Society's ChildS


Camera

A photojournalist describes going undercover as a sex worker

sex traffic
© Mimi Chakarova"They brought me to a group of 12 men, kept me there for four days, taking turns," said Maia, who was trafficked to Moscow at 18 - Moldova, 2005
Sometimes I wonder if I would do it again.

That's the funny thing about life. Experience comes in random, sporadic servings. It's only years later that the story takes shape.

I didn't intend to spend more than a year covering human trafficking. It ended up taking a decade. I didn't intend on reporting in more than two countries. So, how did I end up in nine?

Before my trips, my mum used to ask: "It took us so many years to get out of poverty, why do you keep returning there?" I would sit in her kitchen and the only answer that would come to mind was: "It's so damn familiar."

I can say the same about the Balkans. Each time the plane landed, I was home. It could have been Turkey, Greece, Albania, Bulgaria (my birth country), or Macedonia - I wasn't an outsider. I understood the culture, the rawness of our ways, the dark humour of our days.

Snakes in Suits

Former McDonald's CEO: Raising minimum wage to $15 would lead to replacing workers with robots

mcdonalds
© Lucy Nicholson / ReutersGroups behind the campaign are hailing the settlement as an important victory for workers across the country.
A robotic revolution is set to happen in the fast food industry if a $15 minimum wage is put into place, according to a former McDonald's CEO.

In a Tuesday interview on Fox Business Network's 'Mornings with Maria', former McDonald's CEO Ed Rensi warned that an increased minimum wage would foment massive job loss thanks to the relatively low cost of replacing workers with intelligent machines.

"It's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who's inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries - it's nonsense and it's very destructive and it's inflationary and it's going to cause a job loss across this country like you're not going to believe," Rensi said.


Comment: The point behind raising the minimum wage is that people cannot live in today's society making $10/hour. While CEOs make millions doing nothing, they take advantage of thousands of workers who are working below the poverty level. THAT is nonsense and very destructive. Maybe if companies weren't so greedy and about profit above all else, they would care more about their employees' well being than in the price of their company's shares.


Even without a $15 per hour law, Rensi said that he thinks that franchising-model businesses are moving toward automation, since they are dependent upon low-skill workers to grow.

"It's just common sense. It's going to happen whether you like it or not. And the more you push this, it's going to happen faster," the former McDonald's chief said.

Comment: Sell the cheapest products possible to the largest number of people for the highest possible profit and if you can make more money by replacing the real thing with a facsimile then by all means do it whether it's the so-called "food" products or your employees. This is what happens when a society centers itself squarely around generating the most money for the fewest people instead of building society favorably for all and raising the quality of life for all. It's a clear sign of near total failure and such a society really ought not endure, after all why should it?


Family

Poll shows 77% of Germans want Merkel to take 'strong stand' against Erdogan

erdogan merkel
The majority of Germans want to see Chancellor Merkel take a strong stand against Turkish President Erdogan.

The German public is getting fed up with Chancellor Merkel's weakness when it comes to dealing with Turkish President Erdogan. To say that Erdogan "owns" Merkel is being polite. When Erdogan orders Merkel to jump, the German leader asks how high.

Merkel has shown that she is ready to do anything to stem the flow of refugees (her NATO country helped bomb), from entering the EU. This includes 6 billion euro "aid" packages (cough cough blackmail payments) to Turkey's leader.

Talk about a great racket. Turkey continues to destabilise Syria, then funnels in refugees (with a sprinkle of ISIS terrorists mixed-in) directly towards Greece and Europe...and then orders Merkel to pay up so as to stop the flow. This is textbook mafia...like a geo-political Goodfellas.

And of course Merkel, in her infinite weaknesses, caves-in. Unfortunately for the Chancellor, her German citizens don't like Merkel's handling of Turkey one bit.

Comment: Further reading: NATO-linked think tanks control Europe's reaction to refugee crisis


Handcuffs

Former officer of the year given a rare life sentence for child pornography charges

Micheal Edwin Harding
Micheal Edwin Harding, left.
In an unprecedented sentence for a police officer, a former cop with the Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie police departments, was sentenced to life in prison Monday after being convicted of child exploitation.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Micheal Edwin Harding pleaded guilty in February to possession and distribution of material involving sexual exploitation of minors, attempting to coerce and enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity and production of child pornography.

This hero cop was named Officer of the Year in 2011, when he was an officer at the Fort Pierce Police Department. Shortly after he was given the award, Harding left the Fort Pierce Department to join Port St. Lucie in 2012.

Robot

Rise of the robots: Smartphone maker Foxconn eliminates 60,000 factory jobs by switching to robot workers

robots in factory
© SCMP PicturesIndustrial robots at work in Kunshan Daya Auto Parts Company
The manufacturing hub for the electronics industry, Kunshan, in Jiangsu province, is seeking a drastic reduction in labour costs as it undergoes a makeover after an industrial explosion killed 146 people in 2014.

The county, one-seventh the size of neighbouring Shanghai and the mainland's first county to achieve US$4,000 per capita income, was adjudged the best county for its economic performance by Forbes for seven years in a row.

However, the blaze, blamed on poor safety standards and haphazard industrialisation, dented Kunshan's pride.

More than a year on, the county, which attracts much of its investment from Taiwan, is trying to reinvent its growth strategy. It is accelerating growth by replacing humans with robots and encouraging start-ups.

Megaphone

Stephen King and hundreds of other American writers sign open letter decrying the rise of Trump

stephen king
© RICK KERN/WIREIMAGE
Stephen King is the master of horror — but even he has never experienced anything quite as horrific as Donald Trump.

That's the gist of an open letter that's doing the rounds Tuesday, signed by King and more than 600 of his fellow well-known American writers. The luminaries include Cheryl Strayed, Dave Eggers, Junot Diaz, Amy Tan, Mary Roach, Tobias Wolff, Richard Russo, Michael Chabon and Roy Blount, Jr.

"As writers, we are particularly aware of the many ways that language can be abused in the name of power," the letter reads. "American history, despite periods of nativism and bigotry, has from the first been a grand experiment in bringing people of different backgrounds together, not pitting them against one another."

"The rise of a political candidate who deliberately appeals to the basest and most violent elements in society, who encourages aggression among his followers, shouts down opponents, intimidates dissenters, and denigrates women and minorities, demands, from each of us, an immediate and forceful response."

Eye 2

Planet Aid investigation reveals fraud and cult-like behavior of founders

planet aid
At first, signing up for Planet Aid's "Manager In Training" program at its Elkridge, Maryland, headquarters seemed like the perfect job, Meredith Crocker said. She answered a Craigslist ad for the charity in 2013.

"The idea that they were both working for the environment and trying to help people at the same time seemed really cool," Crocker said.

Having just received her master's degree in international development economics, Crocker said she was initially attracted to Planet Aid's message of saving the environment by recycling the clothes donated to its bright yellow bins.

Planet Aid makes as much as $42 million a year selling those clothes, according to its financial filings submitted to the Internal Revenue Service, indicating the money goes toward feeding and educating impoverished communities in Africa.

Heart - Black

Detroit school cop beats and pepper sprays 15-year-old girl for using an elevator with an expired pass

cop beats maces school girl detroit
A disturbing video uploaded to YouTube, shows a high school sophomore being pushed, kicked, dragged, and pepper sprayed by a Detroit Public Schools Public Safety Officer. The victim's alleged crime — using the elevator with an expired pass.

The victim of the attack was 15-year-old Destiny Heard and her attacker was Officer Charles Braziel.

According to the sophomore student, as reported by VICE,
the incident began after she arrived to school late and decided to use the elevator to get to her class on the sixth floor. Inside, a teacher asked to see her elevator pass, and when she produced an expired slip, Heard says she was told to get out. When she lingered by the elevator, the teacher accused her of trying to get back on and called a security officer. After a brusque exchange where Heard was asked to produce her identification, she says she headed to the second floor, where she was greeted by another security officer and then Orlando Bogins, the school's dean of students.

At this point, reports VICE, Heard says that Bogins—who had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication—began yelling at her for being insubordinate. She says she asked him not to shout at her in the hall, and when he continued to yell, she put her earbuds back on to ignore him. As Bogins continued to reprimand her, Heard says Officer Braziel came over and told her to give him her phone connected to the headphones. She refused, she says, at which point the officer apparently seized it from her, and in the process pushed her to the ground.

Around this point in time, the student claims, Bogins walked away, leaving her alone with the school cop. She says the officer told her to get up, and when she said no, instead asking for medical attention, he grabbed her. Seconds later, the incident on camera began, according to the teen.

Comment: Terrorizing students: The US Police State and the criminalization of children


Map

Montenegro farmer offers his lands to Putin and the brotherly Russian people to build base against NATO

Russia
In the village of Kralje, several people have taken the initiative to donate their extensive land holdings to Vladimir Putin and the brotherly Russian people.

"I would offer this territory to the Russians for a military base or hotels and vacation. This is my idea, as they'll know better what exactly to build here. This field is ideal for helicopter landing pads, and stretches another kilometer to the south. As for the forest, where I have fifteen hectares, there is about 150 thousand square meters, enough territory for a Russian missile system to defend against the aggressor," Dzhagisha Dzhurishich told "Life" in an interview.

The Orthodox Serbs living in the village of Kralje at the foot of the Komovi mountains are not satisfied with the course of joining NATO which the government of Montenegro has taken.

Comment: See more: Putin declares free land in Russia's Far East will be provided with infrastructure


House

More millennials are living with their parents than at any other time in American history

millenials at home
Millennials are staying at home.

According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, millennial men are more likely to live with their parents than with a spouse or partner, with 35% staying with mom and dad and just 28% living with a significant other.

Millennial women are less likely to live at home than with a partner, but not by much. Thirty-five percent live with a significant other, while 29% live with their parents. This is the smallest gap for young-adult women ever recorded by Pew.

In fact, more millennials (ages 18 to 34 as defined by Pew) are living at home than in any other living arrangement. This is the first time a plurality of young adults in that age bracket have lived with their parents, rather than on their own or with a partner or roommates, in American history, according to the Pew analysis. A grand total of 32.1% of millennials are living at home.

Comment: American nightmare: The death of the middle class and the rise in poverty