The opening of Exhibition Road, paved with millions of pounds of Chinese granite, forces us to ask questions the Rotten Borough conveniently ignored. Fortunately, they have different ethical standards in Sweden.This extract from a trade magazine below tells us more.
Sweden to check Chinese quarry standards
An investigation into the standard of working practices in Chinese quarries has been launched by several Swedish local authorities. The local governments in Malmö, Göteborg and Örebro have commissioned Swedwatch to check on working conditions and health and safety practices in a number of quarries in China, which currently supply stone paving products to Sweden.The launch of the investigation comes after a national radio programme in Sweden, Kaliber, highlighted the low standard of care for workers in China. The programme’s review focused on several industries, including the quarry industry, which has raised concerns in Sweden about the ethics of buying materials from China just on the basis of price.
There is a double irony in using stone quarried by political and other prisoners in one of the world's worst abusers of human rights-China. The granite paving serves a unique collection of cultural and educational institutions, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Royal Albert Hall and Imperial College London. These institutions represent the best of Western civilisation and intellectual freedom-things not so revered in brutal, repressive China.
The other irony is that of the transportation process and it's environmental impact and cost. But then Pooter Cockell with his adoration of 8 MPG Bentleys is unlikely to be worried about that.
So when Tott Brill, the overpaid and dramatically under-qualified 'Fun Leader' organises her 'dancing festival' in Exhibition Rd spare a thought or two for the cruelly treated 'slave labour' who made it all possible.
I have always wondered whether the quarry, had it been sited in the Borough would have been closed down. Did anyone go and visit the quarry to check on labour conditions?
ReplyDeleteIf you want to find out just how much the Royal Borough cares about these ethical and environmental issues, just have a look at the portfolio of the Pension Fund.
ReplyDeleteYou would imagine they had gone out of their way to find businesses that have been involved in scandals of all kinds, poisoning or pillaging natural resources in the face of local opposition and abusing labour forces around the world.
Disgraceful.