2011年10月30日日曜日

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OCTOBER 29, 2011 · 10:32 AM
Study: Asian Americans Most Bullied In US Schools
By Shaun Tandon | AFP

Asian Americans endure far more bullying at US schools than members of other ethnic groups, with teenagers of the community three times as likely to face taunts on the Internet, new data shows.

Policymakers see a range of reasons for the harassment, including language barriers faced by some Asian American students and a spike in racial abuse following the September 11, 2001 attacks against children perceived as Muslim.

“This data is absolutely unacceptable and it must change. Our children have to be able to go to school free of fear,” US Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday during a forum at the Center for American Progress think-tank.

The research, to be released on Saturday, found that 54 percent of Asian American teenagers said they were bullied in the classroom, sharply above the 31.3 percent of whites who reported being picked on.

The figure was 38.4 percent for African Americans and 34.3 percent for Hispanics, a government researcher involved in the data analysis told AFP. He requested anonymity because the data has not been made public.

The disparity was even more striking for cyber-bullying.

Some 62 percent of Asian Americans reported online harassment once or twice a month, compared with 18.1 percent of whites. The researcher said more study was needed on why the problem is so severe among Asian Americans.

The data comes from a 2009 survey supported by the US Justice Department and Education Department which interviewed some 6,500 students from ages 12 to 18. Asian Americans are generally defined as tracing ancestry to East Asia, the Indian subcontinent or the South Pacific.

いじめ
アジア系アメリカ人



@mozumozumozu
mozu

豪ジャーナリストのポール・ハム氏が原爆神話に物申す。長谷川氏とダワー氏を混ぜて通俗化した感じ。サムライ・ウォーロードって。ここのところ似たような見方を目にする。対抗ナラティヴとして広まっているのかもしれない。bitly.com/vKTSJ9


Ham challenges role of atomic bomb in WWII
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 28/10/2011
Reporter: Ali Moore

ALI MOORE: But I guess it wasn't just that was it? I mean standard knowledge or standing thinking is that it was the bombs that brought on the surrender of Japan; you would argue differently?

PAUL HAM: Certainly. I would dismiss that. I would say the bombs were a contributing factor but I wouldn't say they were the decisive factor.

Now the idea in the American narrative is that the bombs led to the prompt and unconditional surrender of Japan. Well firstly they didn't surrender unconditionally. Their sole condition was the retention of the emperor, which America accepted.





In fact, the day of the dropping of the bomb in Nagasaki, there was a top meeting in Tokyo of the six warlords who ran the country then. And they were discussing, not atomic bombs but the Russian invasion of Japanese occupied territory the day before, and a runner comes in and says “Sir, we've lost Nagasaki, it's been destroyed by a new ‘special’ bomb.” They didn't know it was atomic at that stage. And the sort of six Samurai sort of said, “thank you, and run along with, that's interesting ...”

ALI MOORE: And off he went.

PAUL HAM: And off he went. We've got more important things to deal with, which is the Russian invasion of our territory. And this was an extraordinary dismissal of the loss of another city.

But the background of course is that at that point Japan had already lost 66, 67 cities to conventional bombardment, to the incendiary campaign, which was a deliberate attack on Japanese civilians. And this had been going on for six months.

So two more cities had been destroyed by a "special" bomb. Remember they hadn't seen photographs of it at this stage, they hadn't seen the mushroom cloud which so horrifies us today. They were just sitting there hearing that there's been this strange bomb and the city's devastated.

Well, they were talking in a bunker under Tokyo, which was absolutely devastated.

ALI MOORE: But what they were aware of was that Russia had invaded Manchuria. Now Russia, they'd been trying for long time to get Russia to play peacemaker, and they had had a peace agreement with the Russians until Stalin declared war himself?

PAUL HAM: Yes, they had a neutrality pact with Russia, between Russia and Japan. And this was supposed to last until April 1946. Stalin completely ignored it and in the last stage of the war he was very keen to get "in at the kill", as he put it, to grab some of the spoils of the Pacific war. He wanted a communist foothold in Asia.

Now this terrified the Japanese, because not only ...

ALI MOORE: But why did that terrify the Japanese, "a suffocating fear" as you put it, more than the Americans?

PAUL HAM: Well it's firstly, this is deep history now, because we had the vendetta for the Russian loss of the 1904-05 Russia-Japanese war. A most extraordinary humiliation to the Russians, especially the kind of vendetta mindset of the leaders of that country, and they never forgave Japan for that.

And this was, this was the invoice now. They sent 1.5 million Red Army troops across the Manchurian border into Japanese-occupied territory, that was on August the 8th. The bomb, perversely, brought forward the Russian invasion by a week. Because they wanted, they could see that if America had the bomb then maybe Japan would surrender, so we want to be in there as quickly as possible.

Japan was terrified, because here was a war they understood, it was a clash of blood and iron. It was a battle the Samurai mind could respect, if not win.

They regarded the incendiary bombardment of their country by Americans has cowardly attacks on civilians. Which of course, it was certainly an attack on civilians, there was no pretence that this was, that Curtis LeMay, who was commanding the air war, was attacking military targets. It was a deliberate policy to exterminate Japanese civilians. And this went on for six months.

And, you know, most, many observers of the time, it's not me saying this, but many generals at the time, certainly Eisenhower and MacArthur, thought that this was barbaric. They regarded the incendiary attacks on civilians as not really a meaningful influence on the war effort because it was destroying non-combatants. And they would say “if you're going to win a war, you attack combatants, you attack military targets.” And certainly the Russians were going to do that.



@mozumozumozu
mozu

In Japan, Provocative Case for Staying Nuclear on.wsj.com/ujNxVq via @WSJ 日本の潜在的核保有状況について。
18時間前 Tweet Buttonから



It takes just 10 tons of civilian-grade plutonium to be converted into weapons-grade material for up to 1,000 nuclear weapons, according to a 1998 Council of Foreign Relations paper by physicist Richard Garwin, a U.S. Los Alamos National Laboratory consultant from 1950 to 1993.

As of the end of 2010, Japan had 30.1 tons of fissile plutonium, according to a Japanese Cabinet Office report submitted on Sept. 20 to the Japanese Atomic Energy Commission.

Security experts point to some recent developments that have highlighted Japan's advanced technology, which could also be used to deliver a warhead. They note that Japan passed a law in 2008 allowing military applications in its outer-space programs, ending a 40-year ban limiting space development to commercial or research programs only.

They also cite the Hayabusa government test satellite, which successfully landed on an asteroid before returning to Earth in June 2010. It employed the same type of atmospheric re-entry technology needed to guide ballistic missiles.





"Japan can develop nuclear weapons very quickly if it decided to, but it would be very difficult for political leaders to go down that path," said Kevin Maher, an independent consultant and former 30-year veteran Japan hand at the U.S. State Department. "We've never had any concern about the Japanese government building a nuclear weapon," he said, citing issues such as cost, public opinion and defense strategy.

Other experts on Japan say the issue is more complex. Japan is surrounded by nuclear armed states such as China, North Korea and Russia.

"The Japanese government has also hedged a great deal on the issue of nuclear weapons, which is what raises concerns abroad," said Saadia Pekkanen, an adjunct professor at the University of Washington, who co-authored a 2010 book on Japanese defense technology. "Japan is credible as a latent nuclear power, and should be taken seriously as such by its rivals in the region," she said.


中国現代史研究家・鳥居民 中国が北の核開発を止めぬ理由
2011.10.28 03:06 (3/4ページ)

≪体制崩壊-難民流出は作り話≫


 アーミテージ、ゼーリックの両氏は中国が必ずや北朝鮮を抑えてくれると信じ、中国政府に言われるまま、アメリカ政府は台湾の野党、中国国民党の馬英九氏を支援し、総統だった陳水扁氏を邪険に扱った。アメリカの後押しがあると台湾人は思ったからこそ、馬氏を総統に選ぶことにもなった。





TSA agent suspended over vibrator
Get short URL email story to a friend print version
Published: 28 October, 2011



Note-leaving TSA agent suspended
by JILL on 10.26.2011



1. getting one's freak on





Protest march on Downing Street over deaths of black people in custody
Annual march, which aims to highlight increase in deaths of black detainees, expected to be the largest yet


reddit this
Diane Taylor and Hugh Muir
guardian.co.uk, Friday 28

Protesters will march on Downing Street on Saturday to highlight a big increase in the number of black people dying in police custody this year.

In 2010 three black detainees died in police custody. Between January and August 2011 there were eight.

This increase comes at a time of overall decline in deaths in all forms of custody. According to a report from the independent advisory panel on deaths in custody there has been a 16% reduction in all custody deaths between 2000 and 2010


拘留中死亡





OCTOBER 29, 2011 · 10:35 AM

Racist Sign Sparks Outrage In Northeast El Paso

A disturbing sign is sparking outrage from some residents in a Northeast El Paso neighborhood.

Neighbors called Newschannel 9 to complain about a yard sign they say is not just disturbing– but offensive.

Part of the sign reads: “Halloween 2011. No blacks welcomed to trick or treat.”

We tried to knock on the door of the house, but were stopped by a locked gate, and nobody inside responded when we asked for an interview.

Instead, we spoke with the African-American family that lives next door to where the sign is posted.

“…these are just children. That is what the spirit is for, is for the children. Even if you don’t want black kids around your children, you don’t have to advertise it,” said Andre Sherman.

At this time, it’s unclear if the homeowner put the sign there, or is even aware that it’s there.

”黒人”お断り
外国人お断り



国の「農地開発事業」1兆8000億円―残ったのは農家の借金と耕作放棄地だけ
2011/10/28




TPP参加って野田首相の対米サービス?…内閣府が大ボラ試算
2011/10/27

フジテレビ解説委員の安倍宏行も「2・7兆円押し上げるというが、GDPベースでみると0・54%でしかない。TPPに参加したから輸出が増えるわけではない」という。しかも、この2・7兆円は10年間の累積数字というからメリットは確かになさそう




TPP「将来の日本の『食いぶち』探す入口」きょうは賛成論
2011/10/28


仮にTPPに参加すると、米国産のカルフォルニア米は778%の関税が取り払われ、現在10キロ3000円が342円の激安に
なかなか変わらない古い制度をTPPの外圧を利用してぶっ壊すという賛成論と多少似ている。斬新な考えだが、危ない綱渡りでもある。


2011年10月28日 11:26



グローバル化の最大の受益者は見えない



特に今後、TPPがアジア全域に拡大すると、経産省のいうように日本の輸出が拡大する効果よりアジアからの輸入が拡大する効果のほうが大きいだろう。これによって日本の製造業の実質賃金が下がる可能性があるが、このような要素価格の均等化は、どこまで進むだろうか。

理論的には、世界中で同一労働の賃金が同一になるまで進む。労働移動がなくても、低賃金労働の製品を輸入することによって労働を輸入するのと同じ効果があるからだ

「10年で2.7兆円」の経済効果は小さすぎ? TPPの政府試算に波紋
2011.10.29 21:53



もっとも、内閣府の客員主任研究官として、当の政府試算にも携わった野村証券金融経済研究所の川崎研一・主席研究員は「規制緩和やサービス自由化がビジネスを生み、試算の3~10倍の効果が出ることも予測されている」と指摘。こうした見方への理解が進んでいないことは確かだ。

 さらにTPPには単純な経済効果だけにとどまらない意義もあり、経済産業省幹部は「世界貿易機関(WTO)の自由化交渉が行き詰まる中、TPPは自由貿易圏を拡大するための重要な手段だ」と話す。


2011年10月29日 13:43

経済

TPP参加による消費者の利益は生産者の損失より大きい


関税を廃止して所得補償に変えれば、農家の所得を同じに保っても消費者は利益を得る


2007年4月30日(土)
#2 影山優理さん from AP通信
AP通信東京支局特派員(ビジネスライター)
(生まれは日本。教育は主にアメリカで受ける)

日本の社会にも、アメリカの
社会にも受け入れられていない
ような気がしていました。
I felt like I was not accepted by Japanese society and by mainstream American society.

私はAP通信社で約15年仕事しています。東京支局の現地採用社員から出発しました。履歴書を送り、試験や面接を経てAPに採用されました。その前はジャパンタイムスで5年間働いていたんです。そして何か違うことがやってみたいと思い、APの採用試験を受けました。
I have been with the AP for about 15 years now. I started out as a local hire in the Tokyo Bureau. I sent resumes to several news organizations; then I took the test. I got interviewed and I got hired at the AP. Before that, I was with the Japan Times, an English newspaper in Japan, for five years and I wanted to get another job. That's why I applied and I got a job here.


私が記事を書く時は、いつもいかに読者の興味を惹くか、そしていかに読者にも分かるように伝えるかを考えています。
What I try to do when I write news articles is because I write for the international audiences. I think about how I can get their attention and how I can make a topic that is easy to understand for them.


ただ、問題もあるんですよね。「やった、スクープだ!」と思うような面白いネタをつかんでも、海外の読者にはその面白さや価値が伝わらなかったりすることもあります。
でもどんな事象でも、懸命に対象を見つめていけば、たとえそれが一見、日本国内でしか理解されないようなものであっても、海外の人にも理解され得るような視点が必ず見つかります
Also the problem is... A lot of scoops that you may have or a lot of really interesting stories that you may have are not gonna be understandable to the international audiences. So it is a kind of challenge.If you look at everything hard enough, there's a way to make it international.

私はワシントンDCにある公立の小学校に行くことになりました。日本に帰ってきてからも、父は私をインターナショナルスクールに入れました。高校生のときに再び渡米して、今度はアラバマ州に行き、近くの公立高校に通いました。
その後また帰国しましたが、以前と同じく東京のインターナショナルスクールに行きました。しかも授業は英語でした。だから自分にとっては日本の大学を受験するよりも、アメリカの大学を受験する方がずっと簡単でした。
私はまずアメリカのカレッジに行き、そこからコーネル大学に転入して、社会学、人類学、社会心理学を専攻しました。その後カリフォルニア大学バークレー校の大学院に行き、社会学の修士号を取りました

So he sent me to the Washington D.C. area and I went to a public elementary school there. And when I came back to Japan, he chose to put me in an international school. And then, when I was in high school, we went to live in Alabama and I went to a public school there. Then we came back and he put me in an international school in Tokyo.




その後は博士課程に進まず、フリーのライターをしていました。私は小学生の頃から物語を書くのが好きで、フィクション系の作家になりたかったんです。そして詩人にもなりたかった。実際に詩を書いていたんですけどね。


Even though I spent a lot of my years in Tokyo, I went to an international school where I got educated in the English language and so it was a lot easier for me to apply to US universities. So I went to Bryn Mawr College first and I transferred to Cornell University. I majored in an interdisciplinary field of sociology, anthropology and social psychology. Then I got my master's at UC Berkley in sociology.
I didn't stay for my doctorate and I was writing as a freelance writer. Actually I wanted to be a fiction writer and poet. I have a lot of poetry and short fictions published in literary magazines. I liked to write stories even when I was in elementary school.

「客観的なニュース」なんて存在しない。
ニュースは客観的であるべきと言う人がいます。つまり、誰が記事を書こうが関係ない、ニュースはニュースだ、という意見です。
私はそうは思いません。ニュースは記者によって大きく変わるんです。繊細な記者、普段から下調べを十分にする記者。彼らが書く記事は自ずと違ってきます。

Even though news is supposed to be objective, which means that it doesn't matter who writes the news, that's not really true. Because a reporter makes a big difference. How sensitive the reporter is or how well-researched reporter is... makes a difference to the story. We know about Japan. We're sensitive to things about Japan. So we're something special's offer to be at Bloomberg, Reuters, or the New York Times, whatever. I think we should be proud of that and take advantage of that.


TOKYO CORRESPONDENCE
NOTES FROM A WRITER BEYOND THE HEADLINES

FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2011

Announcing YuriKageyama.com



Thursday, Sep. 29, 2011

Olympus takes whistle-blower to highest court

By YURI KAGEYAMA

Japan is behind some Western nations in protecting whistle-blowers. Corporate loyalty is king and outspoken employees are often subjected to bizarre punishments, such as assigning them closet-size offices.

ここらへんが、”how I can get their attention”を工夫したところか?
そのwestern nations のデータを示すことがないところが、fiction writer 志望だった片鱗か?



花田紀凱の週刊誌ウォッチング】
(334)
2011.10.29 07:53

 『週刊文春』と『週刊新潮』(ともに11月3日号)が揃(そろ)って橋下徹大阪府知事の出自の問題を特集している。

 『文春』が「暴力団員だった父はガス管をくわえて自殺 橋下徹42歳 書かれなかった『血脈』」。

 『新潮』が「『同和』『暴力団』の渦に呑まれた独裁者『橋下知事』出生の秘密」。

 両誌ともほとんど同じ内容で、橋下知事が大阪・八尾市の同和地区に生まれ、父親と叔父がヤクザで父親は自殺、従兄弟が1999年に金属バット殺人事件で逮捕--というもの。

 これまで書かれなかった出自のことが、なぜ今? なぜこのタイミングで?

 府知事辞任、市長選出馬表明というこの時期を考えると、明らかにネガティブキャンペーンの一環としか見えない。

 だいたい橋下知事の出自を問題にすることに何の意味があるのか。

 しかも、この件は両誌に先行して『新潮45』11月号で、自らも同和地区出身であることを公表しているノンフィクション作家、上原善広氏がレポートしているのだ。

政策ではなく出自についてネガティブキャンペーンをはるとは、新潮、文春最低。

2011年10月29日土曜日

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OCTOBER 27, 2011 · 7:07 AM
92% Stopped, Frisked In Bronx Are Black Or Hispanic



This outfit, Willie Hazzard says, makes him a target for cops to stop and frisk him – something which he says has happened 17 times since he moved to Soundview two years ago.

None of the encounters resulted in arrest, he said.

The NYPD stop-and-frisk policy has recently come under fire again after a Staten Island cop was charged with falsely arresting a black man following a stop and then bragging on tape, “I fried another n—–.”

The case prompted protests at stationhouses and calls for a federal investigation into the police tactic, which was used 362,150 times in the city in the first six months of this year – predominantly on black and Hispanic males.

There were 22,365 people stopped, questioned and frisked in the Bronx between April 1 and June 30 – the latest figures available – according to a quarterly report released by the NYPD, with 2,876 of the Bronx stops resulting in arrests or summonses.

Ninety-one percent of the people stopped in the Bronx were male, and 92% of those stopped were black or Hispanic.

The NYPD maintains that the controversial policy is a crime deterrent.

The Daily News conducted a random survey of 20 men of color, ranging in age from 14 to 35, in three Bronx neighborhoods – Soundview, Fordham, and The Hub. Nine said they had been stopped and frisked by police at least once.

A resounding complaint was that cops patrolling apartment buildings ask to see entrants’ keys or IDs to make sure they are residents.

“I was putting the key into the front door of my building and they stopped me, asked who I am and I had to show them my ID,” Rob Gomez, 21, said of a recent stop he was involved in as he entered his building on E. 143rd St.

Landlords of private residential buildings can ask officers to conduct drug sweeps in buildings through the Operation Clean Halls program.

“People have a right to live in safe buildings and neighborhoods, but this is not police protection – this is police intrusion,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

“It’s pure harassment to put people into the system [putting their names on file via stop-and-frisk forms] who haven’t done anything wrong.”

The NYPD says the practice is backed by a state criminal procedure law – allowing an officer to stop a person reasonably believed to have committed or about to commit a crime.

Dressed in baggy jeans, a T-shirt and baseball cap, a 17-year-old Fordham teen said he has been stopped “at least 10 times” around his neighborhood.

“They ask you, ‘What you doin’?’ and they say I look suspect,” said the teen, whose name is being withheld by The News.

“I just got stopped last month just for walking to my building – they checked my pockets and everything. It’s illegal – they shouldn’t be doing it.”

Yet according to court records, he pleaded guilty last month to criminal possession of a weapon – a switchblade that cops found on him.

Just six blocks away from where Hazzard walked, cops fired 41 shots at an unarmed Amadou Diallo in 1999, killing him as he reached for his wallet. The case spurred allegations that stop-and-frisks are racially motivated.

That incident comes to Hazzard’s mind when cops halt him.

“Now, I just assume the position and drop my wallet on the ground because I don’t want to get hit 41 times,” he said.


レイシャルプロファイリング
腐敗

OCTOBER 27, 2011 · 7:06 AM
Wisconsin Landlord Sued For Refusing To Rent To Black Couple

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing a La Crosse apartment complex and its manager, alleging racial discrimination.

The lawsuit alleges that the manager of Geneva Terrace Apartments told prospective African-American renters that apartments were not available while telling prospective white renters that apartments were available.

The complaint alleges that in 2009 and 2010, manager Nicolai Quinn told an African-American couple interested in renting an apartment in Geneva Terrace that no apartments were available — even though the complex had posted a sign advertising vacancies.

The couple asked a white friend to contact the complex, and Quinn allegedly told the white friend he had apartments available.

Ron Stadler, a Milwaukee attorney for Geneva Terrace and Quinn, denies the allegations and says the defendants welcome the opportunity to clear their names.


不動産差別
OCTOBER 27, 2011 · 7:05 AM
Over 40% Of Participants In Finnish Newspaper Poll Say They Have Been Targets Of Racism

Members of ethnic minorities in Finland have many stories of racism to tell. As part of its street poll, Helsingin Sanomat spoke to 100 people who gave praise to their host country but also revealed the flip side.

‘I was in Imatra at a cash machine when someone came up to me and asked why I was here before punching me in the face.’

Nepalese student Chhabin Pokhrel, 25, had lived in Finland for three weeks when he got a taste of his host country’s dark side. Four years later he’s ready to say that the Finns are quite a racist nation.

A good 400 kilometres to the west, Amrin Babay, a 29-year-old cleaner living in Turku, and his whole family became a target for their racist tormentor.

‘I encountered racism for the first time in my life in Finland, even though I have lived in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan,’ says Babay.

Of those people Helsingin Sanomat spoke to, 43 said that they’d been the target of racist behaviour.

Fifty-seven said that they hadn’t personally encountered racism.

Thirty-four said they completely agreed or partially agreed with the statement ‘Finns are racists’. Of those people who were interviewed, 60 completely or partially disagreed.”

フィンランド


Racist language still used by our generation


By Spencer Lindsay
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 4:18 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, October 26, 2011 10:35:29 p.m.
While I was eating breakfast at my dining commons last week, I heard something that offended me — I noticed people at the table in front of me were trying to sound funny by impersonating a “black” manner of speaking. No one at the table was anywhere close to black. As I listened to more and more of their conversation, I grew more and more outraged. They began to say things like “You shouldn’t take that shit from no bitch, backhand her ass” and “you don’t want to mess with me, ‘cause I will fuck you up.” I am not a man that is easily offended, but this offended me deeply.

Pundits have predicted that our generation will be less racially divided than generations past, but when I hear some things my peers say, I am not so certain. Some white people will spew this kind of offensive crap while impersonating black people, yet will often use the line “you’re playing the race card” in political debates. Some will use the N-word, but shrug off any debate over the implications of the word as “reverse racism.” Some even base their political and social opinions on gross stereotypes of entire races, classes or sects of people.

人種差別


Overcoming racism in Seattle rentals
The first step toward treating a disease is to have an accurate diagnosis. That goes for most problems or challenges. If you can't diagnose a problem, or worse, you don't recognize it exists, it will persist. So here we are in 2011 and landlords in Seattle are still discriminating against prospective tenants who are black.


Jerry Large
Seattle Times staff columnist


The first step toward treating a disease is to have an accurate diagnosis.

That goes for most problems or challenges. If you can't diagnose a problem, or worse, you don't recognize it exists, it will persist.

So here we are in 2011 and landlords in Seattle are still discriminating against prospective tenants who are black.

What we are seeing is not the hate-filled racism so common when I was young, but unequal treatment that springs from flawed thinking.

In case you missed it, The Times reported Saturday on a test of bias in rental housing in Seattle.

The study was done for the city's Office of Civil Rights and found indications of bias against black people and in favor of white people in 69 percent of the rentals tested.


There's a professor at Central Washington University, whose work I've mentioned before, Key Sun.

He's written that one reason for the persistence of these biases is that we treat bias as a moral failing, when often it is instead a "manifestation of cognitive distortions."

Our heads are full of images and information from media and other sources that paint black people in particular in negative ways, with not much on the positive side to balance the ledger.

He cites research that 15 percent of U.S. drug users are black, but 50 percent of network news stories on drugs focus on black people.

And he writes that people make another error. They mess up the math, assuming negative statistics that apply to some black people apply to every black person.

More than 80 percent of serial killers are white males, but no one would assume 80 percent of white males are serial killers.

What seems to be hard for people is to assess each person who shows up to apply for a job or an apartment as an individual.

Awareness is the first step toward being able to do that, which is why the city did the rent study.

There are people who don't want equality, but Bronstein believes most of us do, "and the only way we can get there is to acknowledge where we are," he said, not to feel guilty, but to make a change.


不動産差別
メディア偏向


Issue: 2275 dated: 29 October 2011 News online only
posted: 5.45pm Tue 25 Oct 2011

Turkey: Earthquake highlights oppression of Kurdish minority

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by Ron Margulies in Istanbul

This week an earthquake has killed hundreds in south-eastern Turkey, in and around the Kurdish town of Van.

This is a very poor part of the country. The town’s population has swollen in the past 20 years from a few hundred thousand to well over a million, as a result of the war between the Kurdish national movement and the Turkish army. Peasants from the surrounding countryside have flooded in to escape the war and to search for work.

The creaking infrastructure cannot cope, and there are no jobs.

When I visited two years ago there were ramshackle, poorly-built buildings everywhere—even in the town centre. One newspaper has reported that none of the 10 sellers of ready-mix concrete in the town hold the necessary official quality certificates.

It is these buildings, inhabited by the poorest, which collapsed when the earthquake hit. They include a student hall of residence. So far, the official death toll is 366 and this is expected to rise.

The earthquake hit in the middle of extensive military operations by the Turkish army against the Kurdish PKK.

The fighting has been intense for the past two months, with dozens dead on both sides. It was revealed at the beginning of the summer that the Turkish state and PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan had been holding talks and negotiations for the previous five years. Clearly these have now broken down.

In recent weeks the PKK has been reminding the state that there is no military solution, that the PKK cannot be defeated by arms. Last week, 25 Turkish troops were killed in one day. The army’s response, as always, has been to wage further war, blindly and needlessly causing further bloodshed.



政府の対応に遅れ クルド系との溝浮き彫り 死者は500人超
2011.10.27

エルジシュ(トルコ東部)=大内清】トルコ東部を震源とする大地震で、被災地域に数多く居住する少数民族のクルド系住民が、震災対応の遅れに不満を強めている。政府は、成長が著しい沿岸部に比べて遅れがちだった東部の開発を積極的に進めるとして不満解消を図っている。しかしクルド系には、多数派であるトルコ系とトルコ系中心の政府から差別を受けてきたとの意識があり、今回の地震は両者の溝が深いことを浮き彫りにしている。

ssue: 2275 dated: 29 October 2011 News
posted: 5.45pm Tue 25 Oct 2011

A history of racism against travelling people

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Bailiffs were sent to evict Travellers from Dale Farm


Residents look on as scores of riot police and bailiffs begin dismantling their site

Travellers have faced racism for centuries. As early as the 16th century, laws were passed in England expelling so called “Egyptians” or Gypsies.

Roma Gypsies were expelled from many other European countries too.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, several European governments tried to force Travellers to “assimilate”. In some cases, they took Traveller children away and placed them in non-Traveller families.

Adolf Hitler’s Nazis murdered up to half a million Gypsies in the Holocaust during the Second World War.

This anti-Traveller racism remains strong to this day. Travellers are more likely to die earlier, to live in poverty, and to have worse health and education than settled people.

Vendetta

Basildon council leader Tony Ball justified his vendetta against the Dale Farm Travellers by referring to “the law”. But the law systematically discriminates against Travellers.

So, Travellers at Dale Farm had applied time and time again for planning permission, only to be continually refused. More than 90 percent of Traveller applications are refused in the first instance.

And for all their talk of “obeying the law”, last week’s eviction was a graphic reminder of how police and councils can simply disregard the law when it suits them.

A judicial ruling had specified that certain plots, along with gates, fences and walls, could remain. But police smashed in a fence when they entered the site. One Traveller said police had kicked her fence in too.

The ruling also said that the council had to provide electricity to the legal plots during an eviction. For at least some of the time, it failed to do so.

Mary, one of the Travellers, told Socialist Worker of her shock at the level of racism she faced. “I saw lots of other councils on the news digging trenches to stop us coming onto their land,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it. We’re not a different species—we’re human beings.”

Tories make life harder

“You’re Travellers—so why don’t you travel?” The mainstream media has slung this question at the Dale Farm Travellers time after time during their eviction. It wilfully ignores the real obstacles that Travellers face.

A series of laws has made travelling much harder. There are far fewer legal sites that they can move to.

And living “on the road” no longer an option—even if Travellers did want to do this—because the police would simply move them on.

The Tory’s 1994 Criminal Justice Act removed the responsibility of councils to provide sites for Travellers.

The government encouraged Travellers to buy their own land—which is precisely what Dale Farm Travellers did. Now they are getting blamed for it.

Labour’s 2004 Housing Act obliged councils to provide Traveller sites. But many failed to do so. Money set aside for providing legal sites was spent elsewhere.

The Tories have set about making life even harder for Travellers. They have scrapped a programme of grants for sites and revoked the rules requiring councils to provide for Travellers.

Dale Farm residents weren’t against moving. They tried to move to nearby land, but these offers were rejected by the council.

The Travellers want to go somewhere where they can live together, not be isolated in scattered houses.

They aren’t against travelling. The problem is there’s nowhere to travel to

ジプシー

Recently, I became acquainted with a young woman from Japan. She married an American, and was living in Japan, but about a year ago, due to her husband's job, she moved to the United States. She described her impression of the United States as follows: "When I lived in Japan, our American friends were very friendly, initiating conversation by asking 'How are you?' and inviting people to parties. So I thought America was a place where I could have human relationships that were cheerful and fun. But the reality is different. True, everyone greets everyone, and I get invited to parties, but not to become any closer than that. I'm lonely here because I don't have someone who is willing to listen to my private matters."

It seems to me that Japanese people tend to make groups, seeking solidarity with others within the group. Eventually, the concept of "us" (insider=uchi) and "them" (outsider=soto) emerges. Even if a Japanese person isn't so conscious of this, they tend to use this uchi/soto distinction quite a bit.

From birth, a Japanese will belong to many groups, starting with family, then their school class, various clubs, and eventually their workplace. Each Japanese person, individually, has many overlapping group circles, and within those groups, they cooperate to achieve goals, enjoy each other's company, sharing in the joys of success and suffering the pain of despair. Whatever their problem, whether it is relationship-related, or a spiritual/moral dilemma, it is easy to find someone to listen to you because these are people who share the same thought process nurtured by a common background. Sometimes, just being listened to is all it takes to feel better.

In contrast, groups that Americans form tend to be transient: When the activity is over, the group disperses, returning to being individuals. Unlike the Japanese, these groups usually do not become social cliques in themselves, and members tend not to get involved in the lives of others, and tend not to share their personal issues. For such support, people go to specialized family counselors, marriage counselors, or a support group, the numerous examples of which cover every conceivable subject, including alcoholism and domestic abuse.

If a Japanese person tries to interact with Americans in the uchi (insider) sense, they perceive the noncommittal attitude they receive from Americans as a rejection, and feel lonely. In addition, Japanese people are frequently not used to solving problems independently. In contrasting the two cultures there are different lines drawn between privacy and friendship.

In a previous column I stated that, historically, Japanese values were centered on pride, honor and discipline, and were based on morals that put "trust" first and foremost, leading to mutual respect over time, and becoming a building-block for survival in a group-oriented society.

However, as Japanese society became more prosperous, instead of seeking the traditional tenets of "pride, honor and discipline," people began to desire fame and fortune. In today's Japan, as a result of this shift, ethics have begun to change, but the culture that puts group activity at its core has remained, with complicated implications, especially in the workplace.

It is fine to value "saving face" as long as actions remain within the realm of white lies. But if one's subordinates or even supervisor are doing something unlawful, the group dynamic becomes quite complicated. It is hard for the Japanese to speak up as it may lead to loss of face for the whole organization.

To break the trust of the group, and cause shame for the supervisor, as it leads to the loss of security for the self, is hard for a Japanese to do. As a consequence, Japanese people can be very reluctant to become "whistle-blowers."

In addition, bringing out problems of uchi to soto is taboo, so even if the whistle-blower's actions are justifiable, he or she will be persecuted within the organization. Therefore, evildoings within an organization remain secret for a long time, which might be a reason why corporate scandals in Japan remain underground until they become so large that the corruption of the "uchi" spills over to "soto." Corrective action within Japanese organizations, therefore, can be very difficult.

Amid the forces of globalization, contemporary Japan is experiencing the collision of values embedded in the more traditional "group society" and the Western "individualistic society." Today, Japan seems unable to decide between the two, and as a result, is experiencing the worst of both. For example, both the education ministry and the public school curriculum assert that they respect individualism, but in reality, it is a system that still values "wa."

Even if students want to assert their individuality, they cannot--if students assert themselves, they break the unwritten rules of maintaining "wa," and if they value "wa," they become dissatisfied with the contradictions that society enforces. While people are inundated with information that touts individualism through the mass media and on the Internet, the people who are in the position of power in this society have not changed from the traditional "group society" framework.

As a consequence, the younger generation of Japanese seem to be unsure on two fronts: unsure whether they can live without the security, in both psychological and real terms, that comes with valuing the tenets of "wa" or "group society," and at the same time, unsure whether or not they can embrace individualism. Perhaps this is why some of them end up becoming NEETs--people who are not in education, employment or training.

Despite 60 years of democracy following the conclusion of the World War II, the Japanese are still unable to digest the concept of individualism and freedom. In addition, the Japanese have given up trying to convey the historical values system that stresses pride, honor and discipline to the next generation. Today's Japanese, having lost their emotional compass, have become unable to distinguish the difference between good and evil, which is why I think we have seen a rise in corporate scandals and crimes in recent years.

Manes resides in Philadelphia and teaches Japanese at Bucks and Montgomery county community colleges. She is the author of "Culture Shock of Mind."

Yomiuri

三流文化論


US cops tried to erase online evidence of brutality
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Published: 26 October, 2011

Google has been asked by a US law enforcement agency to remove several videos exposing police brutality from the video sharing service YouTube, the company has revealed in its latest update to an online transparency report.
Another request filed by a different agency required Google to remove videos allegedly defaming law enforcement officials. The two requests were among 92 submissions for content removal by various authorities in the US filed between January and June 2011. Both were rejected by Google along with 27 per cent of the submissions.


透明度


US uranium to blame for deformed babies in Fallujah?
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Published: 25 October, 2011

A London court is set to hear a case involving the alleged use of uranium-enhanced weapons by US-led forces in the deadly 2004 battle for Fallujah. Some say it is the cause of horrific birth defects and congenital diseases in the Iraqi city.


劣化ウラン



Former Goldman Sachs exec surrenders to FBI
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Published: 26 October, 2011,


nly half-a-minute after a 2008 Goldman Sachs board meeting, Rajat Gupta got out his phone and dialed Raj Rajaratnam. The next morning, his pal sold his stake in the company, saving millions of dollars before they suffered their first quarterly loss.
Three years later, Gupta surrendered to federal authorities this week as he faces charges relating to the insider trading cases that caused his wealthy associate to avoid a financial disaster at the dawn of the Great Recession. The correspondence between the two, attest prosecutors, allowed the men and their associations to benefit immensely off the stock market, making tens of millions of dollars through illegal talks. Rajaratnam was already sentenced earlier this month for his involvement in improper trades, which has earned him 11 years in prison.
Gupta, who had a guest spot at President Barack Obama’s first state dinner, was first lobbied with civil fraud charges courtesy of the Securities and Exchange Commissioner back in March. Charges were later dropped however, pending further investigation. In the meantime, Gupta resigned from several high-profile corporate boards, including Procter & Gamble. With five counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit coming from a grand jury this morning, Gupta’s legal woes are back, however, and worse than ever.
Should Gupta, 62, be convicted of the five counts of security fraud, he stands to receive a maximum of 100 years in prison.
Authorities allege that Gupta stood to gain from the loss that should have been for Rajaratnam. Together the pair was involved in a series of businesses partnerships together, including one private equity fund that was co-founded by the men. Prosecutors say that had Rajartnam not followed Gupta’s advice, his groups stood to lose upwards of $23 million.
"Rajat Gupta was entrusted by some of the premier institutions of American business to sit inside their boardrooms, among their executives and directors, and receive their confidential information so that he could give advice and counsel for the benefit of their shareholders,” Manhattan US attorney Preet Bharara says in a statement. “As alleged, he broke that trust and instead became the illegal eyes and ears in the boardroom for his friend and business associate, Raj Rajaratnam, who reaped enormous profits from Mr. Gupta's breach of duty."



Rajat Gupta Arrest: Five More Cases of Insider Trading
By Roland Li | October 26, 2011 4:52 PM EDT
Rajat Gupta's arrest is the latest in the unscrupulous world of insider trading. Here are five more recent cases:

In perhaps the most infamous case, the media magnate Martha Stewart was indicted on nine counts related to insider trading. In a highly publicized trial, she was not convicted of insider trading, but still was found guilty of securities fraud and obstruction of justice, which lead to her resignation from the company that bears her name. She had sold 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems stock in 2001, thus avoiding a $45,673 loss, thanks to a tip from Peter Bacanovic of Merrill Lynch. Stewart served five months in prison and was monitored afterwards, also paying a fine of $30,000. She made a comeback in 2005 and returned to head "Martha Stewart Living."
Christopher Balkenhol, May 2007

Balkenhol, a former vice president at Oracle Corp., agreed on a $198,000 cash settlement after allegations of insider trading. Balkenhol's wife, Carolyn, also worked at Oracle as a secretary to CEO Larry Ellison, where she scheduled meetings with other companies. Christopher would buy $448,000 of shares in one target company, Siebel Systems Inc., and made $82,000 in profits after Oracle targeted it. In another case, he bought $85,000 in shares of Retek Inc. and made a $15,000 profit. As part of an agreement with the SEC, the Balkenhols did not have to admit wrongdoing and avoided a trip to court.

Hafiz Naseem, May 2007

Naseem worked at the energy desk of the Swiss firm, Credit Suisse, where he leaked deals that included a $32 billion bid for Texas company TXU Corp. The trades made over $7.5 million, according to authorities. Naseem, a Pakistani native, called bankers in the area about deals involving Hydril Co., Trammell Crow Co., John H. Harland Co., Energy Partners Ltd., Veritas DGC Inc., Jacuzzi Brands Inc., Caremark Rx Inc. and NorthWestern Corp. Ultimately, he received a 10 year jail sentence in May 2008, just a few months before the economic crisis.

Matthew Devlin, December 2008

Devlin, a former broker at now defunct firm Lehman Brothers, gained insight into mergers through his wife, who worked at a big publicity firm. The firm earned $4.8 million in profits for a group, and Devlin received gifts that included a Cartier watch, widescreen television and a stint at a Porsche Driving School. His wife, Nina, was not charged, but others involved -- including a former Playboy model -- were also charged. In September 2009, Frederick Bowers, another Lehman broker involved, was sentenced to 2,000 hours of commuity service, a $15,000 fine and made to forfeit $12,000.

Igor Poteroba, March 2010

Poteroba, a UBS AG investment banker, confessed to insider trading after being arrested for leaking merger tips to friends, using code words like "frequent flyer miles" and references to Macy's. In total, he was involved with six firms, Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc., Molecular Devices Corp., PharmaNet Development Group Inc., Via Cell Inc., Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc., and made almost $1 million, and had bail set at $5 million. Poteroba bought a $1.4 million home in Connecticut. This March, Poteroba was sentenced to 22 months in prison and fined $25,000, on top of forfeiting $465,000, which he made while trading. He is likely to be deported to his native Russia.

元ゴールドマンのグプタ元取締役を起訴-米大規模インサイダー事件

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TwitterはてなlivedoorYahoo!Newsing it!Buzzurl
 
 10月26日(ブルームバーグ):米ゴールドマン・サックス・グループのラジャット・グプタ元取締役は26日、ヘッジファンドの米ガリオン・グループを舞台にした大規模インサイダー取引事件で、米検察当局から共謀と証券詐欺の罪などで起訴された。グプタ被告は同事件で起訴された金融業界関係者では最も社会的地位の高い人物。
  ニューヨーク・マンハッタン連邦地裁に提出された起訴状によれば、罪状は5つの証券詐欺罪、証券詐欺での共謀罪となっている。米証券取引委員会(SEC)もこの日、不当利益の返還などを求めてグプタ被告を提訴した。グプタ氏は米プロクター・アンド・ギャンブル(P&G)の取締役も務めていた。
企業腐敗




Corruption Perceptions Index




Japan 17



UK  20

US  22

France 25

Spain 30



Immunity and impunity in elite America
The top one per cent of US society is enjoying a two-tiered system of justice and politics.
Glenn Greenwald Last Modified: 27



オキュパイ
法の支配
腐敗
金持ち優遇


OCTOBER 28, 2011 · 8:00 AM
Update: No Charges To Be Filed Against Organizers Of Swedish ‘Slave Auction’


Two student unions at Lund University in southern Sweden reportedly held a party over the weekend which featured the sale of “slaves” complete with blackened faces and ropes around their necks.

The National Afro-Swedish Association reported the Halland and Helsingkrona unions to the police after exposing the unions’ so-called “jungle” parties.

The “slave auction” took place on Saturday at a party organised at Halland student union. Three people with blackened faces and ropes around their necks were lead into the union by a “slave trader”.

The “slaves” were then sold during the course of the evening and the party moved on to Helsingkrona union.

Jallow said that he doubts the incident is based on a lack of knowledge about the slave trade and Sweden’s role in the sale of human beings from Africa.

“This is not a bunch of skinheads. This is the elite. Lund’s students – some of the best educated in Sweden,” he said.

Jallow argued that the parties are symptomatic of the challenges faced by African immigrants in southern Sweden.

“This racism is becoming all too common. Of course it is irritating. They (the unions) claim it was a joke but this is based on the attitudes that people from Africa or have dark skin are of lower value.”



スエーデン
仮装パーティー 奴隷


The Racial Gap in Marriage: How the Institution Is Tied to Inequality

OCT 27 2011, 10:04 AM ET 80
Those who are best positioned economically to live without a partner or to have a child without being married are the least likely to do so


In her engagingly written Atlantic cover story, Kate Bolick examines the rise of single women as a result of the decline of men. From her own experience she glimpses in men's unfortunate economic struggles a hopeful opportunity for women: to reassess the primacy of marriage, in their own lives and as a cultural ideal, and to embrace their freedom to thrive as single women, without any need or desire for a husband.

However onerous the restrictions of marriage, its primary social effect now is to exacerbate the already wide socioeconomic disparities that understandably trouble so many Americans.


During the past few decades, marriage has become more associated with socioeconomic status than perhaps at any other time in American history. Marriage has declined substantially among poor people of all races, who are both less likely to marry and more likely to divorce than their counterparts from earlier eras. Meanwhile, the affluent and highly educated are more likely to marry (even if a bit later in life than in earlier eras) and less likely to divorce than their less advantaged counterparts. While college-educated parents tend to delay childbearing until after marriage, less educated women often have children without the benefit of marriage. Indeed, University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus has found that among white women who have their first child in their early 20s -- which college educated white women tend not to do -- fully 60 percent of those mothers are unmarried when their child is born.

The irony here is that those who are best positioned economically to live without a partner or to have a child without being married are the least likely to choose to do so. Among men, the more a man earns, the more likely he is to be married. Among women, what used to be known as the marriage penalty -- a reference to the fact that greater education was associated with lower marriage rates -- has steadily eroded. Now, college-educated women are more likely than their less educated peers to marry and stay married. Economically secure, college-educated men and women may not need marriage, but most of them want it.


結婚 経済格差 所得格差


Adolf Hitler's parents deny they're racist
From: news.com.au October 28, 2011



HEATH and Deborah Campbell have three children - two of whom are named Adolf Hitler, 5, and Aryan Nation, 3.

They insist they aren't racist - they just like the names.

Heath and Deborah Campbell have covered their house in swastikas and have swastika tattoos.

But still, they insist they aren't racist - they just like swastikas.

What Heath and Deborah Campbell aren't anymore are parents after a court found there was sufficient evidence of neglect and abuse to take the children into care.

The couple, from New Jersey, in the US, were reported to authorities after they asked a bakery to make a cake with Adolf's name on it.

They claim the court has taken away their children because of their names.

"The judge and Division of Youth and Family Services told us that there was no evidence of abuse and that it was the names. They were taken over the children's names," Mr Campbell said.

ヒットラー
名前

NYPD keeps secret files on Muslims who change their names to sound more American: report
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wednesday, October 26th 2011,


NEW YORK -- Muslims who change their names to sound more traditionally American, as immigrants have done for generations, or who adopt Arabic names as a sign of their faith are often investigated and catalogued in secret New York Police Department intelligence files, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The NYPD monitors everyone in the city who changes his or her name, according to internal police documents and interviews. For those whose names sound Arabic or might be from Muslim countries, police run comprehensive background checks that include reviewing travel records, criminal histories, business licenses and immigration documents. All this is recorded in police databases for supervisors, who review the names and select a handful of people for police to visit.

The program was conceived as a tripwire for police in the difficult hunt for homegrown terrorists, where there are no widely agreed upon warning signs. Like other NYPD intelligence programs created in the past decade, this one involved monitoring behavior protected by the First Amendment.


レイシャルプロファイリング
通名
名前変更



OCTOBER 28, 2011 · 8:29 AM

Lawsuit Alleges Chicago Police Slower To Respond In Hispanic & Black Areas

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois recently filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago in Cook County Circuit Court alleging that response times to emergency calls in high-crime areas of the city with larger black and Hispanic populations are slower than in white-majority areas, thus violating the Illinois Civil Rights Act of 2003.

The lawsuit, filed Oct. 27, is being brought under the Illinois Civil Rights Act of 2003 which makes it unlawful for government to provide services in a manner that has a disparate negative effect on any racial group.

Suing on behalf of themselves and the Central Austin Neighborhood Association, a Chicago community group, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleges that the city’s minority neighborhoods have a disproportionately low number of officers than white districts.

Harvey Grossman, legal director for the ACLU of Illinois, said the longtime pattern of ignoring 911 calls from minority communities has gone on too long and needs to end immediately.

It is widely known that 911 calls are more likely to go without response in minority neighborhoods when compared to white neighborhoods,” explained Grossman. “For too long, the city has hoarded the information that would have revealed the full scope of this problem. Now that we are seeing data, it is time to take definitive steps to correct the problem.”


救急車
医療

2011年10月27日木曜日

クリップ


米国人と離婚訴訟中の日本人女性、「子供連れ去り」で逮捕 懲役20年の可能性も
2011.10.27
2011.10.27 14:29
 ニカラグア出身の男性と米国で離婚訴訟中に子供(9)を連れて帰国した兵庫県在住の日本人女性が再渡米し、子供を連れ去ったとして米司法当局に親権妨害容疑などで逮捕、起訴されていたことが27日、代理人弁護士の話で分かった。女性は「親権妨害にはあたらない」として無罪を主張し、来月に判決が言い渡される予定。有罪が確定すれば最高で懲役20年が科される可能性があるという。

 外務省によると、子供を連れて帰国した日本人女性が指名手配された国に再入国するのは異例で、身柄拘束は過去に例がないという。

 代理人弁護士らによると、女性は2008(平成20)年、米ウィスコンシン州で男性と離婚訴訟中に子供を連れて帰国。親権妨害や、訴訟中に国外に出たことに対する法廷侮辱などの容疑で指名手配されていた。今年4月、ハワイを訪れ、身柄を拘束された。ウィスコンシン州郡裁判所に起訴され、来月初めにも判決が出るという。

 男性は、米国で単独親権を取得。一方、女性は子供の親権の確認を求める家事審判を神戸家裁伊丹支部に提起。今年3月、同支部は母親の親権を認定する一方、「父親の生活や文化にも触れた方が子供の可能性を広げる」として、子供が米国で男性と面会するよう義務づけた。双方が不服として大阪高裁に抗告している。



国際離婚:親権妨害容疑 米国で日本人女性逮捕
毎日新聞 2011年10月27日 

ニカラグア出身の男性と米国で離婚訴訟中に子供(9)を連れて帰国した兵庫県在住の日本人女性が再渡米し、子供を連れ去ったとして米司法当局に親権妨害容疑などで逮捕、起訴されていたことが27日、代理人弁護士の話で分かった。女性は「親権妨害にはあたらない」として無罪を主張し、来月に判決が言い渡される予定。有罪が確定すれば最高で懲役20年が科される可能性があるという。

 外務省によると、子供を連れて帰国した日本人女性が指名手配された国に再入国するのは異例で、身柄拘束は過去に例がないという。

 代理人弁護士らによると、女性は2008(平成20)年、米ウィスコンシン州で男性と離婚訴訟中に子供を連れて帰国。親権妨害や、訴訟中に国外に出たことに対する法廷侮辱などの容疑で指名手配されていた。今年4月、ハワイを訪れ、身柄を拘束された。ウィスコンシン州郡裁判所に起訴され、来月初めにも判決が出るという。

 男性は、米国で単独親権を取得。一方、女性は子供の親権の確認を求める家事審判を神戸家裁伊丹支部に提起。今年3月、同支部は母親の親権を認定する一方、「父親の生活や文化にも触れた方が子供の可能性を広げる」として、子供が米国で男性と面会するよう義務づけた。双方が不服として大阪高裁に抗告している


国際離婚:親権妨害容疑 米国で日本人女性逮捕

 米国に住むニカラグア国籍の元夫(39)との国際結婚で生まれた女児(9)を無断で米国から日本に連れ出したとして、日本人女性(43)が親権妨害容疑で米国ハワイ州保安局に逮捕されていたことが分かった。女性と元夫は親権を巡って日本で係争中で、外務省によると、国際結婚した日本人が親権の問題で係争中に海外で逮捕されるのは異例。専門家は、日本がハーグ条約に加盟すれば民事的な子供の返還手続きが優先されるため、逮捕まで発展する事案は少なくなるとみている。

 法曹関係者と外務省によると、女性は02年2月に結婚して女児を出産。米国ウィスコンシン州で暮らしていたが、08年2月に子供を連れて日本に帰国した。09年6月に米国で離婚が成立し、元夫に親権が認められた。一方、関西に住んでいた女性は、親権の変更を求めて神戸家裁伊丹支部に家事審判を申し立てた。同支部は今年3月、女性の親権を認め、元夫と子供に米国で年間約30日間面会することを認める審判を下した。双方が即時抗告したため現在、大阪高裁で審理が続いている。

 女性は今年4月7日(現地時間)、自分の永住権を更新しようと、米国ハワイ州ホノルル市に日本から空路で入国。しかし、父親に無断で子供を日本に連れ出し親権を妨害したとして、ウィスコンシン州から親権妨害容疑で逮捕状が出ており、ハワイ州保安局に逮捕された。

 女性は現在も身柄を拘束されたままで、ウィスコンシン州で裁判が続いている。検察側は、執行猶予判決を条件に、日本で女性の両親と暮らす子供を米国に返すよう司法取引を提示したが、女性は拒絶。無罪を主張しているという。

 子供は日本に住む母方の祖父母の下で暮らしており、両親ともに会えない日々が半年以上も続いている。

 元夫は「子供を米国に返してくれれば、拘束は望まない。子供が両親と会える環境にしたい」と訴えているという。一方、女性の代理人弁護士は「(女性は)子供を一旦、米国に返せば帰ってこられないのではないかと心配している」と話している。

 厚生労働省によると92年以降、国際結婚は06年の約4万4700件をピークに減少に転じ、10年は約3万200件。一方、国際離婚は増加傾向にあり、09年は最多の約1万9400件に上った。国際離婚には法律の違い、子供の国籍や親権、出国などで日本とは違った問題が伴う。

 中央大法科大学院の棚瀬孝雄教授(法社会学)の話 ハーグ条約は、原則として子供をとりあえず元の国に返すことが第一目的で、民事的な返還手続きが優先される。子が返りさえすれば刑事訴追しないことが多い。加盟すれば、逮捕まで発展するような事案は少なくなると思う。【岡奈津希】

 ◇ハーグ条約
 国際結婚が破綻した夫婦間の子供(16歳未満)の扱いについて、国際協力のルールを定めた「国際的な子の奪取の民事面に関する条約」の通称。子供を連れ出された親が返還を申し立てた場合、相手方の国の政府は原則として元の国に返す協力をするよう規定している。日本政府は今年5月、加盟する方針を閣議了解した。返還手続きなどの整備を検討している法相の諮問機関「法制審議会」は、手続きは家庭裁判所が担当し、非公開の審理で3審制とする中間まとめを9月30日に発表。来年2月に最終答申する見通し。

保釈

2011年10月28日
親権争い中の女性、米で拘束 元夫から娘連れ帰った容疑

兵庫県内の女性(43)が米国に住むニカラグア国籍の元夫(39)との離婚訴訟中の4月、長女(9)を日本に連れ帰ったとする親権妨害の疑いで渡航先のハワイで身柄を拘束された。国際結婚での離婚訴訟中に親権をめぐって一方の親が拘束されるのは異例。長女は兵庫県の親族のもとで生活しており、両親と約半年間会えない状態が続いているという。

 女性の代理人弁護士らによると、女性は2002年に元夫と国際結婚し、米・ウィスコンシン州で生活していた。08年2月に元夫が米国で離婚訴訟を起こした後、女性は長女を連れて日本に帰った。その後、米国の裁判所は離婚を認め、男性を長女の親権者とした。

 これに対し、女性は親権者の変更を神戸家裁伊丹支部に申請。伊丹支部は今年3月、米国の裁判所とは逆に女性を親権者と認める判断を示す一方、長女と元夫を定期的に面会させるよう命じた。双方が決定を不服として即時抗告し、大阪高裁で審理が続いている。

 女性は4月、米国の永住権の更新手続きのためにハワイに行ったが、米国の裁判所が親権者と認めた元夫から長女を引き離したとする親権妨害容疑で拘束された。女性は司法当局に「長女を返せば執行猶予判決とする」などという取引を持ちかけられたが拒否し、9月にウィスコンシン州の裁判所で始まった裁判で無罪を訴えているという。


“無断で子連れ出し”日本人逮捕
10月27日 23時6分

アメリカに住む外国人の男性と離婚した日本人の女性が、無断で子どもを日本に連れ出したとして、親権を妨害したという容疑でアメリカの当局に逮捕されていたことが分かりました。
関係者や外務省によりますと、逮捕されたのは、兵庫県内に住む43歳の女性です。女性は、アメリカのウィスコンシン州に住む39歳の男性と国際結婚していましたが、9歳の女の子を連れて3年前に帰国し、アメリカで離婚が成立しました。女性はことし4月、アメリカの永住権を更新しようとハワイ州に入国したところ、州の保安局に逮捕されたということです。女性には無断で子どもを連れ出して元夫の親権を妨害したという容疑で逮捕状が出ていました。女性は現地の裁判の中で、子どもをアメリカに返せば執行猶予の判決にするという司法取引の提示を拒否し、現在も拘束されているということです。外務省によりますと、親権を巡って海外で日本人が逮捕されるのは異例です。日本政府はことし5月、国際結婚が破綻した場合の子どもの扱いについて定めた「ハーグ条約」に加盟することを決めています。条約では、相手の承認に得ずに子どもを連れ出した場合には、元いた国に戻すことになっているため、今回のようなケースでは原則として子どもはアメリカに返すことになりますが、専門家は、子どもの意思を尊重して柔軟に対応できるよう、国内法も整備するべきだと指摘しています。

長女連れ帰り、国際離婚の日本女性が米で拘束
米国でニカラグア出身の男性(39)と離婚した兵庫県の女性(43)が、離婚訴訟中に長女(9)を日本に連れ帰ったとして渡米時に身柄を拘束され、男性の親権を妨害した罪に問われて刑事裁判を受ける異例の事態となっていることがわかった。

 米国の裁判所は離婚訴訟で男性に長女の親権があるとしたが、日本の裁判所は条件付きで女性を親権者と認定。日米の裁判所で判断が相反する中、日本がハーグ条約に加わる前に起きた国際間の親権争いがどう展開するか注目される。

 日本の裁判での双方の代理人弁護士らによると、男性と女性は2002年に結婚したが、08年2月、男性が米国の裁判所に離婚を申し立て、女性は直後に長女を連れて日本に帰国した。米国の裁判所は09年6月、離婚を認め、長女の親権者を男性とした。

 一方、女性は同月、親権者を自分とするよう神戸家裁伊丹支部に申し立て。同支部は今年3月、「長女を男性と米国で1年に30日間面会させる」などの条件を付け、女性を親権者と認めた。双方が抗告し、大阪高裁で審理が続いている。

 こうした中、女性は翌4月、永住権の更新手続きのため渡米した際、空港で身柄を拘束された。米国州法の親権妨害罪で起訴されて9月から刑事裁判が始まり、女性は「帰国時点では離婚訴訟を起こされていることを知らなかった」と無罪を主張している。有罪の場合、最長で12年6か月間、刑務所に収容される可能性があるという。

(2011年10月27日15時41分 読売新聞)





02年2月に結婚(毎日)
女児を出産。米国ウィスコンシン州で暮らしていた
女児(9)
08年2月に子供を連れて日本に帰国
(毎日)

08年2月に元夫が米国で離婚訴訟を起こした(朝日)

09年6月に米国で離婚が成立し、元夫に親権が認められた(毎日)

今年3月、伊丹支部は女性の親権を認め、元夫と子供に米国で年間約30日間面会することを認める審判を下した。双方が即時抗告したため現在、大阪高裁で審理が続いている

今年4月7日(現地時間)、自分の永住権を更新しようと、米国ハワイ州ホノルル市に日本から空路で入国。

9月にウィスコンシン州の裁判所で始まった裁判で無罪を訴えているという(朝日)

来月初めにも判決が出る(産経)

起訴前勾留・保釈



2011年10月25日
覚醒剤持ち込み、日本人女性に死刑判決 マレーシア

マレーシアの首都クアラルンプール近郊のセランゴール州の高等裁判所は25日、覚醒剤を持ち込んだとして危険薬物不正取引の罪に問われた東京都目黒区、元看護師の竹内真理子被告(37)に対し、死刑判決を言い渡した。弁護士によると、上訴する方針。
2011年10月26日
日本人の人口1億2535万人、減少に転じる 国勢調査

[PR]

 2010年10月1日現在の国勢調査の確定結果で、日本人の人口は1億2535万8854人になり、05年の前回調査より37万1294人(0.3%)減った。国勢調査は5年に1度実施している。日本人と外国人で分けた統計を取り始めた1970年の調査以降で、減少に転じたのは初めて。総務省が26日に発表した。

 外国人を加えた総人口は1億2805万7352人で、前回調査から0.2%にあたる28万9358人増えた。




夫婦の生涯出産数、初めて2人を割る 平均1.96人
2011年10月21日

 夫婦が生涯にもうける子どもの数が昨年時点で1.96人と、調査を始めた1940年以来、初めて2人を下回った。国立社会保障・人口問題研究所が21日、出生動向基本調査(夫婦調査)の結果を公表した。

 調査は基本的に5年ごとに実施。今回は昨年6月に妻が50歳未満の夫婦9050組に聞き、7847組から有効回答を得た。

 結婚から15~19年たつ初婚同士の夫婦の最終的な平均出生数は1.96人。前回の2005年調査より0.13人減った。出生数の指標では「合計特殊出生率」も知られるが、こちらは未婚を含む女性1人が生涯に産むと想定される子どもの数で、昨年は1.39だった。これに対し、今回の数値は結婚している女性が対象で、「完結出生児数」と呼ばれる




オリンパス副社長、ウッドフォード氏「日本不在が長い」‎10.27
 オリンパスの森久志副社長は27日、今月社長を解職したマイケル・ウッドフォード氏について「一番の問題は日本を不在にしていた期間が長い」と指摘した。ウッドフォード氏が雑誌「FACTA」で英医療機器メーカーのジャイラス関連の買収を巡る状況を知ったと主張している点に関し、「(ウッドフォード氏が)日本にいるとき、それについての話ができていない」と述べ、日本に来るように要請したという。ウッドフォード氏からは順次情報を得るまで戻れない、との返答があったことも明らかにした。
 同席した川又洋仲取締役執行役員は「社内の機密文書には守秘義務があるが、外部に流しており私はその責任が重いと判断した」と述べた。ウッドフォード氏の独断専行について「身をもって感じている」という。


ウッドフォード元社長の書簡要旨 「悲惨な誤り…お粗末な判断力」 (1/2ページ)
2011.10.27

オリンパス、ウッドフォード氏との平行線続く
2011年 10月 27日

【東京】オリンパスの菊川剛会長兼社長が辞任した。同社では、マイケル・ウッドフォード前社長解任をきっかけに過去の買収案件をめぐる疑惑が浮上している。ウッドフォード前社長は、米連邦捜査局(FBI)から面会の要請を受けているとしている。

 ウッドフォード氏は、自らの解任について、過去の買収にからむオリンパスの支払いに疑問を呈し、菊川氏に辞任を求めたためだとしている。

 一方、26日に社長に就任した高山修一氏は、会見でウッドフォード氏解任について、「独断専行の行動」のためだと説明した。


 オリンパスの過去の買収は、英米の監督当局や捜査当局の関心を集めているほか、欧米に比べ受け身とされることの多い日本の監視機関の動きも促した。

 関係筋が26日に述べたところによると、証券取引等監視委員会は同社の過去の買収案件に関する情報開示が適切だったかについて調査中だ。また、東京証券取引所はこの日、上場企業に対し、コーポレートガバナンス(企業統治)の強化などを訴えた。また、より迅速な情報開示を確実にすべく他の金融当局との協力体制を強化していることを明らかにした。

 ウッドフォード氏は、26日にニューヨークでFBIとの面会を求められていることを明らかにし、自らが持つ「すべての情報を提供する意向」だと述べたが、詳細には触れなかった。

 高山氏は同日の記者会見で1時間近くにわたり質問を受けた。買収に「反社会的勢力」が関与していたかどうかについては、「全く認識していない」と答えた。

 企業内の幹部同士の争いが公になることは日本では珍しい。日本企業は、取締役の調和、従業員の忠誠、内輪の恥をさらけ出したがらないことで知られる。会社の方針に従わない幹部は、日本人であれ外国人であれ、強い逆風に直面する。昨年、富士通を辞任した野副州旦元社長は、数々の改革を進めたことで社内の反発を買ったために解任されたと訴えた。これに対し会社側は、反社会的勢力とつながりのある人物との関係を理由に辞任を要請したとしている。定着した企業文化を変えることのできた外国人は、日産自動車のカルロス・ゴーン社長などほんの一握りだ。

小沢一郎氏会見での「諍い」に関する読売新聞の記事に反論する

オリンパス、ジャイラスや国内3社買収で違法や不正はない
2011年 10月 27日


 [東京 27日 ロイター] オリンパス(7733.T: 株価, ニュース, レポート)は27日、過去の買収案件についての詳細を公表した。マイケル・ウッドフォード元社長の解任をきっかけに、同社の過去の買収を巡り不透明な資金の流れが問題になっているが、オリンパスとしては、医療機器メーカーのジャイラス社や国内の新事業3社の買収に関して「違法もしくは不正な点があったという事実はない」との認識を改めて示した。 

 同社はジャイラス買収で6億8700万ドル(当時のレートで687億円)をフィナンシャル・アドバイザー(FA)に支払ったことなどを公表しているが、今回、その買収に際し、ストラテジックコンサルタントとして佐川肇氏が設立したAxesアメリカを選定していたことを明らかにした。Axesを選んだのは買収候補先との交渉能力を確認したためと説明している。

 Axesのほかに、FAとしてPerella Weinberg Partners、リーガルアドバイザーとしてWeil,Gotshal&Mangesが参画していたことも開示した。

 同社によると、コンサルティングフィーの総額2億4400万ドルの内訳は、基本報酬500万ドル、株式オプション部分が1億7700万ドル、現金による成功報酬が1200万ドル、ワラントの対価が5000万ドル。オリンパスからAxesへの支払いには、一般的なFA業務に対する報酬のほかにM&Aに必要な業務の包括的なコンサルティングの報酬や、FAのPerellaやWeil,Gotshalへの報酬も含まれているとし、「契約時に約定した報酬額であり、不当に高額とは考えていない」との見解。

 また同買収については、オリンパスの成長分野における戦略的M&A案件で、取締役会で決議されたとしている。 

 一方、アルティス、NEWS CHEF、ヒューマラボの新事業3社の買収についても、成長分野における戦略的M&A案件で、取締役会で決議されたと説明。ジャイラスとの関連性はないという。コア事業である医療事業とのシナジーを狙ったもので、3社買収にあたっては、株式取得に際して会社が一般的に行う手続きを履行したほか、一連の株式取得で重要な場面では、外部第三者機関による事業価値の算定が実施されていると指摘した。

 3社の減損処理に理由については、事業見通しが出資当初(06年5月と07年9月)の想定とかい離したことに加え、リーマンショックなど外部環境の悪化によるためと説明した。 

 オリンパスは、過去の買収案件に関して「憶測に基づく様々な報道がなされているが、当社の認識としては今回開示した内容が事実」とし、今後、第三者委員会を設立し、外部の有識者による公正な視点からの調査を実施する予定とした。

(ロイターニュース 大林優香;編集 宮崎大)






お家騒動さえ説明できない大手新聞社
2011年10月21日(金)

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オリンパスの社長解職劇報道を見ると、企業と新聞との癒着は、原発問題と全く同じだということがよくわかる。

スポンサーに媚びを売るため、都合の悪い情報は隠蔽して企業側の言い分を記事として垂れ流すという、お得意の手抜き報道がここでも繰り返されている。

日本の大手新聞各社は、英国人社長が就任からわずか半年経たずに解任された原因を「文化的摩擦」として報じている。

30年もオリンパスで務めてきた人物が社長に抜擢され、わずか半年で日欧の文化的摩擦という理由でもって、解任されたというわけだ。

誰がどう考えても不可解な話だ。

日本の新聞は単にオリンパスの発表の垂れ流しに終始、だが海外メディアでは違った報道だ。

ファイナンシャルタイムズ紙の東京特派員(Jonathan Soble)によるウッドフォード前社長へのインタビューに基づく記事がこちらにある。


オリンパス、株価急落 社長解任で不透明感高まる
2011年10月17日

 14日に社長解任を発表したオリンパスの株価が急落している。17日の東京株式市場では一時ストップ安になり、13日の終値より4割近く安い1株1555円で取引を終えた。突然の解任劇で、市場では同社の経営体制のあり方や収益改善の見通しに対する不透明感が急速に高まっている。

 同社は14日、4月に社長になった英国人のマイケル・ウッドフォード社長(51)を同日付で解任し、前社長の菊川剛会長(70)が社長兼務のかたちで復帰する人事を発表した。直後から株価は下がり始め、14日の終値は前日の終値より18%下落。さらに17日には前週末比で2割以上下がり、一時ストップ安となった。

 菊川氏は14日の記者会見で解任理由について「経営手法の違い」を主な理由に挙げたが、その後、海外メディアなどが、ウッドフォード氏が「2006~08年にオリンパスが行った数社の企業買収を追及したら解任された」と主張していると報道。大手証券アナリストによると「経営の先行きにも不透明さが増したと市場が判断した」という。


2011年10月18日10時4分
オリンパスは大続落、お家騒動「貸し株」増え値下がり益を狙う




独断的な経営手法に反発…オリンパス社長解職

 今年4月1日に就任したばかりのオリンパスのマイケル・ウッドフォード社長(51)が14日の取締役会で在任期間わずか半年で解職された。

 海外事業の拡大に対応して、外国人経営者を招く企業はほかにもあるが、必ずしも業績向上に役立っていないケースもある。

 ◆わずか半年

 「独断専横的な経営判断でものごとが進み、経営陣とも組織の齟齬
そご
が発生した」。後任社長を兼務する菊川剛会長(70)は、解職理由を説明した。

 オリンパスによると、ウッドフォード氏は、担当役員を無視して現場にトップダウンで直接指示することが多く、研究開発費の削減方針も強い異論が出ていたという。取締役会に出席した13人のうち、ウッドフォード氏を除く12人の賛成で解職が決まった。

 ただ、解職に至った経緯は必ずしも明確でない。ウッドフォード氏は医療用内視鏡を手掛ける英グループ会社を経て2008年から3年間、同社欧州法人社長を務め、同法人の利益が全社の4割を占めるまでに業績を伸ばした実績がある。社長就任後は医療機器事業に軸足を置き、価格競争が激しいデジタルカメラ事業の効率化などコスト削減を急いでいた。今回の解職で市場には経営の先行き懸念が広がり、株価は大幅に下落している。

 このため、業界内でも、「菊川氏が最高経営責任者にとどまっていたことによる社内の勢力争いの面もあるのでは」との見方も出ている。

(2011年10月15日09時28分 読売新聞)
「日本人と違った」…オリンパスが社長を解職






 
オリンパスは14日午前、臨時取締役会を開き、今年4月1日に就任したばかりのマイケル・ウッドフォード社長(51)を14日付で解職することを全会一致で決議した。

 ウッドフォード氏は業務執行権のない取締役となる。後任の社長は、前社長の菊川剛会長(70)が兼任する。

 東京証券取引所で記者会見した菊川氏は、解職の理由についてウッドフォード氏による「組織の意思決定を無視した独断的な経営判断」により、社内が混乱した点を挙げた。社長就任時には8対2の割合で日本に滞在して社長の業務を行うはずだったが、日本には4割程度の日数しかおらず、業務に障害が生じていたという。ウッドフォード氏の任命責任について菊川氏は「自明である」と述べて自らの責任を認めた上で、「欧米人と日本人との違いを見抜けなかった」と釈明した。

(2011年10月14日11時28分 読売新聞)



オリンパスがウッドフォード社長を降格 菊川会長が社長兼務
2011.10.14 09:51

 
オリンパスは14日、マイケル・シー・ウッドフォード社長を同日付で解職し、業務執行権のない取締役に降格させると発表した。菊川剛会長が、同日付で社長を兼務する。午前10時半から、菊川会長が東京都内で会見する。

 同社は解職の理由について「経営の方向性・手法に関して大きな乖離(かいり)が生じ、経営の意思決定に支障をきたす状況になった」と説明している。





オリンパス:社長電撃解任 経営迷走ぶり露呈 市場は不安視
 オリンパスは14日、4月1日に就任したマイケル・ウッドフォード社長(51)をわずか半年で解任、その理由について「日本の経営文化が理解されなかった」などと説明した。しかし、初の外国人トップを起用した背景には、しがらみにとらわれない構造改革や海外展開を加速させる狙いがあっただけに、市場では経営方針の「迷走」を不安視する声が出ている。【竹地広憲、浜中慎哉】

 「コミュニケーションや文化の壁を打破できなかった。日本の経営文化も理解されなかった」。社長を兼務することになった菊川剛会長(70)は、14日の記者会見で解任理由をこう説明した。

 菊川会長ら他の経営陣は、ウッドフォード氏が映像や医療など各部門の責任者を飛び越し、部下に直接指示をしたことなどを問題視。菊川会長は「組織の意思決定を無視して独断で経営を進めた」と厳しく批判した。

 11年3月期に150億円の営業赤字に陥った映像事業などの収益改善に向け、同氏が研究開発費も含めた大胆なコスト削減に着手したことについても、他の経営陣には「流れがコストカットに傾き過ぎている」との不満があったという。

 ただ、菊川会長は2月、欧州法人社長だったウッドフォード氏を後任社長に抜てきした理由として「強いリーダーシップ」を挙げ、海外展開や合理化を加速するよう希望していた。ウッドフォード氏はオリンパスグループに約30年在籍する「生え抜き」で、菊川会長も資質や実績を高く評価していただけに、市場では起用の狙いと解任理由の矛盾を疑問視する向きが多い。

 菊川会長は「性格を見抜けなかった。私の任命責任で忸怩(じくじ)たる思い」と語ったが、「菊川会長が今も最高経営責任者(CEO)にとどまり、事実上実権を握っていることが、経営方針をめぐる混乱の一因」(アナリスト)との見方も浮上している。

 ウッドフォード氏の電撃解任を受け、同社の株価は前日比17・6%(437円)安の2045円に急落。会見に同席した森久志副社長は「コスト削減の流れは止まらない」と経営計画の遂行を強調したが、市場では「オリンパスが何を優先したいのか不透明」と懸念が強まっている。

毎日新聞 2011年10月15日 東京朝刊





社説:オリンパス 早く真相を明らかに

 
オリンパスの経営に国内外から厳しい目が向けられている。発端は英国人社長が突然解任されたことだが、その背景に加え、過去の企業買収にからむ不可解な資金の流れなど、謎が次々と露呈したためだ。

 オリンパスの株価は25日、8営業日ぶりに反発したものの、社長解任前の半値以下の水準である。2週間足らずで、時価総額にして約3500億円を失った。グローバル・ブランドであることから海外メディアの関心も高く、日本企業のイメージダウンにもつながりかねない状況だ。オリンパスには迅速で徹底した真相解明と情報開示を求めたい。

 菊川剛社長に「強いリーダーシップ」を期待されてウッドフォード氏が後任社長に就任したのはわずか半年前のことだ。突然の解任について菊川氏は「コミュニケーションや文化の壁」といった経営手法の違いを挙げたが、ウッドフォード氏は、過去の買収をめぐる不明朗な支出を調べ、菊川氏の責任を追及したことが理由だとメディアに説明している。

 ウッドフォード氏が特に問題視したのは、08年の英医療機器メーカー買収でオリンパスが海外の投資助言会社に支払った金額の大きさや、同時期に行った国内3社の買収の経緯だ。オリンパスは「取引に不正や違法性はない」としているが、不自然と言わざるを得ない点が多すぎる。

 英メーカーの買収では、なぜ通常の助言手数料の数十倍にも相当する額を支払ったのか。さらに優先株の売買を伴う支払い手法も分かりにくい。国内3社の方は、オリンパスの事業との関連性が薄いものばかりであるうえ、買収後わずか1年で560億円もの減損処理に至るなど、株主に重大な不利益を負わせた。それにもかかわらず同社は、これまで詳細を開示してこなかった。

 気がかりなのは、今回の問題が、日本企業の経営風土を象徴する例として海外で報じられていることだ。事実究明が長引けば、「日本の企業社会は相変わらず情報開示に消極的で事なかれ主義だ」とのマイナスイメージを増幅させかねない。

 オリンパスは弁護士などによる第三者委員会を作り調査するというが、時間稼ぎや自己正当化の道具となってしまえば、市場の信頼は一段と低下することになろう。

 米英のメディアによれば、助言会社への支払いについて米連邦捜査局(FBI)が調べに入ったという。一方、ウッドフォード氏は重大な詐欺などを調査する英国の機関に今回の件を報告すると同時に、日本の証券取引等監視委員会にも関係資料を送付したそうだ。監督当局の厳正な対応も、日本の企業社会に対する信頼を培う上で欠かせない。

毎日新聞 2011年10月26日 東京朝刊




オリンパス、菊川社長が辞任 高山新社長「早期に第三者委立ち上げ」
関連トピックス
参議院選挙ドバイ

 [東京 26日 ロイター] 過去のM&A(合併・買収)をめぐる混乱の渦中にあるオリンパス<7733.T>は26日、同日付で、菊川剛氏(70)が社長兼会長職を退き、新社長に高山修一・専務執行役員(61)が就任したと発表した。

 記者会見した高山新社長は、不透明さが指摘されているM&A資金の支払いなどについて早期に第3者委員会を立ち上げ、結論を出す方針を示した。

 この問題については、すでに証券取引等監視委員会が事実関係の調査に乗り出す一方、国会でも27日に参院財政金融委員会の質疑で取り上げられる見通しで、各方面から真相解明を求める声が強くなっている。

 <菊川氏、「M&Aに不正は一切ない」>

 新社長就任に伴い、菊川会長は代表権のない取締役に就任する。ただ、菊川氏は同日夕の記者会見に出席せず、司会者が読み上げた書面を通じ、マイケル・ウッドフォード元社長の解任に端を発した一連の報道や株価低迷を謝罪しただけだった。同書面によると菊川氏は「今後の信頼回復への取り組みは新しい体制で推進すべき」とし、同日の取締役会で社長兼会長の辞任を申し出た。一方で菊川氏は過去のM&A(合併・買収)について「適切な評価や手続きを経て実施されており、不正行為は一切ない」と強調。その上で「今後は信頼回復に取締役の1人として努力していく」とした。

 またオリンパスは記者会見の冒頭、社外取締役3人のコメントも紹介し「高山氏を社長に推薦する。成長分野の経験があり事業立て直しに最も適任」と社長就任の理由を説明した。ウッドフォード氏は同日、ロイターの電話インタビューに応じ、社長兼会長職の返上について「始まり」に過ぎないとの見方を示した。同氏は、社長が交代しても同社のM&A問題についての説明責任は果たせないと指摘した。

<高山新社長、ウッドフォード氏を批判>

 記者会見に1人で臨んだ高山新社長は、ウッドフォード氏が報道機関のインタビューで、取締役が全員辞任すべきと訴えていることについて「我々は全くそう思っていない」と述べた。ウッドフォード氏の14日の社長解任については「独断専行があまりに目についた」と従来の会社の見解を踏襲。「私も同氏の解任決議には賛成した」と述べた。

 さらに高山新社長は、ウッドフォード氏について「(報道機関などに)社内の機密情報を出している。発言は大変問題だ」と批判。ただ、同社が表明した法的措置の検討状況については「考えてはいるが現在、ここで答られるものはない」と述べるにとどめた。

<ジャイラス買収の情報は持っていない>

 オリンパスは19日、医療機器メーカー、ジャイラス買収で6億8700万ドル(当時のレートで687億円)をフィナンシャル・アドバイザー(FA)に支払ったことなどを発表している。この資金についてウッドフォード氏は、ケイマン諸島の実態不明の金融会社などに流れたとインタビューで話している。

 市場では事態解明を求める声が強くなっているが、オリンパスは21日、弁護士、会計士など有識者で構成する第三者委員会を設立して調査する方針を表明。高山新社長は「第三者委員会は早期に立ち上げてしっかり結論を出す」とした。ただ「現在は外部の有識者にお願いしている」と述べるにとどめ1、設立時期の具体的な時期については「明日あさっては難しいが大至急進める」として明言は避けた。

 一方で高山社長は、ジャイラスFAへの支払額について「手数料はケースバイ・ケースだ」として適切だったと強調。さらに反社会的勢力の関与については「認識していない」と述べた。一方で、FAの選定の適切性を問われたのに対しては「(私自身が)選定作業に携わっていないので情報を持っていない」と述べるにとどめた。今後は、「第三者委員会の結論を待つ」との姿勢だが、問題が出てくる可能性については「第三者委員会の結論次第だ」として否定しなかった。

 またオリンパスは19日、06年から08年にかけて国内3社を総額734億円で買収し、買収を完了した翌年にあたる09年3月末に3社合わせて556億円の減損処理を実施したと発表している。高山新社長は国内3社の買収価格について「適切に評価している」との見解を示した。

<英米捜査当局の動き「つかんでいない」>

 また、ウッドフォード氏は、ジャイラス買収で同社が支払った資金について日本の証券監視委と英国の重大不正捜査局(SFO)に状況を説明したと述べている。さらに米連邦調査局(FBI)もその実態について調査を開始したことがロイターの取材で明らかになっている。高山新社長は米英の捜査当局の動きについて「つかんでいない」とだけ述べた。

 26日には、ロイターの取材で、証券監視委が同社の開示などの適切性について事実関係の把握を進めていることがわかっている。また東京証券取引所は26日、上場企業に対して、コーポレート・ガバナンスへの注力を求める異例の要請文を発表した。オリンパスを念頭に置いたものとみられ、ガバナンスを疑われる上場会社に正確な情報開示を求めることや独立した外部組織による事実究明を要請する。27日午後の参院財政金融委では、民主党の金子洋一議員はオリンパスの問題を取り上げる予定だ。

 (ロイターニュース 村井令二 久保 信博)


10/28 朝日社説

企業の規律―形だけでは信頼戻らず


 日本企業への国際的な信用が失墜しかねない出来事が相次いでいる。

 精密機器大手のオリンパスでは、過去の企業買収をめぐる不透明な資金の流れが明らかになった。社長を務めていた英国人のマイケル・ウッドフォード氏が、当時の菊川剛会長にこの問題を追及したところ、突然、解任されたという。

 問題となっている企業買収は4件。このうち英医療機器メーカーの買収には約2100億円かかったが、その3割にあたる666億円が助言会社に払われた。数%といわれる業界相場をはるかに超えている。

 他の3件は国内のベンチャー企業。計734億円を投じながら、企業価値が目減りしたとして557億円もの損失処理をしていた。そもそも何のための買収だったのか、疑念が膨らむ。

 菊川氏は買収が適正だったと主張し、「日本の企業文化を理解しない」とウッドフォード氏を切り捨てた。しかし、買収をめぐる謎は深まるばかり。株価が急落し、社長兼務となっていた菊川氏はトップを辞任した。ただ、「不正行為は一切ない」とし、新社長からも買収について納得のいく説明はない。

 ウッドフォード氏は日英などの関係当局に調査を要請している。証券取引等監視委員会は厳正に調査すべきだ。

 経営トップの不祥事では、大王製紙でも創業一族の会長が子会社から個人的に100億円を超す借金を重ねて辞任し、東京地検特捜部が捜査に動く事態に発展している。

 日本ではバブル崩壊後、企業事件が相次ぎ、株主代表訴訟なども相まって経営規律が強く迫られるようになった。

 08年度からは、日常業務から不正を除くため、米国の法律にならって、内部統制を強化する日本版SOX法が施行された。社内の不正に声をあげるよう促す内部通報制度の導入も広がっている。

 しかし、経営トップを監視する仕組みには、なかなか妙案がない。社員OBが就くことが多い監査役制度は以前から効果に疑問が持たれている。社外取締役の起用も、機能しているとはいえない。

 オリンパスは第三者委員会を設けて真相を究明するという。だが、九州電力のやらせ問題でもわかるように、立派な委員会を作っても、経営陣の意識が変わらなければ意味がない。

 形だけの取り繕いを続けると、ますます信用を失う。経営陣は株主、従業員、そして社会への責任を自覚してほしい。

Japan MP urges Olympus probe as ex-CEO contacts FBI

By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Kirstin Ridley
TOKYO/LONDON | Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:48pm IST

(Reuters) - A senior Japanese lawmaker demanded a probe of "outlandish" advisory payments at Olympus and its ousted chief executive said he was in contact with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), piling pressure on the embattled company.


Olympus launches investigation into M&A fees
Japanese electronics giant Olympus is to set up an external committee to examine past acquisitions and the huge "advisory" payments that have accompanied them.

By Jonathan Russell12:02PM BST 21 Oct 2011








Olympus chairman quits as Japan watchdog probes firm
By Taiga Uranaka
TOKYO | Wed Oct 26, 2011 6:14pm EDT

(Reuters) - Olympus Corp head Tsuyoshi Kikukawa resigned on Wednesday after a scandal over hefty advisory fees wiped out half of the 92-year-old firm's market value while his successor stuck with the company's line that it had done nothing wrong.

Sources told Reuters that Japan's securities watchdog was looking into past Olympus takeover deals, focusing on whether it has properly disclosed relevant information.

Olympus fired its British chief executive, Michael Woodford, on October 14, just two weeks after his appointment as CEO, saying he failed to understand the company's management style and Japanese culture. Kikukawa then took over Woodford's role.

Woodford, who cut his teeth at the camera and endoscope maker as a British salesman when he joined in 1980, said he was sacked for questioning a $687 million advisory fee linked to a $2.2 billion takeover in 2008 as well as other deals he says have destroyed about $1.3 billion of shareholder value.

He has called for the resignation of Olympus' entire board while sending dossiers on odd-looking deals to Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC).

Olympus deals queried by Woodford also include a $60 million purchase that closed earlier this year of rights to a biotech remedy intended to help regenerate human bone from medical device maker Stryker Corp.

Olympus made a $25 million loan to Viscogliosi Brothers, the firm that advised it on the transaction, and expects it will need to write off most of that amount, according to company documents reviewed by Reuters. That loan and other payments may end up costing the Japanese firm around 50 percent more, the documents show.

Woodford is also in touch with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and was in New York on Wednesday to meet with the agency.

Josh Shores, a principal at Olympus' largest non-Japanese investor Southeastern Asset Management, told Reuters the boardroom reshuffle was "a step in the right direction."

But he demanded the swift appointment of a "fully independent, objective third party committee" to oversee a broad corporate governance and accounting investigation by an external auditor.

"That is the next critical step. It will not be credible if the committee is appointed by the company without any input from other stakeholders -- stakeholders and the media will not trust it," he said.

Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments, said the company's battered share price should rebound on the resignation.

But he added, "in reality nothing has been cleared up. There are still many investigations left to come."

Woodford told Reuters that Kikukawa's resignation was "a start" but added that his replacement -- Shuichi Takayama, a 41-year company veteran -- had also failed to demand explanations about hefty fees linked to acquisitions.

"The only way you can stop the company heading for the rocks is by answering the questions," he told Reuters in London by telephone.

Takayama sniped back, telling a news conference there was no problem with fees paid by Olympus and that the company was extremely angry that Woodford revealed internal information while he was still a director.

"I was one of those who agreed to Mr. Woodford's dismissal. The reason was his autocratic actions, and these included intimidation of my own staff."

Kikukawa said in a separate statement he had stepped down to restore confidence in the company under the new management and that he would continue to work as a director.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

The Olympus scandal has reignited debate over what critics say is a deep-seated weakness of Japanese management -- a lack of strong independent oversight of boards, which gives shareholders' rights short shrift.

A small Japanese monthly business magazine called Facta first raised red flags about Olympus M&A deals in August and the SESC started paying particular attention to the company around that time, said two sources, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

SESC officials declined to comment on the probe, as did an Olympus spokeswoman.

Olympus shares fell 7.6 percent on Wednesday and have lost more than half their value since Woodford was fired.

Unanswered questions about the Gyrus deal and other Olympus acquisitions have spurred various theories, including speculation Japan's yakuza crime syndicates, euphemistically referred to as "anti-social forces," could be involved.

Asked whether the company's financial advisers had any connection with organized crime, Takayama said: "You are asking me about anti-social forces, but I am absolutely not aware of any such thing."

Takayama, 61, joined Olympus straight from an engineering high school in 1970 and has served on the company's board since 2006 after holding several senior managerial positions.

Japan Securities Finance, a stock lending brokerage, on Tuesday put Olympus on a list of shares for which caution is advised on margin trading due to a surge in such trading.

And in a heads-up to investors, the Tokyo Stock Exchange also started announcing margin trading positions on a daily basis. The exchange also said on Wednesday it would cooperate with regulators to enforce corporate governance of listed companies.


Creditors seen backing Olympus despite widening scandal
By Wakako Sato, Mia Tahara-Stubbs and Atanas Dinov
TOKYO | Thu Oct 27, 2011 7:12am EDT
(Reuters) - Japan's Olympus Corp looks set to retain the support of its major creditors despite mounting concerns that the fallout of an investigation into a 2008 acquisition may hit its financial health.

The cost of insuring Olympus's debt against default has spiked since the firm's former chief executive Michael Woodford questioned large advisory payments involving its $2.2 billion acquisition of Britain's medical equipment maker Gyrus.

Three-year credit default swaps of Olympus traded at 895 basis points in Tokyo on Thursday, according to a Tokyo CDS trader, up from 750 basis points at the end of last week. The instrument barely traded until mid-last week - it was last quoted at 67 basis points - suggesting that some of Olympus's creditors may have sought to hedge their exposure.

Bankers, however, downplayed fears of a funding crunch at the Japanese manufacturer of endoscopes and cameras, dismissing the CDS moves as "speculation."

"A drop in the share price will not breach loan covenants. As for the scandal, at this stage, based on market speculation, it will not do anything to the loan," said a loan officer at one of the company's biggest creditors, who asked not to be named.
日経 オリンパスは真相解明早く 10.25




Published: Oct. 25, 2011 Updated: 7:08 p.m.
Text: Next Article »
Woman gets probation for punching worker in hate crime


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By SEAN EMERY / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A woman was sentenced to three years of probation for punching a Hispanic worker in the face and yelling racial slurs at him during what authorities described as an unprovoked hate crime in downtown Huntington Beach.

Thursday 27 October 2011
Residents targeted in hate crimes

Published on Tuesday 25 October 2011 17:16

MORE than a quarter of all hate incidents in Worksop during the past 12 months were against Polish people.

Insp Steve Cartwright (pictured) said there were 55 hate incidents in West Bassetlaw - which include race, disability, sexual orientation and religion - and 29 per cent of those were against Poles.

He said: “They are the group that are targeted most now, followed by Asians and then black Afro-Caribbeans.”

“It’s disappointing that some bigoted individuals in Worksop feel it appropriate to target Polish nationals who have every right to live in our community and who are making a worthwhile contribution to our society.”

“But it’s encouraging that the 16 Polish families who have called us have some confidence in the police and that we will take it seriously and do something about it.”

OCTOBER 26, 2011 · 7:23 AM
Falsely Imprisoned Arab-Canadian Man Says Documents Reveal Racist Views Of Police

Ottawa engineer Abdullah Almalki says new documents show the RCMP’s (The Royal Canadian Mounted Police) assessment of his terrorist threat was both wholly unfounded and clouded by racism.

Almalki, a Carleton University graduate and father of six, spent 22 months in Syrian custody after his arrest on May 3, 2002.

He was arrested by Syrian authorities at the Damascus airport while on a family visit, then questioned based on faulty Canadian intelligence and tortured.

Almalki on Tuesday released explosive new documents obtained under federal Access to Information legislation, which reveal that RCMP investigators had found nothing against him both before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In an RCMP memo, dated Oct. 4, 2001, an investigator concludes: “O Div. (Ontario Division) task force are presently finding it difficult to establish anything on him other than the fact he is an arab running around.”

Despite that internal finding, the RCMP, in a letter to the Syrian intelligence agency, labelled Almalki “an imminent threat” to Canada’s national security and linked him to al-Qaida.

That letter was issued on the same day, Oct. 4, 2001, that RCMP investigators admitted they had nothing on him.

In an interview Tuesday, Almalki said he was stunned to read the characterization of him as “an arab running around.”

カナダ 腐敗 レイシャルプロファイリング

OCTOBER 26, 2011 · 7:24 AM
Australian Jury Asked To Ignore Racism In Murder Case

A young man accused of murdering an elderly stranger in a drunken attack in the Sydney suburb of Cronulla should not be judged on his alleged racial abuse of the victim, his lawyer says.

James Dean-Willcocks, who was out celebrating his 23rd birthday when he assaulted Magno Alvarado, 67, allegedly said of the victim, “He’s Japanese, he deserves it,” a court has heard.

He also allegedly said: “Yeah, you’d better yell for help,” and “F*** off back to Japan”.

オーストラリア ヘイトクライム 


Who is to blame for sex tourism?
Prostitution is illegal in the Philippines, but thrives in parts of the capital popular with tourists.
Inside Story Last Modified: 09 Oct 2011


Young black men make up four in 10 of youth jail population
Report shows proportion of black and minority ethnic young men in young offender institutions in England and Wales has risen


reddit this
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 26 October


UK ポーランド ヘイトクライム


NYPD traded crack for sex
Get short URL email story to a friend print version
Published: 24 October, 2011


警官腐敗 

Narcotics cops showered junkie with crack and forced her to perform sex acts in return: testimony
BY OREN YANIV
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, October 24th 2011, 4:00 AM

NYPD narcs showered a junkie with crack and forced her to perform sex acts in return, she testified in the latest embarrassing revelation to emerge from a police corruption trial.

In one incident, Melanie Perez recalled on the stand last week, a cop called her to his home, made her smoke drugs then pulled down his pants and demanded oral sex.

"What was I going to do?" she testified in Brooklyn Supreme Court. "I did it."

The damning account came during the bench trial of Jason Arbeeny, one of eight undercovers charged in a scandal that rocked the Brooklyn South Narcotics squad.

The trial has already yielded troubling testimony on officers "flaking" - planting drugs on innocent victims - to meet arrest quotas and get overtime pay.





OCTOBER 25, 2011 · 6:38 AM

Texas Man Sentenced For Mosque Arson, Admits To Targeting & Racially Abusing Arabs

アメリカ ヘイトクライム イスラム




STORY posted on OCTOBER 24, 2011 by HILLARY
Foreign Workers Abused in Nova Scotia
by HILARY BEAUMONT

In 2004, Nenette moved to Nova Scotia from the Philippines. She paid a placement agency back home about USD $4,500 to find her a job at a nursing home. When she arrived, a room was waiting for her in the home of a Filipino woman who had a relationship with the original agency. The woman charged Nenette $350 per month to share a small bedroom with two other female workers. It was furnished with only a couch and a pillow on the floor. The cost included food. In addition, Nenette paid her hostess 50 cents out of every hour she worked to cover transportation to and from the nursing home. For a full-time worker, this would have cost around $80 per month.

Nenette lived in these conditions for three months before finding her own apartment. She was unaware of her rights. She didn’t know she could refuse a shift. The nursing home had recruited Nanette through the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, which allows employers to fill labour shortages by hiring workers from abroad.

As of June 27, 2010, Nenette said there were other workers from Taiwan and the Philippines who are still living in the same conditions she was.

Abuses triggered reforms to TFW program

Their stories aren’t isolated. For years, workers in Nova Scotia have been abused and exploited under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, according to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada documents obtained through an expansive freedom of information request by Justin Ling for the Halifax Media Co-op.

Original names and locations in the documents were blacked out due to concerns of privacy; Nenette is not her real name, and it’s not possible to tell exactly where in the province she was working.

Most of the documents are responses to a 2010 consultation on Temporary Foreign Workers carried out by the province’s director of Labour Standards, Bill Grant, for the Labour Standards Division of the provincial government. They identify the following problems:
Migrant workers in the construction, farming and domestic sectors are most often exploited under the TFW program.
Recruiters abroad and in Canada are charging workers thousands of dollars to find jobs in Nova Scotia. These fees sometimes don’t include airfare.
Once they arrive, employers pay workers lower wages than promised, and force them to work long hours, sometimes with no overtime pay.
Workers often aren’t aware of their rights, and some employers abuse this fact.



Cohen says it’s common for employers to take advantage of migrant workers’ silence and lack of knowledge about their rights. The responses from the consultation largely agree with him.

“In Canada, we don’t think Canadians do this, and we’re doing it in fairly significant numbers,” he said. “We’re just taking advantage of people who can ill-afford to be taken advantage of, for our own personal gain. And it’s really ugly.”

カナダ サワーストロベリー 搾取



America Is a Fascist State Because It Is Racist
Monday 24 October 2011

by: Mike Pirsch, Black Agenda Report | Op-Ed

歴史問題 アメリカ

East Turkestan: Ethnically Charged Violence Against Uyghur Students at Xinjiang School

A group of Han Chinese students initiated an armed assult on unprovoked Uyghur students whilst they studied inside a classroom.

Below is an article published by Radio Free Asia


Chinese authorities in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang confirmed clashes between Han Chinese and Muslim Uyghur high-schoolers in Karamay city last Friday, but denied any ethnic conflict, saying it is "normal" for teenagers to fight.



Uyghur students, parents, and teachers gathered in protest at the Karamay No. 2 High School after a group of Han Chinese students burst into a classroom armed with sticks and attacked some Uyghur students, an exile Uyghur group said this week.

中国 いじめ マイノリティー


元日系米兵:古里沖縄訪れ「アメラジアン」に平和語る
アメラジアンスクール・イン・オキナワ公式ホームページ

AASO DVD PR Video We Are All Stars -アメラジアンスクールの挑戦


Posted on Sun, Oct. 23, 2011
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Council Grove residents are shocked by possible hate crime
13 Comments
BY BRENT D. WISTROM
Eagle Topeka bureau

COUNCIL GROVE — Kenneth McClintock, a former municipal judge who now researches this town's complicated past, cringed when he heard someone doused a man with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire a couple weeks ago.

"That was even before we knew who the victim was," he said.

When word broke that it was Sterling Law, one of only a few black residents in this mostly white town of 2,200, and that the assailant had shouted racial slurs while terrorizing Law, it only got worse.




ヘイトクライム




Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011 9 Comments
Parents: Hispanic kids being bullied in law's wake
By JAY REEVES - Associated Press


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TEXT SIZE:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- It was just another schoolyard basketball game until a group of Hispanic seventh-graders defeated a group of boys from Alabama.
The reaction was immediate, according to the Mexican mother of one of the winners, and rooted in the state's new law on illegal immigration.
"They told them, 'You shouldn't be winning. You should go back to Mexico,'" said the woman, who spoke through a translator last week and didn't want her name used. She and her son are in the country illegally.

いじめ







Teen murder suspect carried 'backpack of hatred'
By Scott Bronstein and Drew Griffin, CNN Special Investigations Unit
October 24, 2011


いじめ ヘイトクライム



Brandon, Mississippi (CNN) -- To get to Brandon, you have to drive across the Pearl River, a boundary that seems to separate black Mississippi from white.
In the town's center, a monument stands honoring the confederate soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
This mostly white town in mostly white Rankin County is about a 30-minute drive from Jackson, Mississippi. It's here in Brandon that some residents say a gang of teenagers expressed their strong racial prejudice -- sometimes through violence.
These residents say the teens were friends with and often led by Deryl Dedmon, now 19 and facing capital murder and hate crime charges for the killing of James Anderson, a black man, who died after he was beaten and run over by a truck in Jackson, according to police. Dedmon has pleaded not guilty and his attorney has refused to answer CNN's repeated requests for comment.
Another teen, John Aaron Rice, was charged with simple assault. He has not entered a plea. The other five teens who were there have not been arrested or charged, though officials say they may still be indicted .







OCTOBER 24, 2011 · 2:34 PM
Canada Accused Of Failing Aboriginal Children





Canada is discriminating against its indigenous children and failing to meet its commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a group of advocates said Monday.

The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and Kairos, a faith-based organization, are appealing to the UN to hold the federal government accountable for its treatment of First Nations children.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child does periodic reviews of reports that countries must submit on how they are implementing the convention, which Canada ratified in 1991.

The federal government’s most recent report on how it’s meeting the convention was submitted in 2009, and will be reviewed in the coming months by the UN body.

The two groups on Parliament Hill on Monday have done their own report, highlighting what they say is discriminatory treatment of indigenous children.

Their report, Honouring the Children, says First Nations children on reserves receive less money for health, welfare services and education and it calls on the UN committee to do a special investigation on Canada’s compliance with the convention. It also makes a dozen other recommendation


カナダ 先住民


OCTOBER 24, 2011 · 2:35 PM
UK Chef Fears For His Life As Race Attacks Rise


A chef fears being killed in a racist attack amid a rise in hate crimes in Weymouth and Port-land.

HumaYan Kobir was born in Bangladesh but has lived in Weymouth for 10 years and though he has always suffered verbal abuse he now fears for his safety after two assaults.

“Racist abuse is shouted all the time,” he said.

“When someone walks past and says something racist I have nothing to say and that’s what we get most of the time.

“But now it’s different because I’m getting physically attacked.

“If someone kicks and punches me is he going to try and kill me?

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Figures given to the Echo by Dorset Police show that hate crime has gone up by 61 per cent in Weymouth and Portland.

During the six months from April to September last year there were 18 offences but in the same period this year there were 29.

Mr Kobir moved to England more than 15 years ago and is classed as British Bangladeshi with a British passport.

The dad of three was walking home from work to Park Street across Westham Bridge earlier this month when he was approached by two men and a woman and was attacked.

He said: “One of the men said ‘what are you looking at’ and swore as he called me a racist name so I said ‘what did you say?’ “His mate did say sorry and that he had been drinking so I said he should take him home to relax.

“But he got more aggressive and came up to me and kicked me. I tried to put my hand out to stop it and I injured my shoulder so my doctor is sending me for an X-ray.”

Mr Kobir, 41, called 999 and said he was asked to come into the police station to help officers identify the man involved.

But he said it was dark and he was scared so he tried to get away.

Mr Kobir was also not confident he could pick them out.

A police spokesman confirmed Mr Kobir called them just before midnight on October 10.

The incident is still technically under investigation but Mr Kobir believes that without more information or an independent witness it will not go any further.

Mr Kobir said he is upset at being targeted as he loves living in Weymouth.

He said: “It’s such a shame because most people here are so nice and I have lots of friends.

“It’s just a few people.”

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NJ GOP candidate says women "should act like whores"
permalink email story to a friend print version
Published: 21 October, 2011


Phil Mitsch, New Jersey State Senate Candidate, Apologizes After Defending Sex Tip Tweet
First Posted: 10/21/11 11:03 AM ET Updated: 10/21/11 11:03 AM ET


女性差別


Sex slaves
There are an estimated 1.4 million sex slaves in the world today and international trafficking is on the rise.
Slavery: A 21st Century Evil Last Modified: 18 Oct 2011


慰安婦 娼婦 売春



〈プロメテウスの罠〉防護服の男(1)~(13)


 これはしかし、プロメテウスの罠という題名にしてしまうところに朝日の罠がある。


 
Florida Softball's Hannah Rogers Is About to Learn Why Blackface Is A Bad Idea
by Andy Hutchins on Oct 22, 2011 12:33 AM EDT in Florida Softball



ブラックフェイス



OCTOBER 22, 2011 · 10:08 AM
Seattle Property Owners Victimized Black Renters, City Charges

不動産差別




A New Approach to Immigration: It's Time to Stop Blaming Immigrants
Posted: 10/21/11

As we witness the widespread vilification of immigrants in the U.S. and the anti-immigrant policies that it has inspired, we turn a blind eye to the role that U.S. policy has had on uprooting millions of Mexicans and Central Americans from their homeland, where almost 80 percent of undocumented immigrants come from. A key component missing in the immigration debate is a focus on the root causes of the problem. In "Disposable Workers: Immigration after NAFTA and the Nation's Addiction to Cheap Labor," I call attention to the root causes of immigration: international economic policies that have triggered a massive displacement of workers and the U.S.'s addiction to cheap labor.

移民問題 移民差別

21 October 2011 Last updated at 21:59 GMT Share this pageEmailPrint
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Libya urged to examine Muammar Gaddafi's death


Libya's authorities have come under pressure to give a full account of the death of ex-leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.

The US said they should do it in an "open and transparent manner". The UN called for a full investigation, after video footage showed Col Gaddafi captured alive - and then dead.


UN calls for probe into Gaddafi's death
Special Rapporteur warns the manner of the deposed Libyan leader's killing could be a war crime.
Last Modified: 22 Oct 2011


U.S. and U.N. Demand Details From Libyan Leaders on How Qaddafi Died
By KAREEM FAHIM and RICK GLADSTONE
Published: October 21, 2011

The United Nations and two leading human rights groups called for a thorough investigation into precisely how Colonel Qaddafi, who was seen on the Internet in cellphone videos bleeding and heaving as he was manhandled by screaming fighters, wound up dead with what appeared to be bullet wounds to the head.



10/21/2011

The World from Berlin



The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes


"Of course, regrets will also be expressed. Many wanted to bring him to trial, either at the International Criminal Court or before a Libyan court. They would also have liked to see those who helped him throughout the years in court too. That included both his Libyan supporters, but also those in Europe and the United States. The relationships in recent years had become increasingly intimate and the criticism of his ruling style ever quieter. Certainly some interesting things about European politics would have come to light. It is too bad this can't happen, but there is also a positive side: An imprisoned Gadhafi would certainly not have missed a single opportunity to create further unrest and confusion."



The conservative daily Die Welt writes:

"Almost instinctively one understands that the world is a better place without the Saddam Husseins, Osama bin Ladens, and Moammar Gadhafis. And still one wishes that Gadhafi, like Saddam, had been forced to answer in court for his many crimes. Either in Libya itself or in front of the International Court of Justice in the Hague."

"(After the Lockerbie bombing), the West turned on Gadhafi and isolated him. That ended in the new millennium, when Gadhafi took responsibility for Lockerbie and apologized to the victims, and because he came to an agreement with the US and Great Britain to bring an end to his program for developing chemical and nuclear weapons. This agreement paved the way for the normalization of Libya's relations with the rest for the world, and for a disgusting competition among Western countries for Libya's resources."

Part 2: Western Hypocrisy

The leftist Die Tageszeitung writes:

"The idea that Libya has been 'liberated' because the West has unflinchingly pushed for adherence to human rights is absolute nonsense."

"The (West) first took an interest in the hurdles facing democratization in Egypt when they started to effect Christians in that country. Earlier, politicians really didn't care that the country was still in a state of crisis, that civilians were being tried in military courts and that the military still has a hold on power. Furthermore, before the so-called 'Arab Spring,' many had decided that Arabs, because of their culture and mentality, weren't ready for democracy."

"It won't take long before Western politicians begin ... saying the same thing about Libya if it suits them. Those trying to build a democracy would be well advised not to rely on the West's solidarity. This applies globally."