Beyond all the rhetoric with which we fill our books there is a reality that many avoid at all costs to know and do not want to take responsibility for.
It took me time to remember that slavery was abolished as I read this passage from an article in la Repubblica.
"A trip among the Chinese slaves who make copies of Smart exceeds the imagination: they work at temperatures close to zero degrees, in big sheds without heating, without gloves, without masks, without any kind of protection when in direct contact with every type of poison. Shifts are 12-15 hours a day and no distinction is made between young and old or men and women. Everyone, in any case, sleeps on bunk beds in the factory.
The fakes all end up in the United States, Canada and Europe, at an estimated rate of 100 copies per day.
There are about twenty clandestine factories shamelessly copying Smart in China. All are small and all are full of slave-workers who work in these dangerous conditions for a handful of coins.
In China those who assemble an iPod receive a salary of 40 euros. When it comes to salaries we Europeans aren't any better as in Eastern Europe "our" workers receive salaries below the poverty line. That is 380 euros per month for Poles who build a Fiat 500, 270 Euros for the Slovaks Aygò that assemble Toyota, Peugeot 107, Citroen C1 and the new Renault Twingo and just 166 euros for Hungarians who produce the Opel Agila and Suzuki Splash. "
Of course, if the American, Canadian and European free markets boycott products sold below cost, or if we individuals do not buy them...
BIPPIblog in italiano
BIPPIblog in napulitano
1 comment:
Thank for this article. Recently I heard too many people talking and worrying about how trade makes our workers worse off or arguiing against that and saying, trade makes everybody better off, especially countries like China.
If that is true in the long run, the chinese poor workers will change and become more demanding and the upper class cannot ignore them anymore. Nontheless I'm no expert on China and could imagine that worker unions would be considered something severely anti-social or even untypical for chinese.
But about one thing I'm sure: the same way we stopped buying chinese toys and made pressure that the factories there don't use toxic ingredients anymore, the same way we can boycott other products. There simply must be a good source of information, consumers could rely on.
Today everything is made in China. It will be difficult to avoid chinese products totally, but at the same time due to this, China has become very powerful and will never tolerate criticism on their interior policies, while criticism on their foreign policies are already not taken quite humbly...
It is a big dragon we're dealing with and it will cost many lifes until it will sleep in the sky.
Post a Comment