The massive Foxconn factory in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen is known for assembling famous electronic goods like Apple’s iPhone and iPad. But in recent months it has gained a darker image, as a place where distraught workers regularly throw themselves to their deaths.
The per capita number of suicide deaths among the population that work in the Foxconn factory is less than the per capita number of suicide deaths in the general Chinese population.
It is simply a number pulled out of context to make news.
The BBC has been reporting on the high number of suicides at this plant for a year or so. (See the sidebar at the link.) Whether or not the number of suicides is normal for the country doesn’t mean much when you are looking at a cluster of behavior in one place. (Otherwise no one would care about cancer clusters.) And they’ve stopped 30 or so people from killing themselves at the plant. That is the really odd thing about this story to me — these reports are about those killing themselves at their workplace. Who knows about those who may be going offsite to do this.
LOL!
BTW, you can have my iPhone, Macbook, iPad, iPod, and iTouch when you pry them out of my cold dead hands. 😉
(We have a small Apple addiction in the Pandora household.)
Buzzkill:
Damn that was a buzzkill. I wonder if they are throwing themselves to their deaths due to the fact that my iPad’s wifi keeps on going out.
Nemski, my son had the same problem for the first couple of weeks. It seems to be okay now.
The per capita number of suicide deaths among the population that work in the Foxconn factory is less than the per capita number of suicide deaths in the general Chinese population.
It is simply a number pulled out of context to make news.
Obviously they need to build only one-story factories.
nemski: there is nothing wrong with your iPad; it has just lost its will to live.
The BBC has been reporting on the high number of suicides at this plant for a year or so. (See the sidebar at the link.) Whether or not the number of suicides is normal for the country doesn’t mean much when you are looking at a cluster of behavior in one place. (Otherwise no one would care about cancer clusters.) And they’ve stopped 30 or so people from killing themselves at the plant. That is the really odd thing about this story to me — these reports are about those killing themselves at their workplace. Who knows about those who may be going offsite to do this.