Right in the Wrong
Whether we’re listening it or not, we know there are crises going on in the world around us. How we prioritise them may be individual.
IE; which is more pressing - climate crisis, housing crisis, health crisis, mental health crisis, fuel crisis, pollution, species loss, deforestation, over-population, the bees, etc etc… Take your pick !
As our illustrious leaders are gathering at COP 26 in Glasgow to work out how corporations and governments can do as little as possible about the climate crisis for another year, it is the climate story that is top card for me right now. Yet I have a dilemna…
A mundane dilemna. A first world dilemna. A tiny spec on the scale of actually affecting things. But is these choices that affect me the most.
When the world is moving so fast, and when immersed in such a consumer culture, it can be difficult to see how our choices affect anything at all, but they do. If only helping us to feel that we are doing what we can.
As the political options descend into greater degrees of corruption, accumulation, and puppeteering, I have been voting for the world I want with the only meaningful method we have left - where we put our money. Thus, for years, I have been buying as little possible - to minimise my own footprint, and to contribute my energy in ways I can actually support. But it ain’t easy. Ever.
When our choices are limited - by the bigger culture - to degrees of wrongness, doing right becomes more and more troublesome.
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”
Obviously there is an inevitable purchase of life’s requirements, for which I have found ways to weave in my ethics as best I can.
Food - organic & local where possible
Clothes - second hand, or of ethical / organic / lifetime guarantee (yes, there are such things)
Fuel - ran my car on chipfat for years (but then bus companies started buying it all), so back to diesel
Tech - buying second hand, rather than new
My Mac Dilemna
So, back to my moment of choice…
I have reached the limits of what my current computer can do for me. As someone who runs two businesses, both proudly exampling the ethics that I spout, I need to be connected to the digital world. My need to process videos for testimonials, etc., pushes this need for computing power. I have delayed it for as long as possible, but my old 2012 Mac (brought second-hand in 2016) simply can no longer cope…
I checked out Apple’s new offerings - yes, they’re slick, super fast, and more importantly, the method of advertising them is impressively enticing - as we would expect from one of the most successful companies on the planet.
And it is true that getting so far ahead of the computing game would mean I probably wouldn’t have to think about upgrading for another ten years.
But I also know that Apple’s last new gens were fraught with teething issues that they never really resolved…
So, I got all fired up… should I… should I… can I justify such an indulgence ?
After all, Apple have consistently lead the way in computing power, technological innovation, intuitive interfaces, and stylish design. In short, they are the best there is since Microsoft managed to squander their global empire by simply not looking at the founding flaws in their designs.
However, I know that all that glitters is not gold - there’s a whole grubby industry behind anything that shiny. I was already familiar with some of Apple’s dirty laundry from research ten years ago, and I was hoping to find that over that decade Apple had used some of it’s immense resources to clean up the mess that the tech industry knowingly leaves behind, so as to make them innovators for the producers as well as the consumers.
And so, to balance the magnetic pull of their sparkling adverting, I went online to check out Apple’s lesser known shadow.
Alas…
Mac’s dirty Secrets
All consumer products require the mining of resources, the shipping thereof, and the manufacturing process. Then more shipping of course.
But the computing industry has, at its heart, the deeply disturbing subject of rare-earth-elements - termed as such because they are, well, rare !
And we’re not just talking computers here, but phones, car radios, electric cars, etc…
Many are found in only a very few places on the Earth, and those places are thus very valuable. typically, this leads them to be dominated by warlords (whether you want to call them politicians or militia is irrelevant, they are financially-justified warlords). And their iron grip on the populous degrades the workers into nothing less than slaves.
Often the cheapest are women and children. But the heavy lifting still falls to the men of course.
And then there is the disposal of all the byproducts, refining processes and manufacturing itself. Literal oceans of toxic waste spewing daily into the pristine deserts of southern China, running off through the watercourses, and ultimately into the slow moving water tables, and eventually to the seas.
But while I knew all this already, and I know this problem isn’t going away, I did want to hear more on Apple’s previous problem with its manufacturing workers in China. To assemble its phones and computers from parts into working objects it uses on the biggest manufacturing companies in the world - in China, of course - called Foxconn.
About ten years ago they became famous for having the highest rates of suicide amongst their workers. A dubious accolade for sure.
For decades, villagers from all over the country have been flocking into China’s industrial centres to join the workforce. While the manufacturing cities (literally) are well stocked with leisure centres, swimming pools, and green areas, the accommodation is 16 to-a-room, and the work itself is so mind-numbingly dull and repetitive, that few can cope for more than a couple of weeks. Moreover, the wages are predictably low, and much of it gets sent back to their families struggling to survive in the villages.
So what is one to do…
As I said, this is not just an Apple matter. This is tech across the board. And to a similar degree it is true of the clothing industry, the food industry (except that animals are often the slaves), etc., etc.
It may seem there is not much that we can do about those behemoth corporations and their profit-maximising decisions, but there is.
They can only sell us what we will buy. So if we don’t buy it, they can’t sell it.
So, my answer, having weighed up the cost Apple’s of social / environmental / political impacts upon both people and planet, was that I decided not to buy into the shiny, slick advertising video of just how fast their latest gadget is…
After all, why do I need a Lamborghini to potter down to the shops ?
So, I bought the oldest Mac version that will get me the upgrade I need to do the work I must do. 2014’s tech is enough of an advance on 2012’s. That’ll get me to the shops and back…
The Power of Knowledge
So, I encourage everyone about to buy anything new, to pause for a moment, take a breath, let the enticing advertising wear off, and utilise the privilege we have.
Make use of the power to choose. Use your internet connection to check out your options - check out the impact of your purchase - beyond the tiny change that this acquisition will make to your own life. Do a little digging on the companies you are supporting with your pennies.
Ignore the greenwash of the corporations, and then see if there are alternatives. For there are companies out there with an actualised reputation for the better. Usually these are the smaller companies struggling to survive on lower profits for the sake of better ethics. How can we assist them ?
And also check out if you can buy a second-hand version that will still generate the same satisfaction for you.
Especially as we are rushing inexorably towards the consumer frenzy that-shall-not-be-named…
Before and After
Have a think about those who make what we buy. Are they being looked after in a way that you agree with ?
Have a think about about the Earth that is providing all these raw materials. Is it being looked after in a way that you agree with ?
And where will these items go when we’ve finished with them. Is that being looked after by those that you trust ?
If not, then how do we justify such a thing ?
To ourselves - who we have to live with. To our grandchildren - that we are leaving the world to.
And to those who come after us that we will never meet. But make no mistake our world will define their’s.
Have you ever considered what kind of an ancestor you will be viewed as ?
I fundamentally believe that people are good. That if we could see the atrocities that are being made in our name - to people, animal, and planet, we would never allow it. And so it is hidden from us, allowing corporations to continue their profiteering.
But we now have the choice to look beyond the corporate veil. To find that the wizard is just a dude with dementing amounts of pressure and bewildering pressures. Do we leave our choices and our planet to them ?
But now that we know…