Once upon a time there were two Steves: The two Steves were a couple of geeky kids who liked to play in the garage. One Steve was an engineering genius. The other Steve was a marketing genius.
Steve katswiri wa zomangamanga anamanga kompyuta yotchedwa Apple I. Zinali zosangalatsa kuziwonetsa kwa akatswiri ena a Homebrew Computer Club. Steve katswiri wa zamalonda ankaona kuti kunali kosangalatsa kuwagulitsa kumalo ogulitsira makompyuta.
Both Steves were fun loving guys who really enjoyed what they did. It was even more fun when they made tons of money, although Steve the engineering genius wasn’t so impressed by money.
Pamene kupanga makompyuta a Apple kunasiya kukhala kosangalatsa, Steve katswiri wa uinjiniya adapita kuzinthu zina zomwe zinali zosangalatsa kwambiri, monga kuphunzitsa ana kusukulu kwawo. Steve katswiri wa zamalonda adapeza ndalama zambiri pogulitsa makompyuta ndi mafoni ndi mafilimu ndi mitundu yonse ya zosangalatsa zosangalatsa.
Ndipo zonsezi zinayamba ndi achinyamata aŵiri amene ankangofuna kusangalala.
Too bad the young people who build Apple products today aren’t having as much fun. They are having so little fun that Foxconn, the huge Taiwanese company who assembles many Apple products, now requires its Chinese workers to sign an agreement that they won’t commit suicide. The company has also put up nets so that despairing workers can’t end their funless lives by jumping off of roofs.
Foxconn requires 80-100 hours of overtime at some of its plants, while forcing workers to stand up the entire time, even though their jobs could just as easily be done while seated. The young workers report that without this forced overtime they would not even make a living wage.
Achinyamatawa amakumananso ndi zinthu zowopsa zomwe zotsatira zake zathanzi zowononga nthawi yayitali zalembedwa bwino. Mwina kampaniyo ikunena kuti tsoka lipangitsa ogwira ntchitowa kusiya mankhwalawo asanawononge kwambiri.
Of course going back to the crowded cheerless workers’ dormitories can’t be much of a relief. The company security guards enforce a prison-like social environment. Hair driers and other such personal items are forbidden. Even the TV rooms have small screen TV’s, ironic considering that Foxconn makes some pretty big ones. But hey, who has the time to notice the prison-like atmosphere and the tiny TV’s? Flopping down in exhaustion is the most popular activity.
Steve Jobs, the Apple marketing genius, has done little to deploy his considerable charisma, formidable personalty and enormous economic power to remedy this situation. However,Steve Wozniak, the Apple engineering genius who is less impressed by money, reportedly cried when shown a play about the abominable conditions faced by the young people who build Apple products today. The Woz always was the nicer Steve.
But even the tears of the man who built the first Apple product won’t change the conditions that his successors face today. Let’s take all of those gee-whiz geeky iPhones, iPads, and iMacs and turn them against those who would rob today’s young people of the joy of youth. Come on Apple fanboys and fangirls, let’s use them to network a global resistance movement to the corporate fun killers.
Special thanks to Michelle Chen at Working in These Times who has written extensively about these 21st century sweatshops.
BTW, in case you are wondering, this whole piece was typed on my trusty 2009 iMac. The cartoon by Carol Simpson Cartoons was created on a 2010 Mac Mini.
ZNetwork imalandira ndalama kudzera mu kuwolowa manja kwa owerenga ake.
Ndalama