Food Bits - Orleagian Snowballs

There are many magical things about New Orleans, but the snowball, or what those outside of Orleans Parish call a snowcone, is the city's true treasure for sweltering residents during the Dog Days of summer.

My fondest memory of frozen glory came via a visit to Plum Snowball on a July 4th weekend trip to see my sister Debbie during her time with the Anton Heart Gallery. Digging into a giant mound of Coconut-flavored goodness, served in a Chinese takeout carton, was the perfect escape from the the kind of hot n' sticky that defines New Orleans in the summer.

You can live out your own snowball fantasy right here in Atlanta with a visit to Orleagian Snowballs. Proprietor Kenneth Woodfin relocated to the ATL post-Katrina and his little green and white trailer had make a mark on Midtown ever since.

The stand recently moved to the Exxon at the intersection of Ponce and Moreland near Little 5 Points after several seasons in Ansley. Look for the line of folks most any time of day (hours are 1 PM - 8 PM daily) queued for a perfectly formed frozen delight served with spoon, straw and secret gummy bear.

What flavor? You need to deal with this issue on your own. For me it is all about Dreamsicle. If you are looking for a real experience get yours drizzle with condensed milk and plant yourself on the bench. Relish the jealous looks from all the commuters whizzing by, wishing they were you!

What to Make of the Xinjiang Riots

(click to enlarge - from Economist.com)

A week into the crisis in Western China it appears the PRC government is knee deep in the most significant social upheaval it has faced since Tiananmen Square twenty years ago.

I was able to get a quick grounding in the Uighurs and the region's contentious relationship with China via the Council on Foreign Relations website.

As in Tibet, the underlying issue in Xinjiang appears to be the systemic immigration of Han Chinese people, culture and control into the area. From all accounts the Han population has grown from 5% in 1949, when China got serious about its claim to the former East Turkestan, to over 40% today. Add in a heaping of scaled repression of Islamic traditions in the majority Muslim area and you have trouble waiting to happen.

The violence in Ürümqi is far from a unique occurrence. The bubbling cauldron of ethnic, religious, and economic strife in China, as addressed in Rob Gifford's wonderful narrative China Road, is one of the key challenges China faces on its race to being a superpower.

You can see China's take on the sitiuation in the the Global Times. Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer offered her own perspective in Wednesday's Wal-Street Journal.

The Impact of China's Labor Contract Law

Before vacation I had the chance to attend a discussion hosted by Atlanta law firm Womble Carlyle on the ramifications of China's Labor Contract Law.

The Labor Contract Law, which took effect January 1 of last year, offers a series of protections for workers legislated in reaction to labor abuse within the Chinese factory system.

As Guamming Fang outline in her presentation, the planks of the new law include:

• Specific requirements for written contracts for all employees
• Regulations that effectively ban firing an employee without cause
• Aggressive severance policies covering most terminated employees
  

The law dramatically increases the power of labor unions and opens the door for employees to directly pursue factory owners via the court system. It also limits the reach of non-compete agreements, addresses factory shut downs and layoffs, and disciplinary policies for employees.

Almost a year into the new policy a number of changes in China's labor landscape were reported:

• 97% increase in the number of formal labor disputes
• Increase from 7 million to 27 million in the headcount of workers classified as temporary employees, and as such not initially covered by employment contract requirements
• In total, Chinese enterprises are estimated to absorb a 10 - 20% increase in their operating costs to comply with the new rules

A key insight was that the Law somewhat evens the playing field in China. JVs and foreign owned enterprises, often operating with their own labor policies in place, aren't receiving the blow suffered by China-China companies.

You can view Ms. Fang's presentation in its entirety here.