Cambodia Calling: Woman sues university cos she can't get a job

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Woman sues university cos she can't get a job

Only in the US. Associated Press article. Imagine if this happened in Cambodia.

The US is well-known to be a litigious society, with Americans suing for even the minutest thing.

"Americans collectively spend twice as much on civil litigation than they spend on new automobiles – and more than any other industrialised country. As a fraction of GDP, litigation expenditures in the United States are three times greater than those in the UK; 3.3 tort suits are filed in the United States for each 1,000 inhabitants compared with only 1.2 per 1,000 in England."

FromTHE ‘LITIGIOUS SOCIETY’: WHY AMERICANS SPEND MORE ON LAWSUITS THAN BRITS. More:

"The key difference is that under the British and continental European systems, the loser in a suit has to pay a substantial portion of the winner’s legal fees, while under the American system, each party pays their own legal fees.

The ‘all pay’ nature of the American system explains why the United States has been dubbed the ‘litigious society’. While the American system results in lower legal expenditures on a per trial basis, the incentives to go to trial are much higher under the American system than under the British and continental European systems."

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6. We believe exploitation is evil

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11. We believe in love at first sight - at least where our bags are concerned!

12. We believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of handbags!

WHAT IS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE?

A social enterprise has as its central objective, a social or environmental purpose, and not the obsession with profits. Yes, of course we want to be profitable, but it is so we can hire even more people in unfortunate circumstances, and offer them a shot at a better life, and not because we want to "increase shareholder value" or for the sake of lining our personal pockets. In fact, the only foreign staff (and founder/funder) does not get a salary from Bloom.

At Bloom, our mission is to alleviate poverty and save the environment at the same time, through our recycled bags.

As a social enterprise in Cambodia, we are competing with many NGOs on the one hand (which get donations) and for want of a better word, capitalistic businesses (which drive down costs in an effort to maximise profits). We recognise and accept the challenges that face all business, but are committed to principles of Fair Play, and will NEVER sacrifice those principles in order to be competitive. This means, for instance, we will never sacrifice workers' pay just so our bags will be cheaper. The average pay at Bloom today is 2.13 times the market rate.

So please, before you ask us to discount our bags, remember that we are not a minimum wage factory; we are a social enterprise. If you want a cheap factory-made bag, Bloom is not what you are looking for. If you agree that workers (where-ever they are--Singapore, Germany, France, the US) should always be paid fairly and are not here to produce goods and services at low wages for the profit of big business, then please consider Bloom. Bloom bags are all hand-made by our small team who spend our working hours dreaming up and making bags.

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Bloom is a social enterprise established in Sept 2006 with the intention of providing fair-paying jobs to abandoned, widowed and divorced Cambodian women. Bloom is not a factory. We are a small workshop of nine people who work closely as a team to produce original, quality handmade bags made from recycled rice and fish feed bags.

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