Ikea apologizes for use of forced prison labor

[p01]

“We deeply regret that this could happen. Using political prisoners in production has never been accepted within the Ikea Group.”
— Jeanette Skjelmose, Ikea’s sustainability manager

Nobody thought to ask the [strike]slaves [/strike]labourers, though. I’m pretty sure I would have chosen to work for Ikea Furniture, rather than go in the fields to pick up corn, potatoes and beets, or in some forsaken factory were we would “voluntarily” work on some other industrial stuff. Those Eastern German prisoniers must have had some pretty high connections to be able to work for exports.

Just in:
In unconfirmed related news, The Onion News allegedly reported that legislators are now working on draft laws that will make all form of forced labour legal in the future, to prevent any ineffective measures from standing in the way of progress.

[p01]

Amazing, forced labour got 20 something views. Maybe it I would have changed the title to “!!!HYPERINFLATION!!! – HERE’S HOW AND WHEN IT WILL FINALLY HAPPEN!!!!” it would have been more interesting.

And some still think there’s hope…

[Glennjeff]

Looking on the bright side p01, you were able to share your concerns with 30+ people by just pushing a button or two. A link to the full story might have been good.

[Nicole Foss]

It’s harder for people to find topics that are only in the forum, rather than linked to an article on the front page. It’s a good article to share more widely. Perhaps one of us will have a chance to write a piece for the front page on the topic at some point. Forced labour is going to get so much more common in the future, as human slaves replace disappearing energy slaves. There are so many people compared to the jobs and resources we’ll have in the future that life is sadly going to get very cheap. In the old days of slavery, a slave was an expensive investment and therefore not expendable. I hate to think what might happen to a new generation of slaves that are cheap and expendable.

[Nassim]

Here in Australia, on my favourite channel SBS (I only watch stuff recorded on a hard-disk), we had a great Vietnamese movie – “Journey From The Fall” about the way the losers of that conflict were sent to “re-education camps”. The movie was financed by ex-boat people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_from_the_Fall

Of course, re-education was a minor part of the process. The prisoners worked as slaves (who were disposable as they cost nothing). They were clearing mine-fields and jungle by hand. They were starving and when a prisoner was fortunate enough to catch a cockroach, he would share it with his friends – “please you take the rear, it is the best part” They were frequently beaten by their guards.

Of course, the people who own the film distribution business, TV stations and paper media in the USA and many other places – ahem ahem – did not want any competition with their own favourite theme for suffering. The film was only shown in a handful of places to sold-out audiences. I am sure that with proper marketing and distribution and a bit of Spielberg, it would have done as well as “Schindler’s List”

I guess, from the point of view of some people, anyone who reads this blog needs some “re-education” 🙂

I note that Burma is rapidly becoming a “friendly nation”. The fact that they are clearing out Moslem minorities does not seem to have received much attention.

https://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NH16Ae02.html

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