The Soulless Animal

By Mr. Curmudgeon

The next time you fire up your iPad, iPhone, Kindle reader, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 or Sony Wii, you should remember they were made by “animals.”

At least, that’s the opinion of Foxconn’s CEO Terry Gou. Foxconn is China’s largest exporter of manufactured goods, with 13 factories employing over one million souls.

While at a party with his 12 senior managers, Gou introduced them to a zookeeper. He told his senior execs the animal keeper could provide valuable insights to help them better herd their workers. “To manage on million animals,” said Gou, “gives me a headache.”

When the remark went public, it naturally generated a lot of criticism. After all, Foxconn is famous for its harsh working conditions, with some labeling their manufacturing facilities nothing more than glorified labor camps.
Back in 2009, a 25-year-old employee committed suicide after reporting he lost his prototype for the Apple iPhone 4. A year later, at least fourteen suicides were reported at Foxconn factories. One report detailed how a 23-year-old factory worker died from exhaustion – the 60-hour workweek proving too much for him.

That is why many American companies that outsource their manufacturing to Foxconn would rather remain anonymous. Foxconn “guards its customers’ identities,” said the Wall Street Journal, “although some of them are named in its Chinese-language filing to securities regulators.” They include Nintendo, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Nokia, Dell Computer and Sony Corp.

“On his right wrist,” continued the Journal, “he [Gou] wears a beaded bracelet he got from a temple dedicated to Genghis Khan, the 13th-cnetury Mongolian conqueror whom he calls a personal hero.”

And old Genghis was quite the guy. “The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy,” said the old softy, “to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters.”

Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like America’s rust belt of decaying factories, their once bustling cities reduced to ashes, the unemployed workers and their loved ones shrouded in tears.

This February 21 marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s state visit to the People’s Republic of China. “This was the week that changed the world,” Nixon told the international press while visiting Shanghai, “what we have said in that Communique is not nearly as important as what we will do in the years ahead to build a bridge across 16,000 miles and 22 years of hostilities which have divided us in the past. And what we have said today is that we shall build that bridge.”

Today, a new China builds bustling industries with foreign capital and native slave labor. 16,000 miles away, the bridges and smokestack industries of America collapse.