An Apple fanboy who makes you think
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 5:17 am
By Therese Poletti
Feb 1, 2011 00:01:48 (ET)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Mike Daisey has been compared in New York theater circles to the actor and monologist Spalding Gray, but he isn't exactly a household name, especially in the Bay Area.
But if his name didn't grab my attention, the title of his monologue at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre did. "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" is a passionate performance of a geek who has discovered a dark side to the tech business, one that he says we in the tech press have mostly ignored.
Daisey is a self-described Apple Inc. (AAPL, Trade ) fanboy and knows his lore well. His first computer was an Apple IIc, a gift from his grandfather to the family. "The font was garamond, a font I still feel strongly about," Daisey tells the audience. The stage, like an Apple design, is spare and he sits at a table with only a glass of water and sheets of note paper for a non-stop, two-hour story that he likens to a virus.
This does not seem to be a schtick. Daisey clearly loves every Apple product he has ever owned, and he alternates from his personal tale and life-changing trip to China, to the story of Apple and Jobs, its co-founder and chief executive. It's an interesting dichotomy that gets the audience laughing and relaxed, despite the austere set, because really sometimes Apple, its fans and their obsessions, are beyond belief. And the story of Apple, its two founding Steves, the pirate Mac team, Jobs's ouster and triumphant return, is the stuff of true legend.
"To be in love with Apple is to be in love with heartbreak. Steve Jobs is the master of the forced upgrade," Daisey says. "I remember one week in 1999. It's perfect. Everything I own is bulbous and fruit-colored. It will never go out of style!" But eventually, out with the old and in with the new, because Jobs is the master at "knifing his own babies."
"It's because of those KEYNOTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he bellows. "He tells us about the future!!!!!" Daisey describes watching MacWorld from New York where he lives, with multiple screens open, reading all the blogs, and getting himself into a heightened state of "animal lust and frenzy" where his only thoughts are "I WANT IT," he yells, because "it's white and square and Bauhaus-inspired design."
But one day, Daisey stumbled upon four photos on the Internet, taken by workers testing the iPhone camera, accidentally left on the device. He realized he had "dedicated an embarrassing amount of my life to these machines and I never thought about where they came from," says the man who takes his Macbook apart to relax. "I think in my head, 'I thought they were made by robots.' That's always a problem for any religion. When you begin to think."
So Daisey started to learn about where Apple products come from. He decided to go to China and try to talk to workers at the Shenzhen plant of Foxconn (FXCNY, Trade ) the world's largest electronics manufacturer. Its Shenzhen factory, which employs about 430,000 workers, is now infamous as the site where at least a dozen workers killed themselves last year, a workplace that has been described by some as a labor camp.
Without any props but his voice and story-telling ability, Daisey tells an evocative and frightening tale about his visit to the one-time fishing village that has grown to become China's third largest city, thanks in part to its status as China's first Special Economic Zone. These zones, created to modernize China and attract foreign investment and manufacturing, are China's way of saying "do whatever you want to our people," Daisey says.
He describes the neon-screaming city of Shenzhen as if "Bladerunner threw up on itself," the effect of the "silver-poisoned sky" weighing on his chest, and a freeway exit ramp that just stops, with only a lone orange cone to warn drivers about the 80-foot drop below. With a translator, and against the advice of journalists, he goes to the massive Foxconn plant, and attempts to talk to employees outside of the heavily guarded gates.
He was stunned at the response and the eagerness of some of the employees to speak to him and share their stories.
"I don't have a giant camera on my shoulder, nor am I even a traditional reporter, and I don't have a recorder shoved under their mouth," he said in an interview. "I'm simply talking to them. That changes the power dynamic. People are more willing to speak to you." He was surprised by the ages of some workers. Some who talked to him were 12, 13, or 14. He was stunned by the long, painful working hours they described, but also their ability to make "lemonade out of lemons."
He then manages to get inside several factories in the Shenzhen region, donning the guise of an American businessman. With the help of his translator, he acts as a potential buyer of tech components. Inside the factories, of such enormous scale he said they are hard to visualize, the quiet of humans at work and few machinery noises, surprised him.
"Don't we talk about how we wish things were handmade?" he asks. In China, he says, "Everything is handmade." The factory workers, he says, are the machines, working on average 12 hours, or more, in forced silence, standing in the same positions for hours. "The people will keep working until they give out." Then in one of his most provocative statements in the show, he asks, "Do you think Apple doesn't know?"
An Apple spokesman declined to comment about Daisey's description of the working conditions in China, where it and other tech giants make many of its products. Apple has a Supplier Code of Conduct as a condition of its contracts with suppliers, in which it insists its suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes. The code of conduct outlines Apple's expectations for the companies it does business with.
In its most recent report, Apple said it increased its audit visits to manufacturers and it prohibits the employ of juvenile workers. In 2009, its audits found 17 core violations, including three cases of underage workers being hired, and three cases of falsified records. Among the falsified records, suppliers "concealed evidence of violations of Apple's Code regarding working hours and days of rest." See Apple's supplier responsibility report here.
Apple also talks about other issues as well, such as manufacturers who test employees for pregnancy and Hepatitis B, which Apple classifies as discrimination, and it requires its suppliers to halt those practices.
Daisey says that the manufacturing firms prepare for audits by swapping out younger workers for older ones. Workers' unions are illegal in China.
He says his visit to China has changed his relationship with technology. "I feel heartbroken about my devices," he said.
Daisey hopes that by making his audience more aware of the working conditions in China, it can be a first step toward change. At the end of his performance, ushers hand out a paper with Apple's customer relations phone number, and investor relations, for shareholders. He also tells his audience to call other major electronics makers as well.
"We do not like to think about China and its implications in our country, but that silence can only exist if we are complicit with it," Daisey writes. "Talking about it, thinking about it when making purchasing decisions, and understanding it is not just symbolic. They are the first seeds of actual change. Do not be afraid to plant them. Spread the virus."
Feb 1, 2011 00:01:48 (ET)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Mike Daisey has been compared in New York theater circles to the actor and monologist Spalding Gray, but he isn't exactly a household name, especially in the Bay Area.
But if his name didn't grab my attention, the title of his monologue at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre did. "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" is a passionate performance of a geek who has discovered a dark side to the tech business, one that he says we in the tech press have mostly ignored.
Daisey is a self-described Apple Inc. (AAPL, Trade ) fanboy and knows his lore well. His first computer was an Apple IIc, a gift from his grandfather to the family. "The font was garamond, a font I still feel strongly about," Daisey tells the audience. The stage, like an Apple design, is spare and he sits at a table with only a glass of water and sheets of note paper for a non-stop, two-hour story that he likens to a virus.
This does not seem to be a schtick. Daisey clearly loves every Apple product he has ever owned, and he alternates from his personal tale and life-changing trip to China, to the story of Apple and Jobs, its co-founder and chief executive. It's an interesting dichotomy that gets the audience laughing and relaxed, despite the austere set, because really sometimes Apple, its fans and their obsessions, are beyond belief. And the story of Apple, its two founding Steves, the pirate Mac team, Jobs's ouster and triumphant return, is the stuff of true legend.
"To be in love with Apple is to be in love with heartbreak. Steve Jobs is the master of the forced upgrade," Daisey says. "I remember one week in 1999. It's perfect. Everything I own is bulbous and fruit-colored. It will never go out of style!" But eventually, out with the old and in with the new, because Jobs is the master at "knifing his own babies."
"It's because of those KEYNOTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he bellows. "He tells us about the future!!!!!" Daisey describes watching MacWorld from New York where he lives, with multiple screens open, reading all the blogs, and getting himself into a heightened state of "animal lust and frenzy" where his only thoughts are "I WANT IT," he yells, because "it's white and square and Bauhaus-inspired design."
But one day, Daisey stumbled upon four photos on the Internet, taken by workers testing the iPhone camera, accidentally left on the device. He realized he had "dedicated an embarrassing amount of my life to these machines and I never thought about where they came from," says the man who takes his Macbook apart to relax. "I think in my head, 'I thought they were made by robots.' That's always a problem for any religion. When you begin to think."
So Daisey started to learn about where Apple products come from. He decided to go to China and try to talk to workers at the Shenzhen plant of Foxconn (FXCNY, Trade ) the world's largest electronics manufacturer. Its Shenzhen factory, which employs about 430,000 workers, is now infamous as the site where at least a dozen workers killed themselves last year, a workplace that has been described by some as a labor camp.
Without any props but his voice and story-telling ability, Daisey tells an evocative and frightening tale about his visit to the one-time fishing village that has grown to become China's third largest city, thanks in part to its status as China's first Special Economic Zone. These zones, created to modernize China and attract foreign investment and manufacturing, are China's way of saying "do whatever you want to our people," Daisey says.
He describes the neon-screaming city of Shenzhen as if "Bladerunner threw up on itself," the effect of the "silver-poisoned sky" weighing on his chest, and a freeway exit ramp that just stops, with only a lone orange cone to warn drivers about the 80-foot drop below. With a translator, and against the advice of journalists, he goes to the massive Foxconn plant, and attempts to talk to employees outside of the heavily guarded gates.
He was stunned at the response and the eagerness of some of the employees to speak to him and share their stories.
"I don't have a giant camera on my shoulder, nor am I even a traditional reporter, and I don't have a recorder shoved under their mouth," he said in an interview. "I'm simply talking to them. That changes the power dynamic. People are more willing to speak to you." He was surprised by the ages of some workers. Some who talked to him were 12, 13, or 14. He was stunned by the long, painful working hours they described, but also their ability to make "lemonade out of lemons."
He then manages to get inside several factories in the Shenzhen region, donning the guise of an American businessman. With the help of his translator, he acts as a potential buyer of tech components. Inside the factories, of such enormous scale he said they are hard to visualize, the quiet of humans at work and few machinery noises, surprised him.
"Don't we talk about how we wish things were handmade?" he asks. In China, he says, "Everything is handmade." The factory workers, he says, are the machines, working on average 12 hours, or more, in forced silence, standing in the same positions for hours. "The people will keep working until they give out." Then in one of his most provocative statements in the show, he asks, "Do you think Apple doesn't know?"
An Apple spokesman declined to comment about Daisey's description of the working conditions in China, where it and other tech giants make many of its products. Apple has a Supplier Code of Conduct as a condition of its contracts with suppliers, in which it insists its suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes. The code of conduct outlines Apple's expectations for the companies it does business with.
In its most recent report, Apple said it increased its audit visits to manufacturers and it prohibits the employ of juvenile workers. In 2009, its audits found 17 core violations, including three cases of underage workers being hired, and three cases of falsified records. Among the falsified records, suppliers "concealed evidence of violations of Apple's Code regarding working hours and days of rest." See Apple's supplier responsibility report here.
Apple also talks about other issues as well, such as manufacturers who test employees for pregnancy and Hepatitis B, which Apple classifies as discrimination, and it requires its suppliers to halt those practices.
Daisey says that the manufacturing firms prepare for audits by swapping out younger workers for older ones. Workers' unions are illegal in China.
He says his visit to China has changed his relationship with technology. "I feel heartbroken about my devices," he said.
Daisey hopes that by making his audience more aware of the working conditions in China, it can be a first step toward change. At the end of his performance, ushers hand out a paper with Apple's customer relations phone number, and investor relations, for shareholders. He also tells his audience to call other major electronics makers as well.
"We do not like to think about China and its implications in our country, but that silence can only exist if we are complicit with it," Daisey writes. "Talking about it, thinking about it when making purchasing decisions, and understanding it is not just symbolic. They are the first seeds of actual change. Do not be afraid to plant them. Spread the virus."