61–70 of 84 posts
Reason enough not to buy apple
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With the 3BN tax-dollar giveaway, Wisconsin will not receive any positive pie returns from Foxconn until 2043. Assuming Foxconn doesn't move on to another location in 2042. It's worth pointing out that Wisconsin is giving billions to a company where working conditions so bad that workers have been killing themselves there since 2010: "It wouldn’t be Foxconn without people dying."
blame china for not having any worker's rights or pollution regulations. Makes it pretty easy to make cheap stuff. I'm guessing advances in robotics now make it cheaper to make it here instead of shipping it from China to the US. It will be interesting to watch to breakdown in China as tens of millions of angry citizens lose their jobs to automation. Combined with the demographic abomination they created with their 1…
You mean the male surplus?
Compare the Chinese fertility rate, currently estimated at an abysmally low 1.6 children per woman, with the fertility rate in anything-goes Japan, at 1.4.
I went to Shenzhen and worked for Egoman, a Chinese company that made the first batch of Raspberry Pis, before that manufacturing got moved to Wales. The dormitories look typical. I arranged to stay in one through a different friend; mine wasn't arranged by the company. Now I'm in Taiwan, and life is better here. Factories are newer and cleaner, and working hours are more sane. Chinese factories often set long shifts…
Where are you from originally? What people usually do after their shift ends? Just return to their respective dorms? Are their any public spaces in or around the factory where people gather?
First I went to Xingda Hongye in Fushazhen, near Zhongshan, China. It's a long way outside the city, and there is seriously nothing to do nearby. There's a small café on-site, and people sometimes go for a walk down to the (polluted) river. Otherwise they hang out in the (male/female segregated) dorms, playing card games and watching videos online. A few people have laptops and play computer games. Some people also hang out in the cafeteria, or play some sports (ping pong is popular). There isn't a single social room though, so people just kind of scatter throughout the campus when they're off work.
In Shenzhen, I stayed in a factory dormitory in Longgang, but was working in an office. It would take 20 minutes by bus to the nearest metro station (Universiade), which made it difficult to see my girlfriend at the time, because the bus would no longer run so late. I would go out to nearby restaurants to eat instead of staying in the company. There was a nice park nearby where I'd eat a bendon lunchbox. There was also a school, and some of the school kids were picking mangos from the trees on the side of the road to eat, for fun. They all wanted to take pictures with the handsome foreign boy, haha. All the people in Shenzhen are not local though - the city was purpose-built for electronics manufacturing, and people speak Mandarin instead of the local Cantonese because they come from all over. I made friends with a guy from Xinjiang (the Muslim separatist state) at a noodle shop, and he made some delicious noodles. The lack of Facebook and church made it hard for me to make many local friends though. QQ and WeChat are fine for one-on-one chatting, but hard to make Groups and Events. Another interesting thing to note is that many business owners (including my boss there) are Taiwanese. Despite the political tension, there are a few ways that Taiwanese can invest in the Special Economic Zone areas, and they do.
Meanwhile in Taiwan, the workers mostly come from SE Asia (Philippines, Vietnam). That means the managers can speak much better English. The factory is inside a special compound (Nanzi Export Processing Zone), and does not include accommodation. There's 2 universities nearby, history going back about 400 years, and plenty of genuinely local people who are there to live, not just to work.
After I leave work, I visit kids in the hospital with a Christian group, or study Chinese, or go to the CouchSurfing meetup. On weekends I go hiking, to music concerts (lots of indie rock here), hot springs, waterfalls, or church. There's a lot more happening here than in China, in my opinion.
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A very large proportion of workers in technology factories are internal migrants. Many of them will have grown up on subsistence farms in the poorer regions of China. Like most migrant workers, they're working hard and saving money towards a planned future. They overwhelmingly prefer factories with dormitories, because it keeps their living costs down and allows them to save more money. "Exploitation" is a subjective…
Ah that makes sense. So what you're saying is that these laborers put up with the harsh working conditions in order to retire to a better life back home in their "native" province/village?
When I found a job that actually paid money in Shenzhen, I moved there, and life was alright.
Before China I'd been trying to find a job in the Netherlands but failing to do so. Before that I'd spent all my savings on trying to be a missionary in the UK, but then nobody had actually donated so it wasn't sustainable. After China I went to Korea to start studying Ph.D. at KAIST. The university promised me a scholarship, but they didn't pay, and I dropped out after my savings from China were gone. Then I went to India for 5 months to work for a social enterprise for free accommodation and 120 USD per month for food (it was barely enough). Finally, I got a job in Taiwan, and life has been wonderful since then - food and shelter are no longer a worry, and I can save up to fly and visit my family once or twice a year.
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Based on your name, I assume that you are not ethnically Asian. Do you find racism / xenophobia to be a significant issue for you in either Shenzhen or Taiwan? As a very white Canadian, if I wanted to explore, work and travel for years on end, and was willing to live at the same financial level as the locals, would that be offensive to them?
China seemed to me like a pretty down-to-earth place, people are pragmatic and generally accepting of foreigners. There are many different ethnic groups. If you stick around a while and work on your Mandarin, I think you can find your place quite ok. Kunming is a nice city, and the surrounding area is very pretty. Some photos from a trip here: https://goo.gl/photos/FawpURbZweNNQt288 I am working on some electronics a…
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Where are you from originally? What people usually do after their shift ends? Just return to their respective dorms? Are their any public spaces in or around the factory where people gather?
I grew up in Geneva (born in Switzerland, parents live at France but work at CERN). But my passport is British by descent. I'm trying to go to NZ because it's the fastest way for me to get Permanent Residency. I can't have kids until I get PR, because British-by-descent only goes one generation. First I went to Xingda Hongye in Fushazhen, near Zhongshan, China. It's a long way outside the city, and there is seriously…
Are you talking about passing on your British citizenship to a child born abroad?
I'm interested to know how getting a New Zealand permanent residency helps?
I'd really encourage others to look at the companies they buy from and see if they align with your morals before making a purchase.
I went to Shenzhen and worked for Egoman, a Chinese company that made the first batch of Raspberry Pis, before that manufacturing got moved to Wales. The dormitories look typical. I arranged to stay in one through a different friend; mine wasn't arranged by the company. Now I'm in Taiwan, and life is better here. Factories are newer and cleaner, and working hours are more sane. Chinese factories often set long shifts…
Based on your name, I assume that you are not ethnically Asian. Do you find racism / xenophobia to be a significant issue for you in either Shenzhen or Taiwan? As a very white Canadian, if I wanted to explore, work and travel for years on end, and was willing to live at the same financial level as the locals, would that be offensive to them?
Just remember people would be really curious about you all the time, especially if you're tall (by East-Asian standards).