As a baby boomer living most of my life in Africa I have observed at first hand, far too many examples of man’s inhumanity to man, been on the receiving end myself at times. On the positive side, I have had many good experiences that few in the Western world ever dream of. I have also been to many remote places that few white people have reached.
This background has given me a different outlook to many of my North American and European friends, readers and contacts. I am often asked for my opinion on various subjects concerning human actions, conditions and events in the developing world. Frequently my answers seem shocking to those that have lived their lives in the security, comfort and affluence of a Western society.
I in turn (as readers will be aware) continue to be shocked at the erosion of individual rights and personal freedom that I have witnessed in the 8 years I have lived in Canada. The steady removal of the requirement that we should all be responsible for our own actions and consequences from our inaction. The increasing heavy-handed actions by all levels of government irrespective of which party is in control, to treat us all like mindless zombies whose every action must be strictly controlled.
Questions of ethics, fair trade, aid to developing countries, come up quite frequently. Not surprisingly, having been on the receiving end of outsiders’ (both supposed friends and enemies) interference in sovereign nation’s affairs I have some strong views.
A fellow blogger Dr. Hadass Eviatar asked an ethical question in a post on her blog My Coat of Many Colours . Her dilemma was whether she should buy an iPhone given the reports of the terrible conditions for Chinese workers in the factories making the phones. Hop over to her blog at the link above and read her article, she writes very well, you will not be disappointed.
My reply to her question went like this:
I lived most of my life in Africa, I have seen poverty on a scale most North Americans cannot imagine. In many parts of Africa, people work long hours under atrocious conditions for $1 a day.
There are long queues of people outside businesses and factories waiting for more of those jobs.
If you are destitute, those jobs, even if they will shorten your life, are better than you or your kids starving.
Remember it was only a couple of hundred years ago that many of our ancestors worked under similar conditions in the coal mines and cotton mills of Europe. Our modern industrial society and better labour practices have evolved from that.
The best thing that we can do for the Chinese workers is to buy as many iPhones as possible. Some of the wealth will trickle down to improve the lowest levels of society. The more competition for labour, the better the conditions will be.
It might take a couple of generations, but evolution will take place. In the interim, bad as it is for those workers, it is still better than the alternative.
So go ahead and buy your phone with a clear conscience.
There are a couple of points that need more examination.
Poverty in Africa
One of the examples of people working extremely hard physically, for up to 12 hours a day and at the time in the late 1980’s, for less than $1 a day was labourers in Zaire (now DRC) offloading sugar and flour from rail trucks. Both products were packed in 25 kg (55lb) bags. Workers would have 2 bags placed on their heads and run down a wooden ramp from the rail truck across rail lines and a very rough gravel yard into a warehouse where they would have the bags removed by other workers for stacking. They would then run back for the next 2 bags. Some of those workers looked like they only weighed 140 lbs, so they were carrying around 80% of their own bodyweight, in temperatures of over 30 C (85F) in tropical humidity for up to 12 hours a day. No lunch break, no cold water. Conditions in many parts of Africa are no better today.
If a worker fainted from exhaustion, a replacement would be let into the yard from the long line of people waiting at the gate for a chance to earn a miserable wage.
A sight that is unforgettable, is that of men, women and children scouring the garbage dumps on the outskirts of big cities for anything edible no matter how dirty, contaminated or insect infested. A particularly bad example was seeing seriously malnourished refugees from Mozambique risking land mines to cross the border into Rhodesia so that they could sift through the kitchen rubbish thrown away at bush camps.
Early one morning, I was feeling sorry for myself because I had cut my foot quite badly and then burned myself trying to set some rubbish on fire with petrol (gasoline). I escorted the garbage patrol on its journey away from camp to the disposal pit and there were hordes of starving children, thin as rakes and barely dressed in tatty rags, overjoyed because they had found the rotting T bone steak remnants from one of our previous meals. Thanking us for not burning the scraps and bones, some of which were already green and fly infested in the heat. Seeing other humans living under worse conditions than my dogs at home did, soon stopped me feeling sorry for myself.
Factory workers in China although badly treated or exploited by our standards, are almost certainly better off than the peasants in the rural areas from where they originated and definitely better off than millions of staving people in the most desolate parts of the world.
While I would agree that we should support a boycott of conflict diamonds and emeralds, especially from the Marange field in Zimbabwe, where there is clear evidence that Mugabe’s army has stolen the land itself and then the diamonds coming out of it. In the process murdering who knows how many miners, this is a different scenario to iPhones made in Chinese factories.
Yes, we should be concerned about working and living conditions in countries that supply us with our shiny electronics at an affordable price. But we are being extremely arrogant when we try to impose our standards on foreign countries. Why is it that numerous studies find the level of happiness among people living under terrible conditions (by our standards) in poor countries, is considerably higher than in our stressed out Western societies?
If we insisted that those factories operated at the same standard as we would demand here in North America, no factory in China or anywhere else would be competitive and iPhones would be many times more expensive.
We are so sure that out way of life and our standards are better than those of other countries, but look at the mess we leave when we try to impose those standards on people who are not ready for them, cannot manage them and frequently do not want them. Iraq, Afghanistan and much of Africa are prime examples.
The best way we in the West can help factory workers making iPhones in Chinese factories is to keep on buying the phones. The more wealth that flows into those businesses, the more will trickle down through the layers of the economy. The more demand for output from those factories, the more competition for labour there will be until eventually wages and conditions will start to rise. That process might take generations but it should happen quicker than it did for our own European ancestors.
The alternatives, trying to dictate labour laws to China or boycotting products made there will only make the lives of those workers even more miserable.
So go ahead and buy your exploited Chinese worker produced electronic gadgets with a clear conscience, you might just be making more impact than donating the same amount to an administration heavy big name charity.
What do you think? Leave a comment and share your views.
Wishing you success in all your endeavours.
p.s. My e-book is now in the Kindle select lending library.
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Wow, thanks for the kind words, Peter! Not to mention the dispensation to love my iPhone ;-).
Wow, thanks for the kind words, Peter! Not to mention the dispensation to love my iPhone ;-).
You are most welcome Hadass, I do enjoy your writing and hope you enjoy your iPhone. I am supporting Canada and probably a different group of exploited Chinese workers by sticking with my Blackberry, if I am honest, somewhat influenced by getting a free upgrade when it was time to renew my contract.
And you two met through me? I’m very pleased to know that!
I’ve often thought that it was arrogance for us to try to impose our standards on other nations – our form of government, our religion, our views on the world, Peter – though I haven’t had your frame of reference to validate the thinking. If only we could ensure a good, basic education and eliminate poverty, imagine what the world could be?
At what point does exploitation (hard labor, $1/day) become unacceptable abuse (e.g., conflict diamonds)? At what point are we at risk of destroying our own economy in the process – in our quest for inexpensive gadgetry in the short term? Can’t we help and support others, without demolishing our own industries and capabilities?
I think the Internet will do much to influence the way people think — as it bridges the culture gap and lets people get to know one another as friends, and to share thoughts on things like this.
Yes Holly, all your fault, but I have to thank you for introducing me to an interesting, inspiring and refined blogger. I hope though that Hadass will not think too badly of you for exposing her to the likes of me.
Like you, I wish we could eliminate poverty and provide a better education to make the world a better place. My concern, based on my experience in Africa, is that education can be a double edged sword.
Introducing our Western brand of education in developing countries, leads to increased expectations, which with the best will in the world cannot be met for all of the generation being educated. They cannot be met because of a lack of infrastructure, poor resources, bad or corrupt government, and a host of other reasons all resulting in lack of opportunity.
The effects are, that the brightest students leave and take their education elsewhere while others who cannot leave build resentment which often ultimately leads to conflict.
I am not saying we should not try and improve the standard and availability of education in developing countries, I am suggesting that to be effective we need to take a more holistic view and balance education with increased opportunity.
The problem is that frequently the same problems that reduce opportunities make for a risky environment for investment and job creation.
There are no easy solutions.
At what point does exploitation become abuse? My opinion is that no matter how bad conditions might be, if people are not being forced to work at gun point then they have a choice to work or starve, it is not up to us to make that decision for them.
When they are being physically forced to work, or the fruits of their labour forcibly taken from them (conflict diamonds) that is when I do believe we are morally bound to use our power of boycott.
As for demolishing our own industries, I fear that we have done quite a good job of that already, let’s hope that the new economic model that emerges will prove to be better.
And yes I agree that the Internet is a huge power for good, my fear is that governments or NGO’s at the direction of repressive governments, will attempt to control it and control the free flow of information that it enables.
(I am not suggesting that either your or my government will be the chief culprit here).I am concerned that the UN is already setting the wheels in motion.
My partner and I spent time this week looking for Fair Trade chocolate because we are told that over half the workers in the cacao fields in Africa are children working without compensation, i.e. slaves. Should we buy the slave grown chocolate, coffee, whatever because slavery is better than starving in the bush? If we buy Fair Trade coffee, an Ethiopian farmer can send his kids to school. As for trickle down, that was the line sold by the Reagan administration in the US as an excuse for busting the labor unions.
Fair disclosure–I am Hadass’ father and a past Chair of the Israel section of Amnesty International. The price of Iphones and the compensation of workers can both be kept reasonable, if the unreasonable greed of the tycoons is somehow restrained.
Thank you for your comment.
Although it seems that we may be poles apart in our outlook, I appreciate your taking the time to contribute to the discussion and welcome your views. I am (I hope) mature enough to recognise that rarely are any of us 100% correct on anything and that truth or reality is often somewhere between the extremes. I also know that I can learn from people with whom I may disagree.
I would add that in a perfect world we would probably find more agreement than disagreement on many issues, but my experience provides a different set of lenses with which to view the far from perfect world that I know.
Your disclosure that you are a past Chair of the Israel section of Amnesty International leaves me somewhat curious as to your opinion of Israel. Every time I have heard, or seen written, the words “Israel” and “Amnesty International” in the same sentence, it has been in criticism of Israel.
Also in the interests of fair disclosure, I am an ardent supporter of Israel and have been since I was old enough to understand my father’s explanation of Britain’s duplicity towards Israel after WW2. Ironically the same duplicity that cost him his life in Rhodesia many years later.
You may understand that with my background, I have a very jaundiced opinion of Amnesty International. My experience is that the organisation does everything possible to attack the West and Israel over all and any real or alleged violations but goes out of its way to exonerate the worst atrocities committed by any group that is in opposition to the USA, Israel, White Africans, or the major European powers.
Amnesty International was conspicuous by its silence when my fellow farmers were being murdered in Zimbabwe, myself and others imprisoned, our farms stolen and hundreds of thousands of our workers left destitute. Yet the same organisation condemned us and the South African government for defending our countries against communist financed and armed terrorists who murdered 1000’s of innocent people, more of whom were black than white.
I will take issue with your assertion that children working without compensation are slaves. Yes there is undoubtedly still slavery in Africa and elsewhere. But if those children are classed as slaves on the basis that they are not paid, then so must many American and Canadian children who spend their summers working on family farms for little or no compensation other than board and lodging. As I wrote in my blog post, working for a pittance or just food as an alternative to starving is a choice that thousands of people have to make.
I do not think it is right, I do not like it any more than you do, but neither do I think that I have the right to deny them that alternative to starving by destroying their system until there is a better one.
Fair trade coffee and other agricultural commodities sound like a marvellous idea and is a move in the right direction, but the administration of these schemes is suspect. Regrettably there have been too many cases of documents being falsified and other shortcuts taken. Between endemic corruption in Africa, the hidden agenda, inefficiency and inertia of many NGOs, accepting Free Trade labels at face value could in many cases be futile.
Thank goodness Ronald Reagan did curtail the power of the unions, otherwise North America would be in a worse state than Greece right now. I find it appalling that a democracy like Canada is one of only 3 countries in the world where in certain industries, union membership is a condition of employment. Denying a qualified person the right to work because he is not prepared to join a union is discrimination and forcing him to pay union dues is extortion.
Moving on to the “unreasonable greed of tycoons” sure, some tycoons are greedy, some are dishonest, some are outright criminals, just like any other group of people. But it is those same tycoons, greedy or otherwise who provide jobs for the majority of the population who do not have the resources, inspiration or inclination to start businesses of their own.
Perhaps the greed is on the part of all of us consumers and workers. Aided and abetted by unions, demanding increasing remuneration without increases in productivity so that we can buy more things like iPhones at prices so low that only Chinese workers are prepared to produce them.
The contraction of large scale manufacturing in North America and Europe with the exodus of jobs to China and elsewhere will I believe continue to erode the power of the unions. It is also going to force a radical restructuring of our societies, employment and standard of living, we can only hope that we end up with something superior to what we have now.
Interesting times.
This is the most interesting sociopolitical discussion I’ve seen in a long time – and you give more food for thought in your comments, Aharon and Peter, than most people give in their posts.
Interesting reflection. Let me add a few factual things that get lost in this debate. The first two points were explained to the current POTUS by the late Steve Jobs when asked if he could bring those jobs back to the US (his answer was basically “they can’t be”):
(a) Wages account for about 2 (two) % of the production cost. If Apple manufactured these devices in the West at prevailing wages, they would become more expensive, but not by a whole lot.
(b) However — and every tech hardware company faces this problem at this point — at this point it isn’t just the final assembly that is done in China, and not even just the first layer of the supply chain, but the second layer of the supply chain that are all in China, within kilometers from the Foxconn assemblyplant (which BTW is Taiwanese-owned).
(c) In addition, while the US credentialing (I am increasingly reluctant to call it ‘education’) system is very good at turning out semi-literate and innumerate graduates in “nothingness studies” that can parrot the latest New Class/BoBo dogma, it is rather less successful at turning out skilled manual workers that can work with acceptably low quality control problems.
(d) Furthermore, smartphones and devices like that require small (per device) but nontrivial amounts of rare earth metals. Guess which country produces 97% of them, under (needlessly) appalling conditions? Yup, you guessed it in one. And guess what pet causes of the eco-set consume large amounts of rare earth metals? Those fretting about their iPhone or the neodymium in their headphones should fret ten times as hard about windmills and Priuses (Prii).
http://spinstrangenesscharm.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/earth-friendly-elements-mined-destructively/
Because of its monopoly, one could say that the ChiComs have manufacturers like Apple by the short and curlies. Let them move production abroad and the taps will be closed. Fortunately, that particular problem may bring its own solution, as skyrocketing rare earth prices have triggered a renewed interest in exploitation of RE deposits in, e.g., Australia.
Companies can still make jobs in other countries without the people being abused. I think iPhone company is extremely greedy. Just look at the iPads and mac computers prices compared to other brands ,and still abuse foreigner workers? com on ! why they do that ? because they minds are focus on profits !