On Monday we met Abdul (not real name), a refugee from Sudan who has found himself living in Cape Town. He has a degree in IT, but because his English isn’t so great he hasn’t been able to pursue a career in that yet.
Abdul has found himself a job working as a car park attendant. He stands in a designated parking area and collects money from people in exchange for parking and security.
His employers are contracted by the City of Cape Town council, and they decide where he will be working.
His payment structure is such that he must earn a particular target before he receives any money for himself. For example, one day he was working on Long Street and the company told him his target was R400 (about £30). That particular day Abdul received R415.30. He payed the company his target, they charged him R5 for his uniform, R10 to “register”, and Abdul went home with R0.30 (2p).
The past few weeks I’ve been at work on a couple of different projects, two of which I’m excited to tell you about:
Make Things Fair
For a while I’ve dreamed of setting up a site that will act as a source for information on Human Trafficking and Fair Trade, telling stories as well as offering ways to take action. A few months ago, after a little brainstorming with some friends (thanks Mark), I purchased the makethingsfair.com domain name. I hope that it will become a valuable resource and a place for sharing ideas and activities.
If you care about these issues, please show your support by:
- Subscribing to receive email updates (click here)
- Following @makethingsfair on Twitter
- Contributing stories by email (stories [at] makethingsfair [dot] com)
Click here to visit Make Things Fair
Looks Can Kill
The website of my web design and development company, Looks Can Kill, hasn’t changed much since I first started the company back in 2005. I wanted to freshen it up, and to integrate it with WordPress, in the hope of expanding my portfolio offering, and having a place to file web related blog posts.
Click here to visit Looks Can Kill
Adbusters recently published this article about the bloodthirsty conflict over diamonds in Zimbabwe.
Robert Mugabe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF, has recently renewed its interest in diamonds. Diamonds are a valuable asset for foreign exchange, especially when a government has been cut off from the international community by sanctions.
Late last year the military moved into Chiadzwa and began confronting and arresting independent miners. A helicopter attack in December left 200 dead and there are assertions that the military has claimed more victims. Zimbabwe’s opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), for example, says that hundreds more miners are buried in mass graves.
According to an article today from Time, the Zimbabwean economy may be on the up, thanks to a decision to scrap the Zimbabwean Dollar and instead use US Dollars and South African Rand.
“I am earning in real money, it feels good,” says Majuru. “I can now put food on the table and feed my family.” A smile spreads across his face.
(read more here)
Carl Medearis has been traveling between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, witnessing first hand the kind of discrimination faced by the Palestinian people:
We noticed as we were getting in that this bus was extremely dirty. Filthy actually. And there was no air conditioning. As soon as we got on I noticed that they were all Palestinians on this bus. Immediately a lady holding her young son said to us in near-perfect English, “This is the bus for the Palestinians. You need to be on that other bus. It’s for foreigners and tourists.” I responded, “Oh that’s okay, we don’t mind coming with you”. She said, “Well, thank you, but you can’t. You HAVE to go on that bus.”
(read more here)