Trash at the top of the World

Every year, the new season for climbing Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, seems to bring a new round of horror stories about what we have done to this majestic mountain. This year is no different. The roof of the world, it seems, has been turned into a trashcan by the constant stream of attention-seeking westerners traversing their way up its once-dangerous slopes. The amounts of rubbish and discarded oxygen containers have gotten so bad that this year the Nepalese government is only issuing climbing permits if visitors promise to collect and bring down an extra 8kg of waste from the mountain – as well as bringing back all their own garbage, of course.

The fact that this has to be asked for is tragic enough. The fact that it will probably be ignored is even worse. Western mountain climbers who have paid a lot of money to make it to sagarmatha (the Nepalese name for Everest – the Tibetan is chomolungma) will find a way around the requirements, or will simply get their local sherpa guides to carry the trash for them. This comes on the back of last year’s big story in which a group of unassisted European climbers got into a heated argument with a group of sherpas who were trying to safely transport less experienced climbers up the mountain. The debate turned ugly, and the Europeans claim they had to flee in fear of their lives.

Despite being one of the most beautiful parts of our planet, the scene around Everest these days seems to be symptomatic of some of the uglier aspects of our planet. It shows that we live in a disposable culture, to the extent that we feel no qualms about storing our trash and waste on the world’s highest peak, with no concern for the local ecosystem and the damage we might be doing to it. But it also shows the problems we have with continued global inequality.

Everest is a mountain which is overrun by young, rich thrillseekers from Europe and America who feel like their wealth gives them an automatic pass to access the land of others and do whatever they want on it. Meanwhile, despite the large amounts of money that these mountain climbers bring to the region, the local people who rightfully belong on the land remain in poverty. They have reached a point where living their traditional lives will leave them poor and malnourished, while participating in the artificial economy of Everest tourism is the best way to make some quick money. The local sherpas thus end up as servants, cooks, and carriers for westerners who, in many cases, could never make it up the mountain alive without their help. This is not really a sustainable way of dealing with poverty in Nepal.

When the mess on Everest is cleaned up – and by the mess I mean not just the trash, but the whole disgraceful scene of cheap thrills and an even cheaper service industry – we will have a sign that we are beginning to enter a more dignified era. When the current obsession with reaching the top of the mountain just so you can say you did it is replaced with a true reverence for the beauty of nature and the uniqueness of the local people and culture, then we can truly say we are being respectful of the world. And when that time comes, we’ll find that we have also reached a more fair and equitable world, in which Nepalis and their land are not just seen as pack mules and photo backgrounds for the rich of the West.

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Rumah Tak Berpenghuni di Eropa

Sebuah laporan baru memperlihatkan bahwa diperkirakan ada 11 juta rumah-rumah kosong tersebar di seluruh Eropa – jumlah ini lebih dari cukup untuk menampung seluruh populasi tunawisma di Eropa, karena jumlah rumah kosong hampir tiga kali lipat dari jumlah tunawisma.  Ada 3,4 juta properti yang kosong di Spanyol, 2 juta lebih di Prancis dan Italia, 1,8 juta di Jerman, dan 700.000 di Inggris Raya.  Ditambah dengan jumlah yang lebih sedikit di  Portugis, Irlandia, Yunani, dan beberapa negara-negara lain, sehingga jumlah seluruhnya sungguh  mencengangkan.  Kalau angka ini kita bandingkan dengan sekitar 4,1 juta tunawisma – lebih dari empat juta orang yang tinggal di jalanan secara terus-menerus, atau di berbagai rumah singgah, dan tempat penampungan yang tidak aman.

Memang, rumah-rumah kosong tidak serta merta cocok dihuni tunawisma.  Kebanyakan dari rumah-rumah kosong tersebut belum pernah dihuni sama sekali, karena dibangun sebagai rumah liburan atau berlokasi jauh di pedesaan sebelum krisis finansial mengguncang pasar.  Akibatnya rumah-rumah tadi tak berpenghuni, mulai rusak, dan kebanyakan belum terhubung dengan air bersih dan listrik.  Apalagi populasi tunawisma tersebar di banyak negara Eropa, sedangkan rumah-rumah kosong tersebut kebanyakan berada di lima negara terkaya. Namun, kebanyakan dari bangunan ini dibeli sebagai investasi oleh tuan tanah yang tidak ada di tempat, dan merasa lebih mudah untuk membiarkan properti miliknya tetap kosong (agar terhindar dari urusan perbaikan, aturan sewa-menyewa, mengambil uang sewa, dan lain sebagainya) sembari menunggu naiknya harga bangunan, yang merupakan saat tepat untuk menjual kembali properti mereka dan mendapatkan keuntungan.

Hal ini jelas-jelas merupakan praktik memperoleh keuntungan dengan cara yang tidak etis, apalagi kalau dilihat dari prioritas kita dalam hidup bermasyarakat, menjajarkan antara rumah-rumah kosong dengan tunawisma adalah hal sangat menyedihkan.

Alih-alih menyelesaikan masalah tunawisma dengan mencari cara agar rumah-rumah yang kosong tersebut bisa dihuni, pemerintah justru mempersulit masalah ini. Contohnya di Inggris Raya, pemerintah baru saja menyetujui undang-undang antipendudukan rumah kosong (anti-squatting law) yang melarang seseorang secara sadar memasuki rumah kosong dan menetap di dalamnya.  Undang-undang ini dimaksudkan untuk menghentikan“kelompok anarkis”dan para imigran Eropa Timur untuk menduduki rumah-rumah yang ditinggal pemiliknya pergi berlibur selama dua minggu. Tentu saja, situasi ini tidak pernah terjadi, namun undang-undang tersebut juga melarang tunawisma untuk tinggal di gedung-gedung yang dibiarkan kosong selama berbulan-bulan atau bertahun-tahun oleh pemiliknya. Sebelumnya para tunawisma dapat tinggal di gedung-gedung semacam itu, setidaknya untuk beberapa minggu, sebelum diusir dengan perintah pengadilan; kini, hal tersebut merupakan pelanggaran hukum, dan polisi dapat segera mengusir mereka.

Kita dapat melihat bahwa melalui undang-undang seperti inilah ideologi “properti milik pribadi”digunakan untuk memastikan bahwa si miskin tetap miskin dan si kaya tetap kaya.   Hanya mereka yang sangat kaya yang bisa memiliki tanah dan rumah; hanya mereka yang kaya yang membiarkan beberapa rumah milik mereka kosong sambil menunggu pasar kembali pulih. Jika ada yang mencoba mengubahnya, maka akan disambut dengan seruan “properti milik pribadi!”  Hal ini menyebabkan warga miskin dan kelas menengah untuk berpikir ‘tentu saya tidak mau orang lain datang dan mengambil properti saya.’ Namun, mereka lupa bahwa ada perbedaan besar antara seseorang yang memiliki rumah kecil, mobil, dan sebuah televisi, dengan tuan tanah yang tidak di tempat dan memiliki lebih dari satu properti.

Pemerintah seharusnya mulai memperlakukan rumah sebagai sumber penting yang harus dimiliki semua orang, bagian dari HAM, sama seperti air atau pangan.  Pemerintah perlu mengembangkan peraturan yang menganjurkan tuan tanah untuk menyewakan rumah-rumah kosong dengar harga wajar (hal ini dapat dicapai dengan mudah melalui semacam kode pajak properti tertentu dan peraturan pengendali sewa-menyewa).  Dengan demikian, rumah-rumah kosong dapat dimanfaatkan dalam membantu masyarakat untuk berdikari dan bisa mencari nafkah kembali. Jika ini dilakukan, kita akhirnya akan memiliki pemerintah yang prorakyat, bukan yang prokapitalisme.

Diterjemahkan dari Bahasa Inggris, artikel asli di publikasikan tanggal di 13.03.14: 

http://annie65j.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-shame-of-europes-empty-houses.html

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因运动而死——世界杯真正的丑闻

最近除了媒体对索契冬奥会表现出的愤怒之外，另一项国际赛事也占据了争议的头条。在回避该问题数月之后，世界足球管理机构FIFA宣布，2022年将在卡塔尔举办的世界杯有可能将在冬季举行，而不是通常的夏季。这将会是首次在中东举办世界杯，这一赛事在之前也从未被迫处理因那片土地夏日的酷热而带来的问题。全球最好（也是最贵的）球员将不得不应对40摄氏度（104华氏度）的高温，而他们的观点也证实了FIFA在这点上站不住脚，赛事将改期进行。

这招致了传统足球国的批评，特别是欧洲国家的批评，在这些国家，国内赛季通常会在冬季举行。打破“传统”和中断有利可图的欧洲足球联赛，可不是球迷、评论家、俱乐部能接受的事情，或者说……实际上，任何人都不能接受。

如果对卡塔尔建设世界杯体育场的劳动条件，产生相同水平的愤怒，该多好啊。在涉及到奥林匹克时，其他国家的报纸总能找到一些组织缺陷，以此对大型体育赛事的东道主进行抱怨，但是，这些报纸却往往对更大的问题保持着沉默——在为这些赛事修建体育场和基础设施时，对贫穷的外来工的剥削。

从这个意义上来说，卡塔尔应该是最糟糕的罪犯之一了。上周披露的官方记录显示，仅在2013年这一年，在卡塔拉足球体育场的修建过程中，就至少有185名尼泊尔工人丧生。随着更多事件浮出水面，这一数字预计还将增加，而这只是尼泊尔工人的情况。卡塔尔共有200万人，但其中只有250,000人是真正的卡塔尔公民——其他人均是外来工，分布范围则从在银行和学校工作的西方富有侨民，到菲律宾女佣，到修建体育场和道路的尼泊尔、孟加拉国和巴基斯坦劳工。死亡的原因包括交通事故、坠落、重物撞击，还有很多死亡原因被划到了“心脏病”一列——大概是为了掩盖真实原因，或者是单纯地因为在极端炎热的气候中长时期艰苦工作而丧生。

尽管数字非常可怕，这些死亡仍然被视为是次要的。很小一部分较为严肃的报纸对此进行了报导，但通常会在2022年世界杯来临之际被人遗忘。狭隘的民族主义将再次盛行，我们将为自己的球队加油助威（大多数来自欧洲和南美），而忽略来自运动不发达国家、因我们的享乐而丧生而受剥削的穷人。我们将抱怨在冬季举办赛事，而彻底忘记让其得以召开的人付出的艰辛。我们将为那些赚取数百万英镑、欧元和美元的人举杯庆祝，而把那些收入微薄的生命抛诸脑后。

NRG Labs反对剥夺外来工人的人权——生活在这个世界上的穷人和不幸之人，他们和其他人一样，拥有同样多的权利去获得舒适、公平的工资和良好的工作条件。这是在我们自身的工作和对新能源技术的开发过程中不变的追求，也是我们认为每位雇主应马上为之努力的方向。

从英文版翻译而来。

原文于 2月18, http://annie65j.blogspot.com/2014/02/dying-for-sport-real-scandal-of-world.html

[ 2022年界杯, FIFA, 劳动条件, 对卡塔尔建设世界杯体育场, nrglab ]

The shame of Europe’s empty houses

A new report has revealed that there are currently estimated to be 11 million empty homes across Europe – enough to house the entire homeless population of the continent almost three times over. There are 3.4m vacant properties in Spain, over 2m each in France and Italy, 1.8m in Germany, and 700,000 in the UK. Add in the smaller numbers in Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and other countries, and you end up with the enormous figure. That’s in comparison to an estimated homeless population of 4.1m people – over four million people who routinely live on the streets or in very temporary and precarious rooming houses and shelters.

Of course, there isn’t a perfect fit between empty homes and homeless people. Many of the empty houses have never had anyone living in them because they were built as holiday estates or in distant rural exurbs just before the financial crisis brought the market crashing down. Consequently, they’ve sat empty ever since, crumbling and in many cases not even properly connected to the local water and electricity supplies. And, of course, the homeless people are spread throughout dozens of European countries, while the properties themselves are concentrated primarily in five of the largest and richest states. However, many of these buildings have been purchased as investments by absentee landlords, who find it more convenient to keep the properties empty (to avoid dealing with repairs, tenant law, gathering rent payments, and so on) while waiting for prices to rise again, at which point they will sell the house on to make a profit.

This is clear and open profiteering, and the juxtaposition between empty homes and people living on the streets provides a poignant commentary on our priorities as a society. Rather than address the problem by finding ways to fill those empty homes with people, governments are actually making it more difficult. In the UK, for example, the current government has passed an anti-squatting law, supposedly aimed at stopping ‘anarchists’ and Eastern European immigrants from occupying people’s houses while they’re on a two-week holiday. Such a situation has never actually happened, of course, but the law also stops homeless people from squatting buildings that have been left empty for months or years by their landlords – previously it was perfectly possible to live in such a property for at least a few weeks before being removed by court order; it’s now a criminal offence, and the police can remove someone immediately.

It’s through laws like this that we see clearly how the ideology of ‘private property’ is used to ensure that the poor remain poor and the rich remain rich. Owning land and a house is something that only prosperous people can afford; owning several houses and leaving most of them empty while you wait for the market to pick up is something that only the rich can manage. Yet any attempt to change this is met with cries of ‘private property!’. The poor and the middle class then think to themselves ‘that’s right, I wouldn’t want anyone coming and taking my property’. What they forget is that there is a huge difference between someone who owns a small house, a car, and a television, and the absentee landlords who own several of each.

It’s time for governments to start treating houses as an essential resource that everyone has a human right to access – in the same way as water or food. Governments should be developing policies that encourage landlords to rent empty houses out at a reasonable price (something which could easily be managed by a nuanced and sensitively applied property tax code and a set of rent controls). At that point, with empty houses being used to help people get back on their feet and make a living, we would finally have a government that is acting in the best interests of everybody, rather than just the best interests of capitalism.

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Mati demi Olah Raga – Skandal Piala Dunia Sesungguhnya

Selain media melontarkan kemarahannya terhadap Olimpiade Musim Dingin di Sochi, kini giliran kegiatan olahraga internasional lain yang menjadi berita utama kontroversial. Setelah menghindari perbincangan  tentang hal ini selama berbulan-bulan, FIFA, badan olahraga sepak bola dunia, telah mengumumkan bahwa piala dunia 2022 di Qatar kemungkinan akan diadakan saat musim dingin dan bukan di musim panas. Kali ini adalah pertama kalinya piala dunia akan diadakan di Timur Tengah. Sebelumnya piala dunia tidak pernah digelar pada suhu musim panas dengan temperature yang luar biasa tinggi seperti yang terjadi di Timur Tengah.  Karena ketakutan jika para pemain terbaik (dan termahal) dunia harus bermain pada suhu 40℃ (104˚F), maka FIFA mengambil keputusan untuk memindahkan waktu penyelenggaraan piala dunia.

Keputusan ini telah menuai kritik dari negara-negara tradisional sepak bola, khususnya di wilayah Eropa yang musim pertandingan mereka berlangsung sepanjang bulan-bulan musim dingin. Semua orang, termasuk para penggemar, komentator-komentator sepak bola, dan klub tidak terima ‘tradisi’ piala dunia diubah dan mengganggu jalannya liga sepak bola Eropa yang amat menguntungkan itu.

Sayangnya, kemarahan serupa tidak terjadi ketika berkenaan dengan perbaikan keadaan para buruh yang terlibat dalam pembangunan stadion untuk piala dunia di Qatar.  Seperti saat Olimpiade digelar, berbagai surat kabar dari negara lain selalu saja menemukan kekurangan dalam  pengelolaan acara olah raga besar. Sayangnya berbagai surat kabar tersebut seringkali bungkam bila berkaitan dengan masalah yang lebih besar, seperti eksploitasi pekerja migran miskin yang dipekerjakan untuk membangun stadion-stadion serta infrastruktur pendukung acara tersebut.

Dalam hal ini Qatar sebenarnya adalah salah satu pelanggar terbesar.  Data resmi yang dikeluarkan menyebut setidaknya 185 pekerja dari Nepal meninggal selama pembangunan stadion sepak bola di Qatar pada tahun 2013.  Angka ini kemungkinan besar akan bertambah karena semakin banyak kasus yang akan terkuak, dan angka ini hanya jumlah pekerja dari Nepal saja.  Populasi Qatar sendiri berjumlah 2 juta orang, namun hanya 250.000 jiwa saja yang merupakan warga negara Qatar. Sisanya adalah para pekerja migran yang terdiri dari ekspatriat kaya negeri barat yang bekerja di bank-bank dan sekolah-sekolah, pembantu rumah tangga dari Filipina, buruh dari Nepal, Bangladesh, dan Pakistan yang terlibat membangun stadion-stadion dan jalan-jalan. Penyebab kematian mereka antara lain adalah kecelakaan di jalan, jatuh, tertimpa benda berat, dan banyak sekali ‘serangan jantung’ – entah hanya untuk menutupi alasan sesungguhnya atau karena jam kerja mereka yang panjang dan di bawah suhu yang luar biasa panas.

Meski adanya angka-angka yang mengerikan ini, kematian para pekerja tersebut justru dikesampingkan. Insiden-insiden ini hanya dilaporkan oleh beberapa surat kabar besar dan umumnya akan dilupakan saat piala dunia 2022 bergulir.  Nasionalisme dalam acara olahraga mengambil alih, dan kita akan menyemangati tim-tim kesayangan kita (kebanyakan dari Eropa dan Amerika Selatan) sambil mengesampingkan fakta bahwa pekerja miskin dari negara-negara yang kurang dikenal dalam olahraga ini dieksploitasi dan mati demi kesenangan kita.  Kita protes karena piala dunia diadakan saat musim dingin dan melupakan kesulitan yang dialami oleh pekerja-pekerja yang memungkinkan acara ini terlaksana.  Kita akan menyemangati atlet-atlet yang dibayar jutaan poundsterling, euro, dan dolar, sementara pekerja-pekerja yang dibayar sangat rendah tak mungkin diingat.

NRGLab menentang perlakuan tidak manusiawi terhadap para pekerja migran. Mereka yang miskin dan kurang beruntung di dunia ini juga punya hak yang sama untuk bisa menikmati kenyamanan, gaji yang adil, serta kondisi kerja yang baik. Inilah yang kami upayakan untuk tercapai, begitu pula dalam pengembangan teknologi energi baru yang kami lakukan. Kami merasa semua perusahaan perlu segera berupaya untuk mencapai tujuan yang sama.

Diterjemahkan dari Bahasa Inggris, artikel asli di publikasikan tanggal di 18.02.14: http://annie65j.blogspot.com/2014/02/dying-for-sport-real-scandal-of-world.html

[ Mati demi Olah Raga, Skandal Piala Dunia , FIFA, piala dunia 2022, liga sepak bola Eropa, eksploitasi pekerja migran miskin ]

警察的目标真是保护我们吗？

上周，英国终于就Mark Duggan事件进行了判决。在英国以外，可能并没有多少人知道Duggan这个名字，但是，他在无意间引起的事件却臭名昭著。Duggan于2011年8月遭警察枪击致死，警察称Duggan当时持有枪支。伦敦的托特汉姆区因此爆发了抗议活动，并在随后升级，居民认为警察忽视了他们的担忧。很快就涌出了诸多问题，并开始爆发骚乱——人们烧毁了房屋、车辆和公交车，商店也被洗劫一空。暴力活动蔓延至伦敦的其他地区以及英国的其他城市，一共持续了五天，留下了大量被烧毁的建筑，为政客和供职于报纸评论专栏的业余社会学家提供了数月谈资。

现在，审讯结束了，事实和解释也已全部公之于众，同时也做出了裁定。Duggan尽管是个令人讨厌的角色，但实际上，当警察向他开枪时，他手无寸铁。不过，评审团认定警察向他开枪并导致其死亡的行为是“合法的”。尽管担心重复两年半之前发生的骚乱，但在物理意义上，一切都保持着相当的平静。但是，在这种平静的表面之下，英国的紧张局势却在发酵。

许多来自各方的政客都将这场骚乱视为单纯的犯罪活动——一群伺机趁火打劫的人利用了一个年轻人的死，抓住了因此呈现在他们面前的机会，尽可能多地从商店和住宅窃取财物。但是，这种解释所欠缺的，正是上周的审讯结果已证实的，即公众和警察之间的信任正在不断瓦解。托特汉姆区的居民不相信警察会为他们的利益着想，也不相信警官将因其枪击Mark Duggan的行为受到法律的审判，而这正是导致出现最初的抗议活动，并在随后升级的原因。

在过去几年间，与警察关系断裂的人并不只有那些参加骚乱的人。学生因反对削减课程或增加学费而发起的抗议活动也曾遭到镇压，警察经常会采取“圈围”策略——也就是说，学生们被全副盔甲的警察所包围，被迫连续数小时站在街上，只有在其身份得到确认、完成拍照之后才能获准离开。在一次抗议活动中，警察从后面袭击了一名无辜的路人，并导致该名路人丧失性命——同样，该名警官并没有受到任何重大的影响。

一般来说，英国的年轻人和工薪阶层正逐渐意识到警察并不能代表他们。他们察觉到警察代表的是由有权有势的人组成的权力机关，他们的主要目标就是侵扰、逮捕和监禁任何想要以任何方式挑战权势的人。警察的目标和他们所保护的政客及商人的目标一致——让穷人生活在贫困中，拿走他们的自由、金钱和生计，将其交给已经非常富有的阶级。Duggan审讯的结果只不过是强权和保护强权的警察相互勾结的最新印证而已。

但在NRGLab 和 Ana Shell Fund，我们相信社会有其不同的一面。首先，处于贫困境地，并不能让一个人成为暴力镇压的目标，其次是减少专制监管的支出，投入更多资金创造条件，让所有人都能拥有更好的生活——社会支出、财富的再分配，用公众基金为公众谋取利益，包括实惠的可再生能源和住房供给。

从英文版翻译而来。原文于 1月30, http://annie65j.blogspot.com/2014/01/are-police-really-there-to-protect-us.html

[ Mark Duggan, 时持有枪支, 政客都, 犯罪活动, 学生因反, NRGLab, Ana Shell Fund ]

Dying for sport – the real scandal of the World Cup

In addition to the recent media outrages over the Winter Olympics in Sochi, another international sporting event grabbed controversial headlines recently. After many months of avoiding the issue, the world governing body for soccer, FIFA, has announced that the 2022 world cup in Qatar will probably be played in the winter rather than the summer. This will be the first world cup to be held in the Middle East, and the event has never previously had to cope with the sweltering summer temperatures of that part of the world. The idea of the world’s best (and most expensive) players having to deal with 40C (104F) heat has proved untenable for FIFA, and the event will be moved.

This has generated criticism from traditional soccer-playing nations, especially those in Europe, whose domestic seasons are usually played through the winter months. The breaking down of ‘tradition’ and the disruption to the lucrative European soccer leagues is not going down well with fans, commentators, clubs, or…well, anyone, really.

If only this level of outrage could be generated about the labor conditions involved in building the world cup stadiums in Qatar. As with the Olympics, newspapers in other countries can always find some organizational flaws to complain about when it comes to the hosting of large sporting events, but those same newspapers are often conspicuously quiet about a much bigger problem – the exploitation of poor migrant workers in the building of stadiums and infrastructure to put on these events.

In this sense, Qatar is one of the worst offenders. Official records released last week show that at least 185 Nepalese workers died during construction of soccer stadiums in Qatar in 2013 alone. The number is expected to rise as more cases come to light, and that’s only the workers from Nepal. Qatar has a population of 2 million people, but only 250,000 of those are actual Qatari citizens – the rest are migrant workers, ranging from rich western expats working in banks and schools, to Filipino housemaids, to the Nepalese, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani laborers that are building the stadiums and roads. The causes of death included traffic accidents, falls, impacts from heavy objects, and a huge amount of deaths listed as ‘heart attacks’ – presumably either to cover up the real cause, or simply due to doing hours of strenuous work in searingly hot temperatures.

Despite the horrific figures, these deaths are considered secondary. They are reported in a few of the more serious papers, but will generally be forgotten by the time the 2022 world cup rolls around. The minor nationalism of sporting contests will take over again, and we’ll all cheer on our own teams (mostly European and South American), while ignoring the exploited poor from less sporting countries who had to die for our enjoyment. We’ll complain about the fact it’s in winter, and forget the hardships of those who allowed it to happen at all. And we’ll cheer on people who are paid millions of pounds, euros, and dollars, while pushing to the backs of our minds the lives of those who were paid a pittance.

At NRGLab, we stand against this dehumanization of migrant workers – the poor and unfortunate of this world have just as much right to comfort, fair wages, and good working conditions as the rest of us do. It’s something that we always strive for in our own work and our development of new energy technologies, and it’s something we think every employer should be working towards right away.

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