Friday, 10 October 2014
Apple : Irony alert
Apple one of the the major success stories of the dot-com era is often accused of treating its own workers poorly and is no stranger to controvery.
According to recent Pocket Gamer report Apple has pulled 'Sweatshop' a satirical game designed to raise awareness about the inequities of forced labour, from its APP store, because it was 'uncomfortable selling a game based around the running of a sweatshop. Though it apparently has no such qualms about selling a sweat shop produced phone. The technology giant whose own Foxconn facility is routinely plaqued by suicides, riots and human rights allegations, has cited clothing factory managers as routinely 'blocking fire escapes,' 'employing child labour' as reasons why the game was unsuitable for sale, according to Simon Parkin, head of games at liitlecloud, which created the game to highlight the human cost of fashion.
There is nothing ethical about apple, remember that they pay contract workers so little in China that they have been committing suicide, while their founder Jeff Bezos sits on a personal fortune of 427 billion, and Apple itself recently announced a $13.5 billion profit for the first quarter of 2014, while its warehouse workers suffer low pay and unfair working conditions, combined with a long term practice of using underpaid student labour and underpaying its own share of British corporate tax. Long too, has it had a history of allegations concerning human rights and labour rights abuses and lets not forget . Where things have improved recently for Apple is within its public relations department, but scratch under the surface it is still very sensitive to any outside criticism. Apple's reputation still not squeaky clean, their thirst for maximum profit still seems to be their major concern and is still in many peoples eyes a less than honest company. Apple also happens to be one of the most aggressive patent lawsuit filers in the world, that agressively pursues litigation and excessive claims against its competitors. In effect a bully.Apples' dismal record on human rights has long been questioned and is probably worse than we know about such is this companies insistence on secrecy, besides treating humanity with disrespect, Apple documents show that suppliers to the company also disrespect the environment, their suppliers routinely discharging toxic waste into our communities, without regard to the effect the waste has on residents, wildlife or the planet, its commitment to ethical values continues to be very dubious. Scratch under the surface, Apple not as nice and shiny as they try to make out.
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