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iPod gulags (Chinese slave labor)
WorldNetDaily ^ | 6/23/06 | Joseph Farah

Posted on 06/24/2006 1:43:00 PM PDT by wagglebee

Does your kid have an iPod?

Does he or she want one?

Don't even answer that question. Every kid in America either has one or wants one.

The demand for these little devices is amazing – and so is the price, between $200-$300.

"What's wrong with that?" you ask. "Commerce is good for America. It creates jobs and stimulates the economy."

Jobs? Stimulated economy?

Do you know where your iPod was made? Do you know by whom?

The London Sunday Mail wanted to find out. It sent reporters to "iPod City," where most of the Apple music players are made.

"iPod City" is not in the Silicon Valley, by the way. It's not in the USA. It's not in the United Kingdom. It's in Longhua, China.

That's where some 200,000 Chinese laborers work to make those iPods. That's more people than live in the city of Little Rock, Ark., for example.

What are the conditions like? How about the pay?

You might think a high-tech company like Apple might care about such matters. You might think the politically correct geeks who founded the company and run it would want to ensure foreign workers were not being exploited.

Here's what the Sunday Mail found:

The iPod shuffles are made in Suzhou, Shanghai, where workers earn $100 a month. Sounds better doesn't it? Except these laborers must pay for their own food and accommodations – requiring about half their salary.

Remember all this when your kid asks you for an iPod.

And remember it the next time you go shopping at Wal-Mart or some other bargain center where all the goods are made in these virtual Chinese gulags for pay just above slave wages.

And remember that Apple is just one of thousands of companies using Chinese sweatshops like those described here to manufacture expensive goods designed for the Western consumer who remains blissfully ignorant about the conditions that created that product.

Why is it that we don't tolerate the exploitation of workers in our own country but turn a blind eye to exploitation 10 times worse elsewhere?

What is happening to the American conscience and psyche that allows this kind of abuse?

How is it that the U.S. government could continue to encourage the kind of corporate greed that results in manufacturing agreements with the fascists in Beijing?

Why is it that we see no screaming headlines about the conditions of "iPod City" in the U.S. corporate establishment press?

Where is our sense of right and wrong?

Would we have so glibly accepting of imports from Nazi Germany as we are of those made in the virtual slave labor conditions of the so-called "workers paradise" in China?

No, there's a double standard that permits China, a totalitarian socialist country, to get away with abuses that would not be tolerated anywhere else in the world.

Welcome to the New World Order – where we're OK with the worst kind of oppression, as long as we can't see it taking place.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: apple; chicoms; china; farah; ipods; slavelabor; theyarethelie; theybuythelie; theyeatthelie; theylovethelie; wnd
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The only hope is that the day will come when there is another Tiananmen Square and this time the Chicoms will back down and crumble like the Soviets.
1 posted on 06/24/2006 1:43:04 PM PDT by wagglebee
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To: martin_fierro

iPod Ping.


2 posted on 06/24/2006 1:43:39 PM PDT by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: wagglebee

I swear I am not making this up, but I don't know what an ipod is. Is it a computer game? That's my best guess. Yes, I am over fifty.


3 posted on 06/24/2006 1:47:33 PM PDT by kjo
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To: kjo

Being over 50 is no excuse. Get with it!


4 posted on 06/24/2006 1:51:01 PM PDT by Aria (Terri: Do not ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee)
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To: Aria

You haven't answered my question.


5 posted on 06/24/2006 1:52:07 PM PDT by kjo
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To: kjo

It's a cool little handheld device (made by Apple) that stores LOTS of music on it (and not only does it store the music, it organizes it according to artist, album, etc.) You can use earphones to access the music or you can plug it into a dock with speakers. Also it can store video, pictures, etc., if you opt for the higher priced model.

BTW, I'm in my mid 50's and I like iPods, LOL.


6 posted on 06/24/2006 1:52:18 PM PDT by dawn53
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To: kjo
It's a portable handheld device that you can upload hundreds of songs on. You take it anywhere, and it doesn't skip like a disc-man. Google it.
7 posted on 06/24/2006 1:52:30 PM PDT by LauraleeBraswell (Try reading the article before you post)
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To: wagglebee
But they're designed in California!!!!!!
8 posted on 06/24/2006 1:53:05 PM PDT by Psycho_Bunny
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To: kjo

An iPod is a small, portable computerized music player, with music files contained on RAM and/or a hard drive. The iPod is slightly larger that a deck of cards.


9 posted on 06/24/2006 1:53:15 PM PDT by jimtorr
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To: kjo

An iPod is the most worthless, trivial, mind-numbing toy in the marketplace. Does that give you a clue?


10 posted on 06/24/2006 1:53:27 PM PDT by Louis Foxwell (Here come I, gravitas in tow.)
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To: wagglebee
Here's what the Sunday Mail found: [suh-nip]

visitors from the outside world are not permitted;

So... they found this during their visit?

11 posted on 06/24/2006 1:54:39 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: wagglebee

China has hard US dollars to support it's slave state, something the ussr never had. It will be a long time, if ever, before the people can overthrow them. Every dollar spent on chinese maufactured goods helps pay for iran and north korea's nuke programs, the chicom military and funds jihadis fighting our Troops


12 posted on 06/24/2006 1:54:57 PM PDT by Eagles6 (Dig deeper, more ammo.)
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To: Amos the Prophet

Yes. I think I like your explanation the best. As far as music goes I don't listen to anything written after 1791 anyway, that's the year Mozard died.


13 posted on 06/24/2006 1:55:24 PM PDT by kjo
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To: wagglebee
Normally, my answer to people complaining about their job, going on strike, the appalling labor conditions, etc., is that no one is holding a gun to their head and making them work here.

This taking place in the PRC, I am not so sure about that.

14 posted on 06/24/2006 1:55:47 PM PDT by GoBucks2002
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To: Amos the Prophet

You don't like music???? I've been around for records, 8 tracks, cassettes, and CD's...an iPod has them all beat, hands down!


15 posted on 06/24/2006 1:55:53 PM PDT by dawn53
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To: wagglebee
The iPod shuffles are made in Suzhou, Shanghai, where workers earn $100 a month. Sounds better doesn't it? Except these laborers must pay for their own food and accommodations – requiring about half their salary.

So, $50 a month buys room and board in China. Gummint subsidies, no doubt.

16 posted on 06/24/2006 1:56:08 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: wagglebee

Well, I wouldn't jumped to conclusions. It's also very likely, that without this iPod factory, many of these Chinese people would have no jobs at all.


17 posted on 06/24/2006 1:56:22 PM PDT by Bob Mc
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To: kjo
I swear I am not making this up, but I don't know what an ipod is. Is it a computer game? That's my best guess. Yes, I am over fifty.

It is like a Sony Walkman only it has a hard disk instead of tapes so you use a control to select songs instead of swapping tapes. </BoomerSpaek>

18 posted on 06/24/2006 1:56:49 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (The Left created, embraces and feeds "The Culture of Hate." Make it part of the political lexicon!)
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To: wagglebee

It's likely that your shirt and pants and shoes are made by someone living and working in similar or worse circumstances.


19 posted on 06/24/2006 1:57:59 PM PDT by claudiustg (¡En español, por favor!)
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To: dawn53

I'm still using wax cylinders.


20 posted on 06/24/2006 2:00:27 PM PDT by OSHA (If Jesus wants to work at Six Flags, he will have to cut his hair too.)
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