Here’s some news we think you should be aware of for today, April 20, 2012: Obama Snags Photo Op On Historical Rosa Parks Bus, Today Is 4/20, and Police Fire On Crowd As Sierra Leone Workers At African Minerals Protest Over Pay And Medical Provisions.
Read about it below!
Obama Snags Photo Op On Historical Rosa Parks Bus
President Barack Obama and his marketing team are masters at building his legacy and advancing his messages through imagery. So, it should come as no surprise that upon visiting Dearborn, Michigan, Obama wasted no time setting up a recreation of the Rosa Parks famous photo op of her posing (looking out of the window) on a desegregated bus.
Due to the strides of many people in Montgomery walking everywhere during the bus boycott, Rosa Parks was finally able to sit on that desegregated bus. And due to all the people who sent in their $2 to Obama’s campaign, he was able to fly in on a luxury jet to pose while sitting on that same bus, and make people feel good about him sitting there, as a symbol of a post racial society.
And another thing–why is the bus at the Henry Ford Museum anyway? Shouldn’t it be in or near a Civil Rights museum somewhere? Looks like Ford felt that since they made the bus Rosa Parks was denied full and equal access to, this bus has become a noteworthy part of their history. Way to go Ford for manufacturing segregated buses!
Today Is 4/20!
4/20, also referred to as 420 or 4:20, is synonymous with saying, “It’s time to smoke some weed!” Many people set aside April 20th as “Smokers Day.”
You either smoke weed or you dont, but why do you need to set aside a day just to commemorate smoking marijuana? The fact that you feel the need to set aside a day to honor smoking is indicative of how important it is in your life–and that’s sad. Do we celebrate eating food and drinking water?
Police Fire On Crowd As Sierra Leone Workers At African Minerals Protest Over Pay And Medical Provisions
African Minerals workers are fed up with being exploited. Interestingly, people don’t seem to mind exploitation of others when it comes to the end product of that labor–in this case, iron ore. Somehow the exploitation of local workers in far off lands is acceptable if you like the product enough. The conflict here is between the pay of local and expatriate workers, in addition to medical provisions and other benefits.
African Minerals is a relatively new company–less than two years old–which focuses on mining iron ore. Iron ore is the main component of steel, which is used in the production of much of the crap you consume. Imagine what the work conditions must be like if the company only started made its first shipment last November and the workers are already protesting.
Although the mainstream media refers to their protest as a riot, we’ve learned more about this story. Apparently during the protest, police shot two women, one of them being reported as dead. The woman reported dead was shot in the back. The police deny that they used live rounds, but PR for the company confirms that live rounds were used.
The Public Relations Officer of AML, Tanu Jalloh, confirmed the police use of live bullets, but said it was not meant to kill the protesters, and that the Police actually fired in the air to disperse violent protesters.
“It is normal for people working in mining areas in any part of the world to make demands for salary increments,” he said, adding that some of workers are unreasonable by comparing themselves with expatriates.
He said managers of the company were on the ground trying to negotiate with the aggrieved workers, and that the impasse will soon be addressed.
Source: SWITSALONE
Notice how the PR manager made reference to workers being unreasonable in thinking that they deserve equal pay and consideration with expatriates (foreign workers). He’s essentially saying, “Sierra Leone locals are lesser people and they deserve less pay because of it.”
So basically we have foreign workers coming to the country to work alongside people who are from Sierra Leone, and those people are receiving more pay for the work they do. How dare those folks think they can measure up to the might and worth of foreign workers!
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