June 7, 2012

It's a terrible thing using children as your army..

& something SHOULD be done about it...I'd just be wary about doing anything about it if it's connected to the the "Invisible Children" group

I haven't done research on other organizations that can help, bu this is what I found on "Invisible Children"

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Invisible_Children

In 2006, Invisible Children, Inc., became an official 501(c)3 non-profit which has "financial connections to hard right Christian fundamentalist organisations, [and] is led by an evangelical Christian." There was is focused on Uganda. [1] (For a similar example of a better known evangelical Christian nonprofit, see World Vision.)

http://blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/8090/2012-04-08.html

"Invisible Children, Makers of KONY2012, Spied For Ugandan Regime ---WikiLeaks"

Invisible Children, makers of KONY2012, provided an intelligence tip to Uganda's security apparatus leading to arrests of several suspected regime opponents, according to U.S. embassy cables posted by WikiLeaks.

It also diverts news attention from the fact that Gen. Museveni is fighting for his own political survival in Uganda, as opposition politicians who claim he stole the last presidential election continue their mass protests in Kampala, the capital. This week the regime banned protests by activists.

In return for the license granted him by Western powers, Museveni has contributed thousands of Ugandan soldiers -- some of whom may have participated in the war crimes in Congo and in Uganda -- for the U.S.-backed mission to stabilize Somalia, which, Washington fears, will become a haven for Al Qaeda.

Kony2012 was viewed more than 100 million times; yet it now turns out that Invisible Children may have duped a global audience by hiding the fact that it's been working closely with the Museveni regime all along, to the extent that it even shared intelligence leading to arrests of perceived or alleged regime opponents.


http://www.zcommunications.org/what-they-wont-say-about-kony-2012-by-bill-crane

In October, the Obama administration announced it was sending 100 soldiers to Uganda to act as military "advisers" to Ugandan and African Union forces fighting the LRA. "I have authorized a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield," Obama wrote in a letter to Congress.

But the administration isn't motivated to extend military help to the Ugandan government out of altruism. U.S. involvement comes in the context of what SocialistWorker.org contributor Lee Wengraf called "a new African land grab"--with Saudi Arabia, Japan, China, India and South Korea, as well as agribusiness and private equity firms from Europe and the U.S., buying up large tracts in a competition for farmland and biofuel sources.

Despite Invisible Children's claim to speak on behalf of Kony's child soldiers, only one such soldier appears in the video. The only other Ugandans interviewed are politicians--representatives of a U.S.-aligned government that has repressed the Acholi people. In fact, the camera spends more time on the video's white director and his child, and the white activists working with Invisible Children.

June 6, 2012

I agree & can speak from experience

At least for the company website bit.

I applied once to a local call center that had recently changed it's polices to accept only online applications, & required answering a questionnaire (the 1-5 sliding scale "I strongly agree - I strongly disagree type) on top of supplying a resume, work history, etc.

I answered the questionnaire as honestly as I could, just to get an automated email later saying I didn't meet their requirements.

Being the technically inclined guy I am (Fix & build PC's for a living, used to finding workarounds) I figured out the apps were tied to email addresses, submitted a new application but this time giving out the 'gung-ho' I strongly agree answers, & later got an email saying I passed the app & would be getting a call for an interview soon.

The online work application was based on a pre-set of answers & automatically rejected you if you did not meet up with the gung ho attitude they were looking for...I doubt previous experience, expertise, references, etc played any part in the hiring process..

..Just a cold non-human program that merciless dump anyone with honesty, integrity, etc.

I believe they had only 2 H.R. people there..for a building that housed 500-600 employees at any given time..the program did most of the work for them..freeing them up to do pretty much...nothing.

Any real issues or grievances that were brought before them by the front-line agents (the people manning the phones, that did the real work, everything else is just support, really) resulted in them taking the company side pretty much all the time. The center tried to unionize to combat the unjust firings, etc, just to have that squashed due to intimidation & other methods (also threats to 'move elsewhere' if a union was formed)..along with an ineffectual labor board.

I put in a year & 1/2 before I decided to call it quits..after watching too many brown-nosers promoted to potions they couldn't handle, (due to too much time getting OUT of real work in various ways.. resulting in less real knowledge & experience doing the job) & watching various people getting fired for whatever reasons they could justify.

It's a common practice at most call centers..it keeps wages & salaries from getting too high..another trick being moving campaigns to other locations & setting everyone back to zero again, getting paid much less for the 'new' campaign. Of course you have the 'option' of moving to the new location to keep your old job...but the locations were usually pretty far away..as in the other side of the country or another country completely.

The company in question was named StarTek...whose client at the site I worked at was...T-Mobile.

June 4, 2012

Montreal's Grand Prix cancels opening day over protest threats

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/06/03/montreal-grand-prix-student-protests.html?cmp=rss

Montreal's Grand Prix cancels opening day over protest threats

Threats of student protests have forced organizers of the Canadian Grand Prix to cancel the free opening day of the event.

"Our ticket sales are down over the last month or so. People didn't buy the tickets, saying that they were afraid to come to Montreal."

Quebec Premier Jean Charest in turn has been critical of threats toward the race that generates an estimated $100 million in revenue for the city.
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Boy..the lies, fear, & hyperbole are strong with this government..Jean Charest is trying to make a big show as a tough guy since his party got decimated in the last election...maybe he's auditioning for a later move across the border to join the republican party?