a l'allure garconniere

sum1:

Apple - Hungry Beast

elmokeep:

Sources:

Apple’s ‘Think Different’ advertising campaign. Apple surpasses Microsoft^ as the world’s number one tech company. I’m a Mac. 10 workers commit suicide at Foxconn hardware contractors in China. After an Apple enquiry, Foxconn introduces counseling, cuts worker’s weeks to 60 hours, and strings nets to catch suicide attempts. 137 Wintek (contractor) workers get sick as a result of working with the n-hexane chemical. These workers say Apple is lying when it claims that they all were since cured, and say that neither Wintek, nor Apple have paid for follow-up medical treatment.

Many of your gadgets are built on third world labour. One estimate calculated that if iPads were built by American workers, they would retail for $14, 970 each. 

iTunes blocks apps which donate straight to charities. Apple has had no philanthropic division since it was shut by Steve Jobs in 1997*. Jobs has been called to answer a class action lawsuit accusing Apple of an iTunes monopoly. Apple takes 30% of all content sold through iTunes, and has launched its subscription service, which will also take 30% from publishers. Apple freezes Adobe’s Flash out of its devices. Adobe capitulates.

1984 looks a lot like 2011.

^Microsoft discontinues its iPod competitor, the Zune.

*Apple is one of the least philanthropic companies in the world. 

Motion graphics by Duncan Elms. Edited by Nick McDougall. Written by Elmo Keep. 

i never know exactly how i feel about videos like these ones: videos that call attention to serious problems (mostly re: capitalism) made with flashy techniques and design and type that often end without a real call to action. and this doesn’t even begin to address the environmental impact of mining for conflict minerals that are used in all of these electronics, or the “design for the dump” mentality. in fact, this seems like more of a criciticism of apple’s hypocritical ad campaigns vs. the reality, rather than the fact that the wasteful consumer-driven world of electronics is becoming a rather unstoppable beast, in the sense that people will buy without questioning where their goods come from (as opposed to the increasing trends of informing yourself re: food and clothing choices). 

but that’s where i think part of my problem with videos like this one lies: they are designed for short attention spans, web based sharing and are often 2-3 minutes long. i don’t think you can (or should try to) address these complicated problems in that amount of time, or even in that medium. if it is a starting point for conversations in a workshop? classroom? community center? maybe. but it just never feels like enough for me because it doesn’t seem to get to the roots of the problem(s). it’s really easily to just villify one company represented by one man, as opposed to confronting the system as being the problem.

anyway. i’m reblogging this anyway because it’s definitely something that gets swept under the rug all too often.

if you’re interested in learning more, i would recommend checking out the “enough!” project (but at the same time i feel like this isn’t really all that efficient when i think the system itself is broken and i want a revolution but maybe that’s just me and you might find it helpful/inspiring). here are some other links:

LINKS:

• The Enough! Project
• Conflict minerals
• Company Rankings
• Design for the dump: The Story of Electronics
• Les InRockuptibles: Le côté obscur d’Apple

(via bradicalmang)