With an old post ‘vale Steve Jobs’, some months back, there was some discussion about the work ethics of Apple corporation and their methods of producing products. As I remember, the discussion was as a result of an ABC or SBS interview with someone called Daisy. I also brought up that there were allegations of Apple using child labour, under-paid workers and even suicides amongst Apple employees.
Well….
Did I just hear on ABC News that Apple Corporation admitted to having their products made in China by some very dubious practises? Did I also hear that suicides amongst Apple workers were rampant as a result of those practises?
Who was the person saying that the Apple devices in China were not made by using dodgy and inhumane practises?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-14/apple-admits-supplier-employees-are-abused/3772594
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
My name in lower case is purely accidental. Gee, VL. You missed your vocation and should have been a psychologist. They often make complicated what is simple and see the most extraordinary in the most ordinary. Perhaps that’s why some people flock to them hoping for a bit of magic or a cure. A shaman under a different name.
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Some fuel for you.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092277/Inside-Chinese-factories-making-iPads-Apple.html
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Na na nah.
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Sandshoe, I hope the vegie growing works out well. It’s usually not very cheap or “green” to grow your own but it could be if you set up the right infrastructure I suppose. They and fruit trees can require a lot of fertiliser, pest control, disease control, and watering (not this summer perhaps). You have to inspect them pretty frequently because pest and disease control requires less work and fewer chemicals if you get in early. At least in SA you shouldn’t get fruit fly as far as I know. My suggestion for tomatoes is cherry tomatoes; mine came up by accident from the compost and grew and fruited with no care and I’ve heard that’s not unusual, but then we get a fair bit of summer rain here.
With the citrus, will the landlord fork out for fertiliser, mulch, oil sprays, etc.? And gardening tools such as loppers and secateurs for pruning?
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Voice, I am fortunate I have a daughter who is an inspirational gardener. Her dad was a horticulturalist too. I remembered some things he said. Or I would have been lost for a start. Yum, I like Cherry toms. Mine are Grosse Lisse sub species ‘Church Fair’…a discounted end of day bargain at 2.50 and I have 6 plants. 🙂 And yes, there are gardening tools here, stuff supplied. I take a voluntary interest in the trees and flower gardens. The landlord is a couple in fact who live close by and that works very well in this case, truly. The property wants for nothing in this respect -although without extravagance – and I try to contribute as much as I can. I’m sure lucky I tell you. 🙂
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Julian or Voice, please challenge one thing or anything that I have said. Nah, didn’t think so
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Hippo
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Crit
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Voice and Julian’s favourite song is Runaway, Run Run Run Runaway
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Late again I demur
I have read this piece.
Thank you for its reminder Gez. I worry too about the exploitation of children to supply the market in consumables we might as well call perishables or loseables. When I first owned a mobile phone I astonished at the way-like round stainless steel pens-they could just slip, slip away unseen and even unheard. The latest fandangle is so slippery I wonder at the ingenuity of the corporations. And a geowotsit so we know where we are looks nothing anymore alongside an image of a child who knows where he/she is on a rubbish dump of it all.
I did really love my Macintosh computer and I would love to have another. One day maybe.
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You’d love anything by the sounds
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I haven’t had a real lot of stuff that I have owned in my life Hung. I loved my Mac possibly more because of that and any idea of owning another is a pipe dream.
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Apple is rotten to the core (Voice might get this one)
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…and the Aussie Bananas are back on my shopping list; good and cheap.
I’m sure the Chinese ones are not half as nice 🙂
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Baby milk from China highlights their whole ethos, in my view.
The only reason that they mitigate on anything, is if there is an outcry: such as there has been hundreds of times on various products (inc Apple)..
…As I reiterate, They are utterly ruthless!
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Ladies’ fingers $4.50 at the Bundall farmers market today HELVI.
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H, I love a coconut dosed banana with a curry however I am reliably informed that the banana trade is dominated by the Mexican mafia, sad but true
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I (honestly), know an Indian banana farmer from Coffs Harbour. His son is in IT and lives here on The Coast. He has just bought 3 properties.
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Yes vECTIS, it will be thanks to the Mexican mafia
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Last week both Harris Market and Aldi had nice tasting big bananas $1.50 a kilo. This week Woolies and Harris have them for $2.50 a kilo…
I don’t know were they are ‘made’, but they are pretty good value, I find Coles’ fruit and vegies are the most expensive…Aldi ususally states where things are grown…
In a small place is no big deal to shop around, distances are short…I buy bits and pieces when walking Milo….
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H, Look at the little sticker on the banana, If the name starts with “M” then it is controlled by Mexican drug barons
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VL
Pisang radja = Lady fingers?
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My favourites were pisang susu: small, but sweet.
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Yes, Hippos like that
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I buy my bananas from the fruit shop and meat from the butcher. Woollies, Coles et al screw the farmers. The fruit is fresher as well, and the butcher has become a personal friend so I know the quality and its source. Meat at the supermarket could be up to a year old.
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The supermarket where I live ‘throws out’ a profound quantity of mark-downs so I scrounge through them, but my garden is producing a few treats-my first lettuces have been delicious and rocket but I didn’t understand I had to plant rocket again so I have left one in to self seed while I get my head around garden layout (making space). Yesterday I picked my first cucumber and shared it with a dinner guest with a simple lettuce and fetta salad, a coddled egg dressing made with olive oil and a lovely regardless cheap vinegar. Dessert was a compote of mark-down fruit (not ripened and skin damaged) with wholemeal pancakes and a Paris Creek yoghourt (mark-down).
My tomatoes planted all over as an experiment have done the best alongside a galvanised iron fence, in a sheltered corner in direct line with the setting sun (amazingly right up against a hedge of cannas. I cleared cannas from the corner to grow food in it …and preserved a few as this is rental property.
Picked the first ever tomato green a few days ago because I could not stand to wait any longer. Gosh green tomato sliced and steamed with silverbeet, rosemary, garlic is spic. Green tomato looks so beautiful.
Anyway, this is how I am now able to be online and not at the library where the services are under resourced and the speed of the internet excruciating. In the long run it would not have suited anyway because of the restriction to opening hours.
There is a pretty good fruit shop around the corner. I sometimes splurge on a handsomely expensive pawpaw. A butcher next door to there is third or fourth generation Curiously the name is the the same as my maternal great grandmothers from Cornwall so I’m fond, but the butcher is o, so very good. Leastwise as far as butchers can be good. They look a bit murderous to some. 🙂
I gave a Satsuma plum tree to the landlord/property… there are loquats already here, an apricot, nectarines, almonds, a mulberry tree not that it’s producing, grapes, oranges, lemons and an olive. O, I feel particularly keen to do the right thing by future tenants and anyway others who can enjoy the variety of fruits potential. Some of the trees are just starting to produce.
This is all to say how fortunate we are to have the werewithal to have the choices we make or not make. While my own choices are limited I can work within the limits and being crucially aware it is knowledge and experience – and resources – that see us all here, but, as well, being equipped with the drive to overcome the difficult problems that beset us and some of them peculiar to our society. How lucky are we.
I miss markets.
A friend is coming round and we are going to have a look at the local nursery. I have never gardened before. Lots to learn. 🙂
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We rarely get lady fingers at the supermarket or fruit shop. (Green) Cavendish are $2.69 at the mo. 🙂
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Some of my great great great grandparents came from Cormwall. Actually found the house they lived before comeing to Australia in the 1850’s. It was the only house in the street and about 200 years old at the time. They were from Falmouth.
Our fruit shop fruit and veg is fresh and is reasonable priced. They don’t stack the shevles high with product, so it turns over quickly.They also sell wood fired Italian bread I reckon they sell it too cheap. Every Saturday we buy this hugh ciabatta for $6! Any of the markets they are $8-9 (I wouldn’t buy it at that price). One day I’ll get into growing my own veg, but I’ve been saying that for 20 years. I’d be happy with a crop of the mango tree.
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Ahh Alge, o, to retire near a mango tree in one of those wooden canvas slung deckchairs. 🙂
My lot came from Marazion-mum and dad and five children. My grandad was 8. He was born in Gulval. Vivienne too spoke about her Cornish heritage. I took the trouble to check so as to not misquote: In the Kitchen with Vivienne – Seafood – Part 2.
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Shoe I’d be happy if ours would just give us fruit. Eight or Nine seasons ago we had around a thousand mangos, bliss. The drough unfortunatley has not been kind and its been a battle with the possums and bats. This season looked the best I’d seen, then the rain came and didn’t stop. Not a one. Maybe next year.
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It alarms me sadly Algernon a mango tree that produces no fruit. Out of mango infused curiosity, I wonder what type your mango is and what the age of the tree is…
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It is very hard to avoid buying stuff made in China. Australian brands made there too. But for me the worst thing is the extent of the Made in China product on the supermarket shelves. I now check everything. If Aussies don’t make it I will get the one made in Thailand or Indonesia and never China. I just don’t trust their food handling/processing. They are selling Chinese made lollies/sweets here too.
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The problem with ‘Aussie made’ buying is that if applied overseas, our exports would also not be bought, if they, the countries we export to, also stuck to buying ‘locally manufactured.’
The answer , and that seems to be happening now in the developed world, is to stop or rein in consuming. This will give developing countries such as India, Brazil, China the opportunity to catch up and this in turn might just give third world countries a chance to get access to water, energy and above all enough to eat.
Amazingly, a report has come out that states that the number of obese in the OECD now outnumber the undernourished.
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I know and appreciate all that but there needs to be a limit to how far we let this go. The supermarkets are importing inferior product and selling it a normal price – someone must be making a killing. It is absurd to be importing China grown or made food products on the scale which is now emerging. I do not believe their food handling procedures meet our standards and I can’t understand how the product is allowed in. Tinned products are never out of season. With so much manufacturing having been relocated to China I think we are doing our bit to assist developing countries. Mind you, I do not believe China is a developing country.
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Thank you Gerard, yes I try to buy locally produced faeces. Apparently there is an abundance of it and can be found everywhere. 🙂
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Hung, I’m unsmiling just here.
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Wots your problem boy?
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The news about poor working conditions in China for electronics workers, including but not limited to Apple workers, is old news. It had a mention in the comments on Mike’s Vale to Steve Jobs here at the PA a few months ago but is at least a year older.
pigsarms.com.au/2011/10/06/vale-the-great-steve-jobs/.
News about poor working conditions in China for other industries is even older.
Most of the ABC article you reference outlines some measures Apple has taken to combat the problems, what progress they’ve made, what’s still wrong, and their plans for further improvements. At least there’s some good news at last.
It’s not believable that first world companies that outsource to China haven’t known about this abuse. Then again, we as first world consumers of the items they sell have known about it too, unless we had selective blindness to the news items.
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On the other hand there are companies that have tried to be more ethical and at least not hidden the facts from the public.
On a personal level, there are choices. “The art of dressing fashionable with Pierre Cardin” is one way of not buying stuff produced by dodgy labour practises. Another is not to have Apple products.
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No, you’re wrong. Not having Apple products isn’t a way of not buying stuff produced by dodgy labour practices. Not unless you make sure that the stuff you DO buy wasn’t produced in China. Which happens to be where most things, or components for them, are produced. Including Pierre Cardin. And your own computer.
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Of course, as VL says, China’s not the only culprit.
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You can try and do something or you can close your eyes. I try and limit my impact by not being an enthousiastic consumer, in other words, my choice in second hand clothing and limiting buying electronics to the minimum at least does something.
My Pierre Cardin jacket is third hand, my Nokia phone a 1997 model, haven’t bought any electronic gadgets for yonks. I don’t have a burning desire or urge to send e-mails or take photos or down-load this or that on kindles, I-phones-pads-blue teeth-lettuce spinners,waffle-makers-pizza makers,icemakers-milkshake shakers-knife sharpeners-bar fridges-picnic fridges-video motors-in car-dog-walkers-things that go- beep-beep-battery-pluggers-shredders-laminators-beep-beep. Oh, my torch is a dynamo, never needs batteries, just needs winding up.
If you do need to buy something, try Vinnies first. It has already been bought.
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And so this makes you right Voice?
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Right about what, Hung?
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Gerard is raising a legitimate concern about a greedy company that is screwing you to the wall by exploiting cheap and unregulated working conditions. That is the point of his concern. You say he is wrong, I say he is right. Yes there are others, many others however the point of the article was to highlight the most over priced PC in the market that exploits children in China, your countenance to this?
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gERARD, no matter what you buy, or where you buy it from these days, there is bound to be some global input, or globalism, involved.
Even the television from Korea, or Germany, have Chinese components. Ditto cars
It is futile to deny oneself an iPhone, if’n that’s what one needs. The chances are that the alternative that one purchases, has Chinese components. And there is no knowing whether, there is or not.
It was different with SA fruit, since it had to be labelled.
In other words, one cannot avoid buying Chinese sourced goods. Even your Holden Cruz, although assembled in Australia, has an American engine (I don’t know where it’s made), bluetooth and myriad parts from Asia. Undoubtedly there would be fringe factories that flout general rules–in order to make profits.
On thing that the Chinese AND Indians are good at is business. They are more ruthless than the Jews. Trust me I have done business with them all!
At least your article has highlighted a Global problem gERARD. However you have mistakenly, whipped the wrong dog!
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Gerard raises a legitimate concern vECTIS lAD, right wing business people have eliminated local economies based on their own greed.
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I said he was wrong that buying non-Apple products … Well, what I said is still there to be read. I’m not sure what you mean about it making me right. It was right though.
If you look at the article that gerard linked to, it says “The company [Apple] said it believed it had eliminated child labour among its final assembly suppliers.” It also said that Apple is handing over the list of its suppliers to the Fair Labor Association, who describe themselves as “a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending sweatshop conditions in factories worldwide.” Some good news amongst the bad I’d say.
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I’m not a fan of Labour globalisation BTW. Far from it.
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Our secon-hand Cruze was made in Korea. Is that little thing sticking out with a little TV screen a blue tooth? I asked all of you some time ago what it was. Anyway, whatever it is, I haven’t missed using it. My grandson reckoned it is a TV but when I turn a knob it gets ‘Telephone book’. If I turn it again, it says ‘goodbye’.
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Voice, News Ltd also “believed” that it did not phone hack to get stories, next.
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╠╣ung, it may have escaped your attentioned, but gERARD, writes his Christian (1st name), with a lower case g. Now that is unusual. One could even say snobby, elitist and affected. Fey even.
That is the reason that I have tweaked his name. For no other reason, than to high-light the fact that, he is in effect:” showing off”! Capiche?
I use NORMAL upper and lower case. Excepting in the case of ‘╒unston’–who, as we all know, is a loony.
Now I’m off for a Nesspresso. Maybe I’ll look like George Clooney afterward 🙂
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And you did not answer the question, what are you afraid of? The truth perhaps?
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Apple could be lying. Handing over to the FLA sounds like they’re on the level. But then the FLA could easily have sold out. Dunno.
Oh my goodness, is that the time?
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Neither being cheap, nor disliking electronic gadgets, nor being old enough to have acquired most of your goods before China became so dominant in manufacturing has anything to do with making ethical choices, except coincidentally.
If you had made an ethical choice about the computer you purchased it would have cost you a lot more. Similarly with your underpants. Light bulbs. And many other things you still need to purchase.
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You also have not answered the question about the 35 million boost to your right wing gentleman’s club on the Gold Coast at the hard earned toil of us low paid servants? C’mon VL are you a man or a mouse?
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-21/turf-club-gets-355m-injection/2804722
And your reply is?
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Looks like VL is a mouse
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The money will be spent on the track and it’s facilities. It’s an upgrade that everyone will use. It is not exclusive to members. Anyone can join.
In fact I often go in the non-members side for tha atmosphere. Well that and to ogle all the drunken Coles check-out girls, that wander round holding their shoes.
God knows why they take their shoes off, when they’re pissed, but it is funny…Then their boyfriends, who are usually covered in tatts, start arguing.
Great fun
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But you VL, the doyen of right wing thinking, one that criticises every bit of government spending, all of a sudden it is okay because it is for YOU. Hypocrite.
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Not “EVERY” bit ╠╣ung!
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You are a hypocrite Jules, face up to it man. If your facility needs a 35 million dollar upgrade why don’t you and the other members fund it out of your exorbitant earnings? Why do I as a tax payer have to prop you up? Can’t answer that can you.
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Everybody pays. The Public pay an entrance fee and the members pay ‘more’!!. So what?
The upgrade to the track is NOT* for the members, you doughnut. It’s because Bligh is on the nose and she’s pork barrelling. Typical ALP tactics, She’s gonna get a hiding no matter how much she spends.
* I shouldn’t have to explain that DUmkopft, you go to the races??
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Isn’t that amazing Jules, you accuse Bligh of pork barrelling when the funding comes from Gillard. Shows just how much of an incompetent moron you really are. If your club was so successful why would you need and government support at all? I mean you are a bunch of rich entrepreneurs that are business leaders, but still you put your hand out for the taxpayer. You are incompetent, the members at the Gold Coast are incompetent, you lot shit me big time, I will bail you out when you fail however your profits will be yours. C’mon mouse (Julian) challenge me.
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Still waiting. Looks like I will be waiting for a long time.
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C’mon Julian, you and your lot have just accepted a government handout , from the worst government, with the worst prime minister, the worst treasurer, the worst economy in the world, in the universe but you and your peers have accepted it, a capital investment from the worst people with the worst financial outlook, ever. What does that make you? C’mon on, scared are you? Tell me please about Wayne Swan, Julia Gillard etc., c’mon, what’s the matter Julian, cat or should I say funding, got your tongue?
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Can’t say anything can you? Mute, Hippo
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Don’t you just love it, I am a doughnut, a dumbkopf, why, I am not a right winger, bash anything middle to left Julian lover, c’mon bloke, you can do better than that and by the way you are losing so badly I am sure you are hurting.
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My little runaway, run, run run away etc
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Oh hi Hung, Sorry I didn’t realise that you were still talking to yourself, down here.
I had to go out. First to the rubbish tip, to unload my trailer and then to the storage shed to pick up some boxes. I think that I have put my neck out again.
The upgrade at the track, Hung, is for the horses. The members don’t run 😉
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Voice. it sounds like you are digging for excuses to excuse your right wing prejudices, “could have been” Apple could have been doing lots of things
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Is this discussion working out as you had hoped gerard?
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yes indeed,thanks for pointing out all the other shortcomings as well.
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Yes, thank you. VL
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http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=57
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http://childlabour.in/child-labour-in-india.htm
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You subscribe to this VL however you hate unions that eliminated this problem some time ago
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“China Labour Bulletin, November 9, 2010
The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 215 million children around the world engaged in work. No one knows for sure how many children are working in China because the government does not publish such data, but the recent signs are worrying.”
I estimate that my bottle of Baily and Baily’s Shiraz is half full
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Yes why don’t those Indian children just live in a rubbish dump like on the movies? Pesky varmits
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This article is 7 years old VL
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As usual VL won’t reply to anything that shows him up
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C’mon VL are you a man or a mouse?
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Your clips have proven to be furphies, they support unionism and support why we should be against capitalism, are you sure this is your view? C’mon VL what’s the matter mate, sponsor got your tongue? Squeak, squeak, girlie, girlie, girl girl(This seems to be the only language you respond to)
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Glad I haven’t got Apple. I’ll stick to dates.
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Even though many of the goods you DO own are manufactured in China, and the workforce that produces them will have been overworked, underpaid, and included children, feeling glad is a pleasant thing.
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My Aunty’s name is Glad, I am sure she will be glad with all this feeling
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Interesting pic of the phone. The small icon with 3 waves rippling out, means that it is logged into a home network (router).
One can even get the PA up and submit a post, using local hot spots , wifi, in cafes, airports, funeral parlours….all over the place.
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It’s the same in India. It’s getting easier to police now, but this has been going on for centuries.
I remember when I lived in Java; children 7, or 8 years old would be walking by the side of the road carrying heavy loads of vegetables and all sorts.
Heavier than I could lift, even though I was older. It’s astounding really..
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I’m trying to think of the name for the bamboo pole with a laden basket at one end.
Anybody?
Don’t criticise The Chinese, gerard. You’ll have Mulga after you. According to him they are the very paragons of virtue. And what she really likes, is the fact tha they have loads of loot. She keeps saying how marvellous they are!
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Him. Her. I dunno!
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No, far from it. It’s the Apple corporation that are the culprits., at least they now have come clean. There are many others, no doubt. The Chinese seem to stir up lots of issues though and seem fearless. A nation on the move.
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Yes I agree, they (the Chinese) are utterly ruthless. One wonders how many other manufacturers are suckered into using organisations that outsource work to children.
I remember when they had apartheid in SA. We wouldn’t buy any SA fruit as a personal protest. But none seems to care that all of the carparts that are made in China are made in various dubious factories…And the clothing industry is rife too.
Julia Gillard had a pair of hand-stitched shoes made, to take Tim out with some other grown-ups. The shoes were glued together in the back streets of India, by 5 year olds. Disgusting really.
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I’m with you Gez. I no longer by Apples
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Mulga is the consummate racist that has most of you here at The Arms fooled by word smithery.
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