Category: economics

expats working in the Gulf

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, government, IslamLeave a comment

Palm trees, Vegas-style clubs, tax-free salaries, perfectly manicured promenades. Something about Dubai, the most famous of the seven kingdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates, makes living in the desert seem exotic and luxurious. …

About 80% of Dubai’s 2 million or so residents are foreigners …

Even though salaries are comparable with their European and North American counterparts, you won’t pay income taxes, which means you’ll be earning about 40% more. …

BBC

The expats I know in Riyadh and Doha are happy with conditions, overall. Our Gymnasium caretaker in Riyadh is now home in India for a 2 month holiday, for example. He has no plans to leave Saudi.

Doha, Qatar
Doha, Qatar

Here’s the other side of the story. 😦 The horror stories are mostly low paid construction workers.

Qatar’s failure to enact meaningful reforms for its kafala (sponsorship) system leaves hundreds of thousands of low-paid migrant workers at serious risk of forced labor and other abuses. Reforms announced on October 27, 2015, still require low-paid migrant workers to get their employer’s permission to change jobs or to leave the country, a system that that prevents workers from leaving abusive employers.

The new sponsorship law, law no. 21 of 2015, refers to “recruiters” instead of “sponsors” but it leaves the fundamentally exploitative characteristics of the kafala system in place. …

Human Rights Watch

Dubai

The side of Dubai that they DON’T want tourists to see: Photos show desperate conditions endured by migrant labourers forced to work in 50C heat for a pittance

related:

• Have 1,200 World Cup workers really died in Qatar?

• FactCheck: how many migrant workers are dying in Qatar?

Bill Gates – Cheap, Clean Energy

On By Rick McIn climate change, economics, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

I’m in Paris today with several world leaders for a big announcement on energy and climate change. It is deeply moving to be in this city just two weeks after the horrific attacks here, and I am inspired by the way the French people have persevered in such a difficult time.

Two related initiatives are being announced at today’s event. One is Mission Innovation, a commitment by more than ten countries to invest more in research on clean energy. The other is theBreakthrough Energy Coalition, a global group of private investors who will support companies that are taking innovative clean-energy ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace. Our primary goal with the Coalition is as much to accelerate progress on clean energy as it is to make a profit.

Here’s the thinking behind these two efforts. …

A Big Win for Cheap, Clean Energy

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

on American poverty

On By Rick McIn Apple, economics, education, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

In his book on the American South, Theroux is very critical of the Clinton foundation. Bill Clinton is from Arkansas. Yet seems to have done very little as a philanthropist to help his home State. Some people in the American south live in worse poverty than some in Africa.

PAUL THEROUX:

… China has been enriched by American-supplied jobs, making most of the destined-for-the-dump merchandise you find on store shelves all over America, every piece of plastic you can name, as well as Apple products, Barbie dolls or Nike LeBron basketball shoes retailed in the United States for up to $320 a pair. …

… if there was one experience of the Deep South that stayed with me it was the sight of shutdown factories and towns with their hearts torn out of them, and few jobs. There are outsourcing stories all over America, but the effects are stark in the Deep South. …

When Mr. Cook of Apple said he was going to hand over his entire fortune to charity, he was greatly praised by most people, but not by me. It so happened that at that time I was traveling up and down Tim Cook’s home state of Alabama, and all I saw were desolate towns and hollowed-out economies, where jobs had been lost to outsourcing, and education had been defunded by shortsighted politicians. …

Some companies have brought manufacturing jobs back to the United States, a move called “reshoring,” but so far this is little more than a gesture. It seems obvious that executives of American companies should invest in the Deep South as they did in China. …

The Hypocrisy of ‘Helping’ the Poor

Deep-South-Four-Seasons-on-Back-Roads-copy-350x252

California has a poverty rate of 23.8%, the highest of any state in the country …

The US Census declared that in 2010 15.1% of the general population lived in poverty:

9.9% of all white persons
12.1% of all Asian persons
26.6% of all Hispanic persons (of any race)
28.4% of all black persons.

wikipedia

If you are in the poverty demographic, you should certainly campaign against the Republican Party. Those people (in general) try to move as many dollars from the poor to the rich. 😦

American companies will eventually reshore factories. When it’s financially advantageous. That could be soon.

Apple – the most profitable company in the world – has made some attempts. Those have been problematic, so far.

Friday is Buy Nothing Day

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, happinessLeave a comment

… Buy Nothing Day (BND) is an international day of protest against consumerism. In North America, Buy Nothing Day is held on the Friday after U.S.Thanksgiving, concurrent toBlack Friday (November 27, 2015) …

home-made Christmas presents are best

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, photosLeave a comment

Wei works in a factory in Yiwu, eastern China, coating polystyrene snowflakes with red powder. He wears a Christmas hat to protect his hair, and goes through at least six face masks a day.

According to the Chinese government press agency, 600 factories in Yiwu produce around 60 percent of the world’s Christmas decorations. The factories are staffed largely by migrant laborers, who work 12-hour days for between 270 and 400 euros a month. Wei, who comes from rural Guizhou, 1,500 kilometers away, is not entirely sure what Christmas is, but thinks that it is a foreigners’ form of Chinese New Year.

click to see source ... or open image in another tab to see larger version
click to see source … or open image in another tab to see larger version

I saw that award winning photo at the 58th World Press Photo contest exhibition in London.

showering in desalinated water

On By Rick McIn economicsLeave a comment

Water pressure is pretty good in my hotel in the capital of The Kingdom. Turns out it’s been transported a long, long way.

Saudi Arabia is one of the driest regions in the world, with no perennial rivers. Water is obtained from four distinct sources:

Riyadh, located in the heart of the country, is supplied with desalinated water pumped from the Persian Gulf over a distance of 467 km. Given the substantial oil wealth, water is provided almost for free …

marafiq-plant-590x250

Quoting Christopher Gasson of Global Water Intelligence, “At the moment, around 1% of the world’s population are dependent on desalinated water to meet their daily needs, but by 2025, the UN expects 14% of the world’s population to be encountering water scarcity. Unless people get radically better at water conservation, the desalination industry has a very strong future indeed.” …

The single largest desalination project is Ras Al-Khair in Saudi Arabia, which produced 1,025,000 cubic meters per day in 2014, although this plant in Saudi Arabia is expected to be surpassed by a desal plant in California. The largest percent of desalinated water used in any country is in Israel, which produces 40% of its domestic water use from seawater desalination. …

Scottish racist

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, GOP USA, government, travel1 Comment

… Britain, the U.S., Canada and Australia more tolerant than anywhere else. …

map of racism

But if you walk alongside the Clyde River in Glasgow you’ll likely see a Gypsy lady with a disposable cup siting on one pedestrian bridge. She sits quietly.

There must be enough regular pedestrian traffic to bring in some money each day. She’s there at least 10hrs / day.

I was passing when a young Scottish guy diverted to give her some grief. He then wanted to bend my ear.

“Scum taking the jobs of the white man.”

She was as white as he. Clearly didn’t have a job.

Most of the rest of the rant was unintelligible. He was angry. She a convenient target. Perhaps he shouts at her every day on the way to work.

Unhappy. Fearful. This is the kind of voter Donald Trump appealed to when he said:

They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

Washington Post

Gypsy beggars are common in Europe.

begger

I don’t like begging. But this woman on this bridge is no problem.

I don’t like illegal immigration. I’d rather spend the tax money to resettle illegal immigrants. Or – if they decline being returned to their homeland – to deliver them to a safe refugee camp.

We should spend even more tax dollars improving the systems of how illegal immigrants are processed. It’s the right thing to do.

Note: Most of the Romani people (Gypsies) in Europe are not illegal immigrants.

___ related

CK on jobs

Udemy – online learning platform

On By Rick McIn economics, educationLeave a comment

Udemy … a website that enables anyone to teach and learn online. Launched in 2010, Udemy tries to democratize online education by making it fast, easy and free to create online courses. You keep 70% of the revenue from your courses (or 85% if you directly refer the customer to the course).

Unlike academic MOOC programs driven by traditional collegiate coursework, Udemy provides a platform for experts of any kind to create courses which can be offered to the public, either at no charge or for a tuition fee.

Learn more on YouTube.

Thanks Mike.

Syrian Refugee Crisis Explained

On By Rick McIn economics, government, IslamLeave a comment

This video, by In a Nutshell, speaks about how the Syrian crisis is an international issue, and how it all started with countrywide unrest and the civil war in Syria. …

vagabomb

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.