Society's Child

Global economic gloom: Companies throughout Europe announcing mass layoffs and job cuts

Kumaran Ira
World Socialist Web Site
Tue, 19 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC

Amid growing global economic gloom, including a slowdown in China and falling oil and commodity prices, major companies throughout Europe are announcing mass layoffs and job cuts.

Last Wednesday, US multinational General Electric (GE) announced plans to cut 6,500 jobs in Europe over the next two years, including 1,700 jobs in Germany, 570 in the UK, 765 in France and 1,300 in Switzerland. According to comments from the head of GE's power division last September, this is part of a plan to squeeze out $3 billion in cost savings over five years.

GE acquired French engineering company Alstom in a €9.7 billion deal in 2014, promising to create jobs. GE France spokesman Laurent Wormser said job cuts in France will hit mainly administrative jobs in the Paris area, in human resources, public relations and the legal department.

After reaching an agreement with the trade unions, French nuclear group Areva announced plans for 6,000 job cuts worldwide, including in Germany, the United States and 2,700 in France. The "competitiveness plan" deal would net Areva €1 billion in savings by 2017.

British Airways is eliminating 5,800 jobs under a plan to cut its debts, on top of 7,600 job cuts already announced earlier. These will largely hit major British airports, including 6,600 jobs cut at Heathrow airport and 3,000 at Gatwick.

Comment: Why this economic slump has legs

Former cop used police database to stalk woman he raped after she reported it to police

David Edwards
Raw Story
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 16:15 UTC

Jeffrey Martin

A former Ohio police officer has been charged with raping a woman in 2014 and then using the police database to stalk her after she reported the crime.

Former Pepper Pike officer Jeffrey Martin, 55, was arrested last month on charges of rape, stalking and menacing. The case was turned over to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's office after the Bedford Police Department said that details in the case file contained information that "would have compromised our ability to stay on the case."

An indictment announced last week revealed that Martin had used a police database to stalk the woman after she contacted Bedford police. Prosecutors said that Martin pretended to be a private investigator so he could stalk his victim onto Ursuline College campus.

The indictment also noted that Martin had used a firearm during the rape, but it was not immediately clear how it was used.

According to Martin's personnel file, he had been suspended four times by the Pepper Pike Police Department. Two of the suspensions were related to inappropriate conduct toward women.

Nearly half of all Americans see 'nothing positive' in Donald Trump

Sputnik
Wed, 20 Jan 2016 13:22 UTC

US citizens were more likely to focus on Trump's personal traits and style when talking about potential negative aspects of Trump's presidency, according to the survey.

More than four out of 10 US nationals cannot say anything positive about billionaire businessman Donald Trump possibly becoming the country's president, a poll released on Wednesday found.

The United States will elect a new president this November. Despite his controversial remarks on migration, Trump leads other Republican hopefuls in opinion polls.

Comment: The US is not a democracy. It is an oligarchy ruled by a small economic elite. All this media hype, for an obvious bigot who wears his mental illnesses on his sleeve, serves to condition the people to even worse levels of social pathology.

Also see:

26 corrupt bankers in Iceland sentenced to 74 years in prison

Maurice Bedard
Nation of Change
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 14:25 UTC

Iceland just sentenced their 26th banker to prison for his part in the 2008 economic collapse. The charges ranged from breach of fiduciary duties to market manipulation to embezzlement.embezzlement.

Iceland just sentenced their 26th banker to prison for his part in the 2008 economic collapse. The charges ranged from breach of fiduciary duties to market manipulation to embezzlement.

When most people think of Iceland, they envision fire and ice. Major volcanoes and vast ice fields are abundant due to its position on the northern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. (A hot July day in Reykjavik is around 55 degrees.) However, Iceland is also noted for being one of the Nordic Socialist countries, complete with universal health care, free education and a lot other Tea Potty nightmares. Therefore, as you might imagine, they tend to view and react to economic situations slightly differently than the U.S.

When the banking induced "Great Recession of '08" struck, Iceland's economic hit was among the hardest. However, instead of rewarding fraudulent banking procedures with tons of bailout money, they took a different path.

Baby born with brain damage becomes first US case of mosquito-transmitted Zika virus

RT
Tue, 19 Jan 2016 23:16 UTC

US health officials have confirmed that a baby born with brain damage in Hawaii tested positive for the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus that has been sweeping Latin America and the Caribbean. Pregnant women are advised to postpone traveling plans.

Zika is believed to cause microcephaly, or a dramatically shrunken head, in newborns, which prevents babies' brains from developing properly.

There is no vaccine or treatment for the virus as of yet and what makes matters worse is that the symptoms in infected pregnant women are not that obvious: a slight fever, headaches and a rash that last up to a week.

The problem is worsened by the fact that initial ultrasounds of a fetus could be normal and the microcephaly is only detected toward the end of the pregnancy.

"These are newborns who will require special attention their entire lives. It's an emotional stress that just can't be imagined," Angela Rocha, a pediatric infection expert at Oswaldo Cruz Hospital, told CNN in December.

Amnesty calls out Apple and Microsoft for using child labor in Africa

RT
Tue, 19 Jan 2016 21:16 UTC

Artisanal miners work at a cobalt mine-pit in Tulwizembe, Katanga province, Democratic Republic of Congo, November 25, 2015

Amnesty International is calling out major tech manufacturers - including Apple, Microsoft, Sony and others for their alleged links to illegally-sourced cobalt in the volatile Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Children are forced to work in subhuman conditions and under constant threat of violence.

The organization says the mineral used in household appliances the world over is largely sourced from child labor that goes on deep inside hazardous mines and tunnels.

The product of this labor then finds its way into batteries and other components of leading brands - from Microsoft to Apple, and Nokia and Samsung to Vodafone. But tracing the supply chain is a tough task, and it has never been the case that a company would simply reveal it. In certain cases, no one wants to know.

But as Amnesty and Afrewatch found out, there are cases when companies simply lie about sourcing any materials from the DRC at all.

After mistakenly admitting to not praying, a 15 year-old boy cut off his own hand as penance (UPDATE)

RT
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 15:52 UTC

A 15-year-old Pakistani boy has cut off his hand as a way of punishing himself for an accidental "blasphemy" he committed. The boy was praised by his parents and gained huge respect from his neighbors for the act, police told AFP.

It turns out the Mohammad Anwar raised his hand by mistake after he misheard a question from an imam, who asked the crowd at a village mosque to give a show of hands of those who had stopped praying.

The boy raised his hand and was immediately accused by the crowd of blasphemy.

After cutting off his hand he put it on a plate and brought it to the cleric, the police chief said.

Comment: When a law is used to shame someone into self-mutilation there's something very wrong with the law and the people that agree to follow it. Honestly, who in their right mind praises a child for cutting off their own hand over such a simple misunderstanding!?

UPDATE: The imam who let this happen has been arrested. Well, it's a start!

Pakistani police have arrested the imam of a mosque in Okara, in the Punjab province, for inciting violence after a 15-year old boy cut off his own hand, believing he had committed blasphemy, a serious crime in the majority Muslim country.

Police filed anti-terrorism charges against the imam and arrested him, local police chief Nosher Ali told Reuters. "Such illiterate imams of mosques should not be allowed to deliver speeches. His arrest is under the National Action Plan that hate speeches inciting violence are no longer allowed in this country," Ali said.

Vicious circle: 15yo Lithuanian boy killed by Syrian migrant classmate he bullied

RT
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 22:00 UTC

A school murder in Sweden, where a Lithuanian pupil was allegedly stabbed by a Syrian migrant classmate, is stoking racial tensions. Families of the victim and the alleged killer are trading accusations, but police are staying silent.

The killing took place on the first day of the new semester, January 11, at the Göinge School in Broby, Skåne County.

A 15-year-old Lithuanian-born boy, Arminas Pileckas, was murdered in the school by a 14-year-old classmate, reportedly from a family of Syrian refugees. Arminas was killed with a single stab into heart inflicted from behind with a kitchen knife, his family says.

The boys had an argument either in November or December that was videoed by classmates, but the tragic climax of the story took place January 11.

Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper interviewed the father of the alleged killer, who said that his son had been bullied by the victim "for a long time."

Comment: Without a thorough investigation and statements from all involved (teachers, family members, other classmates, including the girl whom Arminas allegedly defended and whom al Haj's son allegedly harassed), it is hard to say definitively what led to this tragic event. But events like this will probably only continue, further exacerbating racial tensions in Europe. With every crime committed by a 'refugee', the false image of all refugees being criminals will be further reinforced. And with every anti-refugee crime committed, more refugees will respond in turn. Each side provokes the other, and it will take some cool heads and careful planning to prevent things from spiralling out of control. When that comes, it'll be the refugees who suffer the most.

Further reading:

Federal police officer says it's like "Nazi Germany", furious after cops attempt to rob him & his wife

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Tue, 19 Jan 2016 00:00 UTC

"It seems like Nazi Germany, you've got to have the paperwork and the proper authorities to come through Tennessee."

In May of 2014, Ronnie and Lisa Hankins were driving back from his grandfather's funeral in Virginia when they were targeted by a gang of police officers in search of cash.

As Lisa drove the couple westbound down I-40, they saw an officer, who happened to be with the 23rd Judicial District Drug Task Force, and Hankins correctly predicted that they were about to be pulled over.

"I told her we are going to get pulled over," Ronnie said to NewsChannel 5.

"What made you think he was going to stop you?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked.

"Because we had out-of-state license plates and my wife is Hispanic," he explained.

Comment: Fascist thuggery is nothing new in the US or anywhere else, but when its reaches the levels we're seeing now, we have to question why. It is no coincidence that the US government/media/military, as a whole, is behaving exactly like the police officers who stopped and searched the Hankins vehicle. As though the entire pathological mindset that permits such behavior has an incredible trickle down effect and tacitly condones such behavior.

How has it come to this?

KKK tries to hijack Martin Luther King Day by distributing offensive recruitment flyers

RT
Tue, 19 Jan 2016 18:20 UTC

Residents in towns in at least three US states were targeted by a Ku Klux Klan recruitment drive ahead of Martin Luther King Day.

The group left flyers inside plastic sandwich bags, weighing them down with rocks, on lawns in neighborhoods in Mobile, Alabama; Annaheim in California's Orange County and in two boroughs in New Jersey's Monmouth County, Red Bank and Fair Haven.

They featured an image of Martin Luther King and a "happy birthday" message.

"The blacks have NAACP, the Mexicans have La Raza, the Jews have JDL, and white people have the KKK," it stated.

The leaflets are fulls of racial slurs and misinformed racist claims. They also include contact details for the Loyal White Knights, including a phone number which leads to a graphic voice recording that condemns King's actions during the Civil Rights movement.

Comment: See more: 'We are better than this': Over 700 groups campaign against racism, bigotry and violence

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Greek acting gods have a joke “Sapiens is wise, because they know, that we know better what to do with their will, than they do.” Vicious foreign...

Orwik

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parzival

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Jibrish

Society's Child

Global economic gloom: Companies throughout Europe announcing mass layoffs and job cuts

Former cop used police database to stalk woman he raped after she reported it to police

Nearly half of all Americans see 'nothing positive' in Donald Trump

26 corrupt bankers in Iceland sentenced to 74 years in prison

Baby born with brain damage becomes first US case of mosquito-transmitted Zika virus

Amnesty calls out Apple and Microsoft for using child labor in Africa

After mistakenly admitting to not praying, a 15 year-old boy cut off his own hand as penance (UPDATE)

Vicious circle: 15yo Lithuanian boy killed by Syrian migrant classmate he bullied

Federal police officer says it's like "Nazi Germany", furious after cops attempt to rob him & his wife

KKK tries to hijack Martin Luther King Day by distributing offensive recruitment flyers

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