Oh yes it is:
Jan 20, 2007 (FRANKFURT) — German engineering giant Siemens is pulling out of Sudan on moral and political grounds, its chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld said in a magazine interview released on Saturday.
Despite strong financial results, Siemens’ reputation has been hit by a 200-million-euro ($260 million) bribery and embezzlement scandal as well as by its involvement in Sudan, where 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the four-year-old conflict in Darfur.
Kleinfeld insisted to German magazine Der Spiegel that Siemens’ policy was never to pay bribes to secure contracts, and was asked if the company would ever cease operating in a country for political or moral reasons.
“That’s what we are doing in Sudan. We have decided to pull out all our business divisions — and not for security reasons,” he replied.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they used to bribe Sudanese government officials to get contracts. It happens all the time. Anyways, I wonder how man more companies are going to pull out of Sudan. Oh ya and did you know that Siemens built the gas chambers used by the Nazis during the Holocaust? What a shame. How has it been able to survive and a grow as an international company since that time? They must have spent tons of money on PR to repair their super damaged image. Yo Jews in da house, any of you still buying Siemens products?
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m afraid that many firms, be they German or not, supported the Nazi regime in one way or the other. Many of the large German firms used slave labor for example. They were almost all part of the Nazi war and death machine, be it due to the ideological beliefs of their managers or due to merciless pursuit of profit above all.
Do I truly try not to buy anything made by those firms? I’m afraid I can’t say that. It’s been a while, and I placate my conscience with the hope that the people who head these firms today aren’t the same ardent and merciless perusers of profit that their predecessors were.
But you won’t find me listening to Wagner’s works if I can avoid it. That music is forever tainted for me.
And yes, I find it very likely that Siemens did indeed bribe folks in Darfur for contracts.
“any of you still buying Siemens products?”
Yes.
Siemens is not a person and the people who ran it 70 years ago were different individuals. And a case could be made that they feared for their own lives or livelihoods and thus supported the Nazis because they were normal (life) or cowards (livelihoods).
If I boycotted Siemens for what other people did using the same name 70 years ago, I would also, to be consistent, have to find out where those that currently support genocide against Jews work and boycott those companies. (And there are PLENTY of those. You find them all over the world, protesting against Israel, burning Jewish symbols, asking for an end to Jewish self-defence against genocidal attackers etc..)
Siemens produced equipment to kill Jews 70 years ago and most Germans didn’t care and in fact supported it (without thinking, I suppose), and just two decades ago German companies produced chemicals to kill Kurds and most Germans didn’t care and in fact still support it (without thinking, I hope).
Heh. I am with RK here - I don’t mind using German products (much). But I will not listen to Wagner - except for Die Walküre when I am feeling mashochistic. It’s kind of like visiting Yad VaShem.
And I am feeling quite apprehensive about visiting Germany.
I have no problem with German board games, though (Tigris&Euphrates is probably the best board game ever invented), or German computer games (even if Gothic III dissapointed).
In Sudan, you’re forced to get permission from over 20 ministries to open up a business and still face a chance of being shut down by the government, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Siemens resorted to bribery. But for them to pull out is a wise thing on their part; and I also wonder how many other companies will follow suit.
I actually liked Gothic III, in an Oblivion-esque, huge-repetitive-world kind of way. But the bugs… man, the bugs were wicked. The debug console soon became my best friend.
“And I am feeling quite apprehensive about visiting Germany.”
Do visit.
If you don’t look too foreign and stay away from the east (except the west and middle of Berlin) you will be totally safe and accepted. In fact, many of the middle-class and most of the upper-class in Germany are very pro-Israel and pro-Jewish. (That is, I think, why German governments tend to be pro-Israel even though most voters in Germany are probably not.)
Sure, the synagogues are guarded by police, but not every country in the world can be like Israel or America.*
(* I found that there is a sort of warmonger-o-meter that can be applied to countries. The more violent and racist the left call a country the more likely are you to find mosques next to synagogues, both open to the public, Jews living among the population as fellow citizens, and English widely spoken. Germany has a violence and racism level of maybe “5″, lower than the US but higher than France.)
So do go to Germany if you get the chance. The food is good (and cheap, compared to Ireland at least), the public transport is excellent, and the people are friendly (those whom you would meet anyway).
There is a lot to see too, although some of it is in the east and I cannot recommend going there, except perhaps Dresden city or Potsdam (very near Berlin).
“And yes, I find it very likely that Siemens did indeed bribe folks in Darfur for contracts.”
Mmmm, actually there would be nobody to really bribe in Darfur. Most of the signing happens in Khartoum and is done with NCP politicians.
Sam, I know exactly what you mean. I hate the corruption in Sudan but the sad reality is that if I ever want to start a business there, I’ll defintely need to bribe someone… I guess I’m destined to be a hypocrite… oh well time will tell.
Doh! Meant to write Sudan there, my bad.
Drima - power corrupts, bro. C’est la vie.
RK - Gothic III is THE buggiest game since Elder Scrolls 2. It’s like a pre-beta version or something. Atrocious. I am seriously afraid that this will destroy Piranha Bytes.
Andrew - I have the strange and unsual skill of meeting the worst scum of the Earth wherever I go. So if I go to Germany, I’ll soon find myself hanging out with skinheads, pimps and terrorists-in-training
Raccoon, if you ever go to Germany; tell me.
Ey what about me?:)
And WTFish is Gothic? Me not into video games… I spend my non-internet computer related spare time almost 100% on analog and digital music “toys”.
“Ey what about me?:)”
I’ll see you in Jordan, in July, I would hope?
Drima, the Gothic game series is a roleplaying game set in a medieval/fantasy setting. Pretty good, plot-wise, but it always had issues with bugs and game controls.
And Raccoon, with the 1.12 patch the worst bugs are gone. The game doesn’t hang or crash (much), hordes of little bugs are gone, the crossbow is actually *usable*, boars stop being vicious killing machines, and the ambient sounds actually work now.
Hey, you guys going to Jordan in July? Shitty time to be in Jordan, I must say. Maybe I’ll join you? It’s only a few hours drive, after all
RK, you also wanted to go to Jordan, didn’t you?
Drima - you’re missing out a whole world of creativity in video gaming, bro.
RK - patches in single player games cannot salvage the PR damage a pre-beta release causes. Mind you the fate of Troika Games - an incredible development house, the brightests minds in storytelling computer gaming (fallout, baldur’s gate)… Arcanum failed because of bugs. PoR was unplayable on release. And their last chance at redemption, VTM:Bloodlines, was pre-alpha with some game-stopping bugs.
See, after the initial fuckup of Arcanum (which was a GREAT game, in the best of traditions, incredibly creative), they had more of a problem securing good publishing spot. So by the time they released VTM:B, the publisher defined their (brilliant) creation as third-tier A title. So the publisher pushed for early production, half the content had to be scraped, the modules were hastily slapped together and they had almost no testing time. Where are they now? I don’t know, but Troika no longer exists, and we are deprived of Fallout 3 (which was supposed to be their next project).
I just hope PB is not on the same slippery slope now.
Uhm. Sorry for the long gaming industry rant…
Raccoon,
Please email me (ajbrehm@gmail.com).
I am actually looking for a way to get to Jordan from Tel Aviv because (for technical reasons, I’ll explain) I cannot fly direct.
“RK, you also wanted to go to Jordan, didn’t you?”
Yep, as a matter of fact I did.
I’ll have to renew my passport, get a permit from the IDF (being an atuda’i), make sure that this doesn’t fall on next semester’s exams…
But sounds like a great idea, with the only thing I really lack being funds, but I’ll see what I can do about that in the next few months.
As for Troika, you’re right man. Arcanum was great, but it was also very buggy at first. Same with Bloodlines, which was only truly fixed by fans…
Yeah, PB might get a huge PR hit from this. Same thing Obsidian got with KotOR II, with NWN2 just barely covering up for that massive PR loss.
I really hope Piranha Bytes survive this one. The market is a bitch when it comes to RPG makers these days.
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