globalisation

'Playing for Change': buskers worldwide unite for peace

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:04:25 +0200

Can music bring together the entire human race? That's the belief of "Playing For Change", a group of young Americans who travel the world recording buskers, amateur choirs and singers of every nationality, and then put them on the same record.

The project began ten years ago when a group of friends took off on a music-themed road trip. It's since become the subject of two independent music documentaries, one of which was presented at the Tribeca Film Festival. Clips posted on YouTube by the group have been viewed over 10 million times and have spread like wildfire across MySpace and Facebook. Now, thanks to money raised through the popularity of the project, the group has launched the Playing For Change Foundation, set up to build music schools in ghettos and shantytowns around the world.

The musicians featured in the videos were filmed in the street, listening to the tracks recorded before them. None had heard or worked with the other musicians before.

The World Social Forum in Belem. Better than Porto Alegré?

Ségolène Team Observers — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:26:52 +0100

The anti-capitalist World Social Forum is in its ninth year. But while this year's event, held in Belem, has attracted an impressive 100,000 people, the crowds aren't as large as in 2005, when participants in Porto Alegré, Brazil, numbered 155,000. One of our Observers, who attended both forums, compares the two.

World Social Forum: "Today, fair trade producers are less affected by the crisis"

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:02:51 +0100

Around 100,000 activists, unionists, students, NGO members and pacifists have flooded the World Social Forum (WSF) taking place this year in Belem, north Brazil. Since 2001 the event has acted as an alternative to Davos, Switzerland, where, at the same time, the world's top economic and political decision makers sit down together.

On the Observers, we're following the three-day forum through the eyes of various participants.

Stéphane Le Borgne is president of Artisans du Monde, a fair trade produce distribution network who is participating in the WSF this year.

The forum is not only a place to launch big ideas, but also somewhere to share experiences. We're here with our partners from the Brazilian tribe Satere Mawe, from who we buy an energising oil from Guarana which we sell in France. The Satere Mawe people managed to save their land by diversifying their culture and uniting to resist the oil companies. We want to spread that initiative.

The forum is also an occasion to meet potential partners. For example, today [Thursday] we've discussed plans with a tribal group from Manaus [Brazil] who produce various kinds of fruits which they then use to make jam. It's an adapted lifestyle and it's an entirely self-sufficient production line.

Before the financial crisis, a lot of people said that the alter-globalisation movement was out of touch with the mainstream and wouldn't go anywhere. But today, the IMF is using some of our reports - about the too-virtual state of the economy, the lack of regulation etc. There's no denying that, today, fair trade producers are less affected by the crisis".

Traders, from rich to ditched

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:28:39 +0200

Photo: "cactusbones"on Flickr.

In a desperate attempt to stabilise the world's financial markets, the US Federal Reserve is injecting an enormous 180 billion dollars into the system. A trader and a broker tell us what it's like to work in the ever-sinking financial sector.

Fifteen minutes of fame for the "iPhone Girl"

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:45:11 +0200

Surprised to find photos of a young Chinese factory worker on his new iPhone, a British Apple customer decided to post the pictures online. The girl in the pics has managed to catch the attention of everybody, including her boss...

Switching on his newly acquired phone for the first time, Mark Mitchell, an Apple customer from the UK, was shocked to find images of a young factory worker, all smiles, posing for a photo. Clearly the photos had been taken on the production line. This was confirmed by Foxconn, the Taiwanese company commissioned by Apple to manufacture the phones in Shenzhen, where the girl - now known as "iPhone Girl" - was employed.

On the MacRumours forum where the pictures were posted, there were no less than 360 comments made to the webuser, pseudonym, "markm49uk" (our Observer Mark Mitchell). Some people were immediately worried the girl might lose her job. Others thought it might be a publicity stunt by Apple.

A spokesperson from the company prefers to speak of the incident as a "beautiful mistake". The photos would have been taken to test out the phone, and accidentally got left on the handset, he said. It was assured that the woman has not lost her job. However, frightened by all the commotion (today's South China Morning Post), she might deserve a day off to recuperate. Something of a luxury in the factory she works in - a report from China Labor Watch says that the staff there only get one day off per fortnight and earn on average €80 a month.