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Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- AfriForum, a South African civil rights organization, called for a worldwide boycott of Nestle SA products after the Swiss company said it buys milk from a farm belonging to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s family. Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, said on Sept. 28 that it purchases milk from the Mugabe family’s Gushungo Holdings Ltd. that account for as much as 15 percent of the company’s intake in the southern African country. Gushungo owns a property formerly known as Foyle Farm that was seized by the government as part of a program to transfer land from white commercial farmers to black citizens of the country.
There aren't many individuals in history whose names are taken in vain more than Capt. C.C. Boycott, the notorious Irish landlord who cut the wages of his tenant farmers and got himself ostracized -- and the English language enriched -- in return.The captain's name has seldom been out of public circulation since then. Yet every new boycott inspires vigorous discussion over whether this sort of pressure on the powerful is effective or fair. Currently on the table are two such actions: an advertisers' boycott of Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, and a shoppers' boycott of the Austin, Texas, grocery chain Whole Foods Market.
Phase 2 has begun. Six weeks after millions took to the streets to protest Iran's presidential election, their uprising has morphed into a feistier, more imaginative and potentially enduring campaign.The second phase plays out in a boycott of goods advertised on state-controlled television. Just try buying a certain brand of dairy product, an Iranian human-rights activist told me, and the person behind you in line is likely to whisper, "Don't buy that. It's from an advertiser."
Thousands of protesters have held rallies in South Korea's capital Seoul this week as they continue their campaign against the lifting of a ban on US beef imports. Street protests, sometimes involving extreme measures, are an important part of Korean culture. More than 10,000 are held every year - some with devastating consequences.
South Korea's embattled president is facing growing calls for his resignation amid a wave of public anger over a decision to resume US beef imports. Tuesday night saw the largest protests yet, with tens of thousands taking to the streets of the South Korean capital.
Thousands of South Koreans protested in Seoul on Tuesday against imports of American beef. The demonstrations against Mr. Lee started more than a month ago when students began protesting his government's decision in April to resume imports of American beef despite widespread fears of mad cow disease.
Carrefour boycott,Non-violent protest against France from Qingdao China. Patriotic students shouted, "Carrefour, closed!" To protest the French government's unfriendly to the Chinese peopleCarrefour has been rolled into a campaign mixed up with both boycott and anti-boycott.We hope you are able to boycott Carrefour at least on 1 May, to deliver, by the empty Carrefour that day, one message to the western world: Chinese shouldn’t be humiliated! Chinese people shouldn’t be insulted!The boycott against Carrefour is going to spreading all over the country, and we anticipate your presence! Thank you. Carrefour, the French retail giant, is the newest target on the list of what cyber-nationalists in China hate and aim at. Cell phone text messages calling on boycotts are popping up, over 5000 net cafes in China, as Daqi.com summed up, have been rife with posts against Carrefour, and quite a few radical netizens have already made the slogans into practice.The boycott is supposed to be caused by the recent grief and violence the Olympic torch relay suffered from in France and the saying that a big shareholder of Carrefour, LVMH group, has donated money to the Dalai Lama.The Olympic torch relay that just ended in Paris is not as peaceful as most of Chinese know about. Let’s see what French and its government have done when Chinese carried the torch, a symbol of peace and friendship into their territory.1. Before the relay, a French TV station called on people to protest on street for the reason that they “don’t want Chinese flags flaunting all over”.2. The torch was forced to extinguish for 4 times under the violent disruptions of Tibet separatists.3. The French police in charge of security simply stood by to see the separatists snatching the torch, and striking the disabled torch carrier.4. At where the torch went by, hordes of French waved the flag of separatists, clamoring “Free Tibet’, “Shame on China” to protest against China.5. Groups of young men even scrambled the Chinese students’ Five-star flags and tore them up, two sides in conflict.6. When the sacred fire passed by the City Hall of Paris, the banners and slogans of pro-Tibet independence were hung out and all the alderman put on the pro-separatism badges, a behavior that made the planned ceremony there cancelled.7. The major media in France reviewed the torch relay with such headlines— Fiasco in Paris(Figaro) and A Slap on ChinaAnd it’s not unusual to see such comments tightly following up the petition.Completely boycott Carrefour.Furthermore, QQ groups all over China were set up to recruit boycott activists. A list shows that places including Chongqing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, more than 20 areas totally, have joined this cyber campaign, during which netizens can communicate by the IM tool to make the whole protest more organizational. In fact at Kunming, a city in southern China, netizens have extended their slogans to the realityby protesting in front of the local Carrefour. The banner reads:Support Olympic, oppose Tibet-independence; boycott French products and Carrefour!The following pictures show the protest in the city of Wuhan. Notice that the banner has exactly the same word as that in Kunming. This time the rivaling voice doesn’t fade as years ago when the appeal of boycotting Japan products was at climax. Even on Tianya.com, a well-known marketplace of bold clamors and patriotism, the petitions of anti-boycott don’t shy away.In Tianya, netizen Lepel said in his post “you are so unwise to boycott Carrefour, or, you think us too unwise”,I feel it so ridiculous when hearing that so many people are organizing a boycott against Carrefour. I bear great sorrow for their blindness, which is as much stupid as the boycotts against Japanese, American and all western products long time ago. Do you have to isolate China from the world again? Reviewing the anti-Japan activity years ago, I wonder what we commons have really got the campaign. When the tension between the governments came to ease, the anti-Japan action that slightly crossed the line got a crackdown….and we have not yet learnt a lesson from that, and now we are going to have anti-France.Fine, with the boycott, you would simply favor advantage to all other supermarkets and let people go further and spend more for daily shopping. Anything else?Someday in the future when a new French president comes into power or the policy gets changed, everything will just go back to “Long live China-France friendship”, sooner or later. At that time, won’t it be laughable to look back at what we are doing now?Boycott Carrefour? Come on! You are actually boycotting the Chinese manufactures, Chinese workmen there and the country of our own, because Carrefour pays tax to our government!!! Are you able to boycott Paris mayor? BS. Why should I boycott? Our dynasty (allusion to the ruling party-translator) has not yet called on, and perhaps soon they will talk greatly on the China-France friendship.In history, it used to fight hard with Vietnam, but what about now? Friendly conversation and fellowship between us two peoples! Who care about those soldiers died there? F…Ten years ago when the Chinese embassy was bombed by U.S army I was even more indignant that the “patriotic young men” today. Our city is taking pain to introduce the Carrefour in, every official extremely busy on that plan. What should I do? Boycott? Then I will be clashing with our party and country.Anti-Japan anti-France anti-German anti-Korea anti-Taiwan anti-Italy anti-Australia anti-Vietnam anti-Britain anti-U.S…anti-world…anti-universe.But NO anti-autarchy and corruption. So tragic men.This is called “the government digs holes, and zealous youngsters plant trees”.Finally, an analogy might reveal how a lot of people view this patriotic action.The patriotic youngsters are the condom of the party— discarded right after orgasm.The points of the two camps diverge sharply. Rumors have been heard that Carrefour is going to make considerable discounts on 1 May to counteract the planned boycott. And it has announced that it will always be the friend of Chinese. But even not so, the chances of a successful boycott campaign is doubted, as the predominant public opinion years ago for a boycott over Japan didn’t make a good shot, while today the each side is equally strong. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/04/16/chinacarrefour-under-boycott-threat/
How was the Raj transformed from the jewel in Britain's imperial crown to the independent nations of India and Pakistan?1858: Beginning of the RajIn 1858, British Crown rule was established in India, ending a century of control by the East India Company. The life and death struggle that preceded this formalisation of British control lasted nearly two years, cost £36 million, and is variously referred to as the 'Great Rebellion', the 'Indian Mutiny' or the 'First War of Indian Independence'. Inevitably, the consequences of this bloody rupture marked the nature of political, social and economic rule that the British established in its wake. It is important to note that the Raj (in Hindi meaning 'to rule' or 'kingdom') never encompassed the entire land mass of the sub-continent. Two-fifths of the sub-continent continued to be independently governed by over 560 large and small principalities, some of whose rulers had fought the British during the 'Great Rebellion', but with whom the Raj now entered into treaties of mutual cooperation. 'The 'Great Rebellion' helped create a racial chasm between ordinary Indians and Britons.'Indeed the conservative elites of princely India and big landholders were to prove increasingly useful allies, who would lend critical monetary and military support during the two World Wars. Hyderabad for example was the size of England and Wales combined, and its ruler, the Nizam, was the richest man in the world. They would also serve as political bulwarks in the nationalist storms that gathered momentum from the late 19th century and broke with insistent ferocity over the first half of the 20th century. But the 'Great Rebellion' did more to create a racial chasm between ordinary Indians and Britons. This was a social segregation which would endure until the end of the Raj, graphically captured in EM Forster's 'A Passage to India'.While the British criticised the divisions of the Hindu caste system, they themselves lived a life ruled by precedence and class, deeply divided within itself. Rudyard Kipling reflected this position in his novels. His books also exposed the gulf between the 'white' community and the 'Anglo-Indians', whose mixed race caused them to be considered racially 'impure'. Please see: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/independence1947_01.shtml) for the next seven pages.
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