Paying Homage To Central Control

We can only assume, that the Left, led by president Obama, deems it appropriate to keep our own country free of drilling rigs and refineries at the cost of jobs and a reliable source of oil. The Left is willing to sacrifice our national security to insure that we refrain from developing our own resources and remain dependent on foreign sources. Their global outlook becomes circumspect, when we realize that other countries will now be drilling for oil exploration and refining the oil with no pretensions of caring for the environment. Thus when the many oil tankers dock at our ports to unload the same oil products that we could be producing without the international shipping expenses, the great tanker leave empty, adding to the expense and waste generated by foreign oil being shipped to an oil rich country that chastises itself by metaphorically loading immeasurable amounts of US treasure or money on those tankers and exporting US wealth in an international form of wealth redistribution.

In the world of White Liberal Guilt, so prevalent in the affluent suburbs of big city America, this is the soothing salve to appease and calm the neurosis of desperate housewives and their psychologically gelded husbands. Their guilt is overwhelming, and while they have no intention of abandoning their hedonistic life of excess, they instead want everyone to share in this opulent lifestyle and the neurosis that accompanies the lifestyle. They are content to contribute their fair share to help the oppressed in our country and the world, but they will seek out every deduction and tax shelter they can find or imagine, thank you all the same. No, the burred for lifting the oppressed rests on the shoulders of those who are truly wealthy, for while those in the affluent suburbs consider themselves comfortable, they are far from wealthy and the working middle class who has a good income, but lack the tax loopholes, they have not yet truly earned their position of affluence.

In the lavish lifestyle of affluent suburbia, there are accoutrements that are necessary to identify individuals as members of this privileged class that operates on a higher plane of being with their dedication to humanity and all things Liberal. They drive certain late model cars, they wear leisure clothes from the catalogues that cater to just the look they ascribe to, their shoes, their haircuts, coffee shops must conform as they go about their routines with the obligatory and rehearsed efforts to ignore each other’s efforts to conform. Thus they can identify with each other and feel safe within their own enclave as they continually, with great solemnity, refuse to acknowledge each other.

One of the most obvious signs of Liberalism at the upper tier is the Apple computer; often displayed at prestigious coffee shops while the student or studious person sits and ponders thoughts and images that aren’t available at home. I admit, I prefer the Apple, but not the sanctimonious smugness displayed by Apple users outside the neighborhood of Redmond, WA. Steve Jobs has made a great product and has masterfully defined the upscale image of the person who has the intellect and the checkbook to turn on a Mac as a free thinking Liberal who is only covertly a slave to fashion and image projection.

One of the most recent additions to the image that apple is promoting is the iPad and the iPhone more recently the #2 editions. They are neat little machines that enable internet usage that is less technical, but more than powerful enough for the great majority of internet users. It is the trendy accoutrement for the trendy upscale Liberal that simply must hear about their friends latest romantic and/or erotic encounters in live time.

There is one problem with this latest episode of Liberals contributing to the profit schemes of the great Free-Market Capitalist Liberals who have a knack for exploiting the weaknesses and neurotic tendencies of the fashion conscious Liberals: In their altruistic efforts to provide the image so desperately sought by the easily deluded, they are literally working their indirect employees, those Chinese who actually manufacture the IPads, to death.

No they aren’t beaten, but they are being made to work hours that are driving them to suicide. There is a shocking human cost that the owners of iPads and iPhones are willing to overlook in their selfish quest for just the right technology that provides the right look.

A series of suicides among workers has resulted in employers asking employees to sign an “anti-suicide” pledge, at the two plants in Southern China that produce the iPad and iPhone. In fact, there have been so many suicides by jumping from the factory-dormotories that employers have installed netting to catch the jumpers.

Research was instituted by two NGOs (Non Government Organizations) to investigate the suicides, their findings revealed allegations of excessive work hours and draconian rules in the factory-dormotory. The report describes a dreary life for the 500,000 workers at Shenzhen and Chengdu factories owned by Foxconn, that produce millions of the Apple products a year. The report alleges that employees are treated, “inhumanely like machines”.

The two NGOs, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) – listed claims that allege:

■ Excessive overtime is routine, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip, seen by the Observer, indicated that the worker had performed 98 hours of overtime in a month.

■ Workers attempting to meet the huge demand for the first iPad were sometimes pressured to take only one day off in 13.

■ In some factories badly performing workers are required to be publicly humiliated in front of colleagues.

■ Crowded workers’ dormitories can sleep up to 24 and are subject to strict rules. One worker told the NGO investigators that he was forced to sign a “confession letter” after illicitly using a hairdryer. In the letter he wrote: “It is my fault. I will never blow my hair inside my room. I have done something wrong. I will never do it again.”

■ In the wake of a spate of suicides at Foxconn factories last summer, workers were asked to sign a statement promising not to kill themselves and pledging to “treasure their lives”.

Foxconn managed to turn out its first iPad in November of last year so that they would be available for the Christmas stampede. Last year, Apple sold 15 million iPads; they expect to produce 100 million a year by 2013.

The allegations were put to Foxconn, Louis Woo, the manager, confirmed that workers are sometimes working more than the legal overtime limit to meet the demand from the West, but maintains the extra hours were voluntary.

However, workers claim that if they turn down the excessive overtime, they will be forced to rely on their basic wage of 1,350 yuan or 125 Euros (approx) for a standard 48 hour week.

When questioned about the suicides and the anti-suicide netting under the dormitory windows, Woo replied:

“Suicides were not connected to bad working conditions. There was a copy effect. If one commits suicide, then others will follow.”

In its defense, Apple issued a statement:

Apple is committed to ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility throughout our supply base. Apple requires suppliers to commit to our comprehensive supplier code of conduct as a condition of their contracts with us. We drive compliance with the code through a rigorous monitoring programme, including factory audits, corrective action plans and verification measures.

The next time a Liberal tries to impress upon you the great achievements of Socialism, describe the excesses and homicidal tendencies of Stalin and Mao, then tell them about Steve Jobs putting profit ahead of human life to provide them with their Liberal fashion ensemble.

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