Increasing Productivity the Apple Way

The New York Times wrote about the human cost of Apple's iPad.

Among the other horrors that the article documented, one particularly stood out.  Employees at a Chinese factory for Apple were at work polishing iPad screens, but owing to the tremendous demand for Apple products, weren't going fast enough. So the factory decided to "improve" productivity by replacing rubbing alcohol with n-hexane, which evaporated three times as fast. The catch: n-hexane is a toxic chemical that causes nerve damage and paralysis. In the race for greater productivity, safety was willfully abandoned.

More often than not, "increased" productivity is not the result of innovation but human cost. Want more iPad screens cleaned? Replace safe chemicals with hazardous ones that evaporate faster. Want a greater number of iPads per week? Make employees work back-to-back 12 hour shifts.

There would probably be more humane ways of getting the productivity Apple wants, if it gives suppliers a *little* more from it's hundreds-of-dollars-per-iPad profit. To quote from the article, “If you squeeze margins, you’re forcing them to cut safety.”

The folks speaking on behalf of Apple essentially shrugged off responsibility because according to them, customers care more about a new Apple product than worker safety in China. That's akin to saying responsibility for ending slavery in America lay with the consumers of south cotton, which was produced by slave labour.

If I was an Apple customer, I would certainly think twice before buying their products.

Modernize!

I've been reading translations of Satyajit Ray's Feluda detective series with my eight year old. While the mysteries are interesting enough, what sticks out as a sore thumb is the fact that they have not been "modernized".

Let me explain.

Feluda thinks nothing of lighting a cigarette as he mulls over his case. At the time the story was originally written, smoking probably wasn't considered a health hazard and Satyajit Ray wrote what he did. Fast forward to the present where we now know all about the evil health effect of smoking, and guide our children away from the concept. Naturally the eight year old wants to know why Feluda is indulging in a smoke when we "all" know that's it's not good for health!

It would have made the books so much more acceptable if the translator had eliminated the bits around "puffed at his cigarette".

It isn't as if this has never been done before. In the Noddy series' created by Enid Blyton, the naughty black golliwog has been replaced by nice sweet Dinah Doll who is also black.

Why can't we do the same?

A Climber will not Creep

I've lived in a typical urban environment all my life, without much real contact with flora and fauna. The closest I ever came to nature while growing up was when I grew bean seeds for school. Of course, I studied botany in school and learnt about creepers and climbers, all the while scratching my head trying to figure out the difference by looking at grainy pictures in text books.

Fast forward to the present day, where I decided to grow a kitchen "garden". I planted beans and with the help of sticks, tried to get the plant to cover a grill. The bean plant was smart, it got the idea pretty quickly and latched onto the grill -- and kept climbing. It climbed till it reached the top end of the grill. That's when I thought it would start to grow sideways (you know, be a grown up and all that ;-)). Instead the plant, climbed all the way down and then back up again! Surely a climber, not a creeper.

That's when I really understood the difference between climbers and creepers.

Mint, on the other hand, never grew more than six inches tall; but began invading space horizontally. A creeper perhaps?

I'm looking forward to more such revelations as I get to be one with nature via my kitchen "garden"...

I Too Had a Dream

I've just finished reading "I Too Had a Dream" -- by Dr. Verghese Kurien; autobiography of the man who put India on the map as the world's largest producer of milk. The person who was responsible for Operation Flood, for our favorite Amul and Dhara brands.

Dr. Kurien has come in for a fair amount of criticism during the course of his work. He takes on the criticism head-on -- he did what he thought was in the best interest of the task at hand. Some decisions obviously came out better than others, since it is only hindsight that is 20/20.

Which brings me to my point.

In today's world, apart from the silent majority, there are two classes of people. One is the evil, corrupt lot that feeds off the silent majority. The other comprises of good *human beings*. By virtue of being *human*, they make do mistakes but basically have their hearts in the right place and want to do the right thing for the silent majority.

It is this "human" element of the good class of society that the evil class successfully exploits in order to (very successfully) deflect attention from their own evil deeds, and thus to continue to prey on the silent majority.

In movement after movement for social change, the human beings at the helm of trying to bring about good get viciously attacked over issues ranging from petty and frivolous to downright false.

And yet, tragically, each time, the evil class succeeds in "winning over" the silent majority and  halting the very change that would have been good for them.

Flipkart, Too, is a Cheat?

Update (11/11/2011): Flipkart customer service called saying it was an error and the book is now listed at Rs 295, with a discounted price of Rs 221. I was offered either store credit or a refund. I opted for the former and have received it. 

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I am extremely disappointed to be writing this blogpost.

I ordered the book "I Too Had a Dream" from flipkart.com. It was advertised at Rs 395, and marked down to Rs 296. I dutifully paid Rs 296, and waited for the book to arrive.

The MRP printed on the book delivered by flipkart was Rs 295.I feel terribly cheated by this underhand way of marking up and then marking down a book. It is a book I wanted to read; I would I have bought it *anyway*. Why this charade of offering a discount?

Also, isn't it downright illegal to sell it for MORE than it costs (even by a rupee)?

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More Flipkart horror here.