Global education. Human rights.Watch a short documentary “Who pays the price? The human cost of Electronics”.

Most of us are aware of the specs of our smartphones, e.g. how many mega pixels does our camera have, apps it can run, amount of storage it has, but not many are familiar with the
bad publicity about Apple and Foxconn.

Discussion panel. Form three groups, electronics device producer, factory workers and electronics consumers. Present your views and answer the following questions:

Do you own a smartphone? Do you know who and how it was produced?

Is the situation at the electronics factories ethical?

What can be done to improve the situation of the workers?

What do the owners of the factories do to improve the situation?

Would you forgo using a certain brand, say Apple, if you knew the brand is behaving unethical by exploiting workers in China?

Whose job is it to promulgate manufacturer’s bad behavior and “clean the dirty laundry”?

What are the answers of the official representatives of Apple and Foxconn?

Have a look at the net earnings made by Apple and Foxconn, and the average salary received by a factory worker. What conclusion can you make?

Why do workers still keep flooding the jobs for transnational corporations, like Apple, Foxconn, etc.?

You are welcome to ask your tough questions and present your arguments.

From a human rights activist standpoint, what specific steps would you undertake for the betterment of the workers?

From an electronics producer perspective, what would you change? Or, would you change anything?

Stand in the shoes of the consumer of electronics. What is your reaction? Consider you are in a situation when you want and need to buy a super-shiny, fast and modern smartphone.

Now, stand in the shoes of the Foxconn factory worker who is overworked, underpaid and, above all, risks his or her health and life by being exposed to n-hexane and benzene. How can you change the issue? Or, the question should rather be, can you change it?

How would you interpret the following fact, more people have a mobile phone than a toilet?

Consider the following phrase, if it bleeds, it leads. How do you understand it?

Consider the two renowned companies, Google and Foxconn. List the major similarities and differences. Compare and contrast. Think why one can’t become much like the other. Here are some pictures of the working conditions of the two companies.

Google

Similarities: Differences:

Foxconn

2010. Newly installed nets to prevent workers from jumping to their deaths are pictured outside one of the Foxconn’s factory buildings in the township of Longhua, in southern Guangdong province, China

2010. Foxconn employs 420,000 workers at its Shenzhen plant where conditions are very basic with no air-conditioning

Both companies are global multibillion-dollar stakeholders. Ask yourself, why do we hear more about Google than Foxconn? ____________________________________________________________

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What makes Google so lucrative? __________________________________________________________

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Date: 2016-04-22; view: 901