China
Suicide CSM: A recent study revealed that one-quarter of the children (ages 8 to 15) in China’s wealthiest city have considered taking their own lives. Perhaps more surprising is that the results were made public.
Long a taboo topic in China, particularly when it comes to young people, suicide is becoming part of public discussion, opening the doors to education and prevention in a country with a suicide rate more than twice that of the United States….The survey indicates that children in this booming metropolis of 20 million are under pressure to excel at school and sports, as well as in their social lives.
Labor Unrest Fabian: an “unprecedented series of walkouts” marking “the first stirrings of unrest” emerging among the millions of youthful migrant workers who supply seemingly inexhaustible cheap labor for the vast expanse of factories in the PRC’s booming Pearl River Delta….The official federation announced that Wal-Mart, the American merchandizing giant, had agreed to allow unions in its factories in China.
“But factory owners and workers in the Pearl River boom zone said the official union does little to represent labor, even in the rare cases when branches are formed, because it is a spinoff of local governments that own or rely on the businesses.”
