Wednesday, January 26, 2011

A harsh light on Apple's supply chain - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Tech:

For another, he's got a good story to tell. Not just the saga of Steve Jobs' rise and fall and rise again at Apple, which, after all, has been told before. But the story of his trip to Shenzhen, China -- that "Special Economic Zone" with a population 10 million that he describes as looking like Blade Runner threw up on itself.

For unlike nearly every journalist who covered the Foxconn suicide story -- and accepted Steve Jobs' declaration last year that his beloved products are not being assembled in a sweat shop -- Daisey actually went there, breathed the toxic air, and met some of the people who make our iPhones and iPads.

In the presence of scowling guards carrying machine guns, Daisey talked to Foxconn workers who told him they were 14, 13 and 12 years old. "Do you really think that Apple doesn't know?" he asks rhetorically.
at 5:29 PM