Steve Jobs Failure and the System that produced it

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Saturday December 24, 2011 · 10:47 AM PST

2011/12/24 · 10:47

First, the adulation: let us praise Steve Jobs. He was, after all, an admirable man. He epitomized the rags to riches story we hold dear in America—plus, most important, he made cool toys. Really cool. He had an eye for sleek, sexy functionality and created intimate eye candy, putting the p in Personal Device. It’s no accident that a quaint ‘i’ became emblematic of his multi-billion dollar business. As one rather sarcastic iPhone App puts it, “you were looking for something that would symbolize your status, your dynamic lifestyle, your unique personality….just like everyone else….” But the unfortunate truth is the iPhone is the product of an army of slaves whose names we do not know, and whose lives we would never want to experience. They work twelve hours a day for thirteen days straight for months on end. They earn as little as 130 dollars a month, or approximately 40 cents an hour. In fact, Foxconn, the Chinese based plant in Shenzen province that assembles the iPhone has draped a series of nets and steel poles jutting out 20 feet above the sidewalk to catch workers attempting to commit suicide. The Foxconn workers kill themselves by jumping from Foxconn windows. Foxconn is the reason most Americans can afford an iPhone, at all. Altogether, the company employs about half a million people. Working conditions are so bad that 17 workers killed themselves within the space of a few months, hence the netting. Steve Jobs knew this too, and tried to do something about it, demanding inspections and guarantees of improved work conditions, but his actions were all reactive. There’s an instructive email exchange which was recorded on the website MacStories from Labourstart.org after the jump:

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Friday November 25, 2011 · 7:23 PM PST

2011/11/25 · 19:23

No, this is not snark. At least not entirely. After hearing President Barak Obama's Thanksgiving Day Address many in the conservative noise machine were displeased. Obama had omitted any mention of a Judeo-Christian God. He had mentioned being our sister's and brother's keepers and talked about Christian charity and love, but never referenced the Big G directly. As Fox News columnist Todd Starnes complained "the president's remarks were void of any religious references although Thanksgiving is a holiday traditionally steeped in giving thanks and praise to God."

I know most here will disagree, but historically, if you go faaaar enough back, Todd Starnes is actually right-but not in a way that he'll appreciate. In fact, Starnes I think will be deeply disappointed once he realizes the reason those settlers were told to give Thanks to God on what we now celebrate as Thanksgiving day....

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Tuesday November 22, 2011 · 7:39 AM PST

2011/11/22 · 07:39

“The goal is not to bring your adversaries to their knees but to their senses.” — Mahatma Gandhi

If you’ve been paying attention for the last few days, you might recognize that something miraculous is happening. In New York City, 30,000 protestors formed a sea of humanity and marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on the night of November 17th. Many of them had been attacked by police earlier in the day, yet, that evening, with 30,000 marching across Brooklyn Bridge, there was not a single arrest.

At UC Davis, police officers armed and in riot gear again attacked students who were passively resisting. Later these same police officers were surrounded by thousands of UC students and were asked to leave. Together the protesters stood as one, and delivered their message: “We will allow you to leave peacefully now. You can leave.” They continued their chant, “You can leave.” The police officers began walking backwards, away from the students, their weapons drawn. They were clearly afraid. The students did not back down, repeating peaceably, yet forcefully, “You can leave”. The officers stepped backwards until they finally turned, and left without firing another shot. Later that night, on the UC Davis campus, Chancellor Katehi who had authorized this use of force demanded an escort to her car. She said that she was afraid. The way to her automobile was lined by thousands of students who, with a measure of discipline I would not have thought possible, did not say a word. Their disciplined silence was for the chancellor, a walk of shame.

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Monday October 31, 2011 · 3:57 PM PDT

2011/10/31 · 15:57

“The goal is not to bring your adversaries to their knees but to their senses.” -- Mahatma Gandhi

It’s sad to watch: pundits laud Steve Jobs design efforts on the relatively insignificant frill of an iPhone while treating with cavalier disdain the efforts of Occupy Wall Street. There are good reasons, of course. Steve Jobs epitomizes the rags to riches story we hold dear in America. It’s easier to make a hero out of one man’s effort, his vision, than it is to champion what seems an inchoate force, a multitude of sometimes conflicting voices demanding not just one thing, but many. Finally, Occupy Wall Street isn’t as pretty as an iPhone. It doesn’t deliver intimate eye candy or sexy functionality. Rather, it tells you the world is broken. It might even mention that the iPhone and Apple devices the pundits lavishly praise are the results of an array of intellectual achievements, none of which belong to Steve Jobs alone, and only a few of which he managed to harness. Furthermore, if Occupy Wall Street does its work right, you might realize that the iPhone upon which you text your colleagues and like your Facebook friends is the product of an army of slaves who work twelve hours a day for thirteen days straight for months on end, earning, as little as 130 dollars a month, or approximately 40 cents an hour. In fact, Foxconn, the Chinese based plant in Shenzen province has draped a series of nets and steel poles jutting out 20 feet above the sidewalk to catch workers attempting to commit suicide by jumping from their windows. Foxconn is the reason most Americans can afford an iPhone at all. Altogether, the company employs about a million people. Working conditions are so bad that 17 workers have killed themselves, thus far.

HiddenHistories

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Saturday October 15, 2011 · 9:12 AM PDT

2011/10/15 · 09:12

A close friend of mine who had been following the Occupy movement casually recently asked how he thought the Occupy movement would ‘play out’? There was a note of healthy skepticism, as if he expected a dark response. But at this point, who can answer such a question? I have no more of a looking glass than anyone, nevertheless, it needed a response. So here goes...

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Friday September 23, 2011 · 4:18 PM PDT

2011/09/23 · 16:18

This is cool and the kind of direct action that should cause some discomfort to those who most deserve it. Why is Sotheby's working with scabs? The million dollar art auction house can't afford paying to scale? Meh. Occupy Wall Street let the world know what's going down there today....by showing up.

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Tuesday September 20, 2011 · 12:40 PM PDT

2011/09/20 · 12:40

Early this morning at least five protesters were arrested by NYPD.

According to http://www.OccupyWallStreet.com:

The first arrest was a protester who objected to the police removing a tarp that was protecting our media equipment from the rain. The police said that the tarp constituted a tent, in spite of it not being a habitat in any way. Police continued pressuring protesters with extralegal tactics, saying that a protester on a bullhorn was breaking a law. The protester refused to cease exercising his first amendment rights and was also arrested. Then the police began to indiscriminately attempt to arrest protesters, many of them unsheathed their batons, in spite of the fact that the protest remained peaceful.
One of the protesters received a large gash on their leg, another lost a tooth. Multiple police tackled a protester and sat on him as he continually warned them that he was experiencing an asthma attack. One of the medics on site informed the police that they needed to call an ambulance because this was a potentially fatal circumstance. They ignored him. We have no current information on this protester, but we hope that he hasn't been murdered by the police.

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Friday September 09, 2011 · 6:37 AM PDT

2011/09/09 · 06:37

About ten years ago, shortly after 9/11, a series of writers pontificated on the event for a New York publication. Robert Stone, ex-beatnik and author of Dog Soldiers, a novel about Vietnam and heroin running was one of them. In a work entitled “9/11: When Narratives Collide” he noted that narratives rule us—or, conversely— we allow ourselves to be ruled by narratives spawned by our culture. A novelist, Stone understood the impact of what happened through the lens of language, and language, as he noted can never separate itself from moral perspective because–tautology of tautologies – the imperatives of language are necessarily moral. Even something like humor is moral. To be sure this is generational, but it’s also cultural. And if individuals raised in the same household can have such diverging tastes in matters of low importance like humor, imagine the disparity that moves across classes, cultures and generations when it comes to matters of religion and politics.

HiddenHistories for ClassWarfare Newsletter: WallStreet VS Working Class Global Occupy movement

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Sunday April 10, 2011 · 1:44 PM PDT

2011/04/10 · 13:44

Hint: the correct answer is not 'all of us'...

A conservative's ability to project never ceases to amaze me. Recently, in a long discussion thread with a deeply conservative friend, I had a little epiphany. I realized that my friend, in most other ways rational, seriously believed that the Budget 'crisis' was the fault of the Obama's administration 'out of control spending' and various entitlement programs going broke. I tried to set the record straight by outlining the last ten years or so of US Budget history in a quick, hopefully easy to follow manner.

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Friday December 31, 2010 · 12:05 PM PST

2010/12/31 · 12:05

The celebration of New Year’s eve is one of humanity’s oldest holiday tradition, dating all the way back to the ancient Babylonians. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon after the Vernal Equinox which was used to indicate the first day of spring; they called their New Years rêš šattim, 'beginning of the year'... or 'head of the year'...The festival is also referred to as Akitu and it was tied closely to their planting time. They had one heck of a celebration—lasting 12 days to be exact. Each day represented a ritualistic step in integration with their main diety, Marduk.

Below the fold, a 12 day 'party' that was as important to social cohension of an empire as it was to religion.

HiddenHistories

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Thursday December 23, 2010 · 11:58 AM PST

2010/12/23 · 11:58

Panama is a funny country," Harari said. "It's not really a country. It's more like a business. I know the . . . storekeeper."

-- Mike Harari, the Mossad operative whom Noriega called his "mentor"

On December 20, 21 years ago, George H. Bush ordered the US army to invade the small Central American country of Panama. Not many people know this history and probably not too many care, given the far more destructive invasions and wars that would follow in his son’s wake. But Bush’s little war in Panama reveal much about both the United States foreign policy establishment and its intelligence communities.

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