soundoff (8 Responses)

1. 郁闷与快乐
   

   I visit the websites and post comments with the assistance of machine translation.

   • 命运的注定，工人阶级需要抗争；命运注定，工人阶级需要斗争！我们的组织（国际劳工•国际工会），需要更加的努力，做出更大的贡献！
   The fate of the doomed, the working class need to fight; fate of the doomed, the working class need to fight! Our organization (International Labor International Union), require more effort to make a greater contribution!

   • 各国的工人阶级，都在斗争，工人阶级诉求相同，工人阶级需要相互理解和支持！
   Countries of the working class, in the struggle, the same demands of the working class, the working class the need for mutual understanding and support!

   February 7, 2012 at 2:41 am | Report abuse | Reply
2. 郁闷与快乐
   

   我是中国工人，也是一个（再就业）工会工作者，感谢所有关注中国劳工问题的专家和学者，也感谢国际工会组织。
   I am a Chinese worker, is a (re-employment), trade unionists, to thank all the experts and scholars concerned about the labor issues in China, also thanked the international trade union organizations.

   February 7, 2012 at 2:44 am | Report abuse | Reply
   • German
     

     And another point here — The fact that Apple eenaggs in the practices they do is slightly puzzling to me on the premise that people seem enamored with buying Apple products at nearly any price point. So why not just raise the price tag and produce everything more ethically? After all, a huge part of their marketing draw is that they don’t skimp on quality or principle in the slightest. So why not extend that to the way the products are manufactured? Either Apple is just missing the boat on this one, or Apple has already determined that of all the things Americans care about, how their products are manufactured are at the bottom of the totem pole, and it’s the one area they can squeeze crazy profit out of. My bet’s on the latter. This above paragraph is the crux of the matter for me. And as a footnote: crazy profit=greed. The quality we insist we must have in our products and the effort of ensuring that quality in the long run is a self defeating effort that won't and cannot last in a society that does not adhere to the same principle in regard to the humanity populating it.

     March 24, 2012 at 3:27 pm | Report abuse | Reply
3. 郁闷与快乐
   

   中国工人不断在觉醒，不断的组织起来，不断的团结起来，切实维权。中国工人阶级素质，整体有很大的提高。
   Chinese workers continue to awakening and continuously organize, unite and practical rights. The quality of the Chinese working class as a whole has been greatly improved.

   February 7, 2012 at 2:49 am | Report abuse | Reply
   • Ronesh
     

     GPS wludon't function, but most of the Internet is connected using physical cables, not satellite. And there are other means of communication that can be developed, for example wireless/cell phones don't use satellites, they use local ground-based towers to transmit signals. And I'm guessing the military has been working for decades to defend against this, since the Soviets developed this in the 1970 s.

     February 26, 2012 at 7:01 am | Report abuse | Reply
4. Nate
   

   Perhaps Backstory could provide a larger context for the Foxconn/Apple story:

   Suicides per million workers:
   Foxconn 18
   Chinese national average 220

   Fatal workplace injuries per million workers
   Foxconn 7
   US national average 35

   Salary for production workers
   Foxconn $6k
   China national average $4.5k

   http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/01/30/the-apple-boycott-graphically-explained/

   February 7, 2012 at 10:30 am | Report abuse | Reply
5. Tommy
   

   This isn't aiwlolng kids to eat lunch, this is forcing people to break a religious festival, these student's weren't given a choice. Imagine how Han Chinese would react if students weren't allowed to leave campus for spring festival, and you begin to have an idea of what happened in Xinjiang.

   February 26, 2012 at 7:47 am | Report abuse | Reply
6. Rian
   

   Sorry Adam, but have to vehemently dsiegrae here. First of all, I think there is one major flaw in the organic food argument, and it's that organic food is of direct benefit to the consumer. We have been made aware of how extremely unhealthy/questionable non-organic food may be, and so while buying it has the *side effect* of being the right thing to do, most people do it for far more selfish reasons.Unfortunately, buying an iPad made in the USA is of virtually no direct benefit to the consumer. And while acting on principle may appeal to some consumers, the number will be low. After all, according to the article you linked, even though organic food sales are growing, they still only account for 4.4% of all sales. So if only 4.4% of people are willing to buy a product for more money when it actually benefits them, what percentage do you think will buy a product that doesn't?Well, as it turns out, there's an industry that answers just this sort of question car manufacturing. Have people hesitated over the past few decades to buy cars made overseas? Not at all. It's quite clear that people could care less where their merchandise everything from dollar-store items to the cars they use every day actually come from. That is, unless it affects them in some sort of selfish way, whether it's buying organic food because you want to be healthy or buying American cars because you live in Detroit.So, the numbers simply don't add up. And unfortunately, electronics don't work like food. You can offer organic and non-organic as options because both have their own pseudo-economies-of-scale. They're both profitable to produce, so they can co-exist. However, an iPad manufacturing facility in the US that only accounts for, say, 2% of all iPad sales, would not be profitable. The iPad would cost the end user more, and have to be written off at a loss for Apple complete unsustainable.

   March 24, 2012 at 10:51 am | Report abuse | Reply