This week’s bans: iPods, North Face and Benetton apparel and, apparently, most fish.

iPods: This ban really is redundant. iPods are absolutely hopeless – hard to use, overpriced and prone to manufacturing faults – so I would never buy one anyway. However, I have just read a story in the Big Issue regarding the conditions of factory workers in China who really build these products. It’s a bit involved; suffice to say they’re not great.
It turns out this story is actually quite old. It first appears to have surfaced in July or August last year in the UK’s Sunday Mail newspaper. Have a read.
Initially, my first thoughts were predictable – “Apple, you bastards!” followed by “Crap, how can I justify buying a MacBook now?”
As with anything, of course, further investigation is warranted. Apple has had a chance to respond to the claims and, while it really reads as a lot of PR garbage; at least they actually have a code of conduct for this.
It is a pity, though, that it took a media story to draw Apple’s attention to the conditions in their sub-contractors factory, if we are to believe that Apple didn’t know already.
The devil’s in the detail here. Apple mentions the workers receive minimum wage – all of three fifths of five eighths of fuck all is still fuck all. They also make mention of the great living conditions – good food, ping pong tables (one of life’s essentials) and air-conditioning. But no mention of how much of the workers income must go back to the company to pay for these.
On the other hand, how many products made by these types of places do we consume every day, products we know less about than this? I’d hazard a guess at a shitload. But it becomes convenient for us to place a ban on a particular product – “Look at me, I’m doing my bit to save the world because I buy dolphin friendly tuna and biodegradable detergent – what are YOU doing?”
Don’t misunderstand me here, I’m not saying we shouldn’t do our bit – I just think a lot of our motives are suspect, or at least misguided.]
And, if I really consider this objectively, is this argument just a lame attempt to justify buying a MacBook, saying Apple may well be the best of a bad bunch, but mainly because she really wants one?
It’s a difficult one.
But iPods are still banned.

North Face/ Benetton: It turns out the Argentinean government has sold great swathes of land to various parties. Two of the most prominent are the Benetton family and the founder of North Face apparel, Douglas Tompkins. They sort of stick out because of their public position as environmentally conscious and socially progressive business people.
The problem is similar to Australia’s – whose land is it, what are they going to do with it, and was it the governments to sell/ give away in the first place?
The Mapuche tribe claims parts of it as theirs, and they have some Argentinean political support. Tompkins, in particular, claims he is buying the land to save its precious ecology – an admirable goal.
But is it a paternalistic attitude? The “we know better” approach which has caused so much damage elsewhere, especially here in Australia?
I tend to think that, like the Big Day Out flag ban, it is trying to reach a great goal in a very stupid way.

Fish: Sherd’s fault, this one. There are so many fish I can’t eat because of sustainability issues that my brain hurts – paradoxical, fish being brain food and all.
Anyway, this will sort you out.

Other news: I watched the 7:30 report last night. Howard and Rudd were on. Firstly, I watched Howard for a bit. I was basically ignoring the words, the usual garbling we’ve all heard before, and looked at him. I noticed for the first time that he really looks like an old man. It’s as if he aged 10 years over Christmas or something.

And Kevin. I will be voting for him, I suspect, but he did come across as smarmy and a little arrogant. He rabbited on far too much, with this supercilious smile. I am just worried he’ll lose the punters a bit.
I mean, he’s definitely no Downer, but he needs to tone it down a touch.

Still, the LLR is rearranging deck chairs, so it might be he knows what will happen.

Cheers.