----- Good Apple Gone Rotten -----
(me going blabla)
(me going blabla)
What do you do when a brown bruise appears as you are eating a presumably perfect red apple, tasting sweet, crisp and juicy? Do you ignore it and continue to eat it? Do you eat around it? Or do you vehemently stop eating? Most people would take the first or second option. So when the foreseeable controversies began erupting from Apple's China factory, run by Foxconn, concerning the poor labour rights, inhuman working hours and suicides, do you think the sixty million Apple users would 1) stop and return their products and protest; 2) acknowledge the situation but continue to use it or 3) the it's-not-my-problem-so-it's-not-my-responsibility stance? Of course, Apple's problem is not the first of its kind; if we can count the amount of same problems in our piggy bank of world issues, we'd be as rich as Apple is today. So what is it about the company that still entices, attracts, and even respectable by some people. How does it continuously permeates into our lifestyles then stealing our wallets? I agree, the minimalist product design is brilliant, heck I think it's one of the main drive of sales; the operating system is indeed very user-friendly (even though Mac virgins/PC vets will initially disagree). I believe the reason could be part marketing of the Apple status quo. Have celebrities been papped with a Toshiba around Hollywood? Apple promotes a lifestyle, as seen in their effortless looking commercials. It's cooler with a Mac; like owning a designer bag. Why would people pay more for less in return, PC is so much cheaper with a lot more powerful specs.Though I'm probably a hypocrite speaking of this—as I'm a Mac user.
I resist converting into an Apple Addict (owning an iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV...) with the only exception of my MacBook Pro, which I will expand on in a few moment. But I'm also a stubborn traditionalist, trying to hold onto my childhood past, the pre-iPhone generation. I'd like to avoid dependence on modern technology because they'll be the day, like my mom use to say about calculators (omg remember those?), when "you won't know how to dial a phone, flip through pages of a book or write your own name". Tru Dat Ma. I like to use a Mac as it is the creative industry standard choice, which with biases aside is true and incomparable to using a PC when working with like Adobe Creative Suite, it's much smarter and easier: "Work smarter not harder"—as my web design teacher would say.
What preemptive measures can we take to improve these working environments for the hundred thousands in the small city of China? True, there is no difference between the manufacturing of Apple and say the dollar store products, why so much pressure against Apple when we haven't dealt or resolved the others. But Apple though is taking over top spots in most sectors of business and technology, gaining billions every year, yet their philanthropic sides haven't made much grand entrances. At least Bill Gates foundation has an endowment of $33.5 billion and fore surely he is not crying. Ever since Steve Jobs died, the population have been split in half. One praises Steve Jobs for being an innovator while the other half praises him for being a good liar and manipulator as these cover ups are starting to reveal themselves. How should we as consumers shop smarter? Being a 100+ billion dollar business, you'd think Apple, a proclaimed God of tech, would be smarter and tighten their lose strings and repair the loop holes. For one, Apple products should lower their prices since the Chinese employee only receive $1.xx/hr, their profits probably would not get a bruise. Moving the manufacturing process to China already degrades the quality of Apple products so it's not like we are paying for premium quality.
The bottom line is, what does it take for the privilege to stop and change? Can it be stopped?
I resist converting into an Apple Addict (owning an iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV...) with the only exception of my MacBook Pro, which I will expand on in a few moment. But I'm also a stubborn traditionalist, trying to hold onto my childhood past, the pre-iPhone generation. I'd like to avoid dependence on modern technology because they'll be the day, like my mom use to say about calculators (omg remember those?), when "you won't know how to dial a phone, flip through pages of a book or write your own name". Tru Dat Ma. I like to use a Mac as it is the creative industry standard choice, which with biases aside is true and incomparable to using a PC when working with like Adobe Creative Suite, it's much smarter and easier: "Work smarter not harder"—as my web design teacher would say.
What preemptive measures can we take to improve these working environments for the hundred thousands in the small city of China? True, there is no difference between the manufacturing of Apple and say the dollar store products, why so much pressure against Apple when we haven't dealt or resolved the others. But Apple though is taking over top spots in most sectors of business and technology, gaining billions every year, yet their philanthropic sides haven't made much grand entrances. At least Bill Gates foundation has an endowment of $33.5 billion and fore surely he is not crying. Ever since Steve Jobs died, the population have been split in half. One praises Steve Jobs for being an innovator while the other half praises him for being a good liar and manipulator as these cover ups are starting to reveal themselves. How should we as consumers shop smarter? Being a 100+ billion dollar business, you'd think Apple, a proclaimed God of tech, would be smarter and tighten their lose strings and repair the loop holes. For one, Apple products should lower their prices since the Chinese employee only receive $1.xx/hr, their profits probably would not get a bruise. Moving the manufacturing process to China already degrades the quality of Apple products so it's not like we are paying for premium quality.
The bottom line is, what does it take for the privilege to stop and change? Can it be stopped?
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