Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
Lovely new week Dear Friends!
Tis for now. Rii xx
Filed under: ART, Business, cartoons, Economy, Humour, Laughter, Life, Retail, Shopping, Television | 2 Comments »
“Twice a year in Carrickmacross and surrounding towns a fair was held where men and girls rented their labour to well-to-do farmers for six months. It was Ireland’s version of the slave market.”
(Patrick Kavanagh ‘The Hired Boy’)
As you know by my blogs, that I do have varied interests in life and the living all the way from fashion, humour, blondes & photos, even frogs et funerals to anything in-between to the more serious matters of current affairs, politics and policies, so here is a more serious one on this Children’s Day in Finland. This is an updated entry of autumn 2006.
A Few Facts on the Child Labour/Slavery:
CHILD LABOR: ISSUES, CAUSES AND INTERVENTION (World Bank Org.)
I did some research into the matter, so I decided to compile a few thoughts and facts on the same. First of all, it is not a new phenomenon but has been since time immemorial in almost every country in the world. We in the Western Europe do not have it blatantly into our face presently, but nevertheless it is there, as more and more of these children are smuggled into our towns and even into our neighbourhoods.
Secondly, as we see from the Facts above that I listed: only 5 per cent of the child labour is involved with the export business in the countries, the rest being in the domestic trades in their respective nations. This piece of news is most certainly ‘news’ to me for I have thought that the children would have been the main slave labour for producing export goods.
Anybody who has read/seen the films about the Dickens’ books like ‘Oliver Twist’ is acutely aware that the west has had their share of the children being treated as ‘nothing, nobody’ until the compulsory education, the child allowance and the general benevolence towards children became more of the norm. I am using that expression because as we know the child abuse is still rather widespread – but just in another way. The opening quote on this entry by Patrick Kavanagh was true to many other nations’ children in the times past, including Finland.
Even more facts:
UNICEF CHILD LABOUR QUIZZ in this link.
Fired Up Blonde, Riihele xx 
The solution to this problem lies in my mind:
1.)
With the LEADERS of these nations who have the power to change the circumstances of these children through the legislation via education to empower them. Also, the children’s allowance et cetera to make it worthwhile, so that the parents need not ‘sell’ or be forced to ‘hand over’ their children to this slavery. (It is the relatives in many cases who are forced to hand in the children as pawns for life because of debts accumulated.)
There is no excuse to say that there are no funds; I will not buy into that as other nations have done it with the means that they had at the time e.g. Finland from 1948 started to pay children’s allowance even though it was only three years after the wars while at the same time still paying both to Russia (reparation) and USA (loan) huge amounts of money and after losing tens of thousands of men in their best working age at the WWII.
2.)
The International Community at large through e.g. organizations* to implement pressure on the leadership in these nations to stop treating their young worse than cattle and give them life as a human beings fully participating in their own life and living.
( aka *ILO, World Bank, UNICEF et cetera)
I have already quoted articles by The World Bank, ILO – The International Labor Organisation et cetera – meaning: they know the problem and it is the high time to do something about it all instead just compiling more figures of the same!!
There are other things as the international business and manufacturing industry that many mentioned in the comments previously: yes shame and name them.
This will solve the other 5 per cent of the actual problem.
NOTICE:
Only 5 per cent of the children are made to work in the export trade. That means that the 95 per cent are not. (These figures by ILO = The International Labour Organisation).
Child Matters pun in the name is this that a CHILD DOES MATTER; and also ‘matters’ as in subjects, issues, items, topics, questions and things concerning children.
Filed under: Childhood, Children, Countries, Cultures, Economy, News, Politics, Quizz, Thoughts, View, Violence | 5 Comments »
“Twice a year in Carrickmacross and surrounding towns a fair was held where men and girls rented their labour to well-to-do farmers for six months. It was Ireland’s version of the slave market.”
Patrick Kavanagh ‘The Hired Boy”
A Few Facts on the Child Labour/Slavery:
CHILD LABOR: ISSUES, CAUSES AND INTERVENTION (World Bank Org.)
I have done some research into the matter of Child Slavery since June last year, I decided to compile a few thoughts and facts on the same. First of all it is not a new phenomenon but has been since time immemorial in almost every country in the world. We in the Western Europe do not have it blatantly into our face presently, but nevertheless it is there, as more and more of these children are smuggled into our towns and even into our neighbourhoods.
Secondly, as we see from the Facts above that I listed: only 5 per cent of the child labour is involved with the export business in the countries, the rest being in the domestic trades in their respective nations. This piece of news is most certainly ‘news’ to me for I have thought that the children would have been the main slave labour for this.
Anybody who has read/seen the films about the Dickens’ books like ‘Oliver Twist’ is acutely aware that the west has had their share of the children being treated as ‘nothing, nobody’ until the compulsory education, the child allowance and the general benevolence towards children became more of the norm. I am using that expression because as we know the child abuse is still rather widespread – but just in another way. The opening quote on this entry by Patrick Kavanagh was true to many other nations’ children in the times past including Finland.
Even more facts:
UNICEF CHILD LABOR Quizz is in this link.
There is so much more on this subject but for now tis it, Riihele xx.
Filed under: Business, Childhood, Countries, Cultures, Economy, Life, News, Politics, Slavery, Thoughts | 2 Comments »
One comes across these funny as in odd, strange, unusual, pieces of news every now and then.This is the now and the here.
First of all to The Fluff bit: Voss Water
Looking good & Luxury in a bottle…
Voss is as much about its packaging as what’s inside. Its cylindrical bottle, resembling that of a perfume bottle, has become an instantly recognisable trademark. With a classic cylindrical bottle, Voss artesian water from Norway is the latest must-have for thirsty diners and revellers at the UK‘s top restaurants, bars and hotels.
“A sip of Voss is like drinking fresh air,” the company claims, and consumers across the UK are loving it. And what great times it is for bottled water these days – according to statistics, sales of bottled water on the British Isles increased by nearly 50% between 2000 and 2004. Last year it rose another 5.3% to 2,170 million litres – that is nearly £1,600 million in retail sales. Over half of adults in the UK are drinking bottled water and sales are forecasted to rise at an annual rate of 6-8% to almost 3,000 million litres by 2010. The outlook for Norwegian artesian water is promising.
(Norway The Official Site)
Voss Water has been on the market since April 2000. Here is an amusing article in English that was published in July 2005 in Aftenposten – a Norwegian newspaper. (I read it online in Norwegian.) This link is The Water Connoisseur online site. Interesting reading there.
Worldwide sales of bottled water are estimated to be between $50 and $100 billion (US) annually and increasing approximately 7 to 10 percent annually. In 2004, total sales were approximately 154 billion litres (41 billion gallons). [Gleick 2004] The United States is the largest market for bottled water, at 26 billion liters in 2004. On average, this is one 8-ounce glass per person per day. Italy has the highest average consumption per person, at two 8-ounce glasses per person per day. (Wikipedia)
The Hollywood stars like to be seen holding on to their bottles of Voss. I have not seen this water anywhere in the real life – so far that is. — Have You?
~~~~~0ooOoo0~~~~~
Then secondly to The Stuff – Water Resources of The World. Here is The World’s Water online site. 22 March – World Day for Water 2007 –iNFO. (UNESCO project) “22 March of each year was declared World Day for Water, to be observed starting in 1993, in conformity with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).”
The world’s largest underground deposit of sweet water lies under Iquazu Falls which are located in the area where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet. (This according to the Asia Times 22.11.2005.)
The Planet Earth*
Planet Earth has a total surface area of close to 197 million square miles. Most of this surface is covered by water. Most of this water is salty or in the form of ice and thus is not directly usable by humans. About 97% of the total water on earth is in the oceans or salt lakes. Another 2% of the total amount is locked up in the form of ice.
It is estimated that at any given time only about 1/3 of 1% of the total water on earth can be used by humans for agriculture or human consumption. (pages.prodigy.net/jhonig..)
More than five million people die from waterborne diseases each year – 10 times the number killed in wars around the globe. Seventy per cent of the water used worldwide is used for agriculture. BBC online on article, Water scarcity: A looming crisis? Here is a Quiz: World Water crisis.Go on, have a go and see how you will do on it.
Intriguing information methinks. Another rather amusing article I read in a newspaper about a scientifically made testing about some of the bottled waters on the market versa the tap water in Helsinki. Guess which one came on top as the best? Tap water in Helsinki, believe it or not!
Certainly tis true that the water on tap here in Finland is both very tasty and very clean – so far, so good, that is.
Tis for now. Riihele xx.
* source: Oceans of The World online
The photo is by Riihele.
Filed under: Business, Countries, Economy, Fluff & Stuff, Life, News, Water | 2 Comments »
GO GIRL!! This very chic Chick doing the dishes and the clearing up is my Little Baby Girl, Heli. I say, one must dress up properly with one’s pearls, rings and fur to do even the most menial of tasks, as one must not let the standards ever to drop. Becki took the picture.
Isn’t it just hilarious to that these kind of posh washing-up gloves were made or even thought of?!! I like them. Well done, Heli. Keep it up.
A Woman’s Work is never done, we know that. I also wrote another piece on it in here . As far as the title of this entry is concerned, what better title than this to appeal to (m)any of the retail therapists among us? – The word ‘therapy’ means in its original language, Greek,
therap-, –therapeutic[s], –therapeutically, –therapy, –therapies, –therapist
(Greek: heal, cure; treatment; service done to the sick, a waiting on).
So true. Retail therapy could be said to be a ‘service done to the whole business world and the world economics‘, for tis really mostly the females that keep the retailers on the High Street going. This link has the ‘scientific’ – read: rather on the dull side – explanations on the High Street. Neither do I think that even if the net domain is called High Street with tons of stores and goods online that it is equal to the real retail therapy experience! No way
Becki, my older daughter, and I did some serious retail therapy a good while back on the Oxford Street in London which is one and a half a miles long. Actually, it claims to be the busiest shopping street in Europe. We went down one side and came back the other and got miles of useful exercise to boot. Handy. And men call women not -sporty – really, what do they know?!
To bolster up our energy levels we went into the Harrod’s where there is a fabulous fresh juice bar downstairs to get this most delicious freshly squeezed fruit juice we used to have each day to fortify us for the hard work of the therapy sessions. It was called, ‘The Shopper’s Pick -Me Up’ and it was a mixture of various fruit and vegetables such as the avocado, even with fresh parsley in it. Twas wonderfully refreshing and our perkiness restored we sauntered on to the Hamley’s down the road from Harrods to do all the 5 floors plus the ground and the basement floors as well from the top to the basement in one go!
Again, the step counter would have been going on the high-high counting all of them steps up and down the store adding up to zillions of ’em before we’d be finished! Miles of walking done even without thinking, that’s what I call, clever.
Thursday, May 04, 2006 (www.foxnews.com)
NEW YORK — Stocks climbed Thursday as strong April retail sales and a steep drop in oil prices alleviated investors’ worries about a greater-than-forecast jump in labor costs.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 38.58, or 0.34 percent, to 11,438.86, its best close since reaching 11,489.59 on Jan. 19, 2000. The Dow is 284 points, or 2.4 percent, from an all-time high of 11,722.98 from early January 2000.
The day’s headlines brightened the economic picture, with retailers reporting their best monthly sales in two years as consumers spent freely despite the recent spike in gasoline prices.
And there is more on these lines that the BBC is reporting on the retail sales in the UK where the situation in 2005 was not rosy.This link has The Financial Times on retail sales for the search I did on their site for the same. There are several very interesting topics on the subject in both the US and the UK. In this link here there are The Sky News take on the retail sales in the marketplace. Take your pick to read the one of your choice, please.
Now a question:
“WHO ARE THESE CONSUMERS that keep the world’s markets going?”
The answer:
LADIES, naiset, DAMEN, femmes, WOMEN, frauen ….
It is a fact universally acknowledged that it is the women in every country who mostly do the shopping and so they are the consumers that these statistics are talking about and whose shopping habits they reflect!
We should be given a credit for doing such a noble thing to help the world economy in every country. I suggest the NP aka The Noble Prize* in The Retail Therapy for the best candidate searched with the right criteria et cetera. The NP in Retail Therapy could be a section of the NP in the Economics, for example.
Tis for now. Riihele xx.
There is an excellent article on the Guardian Unlimited on the RT. Personally, it is not an addiction neither a binge but a hobby that I like.
* Nominations taken.
Filed under: A Woman's Work, Economy, Humour, Life, News, Retail, Therapy | Leave a comment »
Me Newsy - Letters 
