Second Draft: An ode to music

Dear Music,


My mom just took away my Mp3 player. Her reason is that I listen to songs while I'm studying. I feel horrible because I love you so much that it feels really empty when I don't have my Mp3 in my hands, as if it became a part of my body. I'm not just saying this, it literally feels like there's an empty space that was initially filled. So when I don't have it, I cannot concentrate on my studies or anything. People usually say listening to music while studying is really a bad habit because it will distract you, but I'm the opposite. When I'm listening to it, I can feel myself concentrating 100%. I don't know why, I'm born this way.

Since I was very young, I especially loved watching movies and singing and listening to songs. I didn't know how to download movies, nor did my parents take me to theaters very often, so I had no choice but to choose movies from the ones downloaded by my dad. As for you, Music, I had no Mp3 player then, and I remember bringing my friend's Mp3 player and my electronic dictionary to an empty classroom, just to record my favorite music into the dictionary. I know it's so embarrassing, but I did this, just to get to you.

I guess my dad felt so sorry for me, so he came with an iPod Nano, telling my mom he got it from one of his colleagues to give it to me as my birthday present. Thinking of it right now, after 6 years, I wonder if it really was his colleague who bought it for me? I really doubt that, and I guess my dad was the one who bought it and he was just telling my mom that to prevent any nagging.

I wasn't, can't, and will never be able to describe my exact feelings when I grabbed the iPod in my hands. I could literally feel my heart bursting into tears of joy. However, I still wasn't free to listen to your voice then. It was my parents' orders to use the Mp3 only for practicing English. I would have downloaded you by myself, but I didn't know how to, and even if I did, I didn't even have my own computer with my own iTunes.

Thus, I had no choice but to beg my dad to download just four of my favorite examples of you from the album of Sweetbox. Even though it was just a little, I was happy then. You were the only origin of my happiness, although my friends thought it was weird to just have 4 of your works of art in a 4-gigabyte Mp3 player. I still remember always having it in my hands wherever I went. I've always wanted to be with you, always, for you made me happy and comfortable whatever my mood was. I was holding my Mp3 player so frequently that it was often mistaken as my cell phone.

By the time I reached 6th grade, I had an opportunity to stay in the Philippines for almost a year, and as always, I brought the four you guys with me. I wasn't able to download more of you, so I literally listened to your voice for over a thousand times. Later, I came to learn the artist's exact 'ways' of singing, and could distinguish points where she vibrated in different levels, where the minute volume changes occurred or where she dubbed over her songs, being able to play the songs in my head without actually listening to them through my ears.

My passion towards music also made me love singing them. However, the only time I could practice singing was when I took a shower, because my mom hates music of all kind. (she said that this music always made her manic, so I asked her if she liked classics then, but she said no). Because of my mom's hatred towards music, my singing voice eventually faded. I still have such a small voice when I sing that I have trouble performing on stage at KMLA parties without very nice stage equipment.

After all those pressures of not being able to sing freely, I finally could practice singing you when I went to the Philippines, for the rooms were usually quite distant from each other. I was so crazy about High School Musical that I memorized all the lyrics from every one of your songs in that movie, even though the majority of which I could not understand. At the time, I was really flattered by my roommates' compliments on my singing. It was the first time in my life that I'd ever sang a song in front of another person, so I was so glad. Also, I guess that was my first experience to start taking pride in my singing.

While in middle school, I could finally start downloading you. As for me, who has a very narrow experience of music beyond Sweetbox, I couldn't resist the feelings that other songs were utterly unfamiliar. However, that only lasted about a few days. I was beginning to broaden the range of my favorite artists and became aware that thousands of great songs exist for me.

 Slowly, listening to great hit songs and famous songs in the world, my ability to judge music has been heightening exponentially. As I listened to more and more songs, I learn that there are hundreds of genres other than ballad, which I'm literally in love with.

Then, after some time later, I started recording my voice into my computer. At first, all I did was download a karaoke version and record my voice over top. I also downloaded music scores and tried revising my skills. As time went by, my skills were improving, and I later came to learn that recording my voice with earphones plugged in would make my voice sound much clearer. Learning these little details, later I downloaded simple music editing programs and worked on it for a bit.

Afterwards, I downloaded programs that professional songwriters use and learned how to work them. I recorded, dubbed, harmonized my melody and put effects on my own voice. This whole procedure might be seen as a really tedious task, but it's really fun directly recording my voice, editing, cutting away and pasting in places, doing whatever I want with my own voice! I just do this for my own pleasure, so I do not want to show the results to anybody or upload them anywhere.

Now, I'm a huge fan of 2AM and IU. I personally think the real singers among Korean Idols are these people. They can assimilate any genre of music perfectly, so I regard them as the best Idol singers in Korea.

I'm also a big fan of Glee music. They are really hard not to like, since these songs are modernly-edited versions of greatest hit songs of the history of music, sung by professional singers.

Now, I can't stand a day without listening to your voice. You have to hover in my ears if I don't listen to you. You are my life.

Love, MinSun.

Walmart and Women's Rights

This video is not specifically about women's rights movement in Walmart; instead it deals with whole bunch of problems regarding Walmart.

Now the following articles concern Walmart, how this vicious company violates women's rights in all kinds of ways, and the public's reaction to this.

Wal-Mart: Merchant of Shame

Take Action:

Get the facts on Wal-Mart v. Dukes Sign the women-friendly workplace consumer's pledge Updated brochure coming soon!

In 2002, the National Organization for Women named Wal-Mart a Merchant of Shame as part of its Women Friendly Workplace Campaign. Wal-Mart's dismal record contradicts the worker-friendly image it projects to the public. Join NOW in its campaign to demand changes in Wal-Mart's unfair practices.

Background: In the years leading up to naming Wal-Mart a Merchant of Shame, NOW leaders and members received numerous complaints regarding workplace environment and employment practices at the chain's retail stores and distribution centers, as well as its regional and corporate offices. NOW reviewed the extensive public record on cases filed against Wal-Mart and found the allegations disturbing. These included sex discrimination in pay, promotion and compensation, wage abuse, exclusion of contraceptive coverage in insurance plans, violations of child labor laws and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Cases have also been filed regarding firing pro-union workers, eliminating jobs once workers joined unions, and discouraging workers from unionizing.

In the wake of Wal-Mart v. Dukes -- the largest class action lawsuit in U.S. history, filed on behalf of 1.5 million women employees who were discriminated against while working for the retail giant -- NOW will continue to fight to bring justice to these women. The Supreme Court heard the case, which included 120 affidavits relating to 235 stores, and ruled that "[e]ven if every single one of these accounts is true, that would not demonstrate that the entire company 'operate[s] under a general policy of discrimination.'" Essentially, the Roberts Court declared Wal-Mart too big to sue and women as a group not worthy of class action status.

NOW is partnering with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and other leaders from the women's movement and labor movement to support the Making Change at Wal-Mart Campaign, which aims to transform the nation's largest employer into a good employer. Read on for more about NOW's efforts to get Wal-Mart to clean up its act.

Wal-Mart v. Dukes: A Failure of the Supreme Court

October 5, 2011

Wal-Mart v. Dukes was the largest class action lawsuit ever filed in the U.S., representing as many as 1.5 million women associates who were systematically discriminated against by the retail giant on the basis of sex in determining pay and promotions.

In a 5-4 Supreme Court opinion revoking the right of underpaid women associates to sue as a class, the Roberts Court declared Wal-Mart too big to sue and claimed a lack of commonality among the plaintiffs.

The facts pose no question as to whether Wal-Mart discriminates against women. An analysis conducted for the lawsuit showed that women employees were paid five to 15 percent less than men in similar positions, even after taking into account factors including seniority and performance.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, "Even if every single one of these accounts is true, that would not demonstrate that the entire company 'operate[s] under a general policy of discrimination … Respondents have identified no 'specific employment practice'--much less one that ties all their 1.5 million claims together. Merely showing that Wal-Mart's policy of discretion has produced an overall sex-based disparity does not suffice."

Penning the minority opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, "Wal-Mart's delegation of discretion over pay and promotions is a policy uniform throughout all stores … A system of delegated discretion … is a practice actionable … when it produces discriminatory outcomes."

In the wake of Wal-Mart v. Dukes, NOW calls on women's rights activists and supporters around the country to support legislative and worker-led remedies that will support justice for women associates:

First, holding Congress accountable to passing a Paycheck Fairness Act, which will provide more effective remedies to victims of sex-based wage discrimination.

Second, supporting unions and in particular the associate-led Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart (OUR Wal-Mart). Women workers in unions earn 11.2 percent more, or $2.00 more per hour, than non-union women workers, and the gender wage gap is smaller in unionized workplaces.

NOW also reaffirms Wal-Mart as a "Merchant of Shame" as part of its Women-Friendly Workplace Campaign. NOW chapters continue to lead countless community demonstrations at Wal-Mart stores around the country to educate shoppers about Wal-Mart's exploitation of women.

What's at stake in the Walmart women's lawsuit

The case before the US supreme court is critical for the future of class action litigation – at a critical moment for American workers

The US supreme court heard oral arguments Tuesday on what could be the largest class action civil rights suit in US history. Or it could be the case that stops class action history in its tracks. Monster megastore Walmart is challenging a lower court's decision to permit women employed at thousands of Walmart stores to join together to contest alleged gender discrimination in pay and promotion practices.

"This has been a ten-year process," says plaintiff Edith Arana. What keeps the women of Dukes v Wal-Mart going, she says, is the belief that something bigger than them is at stake. (Walmart revised the form of its name a few years back.) Says Arana:

"I know what happened to me and it's not just me. The women of this lawsuit are the poster children for the all the women who couldn't do this, and they each have families and names and faces."

That, when it comes to class action lawsuits, is the whole point. Class action lawsuits have probably been the best tool since the passage of the 1964 civil rights act to bring forth claims and win cases against companies that discriminate. The case now before the court will decide not only if women like Arana and Betty Dukes experienced discrimination, but if an entire class of workers did.

It couldn't be a more contentious issue, at a more contentious moment. As Columbia University political science professor Dorian Warren noted on GRITtv this week, the Walmart case comes before a court that has been sceptical not just of discrimination cases, but of the very idea of "class action". And it comes before a nation that – from Madison to Main Street in just about every state – is in the streets over that very concept.

Coming up on 4 April is a nationally coordinated day of action by US trade unions and their allies: We Are One. The protesters will be recalling Dr Martin Luther King's legacy – on the anniversary of his assassination. But they could do worse than to take a tip from the Tea Party types and read the US Constitution while they're at it. Listen in to one of those Tea Party recitations and you'll find constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech, of the press and of the right peaceably to assemble and petition government for redress. For working Americans living in the most dramatically divided economy in a century, every one of those avenues is under attack.

Freedom of the press? Concentration of media ownership is consolidating press power into a few mighty hands. As in the recently approved NBC/Comcast merger, the power in question is the power to shut others out.

Assembly? After weeks of inconvenient public protest for labour rights and against draconian cuts to public services and the people who provide them, the city of Madison just restricted speech in the people's Capitol building to a small "free speech zone" – for the first time in Wisconsin history. In Albany, New York, protesters faced a sign that told them only "senators, staff and lobbyists" were welcome in the state's house.

The Roberts court has ruled for business interests 61% of the time,according to the New York Times, compared with 46% for the similarly conservative-leaning Rehnquist court, and 42% for all since 1953. The US Chamber of Commerce has been involved in many of those decisions – and had their wishes gratified 68% of the time. "There has been a return on investment, not to sound too crass," Robin S Conrad, executive vice president of the chamber's litigation unit, told the Times.

And then, of course, there's the Citizens United v FEC decision, by which the supreme court ruled to lift limits on anonymous corporate spending on elections.

The courts, the court of opinion, elections, the banks, the workplace – you'd be forgiven for thinking the powerful had the US pretty much sewn-up. As Dorian Warren put it:

"If the courts strike down the women's ability to sue Walmart, this pretty much fundamentally weakens a core tool of collective action for workers. Similarly, what we see in the public sector – it's targeting workers' ability to come together."

On the other hand, there is still that pesky Constitution. And the very real possibility of overreach by the corporate-backed right. Take a look around on 4 April. I suspect this battle's not over yet.

Walmart=Emart?!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/business/worldbusiness/23shop.html?ex=1306036800&en=af8236900d13fd8d&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Wal-Mart Selling Stores and Leaving South Korea

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By CHOE SANG-HUN, International Herald Tribune

Published: May 23, 2006

SEOUL, South Korea, May 22 — Wal-Mart Stores followed a French rival, Carrefour, in withdrawing from South Korea on Monday, becoming the latest global brand to flounder in an economy with some of the most demanding consumers.
Wal-Mart said that it had agreed to sell all 16 of its South Korean outlets to Shinsegae, a local retailer, for $882 million.
With the announcement, Wal-Mart added its name to a list of multinationals, like Nokia, Nestlé and Google, that have failed to adjust to the tastes of South Korean consumers.
"Wal-Mart is a typical example of a global giant who has failed to localize its operations in South Korea," Na Hong Seok, an analyst at Good Morning Shinhan Securities in Seoul, said. "It failed to read what South Korean housewives want when they go shopping."
In the deal announced on Monday, Shinsegae, a leading department store and hypermarket chain in South Korea, will operate the Wal-Mart stores under its E-Mart brand. E-Mart is the biggest discount store chain in South Korea, with 79 outlets.
The French retailer Carrefour, the second-largest retailer after Wal-Mart, sold its 32 South Korean stores to the local fashion retailer E-Land last month for $1.85 billion.
Analysts said both chains were slow in opening stores, failing not only to win more customers, but also to build the kind of market share that would allow them to press suppliers on pricing.
Before the acquisition Monday, the E-Mart chain of Shinsegae accounted for 30 percent of the local market, followed by Homeplus, which is owned by the British company Tesco, with 17 percent; and Lotte Mart, owned by Lotte Shopping of South Korea, with 12 percent. Carrefour and Wal-Mart trailed with smaller market shares.
"In contrast to Wal-Mart, the British retailer Tesco is a remarkable case of succeeding in localizing," Mr. Na said. Samsung Tesco is 89 percent owned by the British retail giant, but has relied heavily on local managers from Samsung. It is one of Tesco's biggest overseas success stories, generating a third of its overseas sales.
"Wal-Mart and Carrefour were not aggressive enough in expanding their networks in South Korea," said Koo Chang Gun at Korea Investment and Securities. "Once they lost the race, they could never catch up."
Wal-Mart and Carrefour said that leaving South Korea would allow them to focus on the retail industry in China.
Analysts estimated South Korea's discount store market at 24 trillion won, or $25.2 billion, last year.
The vice chairman of Wal-Mart, Michael Duke, said, "As we continue to focus our efforts where we can have the greatest impact on our growth strategy, it became increasingly clear that in South Korea's current environment it would be difficult for us to reach the scale we desired."
Shinsegae's chief executive, Ku Hak Su, said that with its lead secured at home, the retailer could shift more resources to China, where it opened its seventh outlet this month.
E-Mart plans to have 34 stores in China by 2010.
Wal-Mart's arrival in South Korea in 1998 shocked domestic retailers, but its performance was lackluster. It posted a net loss of 9.9 billion won last year on revenue of 728.7 billion won.
Wal-Mart and Carrefour, which entered the country in 1996, put off South Korean consumers by sticking to Western marketing strategies that concentrated on dry goods, from electronics to clothing, while their local rivals focused on food and beverages, the segment that specialists say attracts South Koreans to hypermarkets.
The Wal-Mart and Carrefour outlets in South Korea are simpler in appearance than those of E-Mart and other competitors.
Wal-Mart and Carrefour sold products by the box, while E-Mart and Lotte built eye-catching displays and hired clerks who hawked their goods with megaphones and hand-clapping.
Over the years, South Korea has been a graveyard for some of the most competitive global brands. It is hard to find any Nokia cellphones in South Korea, for example.
Local giants Samsung and LG dominate, and Nokia, the world's primary cellphone maker, basically stopped promoting its cellphones here in 2004.
Google is a small player in the local Web search engine market, which is dominated by the Naver Web site of the South Korean company NHN and the portal of Daum Communications.
Naver and Daum encourage users to post questions and let others answer them, creating a fast-expanding Korean-language database that attracts Web surfers.
Nestlé, the food and beverage company, also failed to make a mark with its flagship baby formula segment.

An ode to music

My mom just took my Mp3 player. Her reason is that I listen to songs while I'm studying. 

Yet, people get more attempted to do things they are not allowed to do.

Since I was very young, I especially loved watching movies and singing and listening to songs. I didn't know how to download movies, nor my parents took me to theaters very often, so I had no choice but to choose movies from the ones downloaded by my dad. As for you, music, I had no Mp3 player then and I remember bringing my friend's Mp3 player and my electronic dictionary to an empty classroom, just to record my favorite music into the dictionary. I know it's so embarrassing, but I did, just to get to you.

I guess my dad felt so sorry for me, so he came with an iPod Nano, telling my mom he got it from one of his colleagues to give it to me as my birthday present. Thinking of it right now, after 6 years, I wonder if it really was his colleague who bought it for me? I really doubt that, and I guess my dad was the one who bought it and he was just telling my mom that way to prevent any nagging. 
I wasn't, can't, and will never be able to describe my exact feelings when I grabbed the iPod in my hands. I could literally feel my heart bursting into tears. However, I still wasn't free to listen to your voice then. It was my parents' orders to use the Mp3 only for practicing English. I would have downloaded you by myself, but I didn't know how to, and even if I did, I didn't even have my own computer with my own iTunes.

Thus, I had no choice but to beg my dad to download just four of my favorite of you, the album of Sweetbox. Even though, I was happy then. You were the only origin of my happiness, although my friends thought it was weird to just have 4 of you in a 4-gigabyte Mp3 player. I still remember always having it in my hands wherever I go. I've always wanted to be with you, always, for you made me happy and comfortable whatever my mood is. I was holding it so frequently that my Mp3 player was often mistaken as my cell phone.

By the time I was turning to 6th grade, I had an opportunity to stay in the Philippines for almost a year, and as always, I brought the four you guys with me. I wasn't able to download more of you so I literally listened to your voice for over a thousand times. Later, I came to learned the artist's exact 'ways' of singing and could distinguish points where she vibrates in different levels, where the minute volume changes occur or where she dubbed over her songs, being able to play the songs in my head without actually listening to them through my ears. 

My passion towards music also made me love singing them. However, the only time I could practice singing was when I took shower, because my mom hates music of all kinds. (She said that this music always made her manic, so I asked her if she liked classics then, but she said no.) Because of my mom's hatred towards music, my voice when I sing eventually got smaller and smaller. I still have such small voice when I sing that I had trouble performing on stage at KMLA parties without very nice stage equipment. 

After all those pressure of not being able to sing freely, I finally could practice singing you when I went to the Philippines, for the rooms were usually quite distant from each other. I was crazy about High School Musical that I memorized all lyrics of every one of you in that movie, even though for the majority of the lyrics, I could not understand. At the time, I was really flattered by my roommates' compliments on my singing. It was the first time in my life that I've ever sang a song in front of another person, so I was so glad. Also, I guess that was my first experience to start taking pride of my singing.

While in middle school, I could finally start downloading you. As for me, who has really narrow experience of music, Sweetbox, I couldn't resist the feelings that other songs are utterly unfamiliar. However, that only lasted about a few days. I was beginning to broaden  the range of my favorite artists and became aware that thousands of great songs exist for me.

Slowly, listening to great hit songs and famous songs in the world, my ability to judge music has been heightening exponentially. As I listened to more and more songs, I learned that there are hundreds of genres in music other than ballad, which I'm literally in love with. 
Then, after some time later, I started recording my voice into my computer. At first, all I did was download a karaoke and record my voice while playing them. I also downloaded music scores although they were unreasonably expensive and tried revising my skills. As time went by, my skills on revising recordings were improving, and later I came to learn that recording my voice with earphone plugged in would make my voice sound much clearer. Learning these little details, later I downloaded simple music editing programs and worked on it for a bit.

Afterwards, I downloaded programs that professional songwriters use and learned how to work on it. I recorded, dubbed, harmonized my melody and put effects on my own voice. This whole procedure might be seen as a really bothering job, but it's really fun directly recording my voice, editing, cutting away and pasting in places, doing whatever I want on my own voice! I just do this for my own pleasure so I do not want to show the results to anybody or upload them anywhere.


As you can see, I love you so much that it feels really empty when I don't have my Mp3 in my hands, as if it became a part of my body. I'm not just saying this, it literally feels like there's an empty space that was initially filled. So when I don't have it, I cannot concentrate on my studies or anything. People usually say listening to music while studying is really a bad habit because it will distract you, but I'm the opposite. When I'm listening to it, I can feel myself concentrating 100%. I don't know why, I'm born this way.

Now I'm a huge fan of 2AM and IU. I personally think the real singers among Korean Idols are these people. They can assimilate any genres of music perfectly, so I regard them as best Idol singers in Korea. 
I'm also a big fan of Glee music. It must of necessity be so, since these great singers sing with the greatest hits of the history of music.

Now, I can't stand a day without listening to your voice. You have to hover in my ears if I don't. You are my life.