News Cut: May 12, 2008 Archive

This blog is child labor-free

Posted at 9:05 AM on May 12, 2008 by Tim Nelson (3 Comments)

A study in the Wall Street Journal today says "corporate responsibility" is good business.

To a point.

A new study by a pair of Canadian scholars at the University of Western Ontario found that consumers were willing to pay a hefty premium for "ethically produced" coffee and T-shirts in a carefully controlled test.

The study was meant to measure the economic effect of products from companies with "progressive" corporate policies.

Study subjects were informed of corporate practices like encouraging diversity and a commitment to customer safety; environmentally friendly production and respect for human rights.

The study found consumers were willing to pay a 64 percent premium for "good" coffee, above the price for menace-to-society coffee.

But the difference between products isn't usually that clear.

The study found that "good" coffee fetched only a 17 percent premium over coffee that the consumers knew nothing about.

And then things get really interesting.

The price premium for "good" T-shirts, labeled as 100 percent organic cotton, was found to be only 6 percent above the price for a shirt without any distinction. But the premium price difference between a 100 percent organic shirt and a 25 percent organic shirt is a measly 2 percent.

The bottom line: it pays to be good, but it looks like you only have to be a little good to be paid.

Comment on this post

The other pledge week

Posted at 11:57 AM on May 12, 2008 by Tim Nelson (1 Comments)

The kids up at the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Junior High are pledging, too - to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands.

But not for which Bishop Edens stands. He's sitting down.

Despite getting an ISS, better known as an "in school suspension" on Friday, the 14-year-old decided this weekend he would NOT stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, as district policy requires. That's what his mom, Heather Page, said on the phone this morning.

I called up there to see what had happened today - the his first day back since running afoul school policy.

Trouble started Thursday, when three students were reprimanded for sitting through the Pledge, although it didn't seem a matter of principle, if the various accounts of the matter are true. Edens nonetheless decided to make a point out of the matter on Friday and then got put in the penalty box. His mom decided to bring him home.

"I understand everyone is going to have their own opinion about it," said Page today. "If it's about supporting your country, there are a lot of other ways to support it, to support our troops. You can write them a letter. You can send them a package. But I don't think standing or sitting for the pledge is supporting them."

She didn't know how her son handled the situation today, although she admits to some apprehension about what the fallout from this will be in town. But since the school hadn't called, she assumed some accommodation had been reached. "I'm sure I'll hear about it when he gets home," she said.

I called Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton junior high principal Colleen Houglum, but she's out of the office. She told the Associated Press last week that the district policy may have to change.

That remains to be seen: here's the state law on the matter, as enacted in 2003:

Subd. 3. Pledge of Allegiance.

(a) All public and charter school students shall recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America one or more times each week.

The recitation shall be conducted:

(1) by each individual classroom teacher or the teacher's surrogate; or

(2) over a school intercom system by a person designated by the school principal or other person having administrative control over the school.

A local school board or a charter school board of directors may annually, by majority vote, waive this requirement.

(b) Any student or teacher may decline to participate in recitation of the pledge.

(c) A school district or charter school that has a student handbook or school policy guidemust include a statement that anyone who does not wish to participate in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance for any personal reasons may elect not to do so and that students must respect another person's right to make that choice.

(d) A local school board or a charter school board of directors that waives the requirement to recite the Pledge of Allegiance under paragraph (a) may adopt a district or school policy regarding the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Comment on this post

Our man in Shanghai

Posted at 10:41 PM on May 12, 2008 by Tim Nelson (3 Comments)

I received an email today from Adam Minter, the freelance journalist from St. Louis Park who's been working in Shanghai for the last five years or so. I reached him via Skype earlier tonight.

He said he was walking down the street, a thousand miles from the epicenter of the earthquake in China, when he felt the ground rumble. Workers started pouring out of the office towers in downtown Shanghai, fearing for their safety in the swaying buildings.

Thousands are feared dead already, but Minter said any number of factors are keeping the situation fogged in calamity.

An excerpt from our interview:

"One thing to keep in mind is that ordinarily in this kind of a disaster, you'll have the information come out quite slowly. But because of where this disaster occurred in Sichuan province, it will come out even more slowly than normal. And there's two reasons for this.

For one, it's a very remote area. The roads are not good. I have been out there and it takes a very long time to get around. And the other thing is that the main area where this occurred... is a Tibetan area with some autonomy. And these areas, dating back to the Tibetan riots a month ago, have been off limits to foreign media. And they probably won't be able to get in.

The Chinese media, for its part, is very tightly controlled. The Chinese have very strict rules about about how the Chinese media can report natural disasters."

Minter also said outpourings of aid and sympathy don't really happen in China.

"In the U.S., of course, you would have Red Cross 800 numbers on television right away. That doesn't happen here. China lacks the U.S.'s philanthropic tradition, partly because of the nature of the government here.

And it's always been assumed -- in a situation like this, its kind of assumed that it's the responsibility of the government above all else to aid the situation. So you're not going to see a huge, you're not going to see people gathering blankets and tents together and looking to give money.

That said, this morning, just from my blog I was going to post a link to the Chinese Red Cross and you can't access it. I don't know if that means they're down or there's so much traffic flowing into it."

It's already been a very difficult for China, by his lights: huge snowstorms blanketed the New Year. There have been widespread power outages, an alarming outbreak of foot and mouth disease in children and, of course, the Tibet riots.

You can hear a five minute interview with Minter here (It's from a Skype call, so it's got a little sound distortion. My apologies.)

Minter has written for the Rake magazine and other local outlets, as well as National Geographic. You can see Minter's blog at http://shanghaiscrap.com/.

Comment on this post