"Blood, sweat and tears..."

While all of the polls are coming in about New Hampshire... (which, by the way, WHY is New Hampshire determining the rest of the nation on candidates?? These people are not representative of our country! They chose John McCain and now Mitt Romney. New Hampshire-ians live on the border of Canada and are liberal by nature. And, truth be told, probably have a lot of Democrats trying to determine OUR candidate.) But I digress...

The news that interests me today is a story about hundreds of employees at a Chinese supplier plant for Microsoft, who are threatening suicide if their demands for lost wages are not met. The company Foxconn is the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer and a crucial link in the supply chains of Apple, Dell, Nintendo and Song. The employees made a demand for a wage increase on January 2nd, and the company responded that employees could quit with one month's compensation awarded for each year with the plant or go back to working. Many employees quit but then Foxconn, true to communistic style, reneged and awarded former employees nothing. Around 300 workers returned to the plant in an uproar, and staged their protest on the plant's roof the next day threatening mass suicide. My heart goes out to these working class workers, who have very little freedom and are virtual slaves. (The photo at left shows the dormitories at Foxconn, as these workers live and breathe their jobs 24/7.)

We need to remember all of the electronics we buy which are primarily made in China, are produced with someone's blood, sweat and tears...