Thought You Should See This

January 26, 2012

Shown is an image of the Apple store in Pudong, Shanghai. Beautiful, right? Sleek, elegant, swooping, stunning. Everything you’d expect from Apple. Look and love. Then read this New York Times story, In China, Human Costs Are Built Into An iPad. The piece tells the story of the rather less stunning conditions at an Apple location in Chengdu, some 2,000 kilometers away from the glorious glass temple we see here.

****Do also listen to this wonderful episode of the radio program, This American Life, Mr Daisey and the Apple Factory, in which a tech geek tried to find out more about working conditions at an Apple factory. It’s a beautiful piece of journalism (from, note, a non-journalist) that should also make us all stop and think the next time we approach a shiny Fortress of Macness.***** (I say “should.” How likely this is given Apple’s blockbuster results announcement yesterday, in which it revealed its highest quarterly revenue and earnings figure ever – and that it sold nearly 15.5 million iPads during the last quarter – remains to be seen. But stories like these can surely only help to influence the company to be ever more mindful of its workers and the environments in which they work.)

[Article via my colleague, Erik van Crimmin and others. This American Life episode via Sam Potts. Image c/o Apple.]

******* I can’t figure out how to draw a line through text on Tumblr, but suffice it to say, this episode of This American Life has now been retracted as filled with untruths. I’m so sad; more to come on this.

12:35pm | URL: https://tmblr.co/ZLv7dxFP6sF2
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