Blog 8

Data robbery

Summary:
Some employees steal money from their employer. There are also lot of robbery’s taking place on bankrupted internet companies. Where ex employees steal data and all kinds of material such as a laptop, a computer or stealing money from the desk… Another reason why data gets lost is because people forget their data or throw out their old computers with data’s in it.
The reason why employees steal from their employer Is because they don’t get enough wage. A representative from Dell says that management is important besides the new software. He gives the following metaphor: You can have a safe and strong door but if your windows open they steal anyway. So the management is important to stop the robbery’s besides the software’s for safety such as camera…
There are lot of footage of employees stealing from their employers. In Holland an employee stole 700000euro from his employer. McAfee did lot of research and says that companies lose up to 3.4 million euro from robbery’s of intellectual properties . Symantec says that more than the half of ex employees steaks data from their old employer.

My opinion:
Companies need better security and patents to stop the robbery of data. Or has to pay more to their employees. The representative of Dell gives a great metaphor. The security is fine but the wage is low, so the data get’s stolen anyway. So besides a safe door you need a closed window.
It’s important to know that a lot of security isn’t good for the relations in a company. You can give the feeling that you don’t trust your employees and that can give unwanted effects. So you have to find a balance in the security. Also when you give resignation to an employee you have the guide him through the process. To make sure that everything goes smooth.

Link:
https://www.fox-it.com/nl/nieuws-en-events/nieuws/laatste-nieuws/nieuwsartikel/z24-pas-op-voor-dieven-in-dienst/96

Selim Karadag 2RP2

Blog 7

Outside Climate Talks, Protesters March on the Hall

Summary:
The lobbyists for profitable Climate Solutions, called on other protestors to stop their “global whining”. They argued that corporations were working hard enough. During the conference 260 people were arrested. In total 1800 protesters are detained.
Another group called Climate Justice Action was marching to the Bella Center. They want better measures for climate changing. Their slogan was “System Change, Not Climate Change”.
The police stopped them from entering the building to hold a people’s assembly. Some people tried to reach their goal by using inflatable rafts. The rally brought together climate activists; representatives of countries suffering from drought, floods or other phenomena linked to global warming; and indigenous peoples.
Ms. Moller wrote environmental pages for her local newspaper, she travelled with a group called Camp for Climate Action. She said she had no confidence in the conference.

My opinion:
The global warming is a important matter. And it’s a good thing that countries are trying to do something about it. And conferences as in Copenhagen can bring important directives. But the problem is that this isn’t enough. People have to get more aware of this issue. That’s the only solution.
The protestors have good intention. But by protesting they only slow things. And shadow the conference. There are too many groups protesting. So the cops have to do something and stop them. Or things can go out of control. The protestors should choose few people among them as representatives and they should tell what’s on their mind. This way things won’t go out of control and two sides can tell their ideas on a decent way.

Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/science/earth/17protest.html?ref=world

Selim Karadag 2RP2

Blog

Blog 3

Don’t underestimate fraud

Summary:
In the year 2000 a TV presenter and real estate entrepreneur gets an amount of 800000euros from one of the main suspects.
Eight years ago the presenter of “business class” received 800000euros from one of the prime suspects of the fraud research. The Public Prosecutor thinks that Mens has send a fake invoice, he says that he hasn’t performed any utilities about the payment. He didn’t admit but he is involved with the building trade “Bouwfonds”. The other 2 suspects squealed on Mens and confessed that he extorted money from the ex-Chairman. The 2 suspects who were property developer, transferred the money to Mens under order of the prime suspect who’s the ex-director.
The Public Ministry investigated that there was a fraud with Construction fund and Philips Pension Fund. The broker from Lisse is convinced that Mens is involved. He claims that by referring to the construction Solaris. This is an office complex where the renovations were completed in 2002. This fraud has put the knife to the throat. The Justice will now investigate all the invoices for the previous ten years in the accused projects. They have found significant evidence showing that many people are involved. It is about criminal activities such as tax fraud, forgery, bribery and fraud.

My opinion:
A fraud of this proportion with such important companies involved is surprising. The real question is: doesn’t anybody control this? The fiscal law is strict and has high punishments. But there are still companies how try fraud. It is good that justice is know investigating the case. But it will be difficult to investigate the invoices of ten years. It looks like a difficult case with different matters such as bribery, fraud…
To prevent such things in the future new laws have to come or the existing laws have to controlled better. There are lot of options to prevent fraud such as better punishments, new laws, better controlling departments…

Link:
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=DMF20091218_007

Selim Karadag 2rp2

Blog 2

Fresh Prince of Belgium

Summary:
Dick Advocaat is a 61 years old Dutch football coach who is now working with the team Zenith St Peter Bridge. The Belgian League made an offer to him as coach of the National team which he accepted. It is about a contract of 600000 a year until december2011. Two years ago he was involved in a similar situation where he was linked with the National team of Australia. Finally the richest team of Russia, through Zenith supporter and ex president Vladimir Putin, made an immense offer which he accepted. He refused the offer of Australia and became champion with Zenit. They are now afraid about the decision of Dick Advocaat although he clearly mentioned during the morning training in Zenith. Because he will start next year, he really don’t want to disturb and cooperate with the current coach. Frank Vercauteren is now on the top and they gave 5 games to go. If he speaks now he will be in trouble with his current employers of Zenith. Because of the interests of Zenith he delayed his contract signing. He is intending to sign with all silence during the two weeks’ vacation. He is now performing very good in Zenith and they are just 3 points behind the leader of the competition. They have the spirit and ambition to become the champion of the competition.

My opinion:
It is important not to complicate situations with the contracts. Especially when the contracts in other country’s are involved. Dick Advocaat did the right thing by waiting, because there is already a football coach in Belgium’s national team. Frank Vercauteren has to be fired if they want Advocaat to lead the team. Or as in this case have to wait…
However they can draw a contract and let Advocaat sign this and they can mention on the contract a specific date. On that date Advocaat becomes than the football coach of Belgium’s national team. This way they will be certain that Advocaat doesn’t go to another team and if he does he has to deal with the consequences.

Link:
http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF06122009_034&word=Dick+advocaat

Selim Karadag 2RP2

Blog 1: The Escape

Escape from Alcatraz

Summary:
The article that I read is going about a prisoner who escaped from prison during the break . Bijlmerbajes is a prison where it is not the first time that a prisoner tried to escape. The last gateway was a year ago. One of the two prisoner succeeded to escape from the prison. They made the plan one night before the escape. He obviously studied the architecture of the building. The place of the doors, the length of the walls and if it is possible to jump. The plan of the 35-years old man was successful, but the difficult part was to jump over the walls with barbed wine. During his remain in the prison, he stayed in the department where you wait for the completion of their case. A second person, who stayed at the same department, was caught and hold by the guardians just before he escaped. The escaped man had prepared it with some men outside the prison. The reason of his escape is the fact that he stayed for a while in another room because he went to appeal.

My opinion:
A prison is a place where people are suppose to held inside. A separation of the society is necessary, because this people are inside of a crime. But the jails are overcrowded and there aren’t enough guardians . And there are other problems such as that the guardians don’t get enough wage, the old infrastructure and equipments. The department of justice has to come up with a solution. The governments have to give larger budgets to justice department. So they can do something about this matters.
This is isn’t the first time that a prisoner escapes and wont be the last time. But the frequency of escaping prisoners is rising. And is no more a movie you watch it becomes an article you read in the newspaper or a news you watch on the TV. There are lot of solutions to this problem for example rehabilitation. Knowing that you will get a second time comforts a person. Than knowing that your stuck inside and your only chance is escaping.

Link:
http://www.elsevier.nl/web/10215617/Nieuws/Nederland/Zware-crimineel-ontsnapt-uit-Bijlmerbajes.htm?rss=true
Selim karadag2rp2

infringement of intellectual property

There is a long and ignoble tradition of technology companies suing each other for infringement of intellectual property rights. In reality, by the time the patent lawyers get to the bottom of who really invented what, the caravan has invariably moved on. If anyone should know this by now, it is Nokia, which fought to a standstill with US rival Qualcomm over who deserved more royalties for the research behind third-generation mobile phones. Instead, it has today launched an even more high-profile legal assault on Apple over the iPhone. On the face of it, Nokia looks to have a case. Both sides have failed to agree a licensing deal, but Apple continues to churn out iPhones by the millions. Though it does not wish to disrupt iPhone production, Nokia spends billions on R&D and needs to make sure it gets a fair return for its efforts. The sad fact though is that this is probably the only fight with Apple that Nokia looks like winning. The Finnish mobile company was once a beacon for hope in the European economy - a rare example of a local technology company taking on those cocky Americans and winning. These days, it is being shown up badly by Apple's superior flair for design and looks increasingly like a slow-moving relic than regional champion. It cannot be coincidence that this legal decision comes after Apple posted record results and Nokia recorded its first quarterly loss for a decade. It would look a lot less like sour grapes if Nokia showed more ability to take on Apple where it counts - in the showroom.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/dan-roberts-on-business-blog/2009/oct/22/nokia-sues-apple

Steven

Freehold estate

My seventh blog handles about Joe Lewis, the Bahamas-based billionaire. He has gained a seat on the board of Mitchells & Butlers after becoming the biggest shareholder. Lewis will be represented on the board of the pub group by an appointee after the currency tycoon raised his stake in M&B to 22.9% through his Piedmont investment company.Lewis, who lost $1.2bn from a bet in Bear Stearns shares that went spectacularly wrong, is believed to be interested in the property aspects of M&B's mainly freehold estate.Other interested parties include the Irish tycoons, John Magnier and JP McManus, who own 17.6% of M&B through their Elpida vehicle. The property tycoon, Robert Tchenguiz, is out of the picture after nursing heavy losses in the wake of the collapse of Icelandic bank Kaupthing, which forced him to sell his stakes in M&B and other companies. Analysts at KBC Peel Hunt said the appointment of Lewis's representative, Richard McGuire, to the M&B board "potentially increases the prospect of asset sales, which could bring forward the restoration of the dividend. However, opportunities for asset sales are clearly limited".A further board representative of Lewis could be appointed under an agreement struck between M&B and the investor, provided his share holding is above 22%.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/16/joe-lewis-on-board-at-mitchells-and-butler

Steven

breach of warranty

For Blog 6, I found an article about breach of warranty. A television company controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation faced a second lawsuit in six months alleging that it defrauded a rival and misappropriated trade secrets. DirecTV, the biggest satellite television firm in the US and a company that Mr Murdoch narrowly failed to buy last year, has launched the action against NDS, the Middlesex supplier of smart cards that prevent pirating. The lawsuit comes six months after Canal Plus Technologies (CPT) of France began a $3bn legal action against NDS alleging it helped fund hackers who published secrets on the internet about its pay-TV technology. The DirecTV suit, filed under seal in a US district court in Los Angeles, makes a series of allegations against NDS including breach of contract, fraud, breach of warranty and misappropriation of trade secrets. Bob Marsocci, a spokesman for DirecTV, said: "We filed the complaint because NDS breached our contract and defrauded us. We have a very strong case and will present that in court." DirecTV is seeking damages, the delivery of software which it claims is required by contract and an injunction to prevent any further breaches. NDS, which has dismissed CPT's allegations as baseless, last night insisted the new case was without merit.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/sep/20/newscorporation.citynews

Steven

Age discrimination

For my fifth blog I have found an example of discriminatory dismissal. A council manager was sacked seven months before he reached his 50th birthday, meaning he had to wait until he was 65 to claim his pension. Had he been made redundant after his 50th birthday. Mr. Wooster could claim the pension almost immediately. Tower Hamlets had hoped to have a 15 year period of grace before they had to pay his pension with one manager boasting: "If he goes now, we do save the pension." But an employment tribunal found the council had unfairly dismissed Mr Wooster who had worked for Tower Hamlets for 33 years and discriminated against him because of age. Mr Wooster is claiming more than a million pounds in compensation for his employment losses, reduction in pension and injury to feelings. Speaking after today's ruling, Mr Wooster said: "I am absolutely delighted and thrilled. "It has been an extremely difficult time to have to go through not one but two legal battles, but I have come through to the other side and I can now relax at last." He added: "The Council thought it could just get rid of me because it didn't want to pay my pension. "

source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6169966/Sacked-council-manager-wins-1-million-age-discrimination-payout.html

Steven

chinese husband allows wife to attack him once a week

My next blog handles about a husband who has signed a contract with his wife that she may attack him once in a week. This story came up in Chinese city Shanghai. The man took the unusual step after suffering intense abuse from his wife who studies kung fu. From the very beginning of their relationship he has been attracted to her “strong and independent temperament”. Before they get married they got in some sort of argument and he got a taste of her kung fu for the first time. He said that he had tried to bite his lip so he wouldn’t be punished, but that he "never wants to lose an argument" and so always ends up with "bruises and scars all over". So now in order to curb his wife’s aggression, they have an agreement that she may attack him uppermost once in a week. If she breaches the contract she must go to her parents for three days. In overall I think this is a very strange agreement. I don’t think it is allowed in western jurisdiction to sign these kind of contracts because violence between partners is illegal. I think it is improper to sign those contracts and that they should be banned by the Chinese authorities.

source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/6703629/Chinese-husband-allows-wife-to-attack-him-once-a-week.html

Steven

Landmark copyright trial against Pirate Bay gets underway

The trial against the four men behind Pirate Bay started at the 16th of February 2009. The four men are accused of being accessories of breaking copyright law. If the judge says that they are guilty they will have to go to prison for 2 years and they will have to pay a fine of 143,500 dollars.

The designers of the site are confident that the site will still exist without them, because the court already tried to take it down once, but they failed. The four men are convinced that the court will fail again.

The creators say that the site only acts as a search engine and that the site doesn’t contain any infringing content. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, who represents 1400 record companies worldwide, disagrees with this statement of the Pirate Bay creators. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry says that authors, musicmakers, moviemakers and other people lost a lot of money because of Pirate Bay.

The evidence in this case will show that Pirate Bay is a commercial business, which made a lot of money for its creators, no matter what the creators of Pirate Bay say.

The entertaining industry demands 14 million dollars from Pirate Bay for lost sales income. The creators of Pirate Bay will refuse to pay, because they don’t have a lot of money. They don’t earn money from Pirate Bay.

I think it’s good that the government tries to remove sites like Pirate Bay, because a lot of people are losing a lot of money, because everybody is downloading illegally from the Internet. My opinion is that downloading illegal content from the Internet is the same as stealing something from a shop. It’s not difficult to download illegally and the chance that you will be punished isn’t very high. That’s why the government must act and remove sites like Pirate Bay from the Internet.

Jonas Hillemans 2RP2

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/16/pirate_bay_copyright_infringement_trial/

Viewpoints: Laurence Fink on Real Estate Sector.

Laurence Fink, the chairman and CEO of BlackRock inc. gives his opinion on the crisis in the real estate or real property sector. He said that everybody who bought real property in 2006 or 2007 made a bad investment. In 2006 and 2007 everything went well and the real property companies received a lot of money. The most of those investments are bad today. They lost a lot of their value.


The company of Laurence Fink made a mistake, but they aren’t the only one, a lot of people made the same mistake. Mister Fink sais that now it’s a perfect time to buy real estate, because the prices are low. BlackRock inc. lost a lot of money because of the crisis, and now they have a big refinancing risk in the next few years. Now the market is growing again and new clients want to buy real estate. Laurence Fink thinks that if the US economy will increase again, the real estate sector will heal and the real estate market will grow again. It will be difficult in the first few years, your property might even have a lower value, but after a few years the value of your property will increase. Nobody knows how long the economic crisis will last, so it’s hard to tell when the real estate market will heal.


I think that the people must find their confidence back in the economy. If they find their confidence, they will invest again in the economy and in the real estate sector. Today the people don’t want to invest their money because they are afraid to lose it again. So it will be difficult to win the confidence of the people, but once they are confident that they will earn money instead of losing it, they will invest again and the economy will grow. When the economy increases, the real estate market will recover itself.


Jonas Hillemans 2RP2

Source: http://online.wsj.com/video/viewpoints-laurence-fink-on-real-estate-sector/12FF512D-98F6-46BA-834E-98C1351F83F4.html

Qantas to seek damages from Boeing

Qantas, an Australian flag carrier, wants to seek damages from Boeing, the US aircraft maker, for late delivery of the 787 Dreamliner. Boeing already confirmed that it was facing more embarrassing delays in the first deliveries of its 787. The 787 is an 250-300 seat jet, the group’s biggest investment in commercial aircraft in more than a decade. “Qantas and Boeing will be discussing the issue of liquidated damages in the coming weeks.” said Qantas chief executive, Geoff Dixon. Boeing has collected a large number of orders for the 787 and the issues of financial penalty payments to customers and the rescheduling of deliveries are becoming a n increasing headache. The order book may become a huge problem as the delays grow. Qantas is amongst the biggest customers and the group has made a commitment for up to 115 aircraft. Scott Carson, chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said on Wednesday the first flight of the 787 had been put back again, the third delay from the original plan for the first flight in August last year. I think Qantas has it at the right end. They will get damages for the delays of delivery of Boeing. Hopefully for Boeing, the deliveries won’t take long anymore.

Steven

Source:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6198e578-c52c-11dc-811a-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

TLC files breach of contract suit against Jon Gosselin

Jon Gosselin of the TV-show has committed breach of contract against cable network TLC for taking paying gigs of other Television-shows without permission including the CBS-syndicated shows “Entertainment Tonight” and “The Insider”. Furthermore, Gosselin has appeared in non-paying media without TLC’s approval, which could also be in violation of his contract. The suit says he has also harmed the show with his constant criticisms and misstatements about being on the show and what goes on behind the scenes and revealing confidential information such as when he talked about his salary on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” He and his wife, Kate Gosselin from the show “Jon & Kate Plus 8” are in the middle of a divorce. The show follows the lives of a western Pennsylvania couple and their eight children. It became a huge hit after it came in the tabloids that Gosselin was seen with other women who weren’t his wife. In June, the show in which the couple revealed that their marriage was ending drew more than 10 million viewers. TLC has said that it would greatly reduce Jon Gosselin’s role in the show but Jon has already threatened to stop the production of the show. I think that TLC will get right in this case because Jon has really misbehaved himself and didn’t follow the contract.

Steven

Source:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/10/tlc-files-breach-of-contract-suit-against-jon-gosselin.html

Trade Unions Decline Around the World

We can see that the trade unions in The United Stated are declining. They’re losing their influence and popularity in the U.S.A., but how about the trade unions in the rest of the world?


The organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development published an article whit a graphic from each country, on the graphic you can see how many employees are connected to a trade union. We don’t only see a downward trend in the U.S.A, but also in many other industrialised countries all over the world. Belgium is almost the only country where the influence of the trade unions remains quiet stable in the last few years. In a lot of other countries in Europe for instance France, Italy, Spain the influence of the trade unions and the employees connected to the trade union are declining a lot.
Even in Asia the trade unions are losing their influence. Which is very strange because in some countries the working conditions are not good, so it’s strange that the people don’t want to be in a trade union.


Sometimes I find the trade unions very aggressive and they want to achieve their goal no matter what, even if the employer can’t solve the problems. Most of the time they don’t want to give in. That I find wrong because you only can come to a good solution if everyone puts some water in the wine, but trade unions can’t always see that.


I find it very important that there are trade unions, because the employees must be protected from the employer, so that he doesn’t have all the power. Somebody must represent the employees in the company and defend their rights, so that’s why it is necessary that there are trade unions.


I don’t think they will disappear, because than there is nobody to protect the employees and I don’t think that the governments are going to let that happen.


Jonas Hillemans 2RP2

Source: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/trade-unions-around-the-world/?scp=1&sq=trade%20union&st=cse

Think a twice when you make a contract

This article is about a contract break and defaulting. There are 2 parties Itelco and Scarlet Telecom. In 2007 they made an agreement in which Itelco took the sale of Scarlet’s telecommunication services. Everything was perfect in order. Gert Post, managing director of Itelco Group told in a message that the cooperation with Itelco had caused for an important sells increase . After this augmentation everything went wrong. Scarlet terminated the cooperation and refused to pay the services done. A month later, Itelco went to the court and they lodge a complaint against Scarlet Telecom. They claim a compensation of 5milion euro’s because of ending the contract in which Itelco care for the Scarlets B2B-services. The complaint dated almost 1year but it announced 3months ago by the website of Data News. In this article Gert Post, managing director of Scarlet is saying that the case isn’t such horrible as it looks. However Frederick De Sloover, managing director of Itelco Group is completely against the statement of Gert Post where he minimized the problem. In a conversation with an IT Professional he accentuated that it isn’t a dispute about the sales as Post pretended. He said also that it is about a contract break, defaulting and unfair competition. The complaint lodged to the court of justice of Brussel. By the way, Belgacom made an offer on Scarlet, it is now waiting for the reaction.
Opinion:
I am completely agree with the approach of Itelco about the case. They followed the normal process by going to the court. It is finally about a serious agreement concerned about lot of money. Scarlet behaved in an unethical way what caused for problems for Itelco Company. Itelco can come through the problems with the offer of Belgacom they got. But on the other side, Scarlet will gets lots of problems, there is a difficult time waiting for Scarlet.

www.zdnet.be/news/89148/scarlet-beschuldigd-van-contractbreuk-en-wanbetaling/
Selim Karadag 2rp2

Women vulnerable to sex discrimination in workplace

A recent report shows that one fourth of all women is rejected from a job due to sex discrimination. It’s hard to do something about it, because the rules aren’t very clear about sex discrimination and the government doesn’t cooperate either. So it’s very difficult to find some evidence in the law.

The report was made by the Center for Women’s Law and Legal Services of Peking University. They say that there is a lot of sex discrimination in the job market in China. The report is based on personal statements of female job applicants. Many of them feel very angry because they are treated very badly and unfair.

It’s not that the female applicants can’t protect themselves. They don’t have any laws they can refer to. It’s very difficult to find evidence, so they have no power to protect their rights. The government can make more laws and specify the laws so there can’t be any mistakes and the women can protect themselves.

It’s not impossible to sue an employer for sex discrimination, but the question we need to ask is if the decision makers want to solve the problem. Even in the governments offices there is sex discrimination.

I think it’s awful that women in China are victims of sex discrimination. The worst of all is that the Chinese government doesn’t do anything about it. Women must be equal to men. I think the Chinese government must make some new laws and complete the existing laws, because now it’s almost impossible to sue an employer for sex discrimination and that is not the way it supposes to be. The women who made the report have done some good work and I hope that a lot of people will read it and take action to force the government to chance the laws so that the women are equally treated as the men.

Jonas Hillemans
2RP2

source: http://opinion.globaltimes.cn/commentary/2009-06/438474.html

As well as certain strike of the railways on 5 November 2009

Next Thursday there will be almost certainly a 24 hour strike of the railways. Sources of the trade unions and the NMBS have said this.

The two major railway trade unions are dissatisfied by the negotiations with the NMBS-direction about B-cargo, the cargo division of the NMBS, and applied for a 24 hour strike. The strike will run from Wednesday evening 4 November 22 hours to Thursday, 5 November 22 hours.

The NMBS wants to create a private judicial company from B-cargo, but in this new company there will be no place for all 900 employees of B-cargo. The trade unions are protesting against the fact that there is still no clarity about what will happen with all those employees. Jannie Haeck, CEO of the NMBS holding company, says he understands the nervousness of the trade unions. But, the cargo compartment of the NMBS is heavily losing profit. This year there is a loss of EUR 188 million being recorded, after a loss of EUR 85 million in 2008.

Although there were already many meetings, both formal and informal, there were in fact no real negotiations. The direction of the NMBS talked in first instance only about a scenario where the working conditions were handled heavily and in a second phase for a total management of the carriage of goods, not about redundancy dismissals. That’s why the trade unions are complaining at this moment.

Not a single moment the trade union had the feeling that the NMBS really wanted a negotiated solution, with mutual agreement, the ACOD said. The Socialist Union really wants to avoid a second ABX-drama.

That there will be a strike is as well as certain. The total traffic, both passenger transport (including international trains) as the transport of goods, will be immobilized on 5 November. Accidentally, it’s my birthday then. I hope I don’t have to take the train that day. That’s why I hate strikes, especially when thousands of people are trapped because of it. But on the other hand when I must be in the situation of those employees, maybe I would do the same…

Marriage has nothing to do with color
Who wants to marry in the American state Louisiana, has to think twice before he decides. In Louisiana the judge had refused the marriage between a black man, Terence McKay and the white woman Beth Humphrey. He has the opinion that such marriages doesn’t have any success and the children only become the dupe. Despite lot of accusations made by the inhabitants he accentuates that he isn’t a racist. He worries about the children and it is his right to deny the marriage between 2 different races. By the way he works in Tangipahoa Parish, on the countryside of Louisiana. The main opponent of the judge, Keith Bardwell, is the American association of civil rights, the ACLU. In the mean time they have claimed. for the resignation of the judge. Their main argument that they wrote in the letter to the on the Court is that a judge has only follow the law not his theories. The judge stays on his point of view by saying that those marriages haven’t got any chance for success. Now they are waiting for a positive reaction of the letter so there comes any victims of the “theories” of the judge.

Opinion:
Cultural difference is the main cause of bad marriages but the judge may not give his opinion on that matter. I think it is incredible that this is happening in the country of Obama, the land of freedom and prosperity. A good solution would be marrying in another state. But I think that the judge has a point about the importance of children. Because they aren’t accepted as equals by the both “races”, they become the dupe. These times people divorce frequently ,a good marriage is exceptional. The Constitution guarantees the equality between the different races and people. A decision against the Constitution is not possible. So they can go to the supreme court.

Selim Karadag
2RP2

http://www.spitsnieuws.nl/archives/raar/2009/10/rechter_vs_verbiedt_gemengd_hu.html