How are you liking that new iPad? To die for, is it?

[Karlos]

I'm still recovering from a mild case of food poisoning (having a chinese girlfriend is hard on the digestive system). So excuse any fogginess in my reasoning.

By a strange quirk of coincidence, so am I :lol:

But I'm pretty sure you can't ignore the national average of suicides... One would expect to find 70 employees to kill themselves at Foxconn per year, regardless of working conditions. Maybe I have missed something here, but that is a simple stat, full stop?

Sure, that's what you'd expect if the national average were some target value companies aimed at (can you imagine that?), rather than being the aggregate value over a wide spectrum  from the very good to the very bad. From what I gather, the current rate is higher than Foxconn's own track record. Perhaps this is not the case but the fact is that it is being regarded as something exceptional by the owner/management:

Terry Gou, the 59-year-old billionaire who founded the company, yesterday turned his plane around on the way to Taiwan to return to the plant. In a meeting with his senior management, Mr Gou allegedly said that he would not now leave the factory until the suicides stop.

Let's ignore what the article is hinting at and look at some actual facts. I refuse to accept a single source as definitive evidence for anything.

It's not just this article that is making the same hint, a quick google search and you'll find a dozen more :-/

[bloodline]

The still-growing population of religious Apple followers would still buy an Apple iPad/Pod/gizmo even if they knew that humans were tortured in the manufacturing process, IMO.

Pretty much all the Crap we own is made by people being exploited. Working for a wage we couldn't use to buy a coffee with, in conditions that wouldn't be be acceptable for a farm in the 1960s...

But does that stop us? No, the bitter guilt is the price we pay for our lavish life styles. (The BBC recently produced an Entertainumentary called "Blood, Sweat and Luxuries" which was quite good at giving an example of how people suffer for us).

[AmigaEd]

It always amazes me when people start reporting "numbers" of anything including people...

The hysteria at Longhua, where between 300,000 and 400,000 employees eat, work and sleep

This facility is building technological products and supposedly being operated like a forced labor camp and they can't figure out how many people they have working there? I'm not implying that there's nothing going on at Foxconn, but when I hear stuff like this it just sounds like poor reporting or someone did not do their homework.

It seems to me that the difference between 300,000 and 400,000 employees would be fairly noticeable. Just in toilet water and waste products alone, if not in number of iPads built.

The other burning question in my mind is just how many suicides are there in any population of 400,000 over a given period of time.

Regards,
AmigaEd

[bloodline]

By a strange quirk of coincidence, so am I :lol:

Weird! :-o I should be more careful when eating deep fried balls of formless god-knows-what in a chinese restaurant.

Sure, that's what you'd expect if the national average were some target value companies aimed at (can you imagine that?), rather than being the aggregate value over a wide spectrum  from the very good to the very bad. From what I gather, the current rate is higher than Foxconn's own track record. Perhaps this is not the case but the fact is that it is being regarded as something exceptional byt the owner/management:

Good point, but by that token suggests that Foxconn are serious about making the working conditions better... which negates the argument of the company being an evil sweatshop somewhat... no?

It's not just this article that is making the same hint, a quick googles
 search and you'll find a dozen more :-/

I did a bit of research last week, which is where my figures come from... I haven't had a look recently... I'm probably gonna get some sleep now anyway, my head is splitting

[Karlos]

I am not sure what I ate, but I have been trying to eat more healthily of late. Perhaps it's just a period of metabolic adjustment. Whatever the cause, it was hugely embarrassing to have my unnaturally fluid expulsions overheard by my future boss (though that might be for all of the next 24 hours) this morning when he happened to be stood outside the lavatory door.

[illy5603]

And the new Android tablets coming out are going to be made where? Toledo Ohio? Newcastle England? Apple isn't alone here here and unless you live on an organic farm and are typing from a computer powered by whole grain magic dust, there is no point in pointing fingers.

Apple hating is about as tired as Microsoft hating was in 1999. Get over it and evolve...

[persia]

Just out of curiosity where are the A-Eon and SAM boards being manufactured???

[pan1k]

It is sad. I do like my new iPad quite a bit, but it saddens me to know that people are suffering in those factories to build the digital things we desire. I guess that's just 'business-as-usual' overseas. Watch the Walmart documentary, it really woke me up. These people are basically living at the factories, have to pay rent to live there, if they live outside they are still forced to pay rent.. How could another human being knowingly treat another like this, and be ok with it?

[Akiko]

I will buy one, but only when they have a built in camera and there is a working replacement for Flash. I can't understand why a supposedly creative and Pioneering company like Apple didn't think to put someting as obvious and simple as a web camera on the thing, I can only guess it is because they want to leave it another generation or two so they can milk maximum $$$ by upgrades from loyal customers.

[Matt_H]

It is sad. I do like my new iPad quite a bit, but it saddens me to know that people are suffering in those factories to build the digital things we desire. I guess that's just 'business-as-usual' overseas. Watch the Walmart documentary, it really woke me up. These people are basically living at the factories, have to pay rent to live there, if they live outside they are still forced to pay rent.. How could another human being knowingly treat another like this, and be ok with it?

Just like American mining companies in the 19th century. I wonder what will happen to the global economy once worldwide worker safety standards match those that we have in the West.

[runequester]

Its a good thing no other company has its electronics manufactured in china.... wait.. oh.. awkward
 

The simple truth is.. people in the west want luxury goods for absurdly low prices. Those prices mean someone has to be exploited to produce said good.

[Methuselas]

Weird! :-o I should be more careful when eating deep fried balls of formless god-knows-what in a chinese restaurant.

Sounds like pot stickers. Currently, I'm not dating a Chinese woman. I gave them up after the ex-fiancee (you can actually see a pic of me with her on the Faces of Amiga.org from way back), but since I have a clearer head, ie not dating a Chinese woman, I can mediate this dispute between the two of you.

[bloodline]

Sounds like pot stickers. Currently, I'm not dating a Chinese woman. I gave them up after the ex-fiancee (you can actually see a pic of me with her on the Faces of Amiga.org from way back), but since I have a clearer head, ie not dating a Chinese woman, I can mediate this dispute between the two of you.

Where has faces gone?

[ElPolloDiabl]

My favourite is the factories making knock off designer goods that they normally do legit. They can get some of their own back from exploitation.

[AmigaNG]

You know one of annoying thing is, if Gateway held up it vision of Amiga, we might of beaten competition.

http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/webpad1.html

        As for swepshops it just the way of the world, I dont agree with it and be than happy to pay a little extra for my products to know it has been made in better environment, but many people arnt and there always be one company willing to undercut all the others to offer the product cheaper.  One thing I find even more funny is the fact that they keep going on about the environment, help cut pollution and cut the emission, but where is most of our products made, in China where they couldn't care less, out of sight out of mind I guess.

[Karlos]

Where has faces gone?

Dunno. Whabang was hosting it last time IIRC?