As revealed by Australia’s Fairfax newspaper group
today, “iconic Australian surfwear giant Rip Curl has sold
millions of dollars worth of clothes made in North Korea,
where factory workers endure slave-like conditions.”
Let’s examine.
“In a major embarrassment that raises serious questions about
Rip Curl’s garment sourcing practices, a Fairfax Media
investigation can reveal that workers at a the Taedonggang Clothing
Factory near the North Korean capital Pyongyang were contracted to
make some of Rip Curl’s 2015 winter range of clothing.
“The clothes were shipped to retail outlets and sold with a
“made in China” logo on them in a practice unions and
non-governmental organisations say is likely to involve other large
Australian clothing brands.
“In a major embarrassment that raises serious questions about
Rip Curl’s garment sourcing practices, a Fairfax Media
investigation can reveal that workers at a the Taedonggang Clothing
Factory near the North Korean capital Pyongyang were contracted to
make some of Rip Curl’s 2015 winter range of clothing.”
“Rip Curl has blamed one of its subcontractors for the
practice.
“Workers in North Korea are routinely exploited. North Korean
defectors have told investigators from NGOs, including Human Rights
Watch, that employees are forced to work long hours with minimal or
sometimes no pay. Workers who do not obey orders are imprisoned in
work camps.
“After Fairfax Media sent Rip Curl photos of its garments being
made in North Korea, the company’s chief financial
officer Tony Roberts released a statement that said the firm
“takes its social compliance obligations seriously”.
“We were aware of this issue, which related to our Winter 2015
Mountain-wear range, but only became aware of it after the
production was complete and had been shipped to our retail
customers.
“This was a case of a supplier diverting part of their
production order to an unauthorised subcontractor, with the
production done from an unauthorised factory, in an unauthorised
country, without our knowledge or consent, in clear breach of our
supplier terms and policies.
“We do not approve or authorise any production of Rip Curl
products out of North Korea.”
“It is unclear if, prior to the approach from Fairfax Media, Rip
Curl has made any effort to inform customers some of the firm’s
clothing was made in North Korea and falsely tagged with “made in
China” labels.”
…that life is fucking pointless and cruel, but also
filled with gorgeous moments…
Brock Little’s death has me kind of bummed
today, which is surprising since I didn’t know him. Saw
him around Haleiwa once or twice, that’s it.
Sure, he was the charger my entire childhood, a guy I,
everyone, looked up to. But I’m not usually wired for mourning. I
think that when we die it’s straight into the void, may as well
have never existed. Which is a prick thing to say in this context,
because Brock as so well liked and admired and a lot of good people
are really hurting after losing him.
Life is just so fucking pointless and cruel. For a guy like him
to be undone by his own body, still super young, lickety-split, out
of nowhere… I mean, the same thing could happen to any one of us at
any time.
Life is just so fucking pointless and cruel. For a guy like him
to be undone by his own body, still super young, lickety-split, out
of nowhere… I mean, the same thing could happen to any one of us at
any time.
I’ve dealt with my own mortality a few times over the past
couple years, but not really on that level. Serious tones from a
doctor, “You could die,” ain’t the same as “You’re going to.”
But laying in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of you and a
virulent infection coursing through your bloodstream, it’s fucking
terrible. Not really because death is bad, it’s coming for us all.
But life is just so damn full of gorgeous moments, and I plan on
having decades more.
I think that’s once you’ve really really really internalized the
fact that you’ll eventually end the knowledge never truly goes
away. You try to push it into the back of your mind, why deal with
something unavoidable? Still there though, you’re gonna die.
I’ve mentioned before that my 89-year-old landlady lives on the
property. She’s a great woman, awesome neighbor. I try to help her
out where I can. At that age something as simple as moving a twenty
pound bag is nigh impossible. For me it’s nothing.
She took a spill a month or two back. Pretty bad, tripped over
her own feet, ended up with seventeen staples in her forehead.
Otherwise she was fine, and remarked that she was just glad she
didn’t break her hip. She’d seen it happen to friends, after that
it’s just a slow decline then death.
Which makes it so much worse when she fell last week. Called the
wife and I for help, we ran her to the ER, they sent her home the
same day. Then she fell out of bed, called again.
A broken pelvis and seven broken ribs, and if I’m being honest
with myself I know it’s pretty much the end for her. Healing
injuries that bad take forever, you lose all your muscle, it’s a
trial to get back. And at the tail end of your ninth decade there’s
not much you can do. No real chance to weight train, when you’re
frail at best even a minor injury is serious.
And, fuck, I’ve been hurt before, I know how terrible it is, but
to know you won’t ever get back to form is so damn awful. It’s easy
to say, yeah, she’s had a long full life. Big loving family,
hospital room packed chock full of flowers and balloons. But she’s
not a stupid lady, she knows what’s in store.
Not that you can choose your end, quick while you’re young and
strong or slow when your old and feeble, but you can hope. I guess
I’d hope for old and slow.
I don’t know what the take-away is here.
Just try to live in the moment. We’re all due our share of
misery, try and make magic happen when you can.
You’ll either see it coming or you won’t, and one day it’ll be
over.
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Choking: A New Mall for Carlsbad?
By Jake M Tellkamp
Chris Murnane Is Fighting To Save Carlsbad,
California…
Malls
choke the character out of a town and Southern California
is starting to look blue in the face. For every victory in preservation of space
and small business, the golden coast is smothered in generic chain
restaurants, big box retailers, and homogenized watering
holes.
Malls offer an
experience that can be found anywhere there’s a major freeway.
Sure, they’re convenient for the passer-bys, but they hardly
benefit those who make up the pulse of the town.
The California Coastal Commission has remained politically
independent in the fight to assure that our coastlines remain open
to all Californians but giant developers like Caruso Affiliated
have quite the pull in local politics.
The corporation is responsible for The Grove shopping mall, a
colossus in Anaheim that sees more patrons a year than
Disneyland. Caruso Affiliate now has its eyes and checkbook on the
south shore of the Hedionda Lagoon, a estuary that feeds into the
Carlsbad surf spot, Warm Water Jetties.
One of the wave’s proudest exploits, Chris Murnane, is
pissed off and vows not to let Carlsbad submit to the fast buck and
compromise the character of his hometown.
Who is this young virtuoso? A brief
introduction.
Chris Murnane is 19 years old
and has called Carlsbad home for the entirety of his existence. He
works at Surf Ride, pleasantly placing tail pads on new surf boards
and offering advice with a winning grin. He studies philosophy at
Mira Costa college and seeks the truth in all
situations.
In the water, he dazzles with a fluid and effortless style. On
land, he’s a shaggy blonde who rocks a folded beenie like Che
Guevara did a beret. A tuned in youth, Chris has asserted himself
on the front lines, fighting Caruso and his proposed
mall.
Through his struggle with local politics and the influence of
corporate money on proposed development, we learn what is worth
protecting, what is worth fighting for, and why surfers make the
best environmental activists.
Indulge in his teenage
rebellion and get involved in the fight.
BeachGrit: You think your town is at risk of
losing something irreplaceable?
Chris:
Totally. I don’t have a bone to pick with the city council or with
Caruso. I love Carlsbad, I love my community and its being screwed
over by people who don’t love it. It’s not that I hate the
developer, its that we have to fight for the character that makes
Carlsbad unique. Once you build a mall, there is no going
back.
BeachGrit: They already have the power plant on
the north shore of this lagoon, a mall would just complete the look
of ecological ruin.
Chris: The power plant as it stands is
going down in 2018. They are taking it out and putting in a new one
that isn’t such an eye sore. But really what this is about is that
the people in charge of our city have an outdated vision of the
American dream circa 1955. They propose development at any costs
and I think that opposes what makes Carlsbad special. Rampant
development of our city is not what we need.
BeachGrit: Its something you are seeing
across America. Do you think the mall will kill The Carlsbad
Village?
Chris:
The 91-12 report found that local businesses will be hurt for 18
months after the creation of the mall and that they may return to
normal once the mall has lost its sheen. But how many places can
withstand a year and a half of shitty sales? Not many dude.
Proponents of the mall have been saying how many jobs it will add
but they aren’t mentioning all the pre-existing jobs that will be
lost and lives that it will ruin.
BeachGrit: Refresh me on the geography. This is
the lagoon that feeds directly out to the surf spot, Warm Water
Jetties?
Chris:
The proposed build site is on the shore of the
lagoon!
BeachGrit: Is it terra firma or we talking
marsh lands?
Chris: Well, right now its farmland but
the land surrounding the lagoon is integral to it, and they are
rolling the dice that a 585,000 square foot mall wouldn’t crush the
ecosystem. As someone who looks in on the lagoon when I’m surfing,
I feel like it’s our job to protect it.
BeachGrit: I read that there’s an aqua
farm in a section of the lagoon and its been quite successful in
bringing back a species of bass. I’m bet being downstream from a
mall isn’t going to help.
Chris:
That’s what really pisses me off is because the developer says that
the mega mall will clean up the lagoon.
Beach
Grit: As opposed to farm runoff?
Chris: Well, as opposed to as it is now
but what about the potential for a different kind of project? You
can’t get back what we’ve lost, but we can protect what hasn’t been
corrupted yet. We can decide. The people have got the power but we
have to vocalize what we want for our towns because politicians are
just looking to cash out.
BeachGrit:How can
someone help?
Chris: Instead of sending the lagoon mall
to a vote next November, costing 25 grand, or placing it on the
ballot in June, costing 50 grand, our city council decided to
create a special election in February costing $500 thousand
dollars. They know that if we have a whole year to talk about the
lagoon mall it would get vetoed down, so they made a special
election so the least amount of people will vote. Despite the
mall’s 35,000 daily visitors adding a ton of traffic to all of
North County, San Diego, they have made the vote only for Carlsbad
citizens. If you want to make a difference, get the word out that
measure A is going to be detrimental to the environment and local
business. Use your passions and get involved whats happening in
your city so that our coastlines don’t get destroyed. If we remain
ignorant of the intentions of these developers, the souls of our
cities will be sold for profit.
And watch Chris surf, here!
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Brock Little Just Died
By Derek Rielly
The big-wave icon and Hollywood stuntman, dead at
48…
A short time ago, the big-wave icon and Hollywood
stuntman, Hawaiian Brock Little, died, among family, among
friends.
The coolest of motherfuckers? Yeah, he was.
Brock, a big-wave surfer who was held in awe by Kelly Slater and
co, announced his cancer via Instagram. “I have cancer. It
sucks, but I’m taking chemo. You do what you can. Can’t believe the
person in that picture is me. I look in the mirror and I feel like
it’s not me.”
When we spoke three weeks ago, he said, “I’m so stoked.
I’ve had a great life and what I’ve lived through and what I’ve
done in my life, crazy good times.”
When we said goodbye, he thanked me for my interest in his
condition.
A few minutes ago, Kelly wrote:
[email protected]…larger than life to me. The world I
know will never be the same. I love you, man. Thank you.
Despite the success of last year’s session, which was hailed as
“the ultimate in surfboard writing workshops” by unnamed sources,
it has been decided that the prudent course of action is to halt
business while dealing with pending litigation.
Rest assured, I expect to be cleared of all charges, but feel it
would be unfair to begin accepting deposits due to our “no refunds
under any circumstances” policy.
In the meantime, I am proud to announce the inaugural
Parker XTREME Scientifically Inspired Fitness Lifestyle
Boot Camp Experience 5000.
Drawing inspiration from the XPT
Lifestyle, the PXSIFLBCE5000 will
be held over three days, March 9-11, and is dedicated to helping
provide our clients with the resources to make informed and
healthful life choices that they don’t want you to know
about.
Led by fitness celebrity, Rory Parker, and featuring guest
speakers such as Susan Summers, Paul Craig Cobb, and sixteen time
world champion Kelly Slater*, it’s three days of lifestyle training
you cannot afford to miss.
All inclusive packages** start at a mere $2500, a 500% savings
over other, lesser courses, and feature seminars such as:
Smoke your way to health:A guide
to various inhalants and their proper application within your
existing training regimen.
It’s all perspective:Making
friends with the obese in order to appear slimmer.
Cutting words not cutting
weight:Instruction in various rhetorical
devices effective in building your self esteem by knocking down
that of others.
The Low Impact Lifestyle:Extensive
training in proper core strongening exercises featuring:
Aggressive sitting
Our patented RFitLifestyle guide to
delusion
Vomit your way to a six-pack
Government Disability Application Workshop
Offensive Scooter Driving
Dietary Counseling:Drawing from
the best scientifical advances social media has to offer, and
featuring cutting edge health advances such as:
Balancing your humors
Bloodletting in the 21st century
Creating a jawline using facial hair
Proper use of lard as a butter substitute
Proper use of butter as a ham substitute
Hyper-oxygenating your blood stream with carbonated
beverages
The High Fructose Diet
We’re so confident in our space age revolutionary training
methods that we’re also offering a 100% money back
guarantee***.
Act now, because space is limited, and filling fast.
* Guest speakers as yet unconfirmed
** Food, lodging, airfare, and gratuity not included, additional
fees apply