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Content strike (if you haven't heard about it, I'll be happy to point the way, but since a couple of people on my flist have already mentioned it, I'll leave it at that):
I'm on board. Don't know if it'll make a difference, but I'm happy to support the effort. I agree with the principles, and, well, supporting it requires literally no action.
Moving on to other things...
Fidelity: Shareholder's meeting came and went. I couldn't find the results on Fidelity's site, but Boston Globe has the news. The proposal to prevent fund managers from investing shareholder money in companies which are involved in supporting genocide and/or gross human rights violations was, not surprisingly, shot down.
The activists responsible for the proposal say that they didn't actually expect to win, and that they're very encouraged with the number of people who did vote for the measure. Apparently, ~27% is surprisingly good for a proposal of this sort, and they're hoping to build momentum for future votes, some of which I may be involved in.
Fidelity, OTOH, has maintained its stance. They're there to make money, and they don't want to get bogged down in any kind of moral concerns.
I'm going to close my account with them. It means losing money, but I'm not going to sacrifice my principles just for the sake of my principal.
If you're wondering how Fidelity is involved with genocide, it goes like this:
The Sudanese government is killing off tribes in Darfur. A large portion of the government's money - what's allowing them to pay for the weapons and soldiers and such - comes from oil. Many countries have imposed trade embargoes on Sudan because of the genocide, but some have not. Oil companies in China and India are still buying billions of dollars worth of oil from Sudan. Those oil companies are very big and very profitable. As a result, many investment companies have bought stock in them.
Stockholder money doesn't actually go directly to the company, but it does make the company stronger and more valuable.
So... You give your money to an investment firm. They use some of it to buy stock in a Chinese oil company. That oil company buys its oil from Sudan. Sudan uses that money to commit genocide. It's an indirect link, but it's undeniably a link.
Fidelity and other investment firms don't care. Their job is to make money. They don't want to waste time and effort looking into things like this, and they don't want to tie their hands with moral concerns, even in extreme cases.
So I'm closing my account with Fidelity. I'll probably be selling off at least one other fund with another company. And I've already taken steps to put more of my money into funds that do care about moral concerns, though I have been careful to choose the ones that still make a profit. (A disheartening number of socially responsible funds have long and consistent records of losing money.) Slightly less of a profit than funds without restrictions, but it's worth it, I think.
On the other side of things - sort of amusing, but sort of... not - there's a fund called "Vice." A Texas-based fund which started off as a mockery of socially responsible funds. It invests in gambling outfits, tobacco companies, arms manufacturers, etc. Exactly the sort of things that many of those not so profitable socially responsible funds specifically screen out. Turns out, perhaps not surprisingly, that human vice is very profitable. The Vice fund has had consistently high returns. It not only kicks social funds' butts, it outperforms just about everything else. Perhaps ironically, it doesn't have any money in companies associated with Sudan.
In other news, I have to be up in a few hours to get ready to go to the hospital. They want to knock me out and shove a camera down my throat. I don't expect them to find anything abnormal (and, truth to tell, neither does the doc), but we want to be sure. I'm sure it'll go fine, but I may be groggy and/or out of touch for a while.
ETA: I'm back. Slept through the procedure itself (even though I wasn't supposed to be under full general, being sedated on 1 1/2 hours of sleep was enough...). Doc didn't pick up any major problems, but said that I seem to digest my food slowly. So he wants me to see if I can change my eating habits somewhat. A little tricky, with the diabetes, but I'll see what we can work out.
Gonna try to get back to sleep. I need it. We'll see how I'm doing when I get up, whenever that may be.
I'm on board. Don't know if it'll make a difference, but I'm happy to support the effort. I agree with the principles, and, well, supporting it requires literally no action.
Moving on to other things...
Fidelity: Shareholder's meeting came and went. I couldn't find the results on Fidelity's site, but Boston Globe has the news. The proposal to prevent fund managers from investing shareholder money in companies which are involved in supporting genocide and/or gross human rights violations was, not surprisingly, shot down.
The activists responsible for the proposal say that they didn't actually expect to win, and that they're very encouraged with the number of people who did vote for the measure. Apparently, ~27% is surprisingly good for a proposal of this sort, and they're hoping to build momentum for future votes, some of which I may be involved in.
Fidelity, OTOH, has maintained its stance. They're there to make money, and they don't want to get bogged down in any kind of moral concerns.
I'm going to close my account with them. It means losing money, but I'm not going to sacrifice my principles just for the sake of my principal.
If you're wondering how Fidelity is involved with genocide, it goes like this:
The Sudanese government is killing off tribes in Darfur. A large portion of the government's money - what's allowing them to pay for the weapons and soldiers and such - comes from oil. Many countries have imposed trade embargoes on Sudan because of the genocide, but some have not. Oil companies in China and India are still buying billions of dollars worth of oil from Sudan. Those oil companies are very big and very profitable. As a result, many investment companies have bought stock in them.
Stockholder money doesn't actually go directly to the company, but it does make the company stronger and more valuable.
So... You give your money to an investment firm. They use some of it to buy stock in a Chinese oil company. That oil company buys its oil from Sudan. Sudan uses that money to commit genocide. It's an indirect link, but it's undeniably a link.
Fidelity and other investment firms don't care. Their job is to make money. They don't want to waste time and effort looking into things like this, and they don't want to tie their hands with moral concerns, even in extreme cases.
So I'm closing my account with Fidelity. I'll probably be selling off at least one other fund with another company. And I've already taken steps to put more of my money into funds that do care about moral concerns, though I have been careful to choose the ones that still make a profit. (A disheartening number of socially responsible funds have long and consistent records of losing money.) Slightly less of a profit than funds without restrictions, but it's worth it, I think.
On the other side of things - sort of amusing, but sort of... not - there's a fund called "Vice." A Texas-based fund which started off as a mockery of socially responsible funds. It invests in gambling outfits, tobacco companies, arms manufacturers, etc. Exactly the sort of things that many of those not so profitable socially responsible funds specifically screen out. Turns out, perhaps not surprisingly, that human vice is very profitable. The Vice fund has had consistently high returns. It not only kicks social funds' butts, it outperforms just about everything else. Perhaps ironically, it doesn't have any money in companies associated with Sudan.
In other news, I have to be up in a few hours to get ready to go to the hospital. They want to knock me out and shove a camera down my throat. I don't expect them to find anything abnormal (and, truth to tell, neither does the doc), but we want to be sure. I'm sure it'll go fine, but I may be groggy and/or out of touch for a while.
ETA: I'm back. Slept through the procedure itself (even though I wasn't supposed to be under full general, being sedated on 1 1/2 hours of sleep was enough...). Doc didn't pick up any major problems, but said that I seem to digest my food slowly. So he wants me to see if I can change my eating habits somewhat. A little tricky, with the diabetes, but I'll see what we can work out.
Gonna try to get back to sleep. I need it. We'll see how I'm doing when I get up, whenever that may be.
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And I hope your hostpital thing goes/went well :)
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The strike is basically because LJ has been treating users like garbage. There was the whole strikethrough mess, and then some sneaky policy changes, and then a bunch of other problems. Now they're getting rid of Basic accounts...
There's an explanation here. And some bits from an interview with the guy in charge of LJ.
Testing went well. I'll edit the post above. Basically, I slept through it and they didn't find much of interest.
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And I'm glad things went well at the hospital. I hope you're able to work something out that, well, works. *hugs and positive vibes* :)
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(The idea is that LJ gets its money from ad sales. Ad sales are based on hit counts and number of pages with ads. No new content means no place for ads and no one coming around to look at ads. One day won't make a difference, really, but it makes the point of reminding LJ that we're not just consumers. We're content providers. Without us, there is no site.)
When: Strike is Friday (tomorrow), for 24 hours. Midnight to midnight, GMT. 8pm EST.
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