Not giving any prizes out just yet…

Anyway, I have a feeling you won’t get it so: I’m at the Yugoslav Aviation Museum (no idea what its called now) at Surcin – i.e. Belgrade International. Atrthur, you were within spitting distance with your guess mate.

EDIT: The chopper is of course a Mi-4.

This is a terrible-quality photo of me… I don’t want your monitors to crack…. Prizes will be given out to those who guess where… only very small prizes but still worth trying I think.

Mongu,

“So…government can’t afford to pay policemen, so they get money in other ways.”

True.

“Same bankrupt government thinks nothing of ministers mysteriously having millions, or Presidents flying around on a Gulfstream V.”

Some companies think nothing of paying government officials in client states large sums of money in order to win better tax deals and sometimes to illegally breach local employment and minimum wage laws.

“Do you still blame the Western companies for all these problems?”

The way I see it the blame should be divided three ways:

1. The governments of the countries, like Indonesia, in which large multi-nationals operate.

2. The companies themselves.

3. The governments of countries in which large multi nationals are registered who put pressure on the governments of weaker countries in order to gain a better deal for their multi-national companies and therefore increase their economy and tax revenues.

Hang on – might have a fourth to add:

4. The world bank and the IMF and the WTO which punish stringently any debt or trade abuses by little nations but allow countries like the UK and the US to massively subsidise their own manufacturers, agri-business etc and to evade debt repayments for decades on end.

Mongu,

“Yes, but the point is that Reebok only does these things because they can. A business is amoral – it merely seeks to make money. The task of regulating business and safeguarding individual rights, in any country, is the job of the government.

So the blame is at least 50/50 – Reebok do if through greed, but the governments involved also do it through either greed, tribal/religous malice, or incompetence (take your pic).

It’s funny that campaigners don’t ask for say, the Indonesian Government, to be held accountable but they don’t hesitate to condemn Reebok.”

I beleive that the Indonesian Govt. and others are under immense pressure from the WTO, the World Bank and the host governments of those companies (like the US and the UK) to maintain “Free Trade Zones” where there are almost no employment rules. It would be more appropriate to demand accountability from your own govt (if you happen to live in a powerful western economy) if it is forcing less powerful nations to do amoral things.

Who wrote “All Quiet on the Western Front”?

EDIT:

Oh yeah, Hemmingway isn’t half bad. And I really enjoyed George Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonya”.

Generally down to my parents … who dragged me here in ’88 before I could put up any serious complaint.

What about The Congo?

Oops, forgot to say:

On that note – isn’t anyone amazed that the number of people turning up for a demonstration against the US invasion is about 10 times higher than the number of people who joyfully knocked over a statue of Sadam… Doesn’t look quite as much like a liberation anymore – to me anyway…