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Hong Kong has introduced a minimum wage that is expected to benefit 270,000 low-paid workers, or around 10% of the working population.
Workers will now earn a minimum of HK$28 ($3.60; £2.18) per hour.
The legislation was passed in response to public pressure to narrow the territory’s wealth gap.
But the minimum wage has been resisted by the business community, who say it is too costly.
Business leaders say small businesses will be forced to lay off staff.
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Start Quote
The pay rise won’t make much difference to me”
Lau Yuk Na
Street sweeper
Hong Kong workers see wages rise
Critics also say the legislation is a departure from Hong Kong’s free-market roots.
With the exception of Singapore, most Asian countries now have a minimum wage or are considering one.
The move is expected to boost the pay of Hong Kong’s legions of street sweepers, security guards and restaurant workers.
“The employers now cannot squeeze the lowest paid sectors of society,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, head of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and a legislator.
Unions had campaigned for a minimum wage of HK$33 an hour and many workers say the wage increase will not cover rising living costs.
The government said it was forced to introduce the legislation after a voluntary minimum wage scheme in 2006 met with a tepid response from businesses.
Even before its implementation, the legislation has led to disputes between workers and employers.
Some employers have re-hired workers on new contracts with unpaid meal breaks and rest days to avoid paying a higher wage bill.
The legislation does not cover the territory’s almost 300,000 domestic helpers, who mainly come from the Philippines and Indonesia.
Laila Ali and husband former NFL Player Curtis Conway are expanding their family. Ali is pregnant with her second child. She’s hoping for a girl. She’s due in April. This will be Muhammad Ali’s 13th grandchild. Laila is also coming out with a line of hair products.
There are a number of holy books or sacred texts in the world. They constitute the core of some of the world’s major religions. It is generally thought to be, at the very least, simple good manners for people who have a strong belief in one of these holy books not to derogate, at least publicly, the holy book reverenced by another group. And most certainly it is thought to be but plain decency not to deliberately and ostentatiously set out to abuse, mock, defile or destroy the holy book of another group. For example, by burning a pile of them publicly after alerting the world to your deliberately disrespectful intent.
This is, indeed, what one cunning or dim-witted, rabid or naive, publicity genius or blundering innocent, self-proclaimed Christian pastor, Terry Jones, declared he was going to do with some 200 copies of the Koran Saturday, being the ninth anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. That announcement set in motion an extraordinary story and one which opens troubling questions about the war on terror and the current engagement of Western military in Afghanistan and Iraq.
First, the story tells us that in some rather difficult-to-articulate sense, this war has taken on aspects that are fundamentally not serious. When extraneous, or circumstantial, or ancillary matters occupy centre stage, it is a clear sign, by definition, that the main business has been sidelined.
And what or who is more extraneous or ancillary, more truly irrelevant, than Pastor Jones? How could a genuine world issue, of cardinal depth and significance, be hostage to such a trivial player, to a pathetic and obvious publicity ploy by a man the world had never heard of?
Why is anyone paying attention to this guy? He’s not a new version of Billy Graham or even Jerry Falwell. He has no earned iconic standing. He’s a non-entity of a splinter church with a piddling 30 or 50 followers. What he does or intended to do is of no social, symbolic or geopolitical consequence whatsoever.
But what was really odd was how the great and powerful of the world reacted. All week, he was being beseech-ed by the mighty of the Earth to stop what he and his little band of true believers were proposing to do. There was the Vatican, there was Tony Blair. In Canada, Stephen Harper, Peter McKay and Michael Ignatieff weighed in. And General David Petraeus, the overlord of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, astonishingly proclaimed that Terry Jones’ stunt would undermine the “total effort” of the war in Afghanistan.
This sideline preacher’s gruesome little barbecue would jeopardize, in other words, the main front in the war on terror. In fact, Barack Obama himself has been publicly pleading with Jones to put off the event. And most tellingly, Obama’s Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, undoubtedly under orders from the White House, went into direct personal discussion and negotiation with the Florida-based pastor to get him to change his plans.
What a spectacle. How did a publicity stunt in Florida become a fulcrum for success or failure in the war on terror?
There is something profoundly unserious here, undignified and immensely off base. The first General of the United States, and the Secretary of Defense of the greatest war machine in the history of the world are both deferring to some fringe evangelist for fear that he might … what? Might lose the war for them? If this is the splinter the war on terror is hanging on to then it is, I fear, a house of cards in both theatres.
Nor is it irrelevant that by Friday another, better known exhibitionist, Donald Trump, had inserted himself into this story. “Unreality” doesn’t come in single doses. So now (the cast was assembling), it was the Imam, the Pastor and the Donald. It’s like a parody apocalypse.
Nine years out from the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001, there will be people marking this day with all the solemnity that grief and memory can bring to it. There will be military families ruminating on their sacrifices. I’m not sure how the weird, absurd and — I think — irrational events out of Florida fit with these observances. The whole saga has usurped the great messages of determination and purpose that filled the months and days after 9/11.
by Rex Murphy
The release date for Tyler Perry’s movie For Colored Girls has been moved up. The movie was supposed to come out next January, but the movie is now being released on November 5th. The movie, based on the 1975 play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange, stars Janet Jackson, Anika Noni Rose, Whoopi Goldberg, Kimberly Elise, Phylicia Rashad, Loretta Devine, Thandie Newton, Macy Gray, Michael Ealy, Hill Harper and Khalil Kain. Tyler Perry wrote and directed this movie version, and Oscar buzz and hype is already surrounding the film.
Brian McKnight has responded to charges that a rape occurred at his home two years ago. Porn Star Alana Evans claims she was raped at the home of Brian McKnight two years ago, and his sons helped to cover it up. McKnight was not home at the time but his sons were with a family friend. Porn Star Evans, who admitted she was drunk, took to twitter claiming she was raped by the family friend. An investigation did take place, and according to the police report, a rape did not take place. McKnight says neither he nor his sons participated in a cover up and have cooperated with police. McKnight says he agrees with the results of the investigation, and that he and his family would never cover up such a serious crime
In Marietta, Ga., one of the most horrific cases of child neglect and/or abuse was discovered in August. According to Headline News, the children were removed from the home and the parents arrested, but the police had to first come to grips with what they were seeing. There were two children four and five, both morbidly obese and completely filthy. Their bodies were covered in spider bites, hair caked with lice and the four-year old was wearing a “urine-soaked diaper.” DISGUSTING!
When the police responded to a domestic abuse call, they found this horrifyingly filthy house infested with cockroaches, giant spiders, black mold and dirt throughout the bathroom and tub, and then a five-year old with rotting teeth weighing approximately 160 pounds and a filthy four-year old weighing approximately 90 pounds. But the most awful thing about the case is that the parents, James and Anne Cardona, both chared with second-degree child cruelty are already out on bond.
NEIGHBORS ACROSS AMERICA! Please don’t turn your head when you see this type of thing going on under your nose in your neighborhood. The authorities stated that the neighbors as well as James Cardona’s sister knew the conditions of the children, who were supposedly home-schooled yet could barely communicate, and yet reported nothing. For Real?!!! C’mon Son! We can do better!
President Barack Obama is hoping a Florida minister will “listen to those better angels” and cancel his plan to engage in a Quran-burning protest to mark the anniversary of Sept. 11th.
In an interview aired today on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the president said he hopes the Rev. Terry Jones of Florida listens to the pleas of people who have asked him to call off the plan. The president called it a “stunt.”
“If he’s listening, I hope he understands that what he’s proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans,” Obama said. “That this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance.”
“And as a very practical matter, I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform,” the president added. [Scroll down to watch interview.]
Obama added: “Look, this is a recruitment bonanza for Al Qaida. You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan.” The president also said Jones’ plan, if carried out, could serve as an incentive for terrorist-minded individuals “to blow themselves up” to kill others.
“I hope he listens to those better angels and understands that this is a destructive act that he’s engaging in,” the president said of Jones.
Officials said U.S. diplomatic posts have been instructed to convene “emergency action committees” to determine the potential for protests over the congregation’s plans to burn the Quran to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The posts are to warn American citizens in countries where protests may occur.
HP asked a court on Tuesday to block Hurd, HP’s former CEO, from joining Oracle, saying his hiring by the rival technology firm puts HP’s trade secrets “in peril.”
Oracle Corp CEO Larry Ellison fired back, calling the lawsuit “vindictive” and saying HP’s board is making it “virtually impossible” for the two companies to partner together.
Cathie Lesjak, who became HP’s interim CEO after Hurd was forced out on Aug. 6 over expense account irregularities, said on Wednesday at the Citigroup Global Technology Conference that Ellison’s comments “strained” the relationship a bit.
But she added: “At the end of the day, business will prevail and, ultimately, we will go back to being good partners, and competitors where we’ve been competitors.
“I believe that HP is important to Oracle and Oracle is an important partner of ours.”
HP shares fell 3.6 percent to $38.48 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while Oracle shares fell 1 percent to $24.01 on the Nasdaq.
The 11th season of Dancing With The Stars kicks off on the 20th. This year’s dancers include David Hasselhoff (Baywatch, Knight Rider) Kirstie Alley (Cheers), Michael Bolton, Football Star Kurt Warner, Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, Singer Brandy, Kyle Massey (Corey In The House, That’s So Raven) former husband of Vanessa Williams and Basketball Star Rick Fox and Brady Bunch mom Florence Henderson. Brandy is the favorite to win it all. If Brandy wins, she would be the first African American female to win. Past contestants include Laila Ali, Vivica A. Fox, Mel B, Mya and Lil’ Kim.
Mrs. Jesse Jackson, Jr. speaks for the first time about the state of her marriage to Chicago-area Congressman. Sandi Jackson says she was mortified and in agony over finding out her husband had an affair with a bikini model. The Jacksons have two children and have been married since 1991. Sandi says she went through bouts of sleepless nights and she was losing her hair. Sandi is an alderman in Chicago. She says Jesse, Jr. told her about the affair two years ago, and they have undergone marital and spiritual counseling. The Jacksons are looking to expand their political ambitions. Both are interested in running for mayor in Chicago. Sandi says despite the pain, she is standing by her man. Jesse, Jr. was involved with Giovanna Huidobro, a bikini model and cocktail waitress. As of press time, there has been no public comment from Jesse, Jr., Huidobro or Jesse’s dad the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has had problems with extramarital affairs himself.