tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post8127620488128319433..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: William Blake: The Chimney SweeperUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-49932712182137312862010-07-20T09:23:16.369-07:002010-07-20T09:23:16.369-07:00Tom: Thanks for sending the additional informatio...Tom: Thanks for sending the additional information. I found Job's quote just appalling; I'm amazed that he uttered it and astonished that Apple allowed it to find its way into print. As a former junior publicist married to a former senior publicist, our mouths collectively dropped on reading it. Our personal situation has made us hyper-aware over the years of the ongoing, permanent present tense issue of suicide, especially among young women, in that part of the world. And based on things that have occurred in my own life, it's a subject that has affected me a lot and I think about regularly, more in despair than hope, I'm afraid.Curtis Robertsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-76739787192950886932010-07-20T02:49:48.590-07:002010-07-20T02:49:48.590-07:00Curtis,
As to the Jobs statement, it ignores seve...Curtis,<br /><br />As to the Jobs statement, it ignores several salient facts:<br /><br />The Foxconn suicides occurred in a cluster.<br /><br />There were were, according to some estimates I have read, some thirty suicide attempts in the Spring cluster, and ten of these have been documented as "successful".<br /><br />Jobs is playing with figures based on national annual rates for all populations.<br /><br />These events occurred only in one short period in the Spring of this year and in only one section of the population, the young.<br /><br />The suicide attempts were all made by workers between the ages of 18 and 25. (As demographics tells us and as common sense confirms, it is the old, not the young, who are most often willing to part with life.) <br /><br />To say that in one factory complex, over a short period, some thirty relatively healthy young people attempting suicide, and ten succeeding, is "well below average", is a false statement, made for a purpose that is apparent.<br /><br /> ___<br /><br /> See this Newsweek story:<br /><br />“'If there are really 300,000 people who work at this place, then you’d expect to see many dozen suicides over the course of the year,' Dr. Ian Cook, the director of UCLA’s depression research program, tells NEWSWEEK. 'The thing that gets everyone’s attention is that they’re all happening in such close timing.' There’s also the fact that the deaths have come on Foxconn property—primarily by workers jumping or falling from the tops of their dormitory buildings. These are not the images that Apple wants in consumers’ minds as they contemplate purchasing an $829 3G iPad."TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-3088381713175538882010-07-19T10:41:47.050-07:002010-07-19T10:41:47.050-07:00I first heard about this story in a television cab...I first heard about this story in a television cable news report and, obviously, was arrested by it and horrified. I just read the attached article, which you may find interesting, although its source and viewpoint seems a little suspect: <br /><br />http://www.marketwatch.com/story/steve-jobs-china-problem-2010-07-04?reflink=MW_news_stmp.<br /><br />Of particular note, I think, is Steve Jobs' quote: <br /><br />"Although every suicide is tragic, Foxconn's suicide rate is well below the China average," Jobs said in this e-mail exchange. "We are all over this," he added.<br /><br />This tears on so many levels.Curtis Robertsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-9094441229607007692010-07-19T09:43:07.620-07:002010-07-19T09:43:07.620-07:00Curtis,
The regimented, impersonal, highly stress...Curtis,<br /><br />The regimented, impersonal, highly stressed conditions for young workers in the electronics company Foxconn were the subject of a good deal of media scrutiny last Spring: <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,697296,00.html" rel="nofollow">Making iPads and iPhones causes "illnesses of the spirit"</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-81845730606892788992010-07-19T09:14:43.486-07:002010-07-19T09:14:43.486-07:00Both Caroline and I held assembly-line/man-machine...Both Caroline and I held assembly-line/man-machine jobs when we were students. Knowing these were temporary jobs and not our "lives" made them bearable (and sometimes even enjoyable) at the time. These were in the U.S., of course, and not in the Third World, where I know (and have seen) that it is quite different.Curtis Robertsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-34251310901359020712010-07-19T08:35:15.954-07:002010-07-19T08:35:15.954-07:00A few months ago A. pointed out a story about the ...A few months ago A. pointed out a story about the large numbers of suicides among young workers in a mobile telephone assembly plant in China. Their common complaint: that the work was "meaningless".TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-31001604302570414962010-07-19T04:35:48.123-07:002010-07-19T04:35:48.123-07:00The further lines from Ackroyd and Elmo St. Rose s...The further lines from Ackroyd and Elmo St. Rose should be widely read and are unforgettable. My only quibble is with Elmo's phrase: "yet the voices of liberalism are somewhat quiet about it". I think it would be fair and more accurate to substitute "effectively silent" for "somewhat quiet" and to mention that the political class has effectively suborned the silence of the political media in this regard.Curtis Robertsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-25054868126612640542010-07-18T18:03:42.534-07:002010-07-18T18:03:42.534-07:00child labor, trafficking, and
slavery persist in t...child labor, trafficking, and<br />slavery persist in the world today<br />yet the voices of liberalism are<br />somewhat quiet about it because<br />we would be criticizing the third<br />world...and at the same time<br />interfering with commercial interests...for example, you hear<br />the pillars of what was once the<br />Civil Rights movement for black<br />people attempt to get a bigger piece of the pie for their people<br />(which is legitimate) though the<br />means sometimes verge on extortion.<br />However you never hear them talk<br />about slavery in Africa,and nobody<br />talks about the factory conditions<br />in China...for cheap sneakers and<br />many baubles as it were. HIV in the<br />prostitute population(Thailand). On<br />the chimney sweeps who developed<br />scrotal cancer....those are the ones who survived awhile. Songs of<br />Innocence and Experience every day.<br />Everyday low prices at Walmart.<br />Consummer abstinence and in the<br />words of the old Civil Rights hymn,<br />"This is little light of mine, I'm<br />gonna let it shine" Who's listening?<br />Hardly anyone...the American aerobic sport...bar none...Shop til<br />You Drop.Elmo St. Rosenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-1188377933028446042010-07-16T10:16:28.710-07:002010-07-16T10:16:28.710-07:00From Ackroyd, on the short miserable lives of the ...From Ackroyd, on the short miserable lives of the chimneysweeps:<br /><br />"They were generally sold between the age of four and seven; they either left the poorhouse in batches, or were individually bartered by their parents, who would accept between twenty and thirty shillings for their four-year 'apprenticeship'. There was a great need for their services in London, where the flues were characteristically narrow or twisted so that they easily became constricted. The average size of these vents was something like seven inches square, and the small child was prodded or pushed into the even smaller spaces within; sometimes they were encouraged with poles, or pricked with pins, or scorched with fire to make them climb with more enthusiasm. Of course many died of suffocation, while others grew deformed; many others suffered from what were known as 'sooty warts', or cancer of the scrotum. One social reformer described a typical climbing boy towards the end of his career: 'He is now twelve years of age, hardly three feet seven inches in stature.... His hair felt like a hog's bristles, and his head like a warm cinder.... He repeats the Lord's prayer....'"TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-6880210815635357592010-07-16T10:04:19.885-07:002010-07-16T10:04:19.885-07:00Curtis,
You've just saved the day twice in th...Curtis,<br /><br />You've just saved the day twice in the same morning, thanks.<br /><br />_____<br /><br /><br />(And while on chimneysweeps...the most famous of Blake's, of course, is the one in <a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/william-blake-london.html" rel="nofollow">this </a> poem.)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-34826308128024605062010-07-16T09:52:31.613-07:002010-07-16T09:52:31.613-07:00Reading the two poems and the Peter Ackroyd text, ...Reading the two poems and the Peter Ackroyd text, and seeing these together with their images you've selected, is both eye-opening and heartbreaking. The Pete Seeger performance is very enjoyable and it's been a while since I've truly enjoyed a Pete Seeger performance. Thank you, as always.Curtis Robertsnoreply@blogger.com