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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)

#31

Post by brewtide »

bmitc wrote: post #6

We'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…

We cull deer populations (etc) so they don't run out of resources but fail to see any connection to our environmental concerns. Not advocating for culling people, but certainly the footprint we have deemed necessary.

Endless growth isn't possible but most economic systems demand that it happen.

Nothing remarkable about anything here. The machine respects people as much as it respects. the environment; it doesn't.

Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)

#32

Post by HelixEndeavor »

brewtide wrote: post #31
bmitc wrote: post #6

We'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…

We cull deer populations (etc) so they don't run out of resources but fail to see any connection to our environmental concerns. Not advocating for culling people, but certainly the footprint we have deemed necessary. Endless growth isn't possible but most economic systems demand that it happen. Nothing remarkable about anything here. The machine respects people as much as it respects. the environment; it doesn't.

That's just the pickle though - short of straight up eugenics there aren't really any legitimate "solutions" to the endless growth problem humanity faces.

Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)

#33

Post by IncRnd »

HelixEndeavor wrote: post #32
brewtide wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We cull deer populations (etc) so they don't run out of resources but fail to see any connection to our environmental concerns. Not advocating for culling people, but certainly the footprint we have deemed necessary. Endless growth isn't possible but most economic systems demand that it happen. Nothing remarkable about anything here. The machine respects people as much as it respects. the environment; it doesn't.

That's just the pickle though - short of straight up eugenics there aren't really any legitimate "solutions" to the endless growth problem humanity faces.

I don't think it was your intention to say eugenics is a legitimate solution, so I'll go on record saying it isn't a solution. It's a recurring problem across the world.

Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)

#34

Post by sudosysgen »

comfysocks wrote: post #29

To the people who are arguing some variation of "Colonialism is actually a net GOOD for the colonized people!!"[1], I'd like to point out that this us NOT really an example of the "economic West" [2] colonizing China. Rather, it is the Chinese government allowing their workers to be exploited, with the complicity of the West. The Chinese government hopes to gain technological and economic parity or superiority to the…

Have you ever considered the alternative to "allowing your workers to be exploited"? Should China have gone the way of Africa instead? Would that have led to better outcomes for the Chinese people? There is nothing better that can be done if you are already a victim of colonialism initially.

Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)

#35

Post by thuccess129 »

Syonyk wrote: post #27
FullyFunctional wrote: post #10

I feel like my shiny new iPhone is made of tears. This is awful.

Not just tears. Slave labor, child labor ( cough DRC/Cobalt cough ), and some good old ethnic cleansing thrown in for good measure. It's increasingly hard to justify any use of modern consumer electronics. The whole ecosystem is shiny on the surface, absolutely horrid underneath on any level you care to look.

As an aside, the documentary on Atari describes the workers getting their teeth done and having happy smiles when the company was profitable and the wealth trickled down to the ordinary workers.

Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)

#36

Post by bmitc »

HelixEndeavor wrote: post #32
brewtide wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We cull deer populations (etc) so they don't run out of resources but fail to see any connection to our environmental concerns. Not advocating for culling people, but certainly the footprint we have deemed necessary. Endless growth isn't possible but most economic systems demand that it happen. Nothing remarkable about anything here. The machine respects people as much as it respects. the environment; it doesn't.

That's just the pickle though - short of straight up eugenics there aren't really any legitimate "solutions" to the endless growth problem humanity faces.

Any legitimate solution to even just population growth would see the 1% of the 1% have less wealth, and that’s the real reason why any solution will never work. That’s not even addressing culling economic growth and addressing things like wealth distribution and equality, which would be necessary for setting fair population growth constraints.

Humanity is damned simply because of, well humanity. We’re chimps at heart and don’t want to share.

Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)

#37

Post by comfysocks »

sudosysgen wrote: post #34
comfysocks wrote: post #29

To the people who are arguing some variation of "Colonialism is actually a net GOOD for the colonized people!!"[1], I'd like to point out that this us NOT really an example of the "economic West" [2] colonizing China. Rather, it is the Chinese government allowing their workers to be exploited, with the complicity of the West. The Chinese government hopes to gain technological and economic parity or superiority to the…

Have you ever considered the alternative to "allowing your workers to be exploited"? Should China have gone the way of Africa instead? Would that have led to better outcomes for the Chinese people? There is nothing better that can be done if you are already a victim of colonialism initially.

I was not trying to make any comment on what China should or should not do. Clearly, they are doing what their leaders consider to be best for themselves in the long run.

Rather, I was commenting on what I consider to be unrealistic views on China in the US.

Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)

#38

Post by netizen-936824 »

cm2012 wrote: post #28
netizen-936824 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you cite some sources about rural or subsistence farming compared to factory work?

Here's a good Google search https://www.google.com/search?q=great+migration+in+china+far...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_farming

Re: The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (2014)

#39

Post by onethought »

pseudalopex wrote: post #30
onethought wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did he leave, and then come back? If it was so horrible? His poems were published in the Foxconn newspaper… Do you think they would publish it if they thought it was criticism of their own organisation?

> Why did he leave, and then come back? If it was so horrible? The article said he was running out of money. > His poems were published in the Foxconn newspaper… Do you think they would publish it if they thought it was criticism of their own organisation? What made you think he sent and they published all of them? A screw fell to the ground In this dark night of overtime Plunging vertically, lightly clinking It won’…

> over 30 of his writings were published in Foxconn’s internal newspaper Foxconn People (富士康人), including poems, essays, film reviews, and news commentaries {…} Xu posted the titles of these writings on his blog in a post called “The Maturation Given to Me by a Newspaper,” indicating his gratitude for this platform for his literary aspirations.

He ran out of money in Jiangsu, so went back to work at Foxconn in Shenzhen. That’s like being short of money in Chicago and looking for work in LA… it’s clear. Again if you really hated the place would you even consider it? It’s not like there are no other opportunities for an ex Foxconn employee in China.

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