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Yet, are there things that are more important than money?

Fortunately, many of my peers in the United States of America feel that some things are more important than money. Consider the case of Stanford University. It is probably the most commercial of the elite universities and has strong ties to industry. Yet, Stanford University recently divested its investments in Chinese companies like PetroChina, which is commited to indifference to the Sudanese victims of human-rights abuses.

What surprises me about the lead article in this discussion is that Boston Common Asset Management, which (to my knowledge) is not an official advocate of socially responsible investing, has done such a clearly socially responsible act. Does anyone know of any funds managed by Boston Common Asset Management? I want to invest a significant amount of my 401K monies into those funds.

Like Stanford's Board of Trustees, I too am committed to the cause of human rights. I invest exclusively in socially responsible mutual funds.

By the way, there is a significant and measurable difference between Western society and non-Western society. In the West, you will often see incidents of this kind, where shareholders actually demand that companies support human rights. Cisco will change. Reebok has already changed and is now an official supporter of Amnesty International. Can anyone find examples of such shareholder activism in, say, the Chinese province of Taiwan?

Finding the link that explains Reebok's strong support for human rights and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is relatively easy. Chinese folks have trouble in finding the link because they are lying.

By the way, Amnesty International itself gave Reebok an award for its excellent commitment to human rights and CSR.

Chinese culture and Western culture are very different.

Further, at the web site for the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, you will find that all the companies which received a passing grade on the environment are American and Japanese companies. There are several American companies that failed. However, all the Korean and Chinese companies flunked.

Also, many American companies are committed to corporate social responsibility (CSR). The best example of their commitment to CSR is the Sullivan Principles. All American companies, with the exception of Marathon (now bankrupt), in South Africa abided by the Sullivan Principles to hire and promote employees without regard to their race or ethnicity. The Sullivan Principles helped to end apartheid in South Africa.

Indeed, Chinese culture and Western culture are very different.

By contrast, many American companies practice CSR. Reebok is a good example and, for many years, has sponsored Amnesty International.

Another good example is the American companies who abided by the Sullivan Principles during the height of apartheid in South Africa. The Principles mandated that companies shall hire and promote regardless of ethnic background.

Let's be fair here. American and Western companies are starkly different from Chinese and Korean companies.

Reebok are actually a British founded company. Reebok's United Kingdom-based ancestor company was founded... very brief history

The West has always been on the forefront of human rights and worker's rights. Ditto for the environment.

Check out the last study by the Silicon Valley Toxics coalition. The study evaluates each computer companies' commitment to the environment. The top-ranked companies were all companies based in Western countries (e.g. Japan and the USA) and run on Western principles.

In the study, Dell received a failing grade. That Dell is finally cleaning up its act is good news.

Note that all the Korean and Chinese (including Taiwanese and Hong Kong) companies received failing grades. Interestingly, Korean and Chinese clothing factories in South America and Southeast Asia are notorious for abusing garment workers. Abuse includes beatings and rape.

The companies that treat garment workers best are American and Japanese.

If you hate the state of world affairs, join me in writing the following on the November ballot.

president: Bill O'Reilly
vice-president: Tammy Bruce

Now they just need to hire Terrible Terry Tate to ensure workers make the transition.

You still using Courier, Richard?! Get ready for the Pain Train ... WOOOOOO!!!

Oops, it's right on their home page. Duh.

Heh, Felcher...

What are they smoking? One of the best superbowl commercials ever is "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker." I even like it better than the Apple one. I don't know where the original one is, but you can watch some sequels (also really funny) here. You'll probably have to log in:

username: azsxdc@azsxdc.com
password: password

I have the original commercial on my drive, but I don't think my server can handle a slashdotting - if anyone wants to host it, I'll send it to them.

Yep, it sure did. I was rolling. In fact, you can download it here. You can see the Super Bowl commercial without joining "Terry's Hit Squad". but if you join, there are 4 more clips to download.

Terry Tate, Office Linebacker

Chris

Did that surveillance video of the mail boy getting tackled remind anybody of Terry Tate: Office Linebacker? It's almost a straight out copy of Terry Tate's impressive technique.

And the Terry Tate game idea sounds great. If anyone hasn't seen the commercials, check out that link. They're all there. There is nothing more satisfying than watching the corporate peon win a game of solitaire, stand up to celebrate, and then getting absolutely housed by a flying Terry tackle - brilliant, truly brilliant.

Nice - no sugar coating goin' on here baby! (sorry, too many Terry Tate videos) :)

Can't argue with the plain truth.

There's only one man for this job. Hillarity ensues.

from Reebok...

"Wooooooooooooo! You know you can't that weak ass stuff up in this humpty bumpy! You kill the joe, you make some mo, you know that baby! Else you in for a loooong, a long day. 'cause Triple E's up in this Biiiiiiiiiiiiiitch!"

Make sure you watch Reebok's Office Linebacker commercial. Funniest shit I have ever seen. "You kill the joe, you make some mo'!"

Have you seen the entire Terry Tate video? Not only funny, but an Office Space quote too.

Yeah, that has to be the best Super Bowl commercial this year. What's even better is that Reebock has a 4-minute version of the commmercial on their website. From the looks of it, they're starting a whole ad campaign with him...