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| Passengers Rescued from Burning Ferry A 650-foot ferry caught fire in the Baltic Sea after an explosion on the upper deck, prompting a dash to rescue the 249 passengers and crew on board. online.wsj.com |
Chile miners rescue: Mexico rues lack of 2006 disaster rescue Anger and sorrow in Mexico as victims' families lament lack of willpower to save 65 men trapped and later killed in Pasta de Conchos methane explosionAs the world revels in the successful rescue of the Chilean miners, the feelgood factor is tempered in Mexico by anger and sorrow that something similar was not tried when 65 miners were killed here in 2006."We've watched all the efforts and the will to return the miners to their families alive," relatives of the Mexicans wrote in a letter to the Chilean families this week. "We never saw that here."The miners were trapped inside the Pasta de Conchos coalmine in northern Mexico after a methane explosion. They were thought to be about 150 metres below the surface, less than a quarter of the depth at which the Chilean miners survived for two months.It took rescuers over two weeks to find the survivors in Chile. In Mexico the search lasted five days before it was called off on the grounds that the air inside the mine was intolerably toxic.Rescue workers protested and the families were furious, but their campaign to at least get the bodies recovered soon faded from the news. Now the rescue of "Los 33" in Chile has brought attention back to "Los 65."Mexico's human rights ombudsman Raul Plascencia said it was "regrettable that Mexico did not make the same effort." Others went further. Raul Vera, an outspoken Roman Catholic bishop from the area of the mine, believes there was a conspiracy to curtail the rescue effort in order to cover up how bad the safety conditions were."In Chile the government and the companies joined together to rescue the miners alive," he said. "In Mexico they joined together to bury them forever."On Thursday the newspaper Reforma published a photograph of the families in Chile crying with joy next to an image of the desolation among families in Pasta de Conchos.Francisco Salazar, the labour secretary who oversaw the rescue attempt, insisted everything that could be done was done. He said it was senseless to compare the rescue possibilities in the "inert" mine in Chile with the "explosive" mine in Mexico.Jo Tuckman Mexico CityMexicoChileJo Tuckmanguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Central Bankers Clash Over Bond Buys The ECB refrained from purchasing government bonds last week for the first time since a controversial program aimed at shoring up shaky euro-zone countries such as Greece and Ireland began more than five months ago. online.wsj.com |
French lessons: pension protests | Editorial As the welfare state is rolled back all over Europe, a cause is being fought in France which we would do well to watchThere is at least one difference between May '68 and what has been happening in France for the last 11 days. In '68 the protest by workers and students erupted after a prolonged period of unprecedented economic growth. Today mass protest follows decades of high unemployment – particularly for the young. In the last two years it has risen by 17% for the under-25s. The social ladder in France is broken. Little wonder that among the millions of demonstrators who have turned out against President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reforms – at one point one in 20 of all the people in France – tens of thousands are sixth-formers. Behind the pensions revolt is a deep fear of unemployment which will only be worsened by workers delaying retirement.Before we in Britain scoff too quickly at the French for racing to the barricades to preserve a pension system which, to our eyes, looks generous, it is worth being clear about what is being fought over and what is not. There is a broad consensus, and has been for at least seven years, that the French pension system is bust. In a pay-as-you-go system, too few active workers are paying for too many pensioners. As the number of pensioners is set to increase from 15 million in 2008 to nearly 23 million in 2050, the ratio of active workers to pensioners will reduce still further. Depending on both the rate of long-term unemployment and labour productivity, the deficit in the state pension system, currently running at €32bn or 1.7% of GDP, could explode in the next decade to reach something more like 3% of GDP. That is a lot for any state to pay on pensions.The issue is not whether this system should be reformed but how. Who is to share the pension burden? Do low-paid manual workers, women, and the disabled take an extra hit as they would under Sarkozy's formula, or should employers and big business pay more? Why does someone who starts work at 18 have to work for longer – 44 years – before reaching the full entitlement than someone who enters the labour market at 22 with higher qualifications? The age that matters is not 62, when retirees can start drawing their pensions, but 67, when the benefit reaches its maximum. Why should poorer workers, who have shorter life expectancies, lose a higher proportion of their retirement years? Whether you are a refinery worker from Grandpuit or a dinner lady in a Marseille primary school, this is an issue worth coming out on to the streets for. Nor should this debate be wholly alien to anyone who has been following events in Britain this week. It, too, is about fairness and social justice.President Sarkozy is hoping that a combination of a swift vote in the senate and the forthcoming All Saints' Day national holiday will douse passions more effectively than the water cannons of his riot police. But thus far he is losing the battle for public opinion. Public support has curiously risen after a week in which fuel refineries and ports were blockaded, with 70% backing industrial action. Unions who have resisted calls for a general strike have vowed that there will be two more days of national action. And their chief demand, that the government must negotiate the reform rather than ram it through on to the statute books, is a reasonable one. With riot police yesterday behaving ever more violently with union pickets, the risk of death or serious injury on the picket lines rises by the day. Both sides could lose control, which would both weaken the unions' case and be catastrophic for the government.The French are not just being French. France has a lower level of inequality than most OECD countries, and is one out of only five which saw inequality decrease over the two decades to the mid-2000s. As the basic provisions of the welfare state are being rolled back all over Europe, in the name of protecting triple-A credit ratings, a cause is being fought in France which we in Britain would do well to watch carefully. The same fight could be coming here soon.Public sector pensionsPublic services policyProtestFranceguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Catholics Working to Fight AIDS Welcome Pope's Condom Comments People are still debating exactly what the Pope meant with his comment about condom use. But among Catholics who work to stop the spread of AIDS, the debate itself is a big step in the right direction feedproxy.google.com |