And then there’s the wage issue. On the premise that a rising tide floats all boats, Darjeeling’s prestige in the tea market should be building wealth for the area’s residents. Not so much, Kane writes. Despite the high price fetched by Darjeeling in the U.S. — a box of Twinings Darjeeling tea bags fetches $5 for 100 grams, or about $25/pound — workers on the ground get paid very little, than $1.50 per day for their long hours among the tea bushes. And lest you speculate that $1.50 per day amounts to a decent wage in India, Kane adds this:

The majority of tea laborers are women, who pick all the leaves by hand, leaving them little opportunity to pursue other work. Families often remain on a plantation for generations, unable to earn enough money to leave; and children often start work at a young age, forgoing school to help the family make ends meet.

So rather than pull workers out of poverty, Darjeeling’s tea industry generates a kind of permanent indentured-servant class.

The article also mentions the devestation tea plantations are doing to the local enviroment, and, sadly, the fact that “fair trade” doesn’t often mean much:

Unhappily, simply buying tea labeled Fair Trade doesn’t much affect conditions on the ground in Darjeeling, either. According to Kane, “Even those plantations labeled as Fair Trade by the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO) and receive a premium price for their product rarely pass on these profits to laborers.”

The whole thing is worth checking out.

I have something like 2000 bookmarks over there, and I had been avoiding clicking over because the thought of finding them all blanked out made me a little too depressed.  Apparently the leak was false? Guess so.

…adding that the holiday season and general malaise seems to have shut me out of internet current events.  Bizarre feeling.

No ones’ reading this thing, so I don’t feel the need to go back and write out a definitive statement on Wikileaks.  If you (the theoretical you, that is) read a little I’m sure you’d already assume that I’m a cheerleader for them, and you’d be right.

So let me just jump right to posting this link, which is an excellent discussion of some of Assange’s writing.  You should certainly listen to zunguzungu and click through to read it for yourself, but be forewarned:  it’s harder to track down the 2nd half of the essay than it sounds.  I assume you can dig it out of the internet archive, but I haven’t managed to yet.

Anyway, the whole discussion is the most subversive thing you’ll  read in a minute, not only in intent, but in the depth of Assange’s (and zunguzungu’s) observations.  Both sound right to me.

While you’re over there, you should probably check out this too.

On the subject of Tunisia, and following from zunguzungu, check out  Jillian C. York, and her excellent coverage of the events there.  I’d start here, personally, but that might have something to do with my distrust of technophilia.

Both blogs are new discoveries for me, and I’m very happy to have found them.  Not that two academic types are at all impressed by the approval of some foul mouthed schmuck from Brighton, but whatetever.

More later, the cat is demanding attention.

Not going to bother to find out now, too lazy.  It’s Saturday morning after all, a time the lawd set aside for sleeping in a little, drinking coffee, and avoiding the pile of dishes in the sink.  Constructive stuff should be done only in dire circumstances.

Think I will post some more here, though.  I’ve missed this a bit.

Of course, since the election of Obama I haven’t bothered to read the news much.  I assume after his inauguration he swept into power, closed down Gitmo, nationalized the big banks, wwithdrew our forces from Iraq and That Other Place, and assigned each and every American citizen their own gold vomiting unicorn, right?   Mine must still be on order.

So I have few ideas for posts, and I’ve typed out a few more longish rants lately that have no home, so there may be some more stuff up in the next few hours, right after I brave the cold for more cigarettes and coffee.  Addiction will make you do crazy things.

This ain’t livejournal, so you’re not hearing about it. Suffice to say, no one is dead, but we are going our separate ways. It’s sad and it sucks, but I don’t see a way around it. Oh well.

To old friends, both in our history and in our present:

Cheers.

Also: I have a serious crush on Zadie Smith.

Then, of course  the number one domestic terror threat burned down a couple of mansions.

Combine that with little tidbits like this, and you start to get a little paranoid. 

Perhaps it is time to revisit this Naomi Klein piece from 2003.

Bonus laffs, from the comments at Think Progress:

Dont worry

Obama will fix it.

Some people never learn, do they?

*No proof, I just know, as well as most adults, that the drug recipes –at best– don’t get you high, and the explosive recipes will take off your fingers.

Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. The plan was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America’s behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. (The State Department declined to comment.)

I don’t even know what to say any more. 

Speaking of being left speechless, we have this:

Shares of Diebold(DBD – Cramer’s Take – Stockpickr) were soaring Monday after United Technologies(UTX – Cramer’s Take – Stockpickr) made an unsolicited bid to acquire the company for $2.63 billion.

United Technologies, a Hartford, Conn.-based conglomerate whose businesses include Otis elevators, Carrier heating and air-conditioning systems and Pratt & Whitney airplane engines, said it wants to pay $40 a share in cash. That represents a 66% premium to Diebold’s closing stock price on Friday of $24.12.

But wait, I’m confused, because I think “The Street” left something out.  What does UTC do again?

United Technologies Corporation (UTC) (NYSE: UTX) is an American multinational conglomerate based in Hartford, Connecticut, and is the 20th largest U.S. manufacturer.^[1] It researches, develops, and manufactures products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, helicopters, heating and cooling, fuel cells, elevators and escalators, fire and security, building systems, and industrial products, among others. UTC is also a large military contractor, producing missile systems and military helicopters, most notably the Black Hawk Helicopter.^[2] In 2005, it received over 5 billion dollars in military contracts. George David is the current CEO.

Ah, gotcha.  So: A military contractor is trying to buy Diebold. 

Shall I say that again?

A military contractor is trying to buy Diebold.

Yeah. 

What else, what else.  Oh yes, the House Democrats are hard at work trying to undo the one worthwhile thing they’ve done since being awarded their majority, there’s a guy in Utah that’s torturing his employees–sure that will be more common in the next few years– and–oh yeah, we also torture lots of children too.

So welcome to the new police state!  I have to get back to work. You all can start your revolution anytime though, you don’t need to wait until 5:30.  I won’t be offended.

Sorry for the radio silence. Things have been busy,and frankly, I put down the news papers for a little while. Every once in a while you need to; during election season, it seems like you may as well just not bother at all.

Which brings me to my point: I’m not talking about the elections here–or elsewhere– again. I’m done. There will be no endorsing, cheering, hand wringing– none of that. Because I realized that I no longer care.

Us Americans start our election process 2-3 years before the election. While it’s nice to distract CNN from Britney once in a while, the problem is that election coverage somehow manages to pass for hard news. Anybody with a pulse knows this ain’t the case, but what are you going to do? Most people are probably also aware that the election itself is being used to distract us from the news. But what has self knowledge ever gotten anyone?

I have my preferences as to who I’d like to see get the job, obviously, but you know what? They really aren’t that strong. I don’t like any of them. Obama is probably the least offensive, but even he is pretty bad. He clapped his hands like a trained seal when Israel invaded Lebanon. He surrounds himself with people like Zbigniew Brzezinski and a team of economists from the freaking Clinton White House. He’s not worth getting exited over.

There is a possibility that he can be bullied, though, and that’s something. But anybody can be bullied if you put enough pressure on them. Which is why, once again, I think its best to devote your time– not to the election– but to single issue advocacy groups. You can trust them not to screw you, sometimes. The same cannot be said of a politician.

Vote for whoever the hell you want. Just do the world a favor and stay involved after you make your mark. And all you lefties who are rallying around Obama, promise me you will turn on him like an abused pitbull the second his hand comes off that bible on inauguration day. Don’t let that asshole slide along on his cult of personality, because he will if you let him; he’s a politician– that’s what they do.

Peace.

Many years ago Pablo Casals, the great Spanish cellist, was having his eightysomethingth
birthday in Madrid, and they held a press conference for him and the
dear old soul came out and was droning on the way elderly people like him and
now I do about what a mess the world was. And at some point he obviously heard
himself; he stopped, and then said two sentences, which I love, because though
they don’t at first sight seem to fit together I think you’ll eventually agree that they
do.
The first sentence reeks of fatalism, and the second has just a hint of audacity and
courage. And they’re universally applicable to whatever tasks we might face, and
most of us are in tasks beyond belief and almost certainly beyond human ability to
fix, and he said “The situation is hopeless. We must take the next step.”

–Phillip Adams