Flip the Coin...
...a series of three documentaries on globalisation.
The world has never been smaller – or larger.
We buy and consume goods produced in distant countries – far away from ”our” part of the world.

Never before has the gap between rich and poor been bigger:
800 million people are starving every day. 2 billion people suffer from chronically malnutrition. 27 million people live like slaves.
They are from countries mainly producing goods for consumers in the Western world. But do we know how the goods in fact are being produced? Do we know the human beings behind the production chain?

The programmes will give voice to the voiceless. We will tell their story and describe the reality for the people behind the statistics.
The programmes will see the world from beneath and reveal the differences between the decisions made by the CEO´s behind closed doors and the cruel reality, poor people in all continents live under.

Directors statement:
Flip The Coin / A Tower of Promises

The world has never been bigger. Or smaller.
We can contact others in seconds.From Scandinavia to Bangladesh.

Globalization can create economic growth in even the poorest parts of the world.
Good for some, but not for all.

Noumerous travels in Asia has proved us, that there is another side of globalization. In dirty, dangerous and polluting steel factories in Bangladesh, underpaid workers are struggeling for their life every single day. And not all of them survive.
They are at the very bottom of the chain of production at the global market.

We also knew that Ericsson from Sweden and Telenor from Norway – two of the largest telecom companies in the world - plays a dominant role in the booming Bangladeshi mobile market.

Both companies have adopted the ten commands from the UN Global Compact, and they are among the leading companies when it comes to core values such as social, ethical end environmental responsibility.

Their CSR – policy (Corporate Social Resonsibility) guarantees the customers and the public, that their suppliers, their workers and the surrounding environment – where ever it might be – will be monitored and secured with the best available technology, safe working conditions and environmental friendly production.

22-year-old Bellal Hossain Begum never experienced those guarantees. He fell into an uncovered vat at Ericsson and Telenor's supplier. Three days later he died – burned to death.
Shortly after, his mother received a check. The price of a dead worker in Bangladesh is around 1.400 dollars.

For more than ten years, the telecom giants have done monthly inspections at the factories. So far, it has been done without one single note regarding violations of their core values.

What we saw and filmed at four of the main suppliers of telecom towers in Bangladesh, documents that the telecom giants are decieving us all.

Tom Heinemann
August 2008

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December. 2008:

Numerous TV - broadcasters has recieved screeners of the film; Flip the Coin - The bitter taste of tea, and we are working in close collaboration with an international daily on a follow-up on the story.

read more here

Flip The Coin - A Tower of Promises.

Nominated:

2008 PRIX EUROPA /Current affairs.

Festival International du Film d'Environnement 2008.

Two of the worlds leading telecom-giants, Ericsson from Sweden and Telenor from Norway are the dominant players in the booming telecom industry in Bangladesh.
Thousands and thousands of telecom-towers have been produced and erected under extremely harsh conditions.
However, both companies guaranties that all is being done in a social, ethical, environmental, work related and safe way. There is hardly an end to all the fine words addressed to the public through Telenor and Ericsson’s so-called CSR-policy. (Corporate Social Responsibility)

Nothing could be more wrong.
The 22 year old Bellal Hossain Begum lost his life – burned to death after falling into a vat filled with boiling water.
His mother later recieved a check from the factory owner. The price of a dead worker in Bangladesh is about 1.400 dollars.
And Bellal is not the only one. Telenor has in the aftermath of the documentary admitted that at least nine workers have been killed while they worked for the Telenor controlled company, Grameen Phone in Bangladesh.

The film crew reveals how workers are crawling over deadly acid baths, dipping iron in 500 degrees Celsius molten Zinc, climbing 40-50 meter high towers totally un-protected from falling down.
To them is just another day at the job. They have never been given protective masks, safety belts, gloves or boots.
At one of the main suppliers to the telecom giants some 30-40 children at the age of 12-17 works with extremely dangerous machines. That does not only violate the telecom giants ethical policy. It is also a violation of the Bangladeshi law.

And Telenor and Ericsson are well aware of the situation. Every month and in the past ten years, their inspectors have visited the factories, who also have signed supplier contracts with guaranties on safe and sound working conditions.

The documentary also reveals how poor, local farmers have lost their entire crop because the factories releases untreated waste water – filled with acid and metals - directly into the irrigation canals in the neighbouring villages.

When confronted with the film, both Ericsson and Telenor admit that their internal control has totally failed.

“A Tower of Promises” is the first of three Scandinavian documentaries under the common title: “Flip The Coin”. A series of investigative documentaries on the back sides of globalization.

The programmes are directed and produced by Erling Borgen (Norway) and Tom Heinemann (Denmark) in corporation with national Danish (DR1), Swedish (SVT1) and Norwegian (NRK1) television.
Contact: tomheinemann@gmail.com
Distribution: SVT Sales

Second part in the series; Flip the Coin is a film by Erling Borgen and reveals the pulp industry in Brazil.

The film was aired at NRK1 on October 14. and in DR1 on October 20.

English version available on DVD contackt: Tom Heinemann.

More about the director here:

http://www.erlingborgen.com/gpage.html

More abaut Flip the Coin here:

http://www.flipthecoin.org

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News:

November 7. 2009“ The Bitter Taste of Tea” wins new award

Erling Borgen and Tom Heinemann win the 2009 FUJ-Prize for Best Investigative TV project. The award was presented by the editor in chief of the daily, Berlingske Tidende, and chairman of the jury, Lisbeth Knudsen.

The jury's justification:

" Tom Heinemann is in a category of its own and probably one of Denmark's currently best revealing documentary-makers.
"The bitter taste of tea" is no exception. "The bitter taste of tea" is one of three films in the documentary series "Flip the Coin".
The series is about the consequences of global market forces.

How much do we think of where and how the goods we buy are produced and on the people in charge of production? It is the unpleasant confrontation, as Heinemanns documentary gives us.

Persistent and stubborn he reveals how the “do-good- industry” - in this case Fairtrade/Max Havelaar – is cheating on the weight and do not always live up to promises that tea workers in the estates are having particularly good conditions. The program reveals the failure of assesment of tea plantations and miserable working conditions. The General Secretary in the Danish branch of Fairtrade/Max Havelaar seems reluctant to face reality. “The bitter taste of tea” has already received other international prices.

This year the UN food organization, FAO has awarded the documentary the OSIRIS- price. And in the spring 'The bitter taste of tea' received the Aljazeera special price of Freedom Award."

Finally in may 2009, the Timbuktu Foundation awarded Tom Heinemann 13.500 Euro for critical journalism for the documentary series. . "Flip The Coin" is a coproduction between Erling Borgen, Tom Heinemann, NRK, SVT and DR.

The last film, "Flip The Coin - The Bitter Taste of Tea" was shown at DR1. November.26. 20.00

A special Nowegian and Swedish version was shown on December 2. and 3. in NRK1 and SVT1.

Abut the film:

In the beautiful lush tea gardens in Kenya, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,
millions of tea-workers strugle everyday – fighting to surrvive. They are plucking tea for multinational companies such as Lipton and Finlay’s.
The companies promise the consumers, that the will act as responsible members of the global society – protecting the environment and ensures good working- and living conditions.
Nothing could be more wrong.
The western consumers have turned to Fairtrade because the international label Fairtrade/Max Havelaar guaranties, that the workers in the Fairtrade certified tea estates gets a little extra money, every time the consumer buys their tea.
This film tells the true story on how Fairtrade is not at all fair.

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