[amc] Something to consider re; modern forms of slavery
- From: Werner S <wjs3108@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Mennonite Austin <amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:57:14 -0700 (PDT)
http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/theater/reviews/the-agony-and-the-ecstasy-of-steve-jobs-review.html?hpw
Moral Issues Behind iPhone and Its Makers
(excerpts)
To be fair, while Mr. Daisey’s particular obsession is the product line of the
Apple corporation, the ethical problems he explores are not exclusive to owners
of MacBooks and iPods. As he points out in this meditation on our wonderful
world of technology and the troubling economic imbalances that underlie it, any
number of other electronic gizmos filling up our homes and taking up our time
are similarly morally tainted goods.
About half of all consumer electronics sold in the world today are produced at
a single mammoth factory campus in Shenzhen, China,
The Foxconn campus is tightly controlled, its entrance secured by gun-wielding
guards. A series of suicides at the plant several years ago made international
headlines. When Mr. Daisey’s attempts to visit through official channels were
rebuffed, he simply rented a car and a driver and translator, and showed up at
the gates to interview workers as they emerged from their shifts.
He had to wait quite a while. As he notes, while the official Chinese workday
is 8 hours, the norm at Foxconn is more like 12 and even longer when the
introduction of a product is at hand. One worker died after a 34-hour shift.
Some of the workers he meets are as young as 13, and because of the repetitive
nature of the labor, their hands often become deformed and useless within a
decade, rendering them unemployable.
(entire article at above URL)
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