Word: westernness
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...Comply or Die It would be easy to cast these factory bosses as simply greedy and corrupt - until one looks at the pressures they face. Auditing came into vogue at the same time that Western firms were pushing harder than ever for lower prices and faster turnarounds. From the mid-1990s onwards, "many multinationals were telling factories, 'Give me this cheaply, give me this quickly - and, by the way, comply with your local labor law, or our code of conduct, whichever is higher,'" says Ayesha Khan, a manager with BSR, a CSR consultancy...
...That's all but impossible to do under current market conditions. Competition between factories is fierce, and their profit margins have shrunk. There's a glut of Chinese and Indian factories competing for Western clients, so if a factory doesn't pass audits, multinationals can just walk across the street. With the Chinese workweek capped at about 50 hours (including overtime), strict new labor laws and growing competition for workers, it's getting tougher to comply with the law, pay the minimum wage, make order deadlines - and earn a profit. Says Rosey Hurst, founder of Impactt, an ethical trade...
...model, in which factories are given a couple of months and little support to correct mistakes. "Historically, corporate social responsibility has been this top-down approach," says Khan. "The buyers are afraid, so they push down their ideas onto the factories." But it's often unrealistic to impose these Western CSR ideals overseas. "We've transferred the jobs to the developing world," says Hurst. "But we haven't transferred the skills or expertise needed to provide decent jobs." Many companies don't care (as long as the audits look good), but more progressive firms are working to develop creative...
...days, the American Midwest has endured bands of slow-moving thunderstorms that have unleashed massive tornadoes and caused dams to fail. At least four people were killed as a tornado tore through a Boy Scout camp in the remote hills of western Iowa Wednesday. An entire Wisconsin lake has emptied. Carp are swimming through suburban Milwaukee streets. An Iowa farmer has drowned in his own field. And the havoc is expected to continue, with more bizarre weather and even an alert about a mini-tsunami on Lake Michigan in Chicago. What next? Twisters down Michigan Avenue? Don't scoff...
...same conundrum as the United States and Europe, because it is heavily dependent on imported fuel. President Paul Biya, whose 22-year rule has endured almost unchallenged, passed along the cost of the global increase to his country's drivers. Biya was more careful than some of his Western counterparts, however, in choosing his moment to raise the price at the pump: The announcement, in mid-February, coincided with the semifinal of Africa's huge soccer tournament, the Nations Cup, in which Cameroon defeated the host country, Ghana. Cameroonians poured into the streets to celebrate the victory. Amid the raucous...