On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 6:35 PM, Norbert Bollow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Taran Rampersad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> "In October, Shenzhen China-based HiVision will ship a MIPs-based Linux >> mini-notebook for $98. The company is currently offering a similar >> machine for $120, according to a video blog report from the >> /Internationale Funkausstellunga/ (IFA) consumer electronics show in >> Berlin this week....(...) > > While I find it very cool to see inexpensive GNU/Linux based devices > with PC-like functionality becoming available, I wonder whether the > question about the working conditions of the workers who produce > these devices should not also be prominently raised, researched and > discussed. Are their human rights being respected?
A very important question, Norbert - already when the Asus EEE (which looks very much like this HiVision notebook) came out, I was reminded of the same questions, raised for instance on March 7, 2007, at a roundtable of the "High Tech No Rights" campaign at the Geneva Institut Universitaire d'Etudes du Développement (1), though about "expensive" computers. A year later, the same associations published a follow-up report about the situation in China (2) which states: "Despite the positive inputs from more progressive brands beginning early 2007, long-term problems still persisted in their Chinese supplier factories. They include substandard wages, excessive work hours, poor occupational health and safety, no rights to employment contracts and resignation, and no communication of corporate codes of conduct to workers. " And in the introduction to this study, the site of the action states that "Paying ca CHF 50 (ca US$ 35) is enough to double the spending for wages, respect of [fair] work hours, welfare prestations and security measures" (3). If US$ 35 is the cost for manpower in the "expensive" computers examined in the study, how much is spent on manpower in computers as cheap as the Asus or HiVision ones? Best Claude (1) Info about the campaign at www.fair-computer.ch (in German, French and Italian) - audio recording (ogg and mp3) of the roundtable downloadable from <http://www.archive.org/details/hightechnorights_geneva> (partly in French and partly in English). (2) High Tech - No Rights? A One Year Follow Up Report on the Working Conditions in the Electronic Hardware Sector in China - May 2008 <http://www.fair-computer.ch/cms/fileadmin/user_upload/computer-Kampagne/Pressekonferenz_20.Mai/A_one_year_follow_up_study_final.pdf> - 6.9 Mb (English) (3) translated from <http://www.fair-computer.ch/cms/index.php?id=413&L=2> Environ 50 francs supplémentaires suffisent à doubler les dépenses liées aux salaires, au respect du temps de travail, aux prestations sociales et aux mesures de sécurité. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
