Diary of an Australian in Tehran

Support slavefreetrade to end modern slavery

With tens of millions of men, women, and children in slavery around the world, more now than at any other time in history, the mission of slavefreetrade is to end it by providing business focus on cleaning slavery from supply chains.

Ever thought you are powerless to stop modern slavery? The consumer is all-powerful and there are now two ways you can help.

First, is by supporting us to bring in…

My modern take on men opening doors for women; a common-sense guide.

I thought it time to bring back this at Christmas; when respect should be the by-word for our interactions with each other.

At a dinner party recently, in conversation with a friend (thanks, Mette Mikkelsen, for making me reflect on this a bit more), came the subject of men opening doors for women. I am a man, and the interlocutor a woman. Both of us, I think it is fair to say, qualify as…

Slave Free Trade; It’s Now

Please read and SHARe widely my introduction to the concept of slavefreetrade.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/slave-free-trade-its-now-brian-iselin?

slavefreetrade.org recognises the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery

slavefreetrade.org recognises today, december 2, as The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.

The day was chose as it marks the date of the adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (resolution 317(IV) of 2 December 1949).

The focus of this day is on eradicating…

Human Trafficking : December 2016 Monthly Forecast : Security Council Report

slavefreetrade.org welcomes the news that next month we can expect the UN Security Council to adopt its first resolution on human trafficking.

Read more about the forecast content here: Human Trafficking : December 2016 Monthly Forecast : Security Council Report

Major UK hotels Hilton, Shiva join fight against modern slavery

#slavefreetrade.org is very pleased to see this positive news from Thomson Reuter’s humanitarian affairs correspondent, Lin Taylor (@linnytayls):

“Hotels across Britain are joining forces to fight modern slavery in an initiative to be unveiled on Wednesday that will encourage staff and guests to help spot signs of trafficking in hotel foyers and corridors.

Major hotel groups, including the Hilton…

Say ‘hi’ to slavefreetrade.org

Welcome to my new counter-trafficking intitiative, slavefreetrade.org.

Intending to reduce trafficking by reducing demand for consumer products produced by slaves, slavefreetrade.org is a Geneva-based NGO aiming to promote a gloabl slave-free products labelling and certification regime.

Businesses around the world are invariably using slaves, sometimes inadvertently, and sometimes with knowledge,…

A new generation of parents is shopping with the idea that pink and blue—along with robots, bunnies, dinosaurs, and unicorns—are for every child.

A great read from Adrienne Lafrance at The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/05/pink-is-for-boys-too/481659/

ENTJ: the Curmudgeon Leader?

For those of you who don’t know me, let me start with an admission. I am an ENTJ. To some of you, that means little.To many of you, however, I suspect it means a great deal.

ENTJ, stands for Extroversion-Intuition-Thinking-Judging, and is a personality type in the very interesting Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI. This scale aims to pigeon-hole, and pretty accurately too, everyone’s…

The Non-Linear Career; celebrate diversity

A lot of people ask me how does it work to have a career that seems to have major dog-legs every few years, and even some massive career changes along the way.

The secret is “the non-linear career”.

Don’t get me wrong. It is neither easy, nor for everyone. It is, for example, not the type that headhunters and executive search firms go for because they dogmatically follow criteria that are all…

Male Trailing Spouse Interview: Expat Survival Guide

For those interested, here is a very brief interview for the Expat Survival Guide; the views from male trailing spouses

https://expatpartnersurvival.com/2016/04/18/the-male-trailing-spouse-series-brian-in-iran/

Beyond the politics: The beauty of Iran in photos

This is a great assembly of photographs of Iran; truly there is something to see beyond the politics.

Link: The Beauty of Iran

No Shame: The Science Behind Why Most Australians Feel Okay About Tormenting Asylum Seekers | Junkee

Are you an Australian wondering how such a large number of your country-folk can be so hard-hearted to asylum seekers?

Are you a Border Force member wondering where the soul of organisations such as Customs and Immigration went?

For me, it is bewildering to see Australians talk about sending those fleeing war back to the nothing that there is for them in those warzones. More than 95% of those…

Myth-busting Continued: the Australian Flag Debate

The Top Myths in Australia’s ‘Flag Change Debate’ Today I heard that New Zealand has announced a referendum on whether or not to change the national flag, which makes me think about the debate, or lack of, about whether to change the Australian flag. Let me start by declaring my own interest in the outcome. As a believer in plebiscite, I can happily support the current flag, or something else;…

Headline ‘Massive Earthquake Devastates Tehran’ is only a matter of time

Not to be too dramatic, but this is a very, very likely headline at some point. At any point really. A lot of the talk in Tehran is about earthquakes. Why is it such a subject? And is it just scaremongering and negative attitude? Well, after a bit of research I can tell you the story is actually pretty grim. For a concatenation of reasons that will make your head spin, when (not ‘if’) a large…

Thanks to the small-minds out there who troll on gender issues in particular, I thought it best to deploy a Site Disclaimer and Comment Policy.

I hope you like it!

Well, I had hoped for more rosy messages about life in Iran, it has to be said. But what with carcinogenic tap water and toxic fish, oh, and earthquakes, it seems there are also some warnings to be attached to life here.

The latest one is milk; a recent scandal has seen milk across the country sales plummet.

This article asks ‘why?’.

Happy enough until now with what seemed like a dairy industry of international standard (the Iranian yoghurt is bloody good), we recently discovered that the dairy industry in Iran suffers, as with all private enterprise concerns the world over, from greed and shortcuts. There really are a lot of activities that cannot be trusted to the private sector and, in Iran, where quality and health checking are below par, that is proved so again.