The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)
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Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)
#2This one in particular struck a cord with me:
一颗螺丝掉在地上
A screw fell to the ground
在这个加班的夜晚
In this dark night of overtime
垂直降落，轻轻一响
Plunging vertically, lightly clinking
不会引起任何人的注意
It won’t attract anyone’s attention
就像在此之前
Just like last time
某个相同的夜晚
On a night like this
有个人掉在地上
When someone plunged to the ground
Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)
#3Poor soul, he was crushed by the system, his place certainly wasn't there. I wonder how many human lives get wasted in the wrong place for a meager salary.
Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)
#4"Dying for an iPhone" is a good read on the state of Foxconn and Apple's labor practices, which seem to generally continue to be "abusive at best."
It does lead to not really wanting to touch any of modern consumer electronics, though.
Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)
#5Poor soul, he was crushed by the system, his place certainly wasn't there. I wonder how many human lives get wasted in the wrong place for a meager salary.
But Western markets get cheap disposable consumer gizmos, so isn't that a good trade in the end?
(not quite sarcasm, not quite serious, but this seems to be the unstated argument for this sort of stuff - yes, the human costs are tragic and such, but... the alternative is literally unthinkable, more expensive phones? Blame the CCP and carry on with posting)
Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)
#6We're all a part of this. I've been asking myself questions, at an increasing rate lately, like "where does all this material come from?", "who makes all this stuff?", "what's the effect of making this?', etc., and any hint of an answer leads to nowhere good quite quickly. That is especially true when you consider the human and other animal elements. Just looking into the trash makes you realize the insane amount of single-use material that is used for daily life. Search the food Amazon throws away, including masses within the usable dates. Even things that are not single use makes my mind be boggled where all the stuff comes from.
Humanity's obsession with growth and scale is like a dark force we have to actively fight against, but the obsession is winning handily. And it feels that less and less are pushing against it, with many pushing for it.
Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)
#7The workers at the foxconn factories have a lower suicide rate than the average for all people in the provinces in which the factories are located.
A few dozen suicides is a normal number out of a population of 350,000 human beings, which is how many foxconn's iPhone City holds.
Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)
#8Poor soul, he was crushed by the system, his place certainly wasn't there. I wonder how many human lives get wasted in the wrong place for a meager salary.
But Western markets get cheap disposable consumer gizmos, so isn't that a good trade in the end? (not quite sarcasm, not quite serious, but this seems to be the unstated argument for this sort of stuff - yes, the human costs are tragic and such, but... the alternative is literally unthinkable, more expensive phones? Blame the CCP and carry on with posting)
God forbid we'd design repairable electronics that last longer, or that we'd write software that actually made efficient use of the hardware it runs on...
Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)
#9"Dying for an iPhone" is a good read on the state of Foxconn and Apple's labor practices, which seem to generally continue to be "abusive at best." It does lead to not really wanting to touch any of modern consumer electronics, though.
I know that’s the popular western view. But at least in this case, it doesn’t seem to be related to Foxconn. It looks as though Xu even enjoyed his time at Foxconn (given he left and then came back, and was actively involved in the newspaper). The problem was, he wasn’t enjoying his time in society.
I think the high suicide rate is related to the plight of migrant workers (datong) in China. It is a reflection of just how hard life in China is for the urbanising population. If you’ve spent time in the big 3 cities, you’ll have seen this phenomenon, a massive exploited workforce often homeless, or living in cramped conditions.
Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)
#10I feel like my shiny new iPhone is made of tears. This is awful.