Sometimes I feel really guilty, the reason is that I many of the things that I own were made by people who were exploited. I bet more than one of my shirts was made either in China or Southeast Asia by workers who are paid next to nothing and who work in buildings that are in many cases unsafe, my running shoes and my iPhone, too. It would be great if we could do something as a country to enforce safety requirements on the companies that create conditions like these……
According to the Chinese government’s own statistics, one worker will be poisoned by toxic chemicals every five hours — most of them from benzene. (Photo: Shreyans Bhansali / Flickr)
Truthdig: The Way iPhones Are Made Is Killing Chinese Workers
Industrial solvents known to cause cancer are used in the manufacture of Apple products and other electronics consumers have come to depend on, and adequate protection for the millions of workers who make them is rare.
Roughly half of the mobile phones in production are made in China. According to the Chinese government’s own statistics, Andrew Korfhage writes at Foreign Policy In Focus, one worker is poisoned by toxic chemicals every five hours. The chief culprit seems to be benzene, a known carcinogen that is banned for industrial use in many countries….
Korfhage writes:
….Toxicology experts familiar with Chinese factory procedures have estimated that the smartphone companies could replace benzene with safer solvents at a cost of around $1 per phone. With companies like Apple raking in profits of $37 billion in 2013, electronics manufacturers can afford to take such steps to protect workers’ lives.
Continue Reading More at Otherwords
A DOLLAR MORE A PHONE!! I think that I could handle that, how about you??
So we all know about the recent events in Nigeria, particularly the Boko Haram kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls, but I think less well-known is the tragedy that is unfolding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While I have been reading here and there about various attacks, I was floored when I read the number of people who have been killed……which does raise the question…..
Truthdig: Why Don’t We Care About Congo’s Dead?
Is it true that atrocities in Africa garner little international attention because the victims are black?
The recent kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian girls has generated empathy and outrage worldwide, undermining such a claim. The international shame and guilt over Rwanda’s genocide, despite coming too late, also proves that global concern for African lives is not negligible. Indeed the news media often cover stories like the hunt for Joseph Kony and his exploitation of child soldiers in Uganda, the killings in Darfur, Sudan, or the armed attack on a mall in Nairobi, Kenya.
But what happens when millions of Africans die in a conflict in which some of the world’s most desired natural resources are at stake? Very little, it turns out. The massacres that have taken place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have surpassed genocidal proportions but rarely spur the outrage they deserve in the media or public.
Since 1996, 6 million Congolese have been killed in a series of invasions and violent conflicts often instigated by armies and militias from neighboring countries such as Rwanda and Uganda, which are both U.S. allies. The battles have centered on access to Congo’s vast mineral deposits. According to an advertisement lauding Congo’s riches on The Washington Post’s website, “In terms of its untapped mineral wealth, the DRC is one of the richest countries in the world. Its soil is reputed to contain every mineral listed on the periodic table and these minerals are found in concentrations high enough to make metal analysts weep.” Continue Reading
Oh, I had to include this video clip from The Daily Show, where Jon takes it to Rush and says a few things that we’d all like to say to the “Manatee of the Airwaves” no Stephen Colbert I think that moniker for Rush is too much of an insult to the peaceful manatees!
Crooks and Liars: Must See: Jon Stewart Obliterates Rush Limbaugh For Mocking Kidnapped Nigerian Schoolgirls
