Joyce Mulama
NAIROBI, Apr 30 2007 (IPS) – With working conditions around the world set to be placed in the spotlight on May Day (May 1), Emily Mugo has an axe to grind about her place of employment in one of Kenya s Export Processing Zones (EPZs).
One has to collapse from sickness to be allowed to seek medical attention. However sick one may be, you cannot afford to miss work: you will be sacked, she noted of the textile factory located on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi.
To the managers it is production, not one s health condition, that matters. Besides, we have to work standing over long hours. This applies to pregnant women too.
Mugo claims that one of her colleagues asked permission to be allowed to work seated while she was pregnant, this after b…
QUITO, Feb 16 2011 (IPS) – The plaintiffs in the case against Chevron tried in Ecuador, who won a historic 9.5 billion dollar verdict after a nearly 18-year struggle over environmental and health damages caused in a quarter-century of oil operations in the Amazon jungle, are not disheartened by the road still ahead.
Plaintiffs belonging to the Asamblea de Afectados por la Texaco at a press conference. Credit: Gonzalo Ortiz/IPS
Chevron announced t…
BERLIN and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 19 2020 (IPS) – It is now clear that most East Asian government responses to novel coronavirus or Covid-19 outbreaks have been effective. In Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, the number infected have remained relatively low despite their proximity and vulnerability, while containment in China and South Korea has been impressive.
Vladimir Popov
Some other countries hit by the Covid-19 pandemic are trying to replicate East Asian policy responses, not only in public health, but also in handling economic contraction. More than two decades after the 1997-1998 Asian financial crises, some media are praising East Asia again.
Struc…