The New Adventures of Mr Stephen Fry » Topic: i-pad: made in China !

The New Adventures of Mr Stephen Fry » Topic: i-pad: made in China ! http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/i-pad-made-in-china Just another bbPress community en-US Sun, 19 May 2013 20:13:32 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/search.php Nitro on "i-pad: made in China !" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/i-pad-made-in-china#post-281795 Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:56:00 +0000 Nitro 281795@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Thanks for posting those links. I've noticed the apple pr machine is trying to counteract the growing shock of its fans about the foxconn worker problems. So apple says their policy is to monitor worker hours, they do audits etc etc. That is NOT the same as an external, objective company doing audits on employee working conditions. I'll leave it to you to figure out why that may be true. My philosophy is one of wether one is ignorant or not on an abuse of other human beings. When you're unaware, you're innocent. Once you're made aware, you're complicit if you continue funding the enterprise. Rationalization is a weak form of personal decision making imnsho. I think a lot of it comes down to how necessary a thing really is, versus how necessary it's percieved to be. It's not necessary to buy Nike shoes. It's not. There's no way in the world you can justify the purchase as necessary. If it's a matter of food, or food affordability, one must eat. That is a necessity. Nobody can say eating isn't. Or that shelter isn't. Or clean water. But when you start getting into accessories, well, I think we have less wiggle room ethically. Dogsbody on "i-pad: made in China !" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/i-pad-made-in-china#post-281223 Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:38:29 +0000 Dogsbody 281223@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Forgive me for the resurrection of zombie thread. Mr. Fry, please consider some kind of statement about Foxconn and their worker conditions. It would mean a lot if you did. John Stewart's recent piece about the worker's conditions is moving. It's hard to watch and still feel OK about Apple's 80 billion in cash reserves. <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-16-2012/fear-factory" rel="nofollow">http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-16-2012/fear-factory</a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/how-much-is-apple-worth_n_1035973.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/how-much-.....35973.html</a> Nitro on "i-pad: made in China !" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/i-pad-made-in-china#post-237157 Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:30:54 +0000 Nitro 237157@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Those percentages on raises aren't about the actual working conditions for these folks. And raising two cents, or two pounds, by 70% isn't really much of a raise in comparison to say in broader terms, the West. The workers who have been vocal, and remember that's not exactly a culturally encouraged thing there ( Tia' square anyone? ) to do, report on being terribly bullied and threatened constantly if they are too tired from working long hours, to pulling more over-time. It's the job *environment* that is so abusive. The Comm propaganda machine and authorities are usually very, very good at preventing the footage or news of the many 'riots' that go on in China from being 'leaked' out to the rest of us. The little bit you hear, here or there, is much smaller than what goes on. I only know this because I dig around on it sometimes myself. Being a 'consumer', btw, USED TO BE considered an insult prior to the 1950's. 'Consumption' was the polite way of saying someone had Cancer. "He/she died of consumption." Now it's not just cancer that consumption is associated with. And consumption, or being a consumer as we understand it, still does kill people. But large corps have the money and time to market and do public relations work that relates consumption of their products as positive, by convincing consumers that they are 'cool', 'trendy', 'with the times', 'intelligent' etc etc for buying stuff. Kind of like trying to be a unique individual by buying t-shirts at The Gap <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_lol.gif" title=":lol:" class="bb_smilies" /> I don't know what or if there is an 'answer'...for myself, I have stopped buying certain products and won't continue again until some corporate and international policy changes are made that don't require the death or exploitation of other human beings. And I don't care if I'm in the minority in this regard. BrigittePaleo on "i-pad: made in China !" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/i-pad-made-in-china#post-236197 Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:00:26 +0000 BrigittePaleo 236197@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I do understand your point of view: we can't stop purchasing everything that is made in countries where people are slaves. Being aware of what's happening is the first step. But things may change: At Foxconn (the i-pad factory), the workers have obtained a 70% increase of salary. At Honda, after a strike, the wages are now 24 % higher. What if Chinese people begin to earn correctly their life ? if the price of what we purchase rockets because of higher wages ? Will they relocate productions factories in Western countries ? In France, we have lost about 250 000 jobs because of production relocated in China. Will these job come back here ? We all could benefit of better conditions of work in China. gjhsu on "i-pad: made in China !" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/i-pad-made-in-china#post-235937 Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:44:58 +0000 gjhsu 235937@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I have to agree with IdeaCollector. Yes, it is a travesty, and in an ideal world, we can and would boycott any such product that was conceived in those conditions. But we're not. We're human beings, and moreover, we're consumers. We consume that which we love, and many of us love the technology and products, no matter where they were made. The sweat shops are nothing new (ahem, Nike). Rest assured, by not actively doing anything (protest, boycott, etc) I am not condoning their actions, but it's just one of those things where I am aware of what's happening there, but I don't let it disrupt my life because of it. Call me what you will if you like. <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_smile.gif" title=":-)" class="bb_smilies" /> Nitro on "i-pad: made in China !" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/i-pad-made-in-china#post-235705 Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:02:48 +0000 Nitro 235705@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Some people actually DO look at the 'Made in...' tags and base their purchases, or not, on it. Not enough do this though. Like boycotting BP by refusing to purchase gas at their stations here, some boycott both Apple and China by NOT buying their technology. But too many people just do NOT care about these things. Not until and unless they are DIRECTLY impacted. The suicide of human beings in another country are not direct enough impacts on the consumers in the world. But loss of their jobs in their own country might be <img src="http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_wink.gif" title=";)" class="bb_smilies" /> IdeaCollector on "i-pad: made in China !" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/i-pad-made-in-china#post-235519 Tue, 08 Jun 2010 02:54:56 +0000 IdeaCollector 235519@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Actually this is fairly standard for most large sweatshop-esque companies in China. 60% of the population is uneducated and works on the farm or in such companies. Yet such harsh conditions don't keep us from consuming the millions of items made in China. And in actuality 100 euro per month goes a long long way in China. Having just gotten back from 8 days in Beijing, I found $100 USD can more than last 8 days. And that's including my being touristy. True it's a travesty that the country isn't more developed and that the government doesn't keep the best interest of it's citizens in mind but it's certainly not the shocking dark truth behind the iPad. It's the dark truth behind...well...a bloody lot of things. BrigittePaleo on "i-pad: made in China !" http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/i-pad-made-in-china#post-235421 Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:41:00 +0000 BrigittePaleo 235421@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I just read in my favourite French newspaper 'le Canard Enchaîné' that the giant Chinese factory where the i-pads are made (300.000 employees) witnesses an impressive amount of suicides. This factory hires hords of young workers coming from remote areas, who have not the right to go to town, who eat, work and sleep in this 'forbidden city of technologies'. They're paid 100€ per month. So the direction has found an idea: they must now sign an engagement promising not to jump from the windows, and one has put large nets (1.5 million of square metres) all around the buildings. Just have a thought for these poor young Chinese when paying with your new toy... Brigitte