Last I night I had the good fortune to see Mike Daisey’s highly acclaimed show The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. It’s both an entertaining and acutely moving performance that anyone who owns an Apple product has a moral duty to see.
Daisey is not only a brilliant monologist in the tradition of Michael Moore and Spalding Gray, but he’s also a crusading journalist who has exposed the inhumane working conditions of the workers at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China. Daisy went to Shenzhen and stood outside the monstrous Foxconn factory and interviewed its workers – some as young as 12 years old – about the inhumane working conditions there. This is what he found…
This is the first of a two-part interview in the Keen On… series. Tomorrow, look for Part Two: Why Journalists Aren’t Reporting the Real Story About Apple and Foxconn.
Why Mike Daisey is no longer an Apple fanboy
Why Apple is committing a great sin against humanity
By the way, these aren't "Apple workers", they are employees of a Chinese manufacturing corporation. Working conditions are implemented by Foxconn subject to Chinese government regulations. It's crappy, I know. Frankly, I wish there were more incentives to retain manufacturing in the US but that ship seems to have sailed.
ReplyDeleteNot to excuse Apple, but a lot of our imported goods are manufactured in China these days. It's a bit selective to call out Apple as if it was the one company responsible for China's working conditions.
Will Applehaters.com call for a boycott on ALL Chinese manufactured electronics including their beloved Android devices? If not, I call hypocrisy.
Hey Brett, there may be other companies doing it and, yes, that sucks but I think he called this blog APPLEHaters for a reason. Besides, someone has to be the first to stop farming out the labor overseas, take a hit on their profit margin and support AMERICA!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. Someone should start a trend to support the American economy. Lord knows we can use the help. But, from what I've seen it would most definitely not be Apple. They know nothing of loyalty or doing the right thing. They only care about making a glossy product at any cost.
So Apple should unilaterally bring its manufacturing back to the USA.
ReplyDeleteUmm, I think not.
Please spare me your selective indignation.
And yes the blog is called Applehaters. But applying a double standard simply devalues any possible legitimate criticism than could be used to justify hate of Apple above all others.
Even other haters are probably ashamed of these cheap tactics.
This is nuts.
ReplyDeleteThese poor kids would have a much worse time without the work and money.
While I feel very bad for these kids and people who get treated badly they might have a far worse environment if they were not working.
China is a developing country with a vastttttttt population. Having lived in China for 6 years I can not agree with Mike. I do feel bad and my heart even feels sad. But I also see the flip side....these children need food.
American corporations got the memo in 1865 after the Civil War: If you want slave labor, you outsource the slavery to a fascist country that is overpopulated. China fills the bill with labor CHEAPER than you could ever have if you reinstated slavery here!
ReplyDeleteMike Daisy has recently been exposed as an exaggerator and outright liar. News media that have featured his fabricated testimony are now retracting their stories and apologizing. He has hurt the very cause he was championing.
ReplyDeleteWhile pay and factory working conditions in ALL of China are not up to Western standards, Apple has been very proactive in auditing its suppliers and improving conditions and pay for the workers in its contractor's factories.