for Bill C-300, all the Conservatives showed up to vote against it. Twenty-four MPs were absent from the vote and the bill was defeated by a mere six votes. McKay then spoke about a "legislative resurrection," or re-introducing the bill after more research and working with industry. The audience was heartened to hear that the bill's defeat was not the death of the bill.

The preceding presenter was Jamie Kneen from Mining Watch. He gave an excellent overview of Canadian corporations operating in the global south; a perfect set up for why a bill such as Bill C-300 is sorely needed. He showed striking images of environmental destruction, community protests and police repression. His case studies included the Highland Valley copper mine (British Colombia), the Iduapriem gold mine (Ghana), the Barrick Gold North Mara mine (Tanzania), Bulyanhulu gold mine (Tanzania), Junin (Ecuador), Tambogrande (Peru) and finally Cerro de San Pedro (Mexico).

Todd Gordon from York University, gave a talk entitled "Canadian policy and the corporate pursuit of profit." He spoke about the harm caused by Canadian mining companies and their relationship to the third world as systemic to Canadian capitalism. The Canadian government, including local embassies, is supportive of Canadian mining companies abroad. Gordon explained how documents obtained under Access to Information requests showed this relationship.

David Welch, who is a professor at the University of Ottawa, gave an overview of the Algonquin's struggle against uranium mining in North Frontenac. Canada is the largest exporter of uranium in the world. 80% of uranium that is mined in Canada is exported with a large majority going to the U.S.

Libs and PCs defeat GMO Bill C-474

Notice from Layton re GMO bill:
"On February 9th, Conservative and Liberal MPs joined together to defeat Bill C-474, An Act respecting the Seeds Regulations (analysis of potential harm) introduced by New Democrat Agriculture Critic Alex Atamanenko. The legislation sought to require that an analysis of potential harm to export markets be conducted before the sale of any new genetically engineered seed was permitted.

On the defeat of his bill, Mr. Atamanenko said, "once again we see these two parties putting the interests of their big business buddies ahead of everyday farmers whose livelihoods can be destroyed in an instant from contamination by genetically engineered (GE) seeds and crops".

Looking forward, the New Democrats will continue to take every opportunity to pressure the government to initiate a public debate around genetic engineering and to use a precautionary approach to this important issue.

In spite of Bill C-474's defeat, New Democrats will continue to press the following initiatives: "
Bill C-370: mandatory labeling for genetically modified foods
Bill-C-353: Ban on the use of "Terminator seeds"

Today is Tokens4Change in Toronto - For Youth Without Shelter

A message from Project Humanity, producers of the play The Middle Place, written by youth in shelters, and currently playing in Toronto.

Today is Tokens4Change (T4C) Day on the TTC - a one-day event we've helped orchestrate to raise 5000 tokens for Youth Without Shelter. Project Humanity has been working with high school youth to create performances that will pop up on select subway platforms throughout the day, we have some professional artists busking, we've got volunteer youth in nearly every station collecting donations. When you ride today, bring a little extra change -- any and every bit can help get a shelter youth to a much-needed job interview or doctor's appointment.

For more info visit facebook.com And if you're not riding the rocket today you can make a one-time donation of $5 by texting the word "tokens" to 45678. Super easy!

A Danish film offers a long-overdue reality check on microfinance

A new DANISH film about the Grameen bank will fuel the current crisis of faith in microfinance. But it would be a disaster if the backlash swept away all microfinance project (note: useful comment section too, about Grameen and Yunus - Mary)

Africa shows signs of winning war against female genital mutilation

Africa shows signs of winning war against female genital mutilation
Today is International Ban FGM day. This is a hopeful, and a cautionary story, about well-meaning ngos not using local voices - see the previous post on victims of rape in Congo as advocates for women - M

Sister Fa, a Senegalese urban soul and hip-hop star who has been lending her voice to a remarkable new drive against female circumcision in 12 of the countries worst affected by the practice across the continent. The first report into a United Nations project that began in 2008 has shown remarkable success rates with more than 6,000 villages and communities in six countries already abandoning the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) – also known as cutting or female circumcision – with the numbers growing every month.

The change is down to a unique approach with a proper understanding of local culture, says Sister Fa, who has seen her own home town of Thionck Essyl, where she herself was "cut", abandon it altogether. Mutilation is practised in 28 African countries, where 140 million women have been subjected to the brutal practice and a further two million are at risk every year.

"We're using music because the young people are the future. They need to understand that they are not alone," Sister Fa told the Observer from Dakar, where she is on a tour called "Education Against Mutilation" .. usually the NGOs come in from outside, foreigners maybe, and they try to do a demonstration and say: 'We don't want you to do this', and the people think: 'Why should we stop? This is our culture, who are you to come here once and try to put pressure on us? But if you reach communities and keep coming back then we are finding you can change things."

African women talking to African communities about mutilation is exactly the way to change things, says Nafissatou Diop, co-ordinator for the UN project, a joint programme between the United Nations Population Fund and Unicef. Diop said 12 years of mistakes by well-meaning NGOs had been closely examined and the lessons learned.

"We understand that what some charities were looking at the supply side and targeting those people who were doing the cutting, but taking them out of the system doesn't stop the demand, nor does outsiders going into a village and setting up a demonstration with an anatomical model of a woman's body that shocks everyone in the village, telling them their daughters will die and then you go away never to come back. It does not suffice.

"We are realising that you need to sustain what you are doing, open a dialogue, non-judgmentally, put things in local context and bring them to a voluntary abandonment of FGM. When this type of intervention is driven by and within a community, it is not seen as being a 'foreign influence'."

City of Joy Works to Help Alleviate Congo’s Ills - Stephen Lewis and Eve Ensler

City of Joy Works to Help Alleviate Congo’s Ills - NYTimes.com
Fighting Congo’s Ills With Education and an Army of Women
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN [NOTE - this NYTimes Article calls Stephen Lewis 'a former UNICEF official...' see similar projects funded by the Stephen Lewis Foundation  - mary]

BUKAVU, Democratic Republic of Congo: For years, diplomats, aid workers, academics and government officials here have been vexed almost to the point of paralysis about how to attack this country’s staggering problem of sexual violence, in which hundreds of thousands of women have been raped, many quite sadistically, by the various armed groups who haunt the hills of eastern Congo. Sending in more troops has compounded the problem. United Nations peacekeepers have failed to stop it. Would reforming the Congolese military work? Building up the Congolese state? Pushing harder to regulate so-called conflict minerals to starve the rebels of an income?

For Eve Ensler, the feminist playwright who wrote “The Vagina Monologues” who has worked closely with Congolese women, the answer was simple. "You build an army of women.. And when you have enough women in power, they take over the government and they make different decisions. They’ll say ‘Uh-uh, we’re not taking this any longer,’ and they’ll put an end to this rape problem fast."

Over the weekend, Ms. Ensler took the first step toward building this army: the opening of a base here in Bukavu called City of Joy. The gleaming new compound of brick homes, big classrooms, courtyards and verandas will be a campus where small groups of Congolese women, most of them rape victims, will be groomed to become leaders in their communities so they can eventually rise up and, Ms. Ensler hopes, change the sclerotic politics of this country. They will take courses in self-defense, computers and human rights; learn trades and farming; try to exorcise their traumas with therapy sessions and dance; and then return to their home villages to empower others.

The center, built partly by the hands of the women themselves, cost around $1 million. Unicef contributed a substantial amount, and the rest was raised from foundations and private donors by Ms. Ensler’s advocacy group, V-Day. Google is donating a computer center.

It is a gutsy concept, to invest this heavily in a small group of mostly illiterate women — about 180 leadership recruits per year — in the hope that they will catalyze social change. But Ms. Ensler has faced long odds before, encouraging rape victims in Afghanistan, Bosnia and other war zones to speak out and become leaders.

"This could be a turning point," said Stephen Lewis, a former Unicef official whose private foundation is helping City of Joy. "There’s been growing international concern about what’s happening in Congo, but up until now that hasn’t amounted to anything on the ground. Maybe this is the moment where women on the ground show they can turn this around."

Eastern Congo is one of the poorest and most dysfunctional places on earth, but it is also one of the most beautiful, a land of sculptured green mountains and deep, clear lakes and trees upon trees. It is teeming with riches: gold, diamonds, timber, copper, tin and more. And though the people here, especially the women, have been brutally abused for years — many have had assault rifles thrust inside them, others raped with chunks of wood and left incontinent and sterile for life — their spirits have hardly been crushed.

When City of Joy officially opened Friday, hundreds of women, most of them rape victims, thumped on drums and sang at the top of their lungs. They wore black T-shirts that read, “Stop the rape of our most precious resource"... It was an upbeat moment in a country that has had few. The legacy of brutality and exploitation goes back to the 1880s, when King Leopold II of Belgium claimed Congo as a colony and essentially enslaved the population to obtain piles of ivory and rubber.

In the mid-1990s, the country sank to new depths when a civil war broke out and neighboring nations jumped in, arming this or that rebel group in order to get their hands on this or that gold or diamond mine. Millions died. Although the other African armies eventually withdrew, many of the rebel groups never disbanded, exploiting the fact that Congo is incredibly large and the state incredibly weak. These armed groups have to a striking degree vented their rage against women. Sadistic rape — sometimes of men and boys as well — has become a distinctive feature of the violence here, sometimes to terrorize civilians...

Ms. Ensler came up with the idea for the center about three years ago after hearing from Congolese women that they wanted a safe place where they could learn skills. While some of the center’s alumnae will return to their villages, others will carry out the mission in other ways. "I don’t want to go back to my village and get raped again,” said Jane Mukoninwa, who had been gang-raped twice and will be in the first class of leadership recruits. "I want to learn to read and write so I can stay in Bukavu. She added: “I’m angry. And if I can get some skills, I can be an advocate."

UPDATE on Bill 393 - New Sponsor!

VICTORY: BILL C-393 WILL PROCEED TO A VOTE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
(via OXFAM and the Canadian HIV Legal Network)
"Bill C-393 - life-saving legislation to reform Canada’s broken Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR) - has today overcome a procedural hurdle and will move on to a final vote in the House of Commons. The bill received the unanimous consent of the House required to transfer its sponsorship to a sitting MP, thereby enabling it to continue through the democratic process in Parliament.

 We thank MP Paul Dewar (NDP, Ottawa Centre) for becoming the new sponsor of the bill. We also thank MP Brian Masse (NDP, Windsor West) and NDP House Leader Libby Davies (Vancouver East) for their efforts in championing the bill. We thank the New Democratic Party, the Liberal Party, and the Bloc Québécois for following through on their previously stated commitment to consent to transferring sponsorship of Bill C-393.

We would also like to thank the members of these parties who rose to speak in support of Bill C-393 this past Monday, January 31, during the bill’s first hour of debate. Thank you for recognizing the rare opportunity before you to make meaningful change and to save lives now. We commend Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party for agreeing to the request for a new sponsor and allowing Bill C-393 to proceed to a final vote in the House of Commons, in keeping with the strong spirit of Canadian democracy.

Bill C-393 has the power and potential to save lives in the developing world — and would most definitely contribute to the government’s stated goal of reducing maternal and child mortality. Bill C-393 also enjoys widespread public support, as demonstrated repeatedly to Parliamentarians. A national poll found that more than 80% of Canadians support reforming CAMR to make it workable and to ensure that generic drugs can quickly and affordably be sent to those most in need. Canadians also support our democratic process, as evidenced by the outpouring of support for the swift transfer of sponsorship of Bill C-393. Indeed, more than 3000 Canadians sent letters to this effect".

Let Parliament Vote! Bill C393 on Affordable Drugs

Avaaz Petition on Bill C393
HERE IS ANOTHER ACTION on BILL C393

Canada is on the verge of becoming a leader in the production of affordable drugs for developing countries. A bill is in Parliament that would force big pharma to grant exceptions to their patents when life saving AIDS drugs are needed in developing countries. But the Conservative Party is trying to kill Bill - C393 on a technicality - dashing dreams of affordable medicine for the world’s poor before Parliament even has a chance to vote.

The sponsor of the Bill to create affordable medicines resigned from Parliament last year. In order to move forward, Parliament has to unanimously approve a new sponsor. This is common, and usually happens without a fuss. But Conservatives are so determined to protect the profits of big pharmaceutical companies over world health, they are refusing to agree to the sponsorship change - cutting off democracy before it starts. Call on Harper and the Conservatives to let Parliament vote.