Sleep, work, drug, work, drink, sleep (repeat until dead)

Someone from the most grounded (albeit with less government friends with imaginary friends) of the ‘local drug charities’ is saying we need more research into where the increasing demand for drugs comes from (see http://www.isleofman.com/News/details/58550/reasons-for-drug-demand-needs-to-be-researched).

I can save them lots of time and money. The answer is ‘work’.

I suggested before that island employers who run call centre set-ups, like their UK equivalents, have turned a blind eye to substance abuse for years. Got to have all those phone-jockeys hyper-alert if the profits are going to keep rolling to the shareholders. 

Funnily enough, I gather that one HR consultant, formerly paid handsomely by a major industry player to either keep overwired employees safely away from NHS clinics or dispose of the burn-outs quietly, has changed tactics with a new employer.

The new emphasis is on ensuring caffeine-based (i.e. strictly legal) stimulants are on tap to fire them up in the morning and cheap alcohol at team-bonding celebrations to end the day.

Ever wondered why commuting car-drivers behave so erratically in the evening rush home?

London Olympics , where the workers lose much more than the competitors

Well, shame about Mark Cavendish, but at least he earns millions. So, less to complain about than ordinary workers getting screwed over by the Olympic racket.

Take Adidas, which put up an estimated US$122 to plaster its name all over the London Olympics, and expects to reap billions in sales in return.  And I bet they paid up that cash in advance, or far faster than they pay what’s owed to redundant workers in developing countries.

For example, it continues to refuse to offer just US$1.8 million in long-overdue severance pay to workers laid off from its shuttered Indonesian supplier, PT Kizone. Adidas stonewalled for 18 months while workers battled to get money they were owed under Indonesian law. Then after global pressure forced the company to meet with workers, the final offer was an insult: a food voucher for each worker worth just € 43 - roughly the value of a London 2012 t-shirt.

If Adidas can sponsor the Olympics, it can afford its obligation to workers. If you agree, sign the petition at http://sumofus.org/uncategorized/adidas-indonesia/?sub=taf demanding that Adidas pay laid off workers what it owes.

Then there’s the Olympic cleaners being accommodated in East London sheds. In a portakabin  village they sleep 10 to a room, share the toilet with 25 others and the shower with 75. Some women left, refusing to sleep in mixed sex cabins with men they didn’t know. Those that stayed have to stump up £18 a day, despite not working for the first two weeks. Heavy rain means a flooded site with many cabins leaking and crates for stepping stones.

Many of the workers were recruited abroad for the contract, despite the company’s promise that it would mean local jobs. Planning was granted and welfare conditions totally ignored by the council because the site is only temporary.

So, blatant exploitation in a time of crisis being sold as a ‘national event’, with some scumbags taking advantage of both local and worldwide unemployment. What a surprise.

If this sickens you too, join the call for decent accommodation for Olympic cleaners at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/202/764/899/olympic-cleaners-deserve-better-living-conditions .

Is there a Manx word for 'Equality'?

What seems like years ago, but was in fact less than 18 months, I helped contribute to a government consultation on a planned Employment Equality Bill. Yesterday I was informed the results had been published.
You can find them at http://www.gov.im/dti/employmentRights/closedwithresponse.xml, and I warn you now some of them are not pleasant. If anyone needed an accurate picture of the gap between the understanding of basic human rights and respect for others seen in the civilised world and the Manx view on such things, this is it.
Almost the only positive thing I can say about the report on the consultation is that, for once, whoever collated it reveals what was said and who said it. In that sense it is a valuable document for anyone who wants to understand just how Manx democracy and government happens – or rather, doesn’t.
I know personally from watching them in action that Manx government departments are often run by folk who care little for humanity, but the comments you see from some of them in this consultation might surprise everyone else. For example the total disinterest in giving disabled people basic employment rights and support which are now taken for granted throughout Europe.
The comments from religious organisations will surprise nobody, and to be fair they are quite upfront about their intent to ride roughshod over everyone else’s rights and feelings if they can get away with it. But it is still astonishing that government just doesn’t get it on religious privilege.
Despite having it explained in words of one syllable, they plan to allow religious organisations paid from public money to continue discriminating against employing women, gays and non-Christians as they see fit. One wonders what more we can do to educate our dimwit politicos or the culturally clueless who advise them – pictures, watch the bouncing ball singalongs in a Powerpoint presentation…or what? Someone tell me, because I give up!
Comments from others in the Manx community might also raise eyebrows, as will the government response. For example, it is astonishing that an organisation representing a dozen or so tosspot employers gets more government ‘weighting’ than the views of the Isle of Man Trades Council, which represents the vast majority of Manx working people.
You will also discover fairly quickly why the words ‘honest’, ‘compassionate’ and ‘Manx advocate’ are rarely, if ever, found in the same sentence – apart from this one.
The mind boggles at the astonishing sums which must have changed hands for members of the Isle of Man Law Society to write the responses of the employer and business organisations who, in theory, responded to this one, as well as ghost-writing most of the government department responses too (a quick review of government accounts shows the regularity with which ‘independent legal advice’ is sought on the most trivial matters). Yet the pretence is that the Society simply responded as one party.
Read this report. If you are an off-island reader I won’t blame you if you laugh out loud, but if you are local be very, very ashamed of what we are letting happen on an island which is, at least nominally, democratic and with residents who can walk without dragging their knuckles.

Wanted - flat earth spookchasing do-gooder (No Muslims need apply)

As if to support yesterday's posting on the state of Manx prison rehabilitation services - an advert in today's Isle of Man Examiner for a 'Principal Project Worker' at David Gray House, the island's bail hostel run by the Salvation Army.
The vague job description ends with this statement: 'The Salvation Army is a Christian Church and registered charity 215174. Promoting Equality in the Workplace.'
Actually, even that is misleading, as the SA is not a Manx registered charity, but David Gray House and Friends of David Gray House are - so why not tell us that?
Short of saying something on the lines of 'no dogs, no blacks, no Irish' it's hard to see how the SA could be clearer about who they DON'T want to employ.
As there's no Manx equivalent to the UK 'goods and services' legislation (which makes it difficult for religious charities not to employ well qualified gays or non-Christians or refuse to offer services) they are on disgustingly secure ground. In addition, a few years ago a nice man from CARE came to Stepford Central and gave local evangelicals a briefing on branding their business with a 'Christian ethos' in order to continue discriminating without fear of a court case should Manx law ever even entertain 20th century standards of civility, never mind drag itself into the current century.
Nevertheless David Gray had to improve on their last advert, for a manager, in which they tried to limit the candidates by saying the manager would be required to lead a daily act of Christian worship. When the probation service and DGH management were trying to pretend to the Minister for Home Affairs there was no problem accomodating those of other faiths - most particularly two Muslims awaiting trial who couldn't get bail - I pointed out that advert to him. They continue to deny there would be a problem, or that the worship is compulsory, but you can see they needed a less blatent strategy for ensuring that whoever continues to fail to deliver a publically subsidised 'social service' it will still live up to their previous standards of flat-earth, superstitious prejudice.
Saddest thing is, as numerous groups 'close to government' fiddle work permits over here, there is probably no point in even a reasonably decent Manx Christian applying. The spookchasers and their friends at the DHA will have already decided who to employ - from off-island - and just be running the advert to prevent Work Permit Committee objections.
Well, they already circumvent the rules on planning applications, so what else is new?