A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.It consists of a desk, and while it can presumably be operated from a distance, it is primarily the piece of furniture at which he works. On the top are slanting translucent screens, on which material can be projected for convenient reading. There is a keyboard, and sets of buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an ordinary desk.

The personnel officer of a factory drops a stack of a few thousand employee cards into a selecting machine, sets a code in accordance with an established convention, and produces in a short time a list of all employees who live in Trenton and know Spanish. Even such devices are much too slow when it comes, for example, to matching a set of fingerprints with one of five million on file.

Combine these two elements, let the Vocoder run the stenotype, and the result is a machine which types when talked to.

Two centuries ago Leibnitz invented a calculating machine which embodied most of the essential features of recent keyboard devices, but it could not then come into use. The economics of the situation were against it: the labor involved in constructing it, before the days of mass production, exceeded the labor to be saved by its use, since all it could accomplish could be duplicated by sufficient use of pencil and paper. Moreover, it would have been subject to frequent breakdown, so that it could not have been depended upon; for at that time and long after, complexity and unreliability were synonymous.

it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.

Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals

It works like magic.

colonial times

We produced an entire new episode about the retraction, featuring Marketplace reporter Rob Schmitz, who interviewed Mike’s translator Cathy and discovered discrepancies between her account and Mike’s, and New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg, who has reported extensively on Apple. Ira also re-interviewed Mike Daisey to learn why he misled us.

And the first thing I see at the gates are the guards

It's like they were coming to work every day, thinking, you know what would be great? It would be so great if somebody who uses all this crap we make every day, all day long-- it would be so great if one of those people came and asked us what was going on. Because we would have stories for them.

And the first thing I notice is the silence. It's so quiet.

It's a really basic thing. It's a basic thing that we fought for in this country. It took 100 years of labor struggles to get to a place where that happened for most workers.

And you need to know that this is eminently avoidable.

young woman

Every time. Every time.

I can't get anywhere. All the doors are closed.

That would require someone at Apple and Dell and the other customers to care. Currently, no one in the ecosystem cares enough to even enforce that.

She cleans the screens of iPhones by hand, in these huge racks.

And in all that time, until I saw those pictures, it was only then I realized, I had never thought, ever, in a dedicated way, about how they were made.

Good question. Anything else I can do for you?

Foxconn always knows when there is going to be an inspection

Week after week, worker after worker has been climbing all the way up to the tops of these enormous buildings, and then throwing themselves off, killing themselves in a brutal and public manner, not thinking very much about just how bad this makes Foxconn look. Foxconn's response to month after month of suicides has been to put up these nets.

I'm not allowed to say.

significant fabrications

I wish it was like the old days. I wish things had that human touch.But that's not true. There are more handmade things now than there have ever been in the history of the world.

a worker at Foxconn dies after working a 34-hour shift. I wish I could say that's exceptional, but it's happened before. I only mention it because it actually happened while I was there.

And it is constant. They work a Chinese hour, and a Chinese hour has 60 Chinese minutes, and a Chinese minute has 60 Chinese seconds. It's not like like our hour. What's our hour now? 46 minutes? You have a bathroom break, and you have a smoke break, and if you don't smoke, there's a yoga break.

What would you change at Foxconn if you could change anything?That question always gets them. They always react like a bee has flown into their faces. And then they say something to Kathy. And Kathy says, "He says he never thought of that before." Every time. Every time.

The Foxconn plant in Shenzhen has 430,000 workers. That can be a difficult number to conceptualize. I find it's useful to instead think about how there are more than 20 cafeterias at the plant. And then you just have to understand that workers told me that these cafeterias can hold up to 10,000 people. So now you just need to visualize a cafeteria that seats 10,000 people. I'll wait.

And at the end of the day, I am large, I am American, and I am wearing a goddamn Hawaiian shirt. And we are going to the main gates.

The problem is that n-hexane is a potent neurotoxin, and all these people have been exposed. Their hands shake uncontrollably. Most of them can't even pick up a glass

14 hours a day, 15 hours a day.

And in that space, there are 13 beds, 14 beds-- I count-- 15 beds.

Shenzhen is a city without history. The people who live there will tell you that, because 31 years ago, Shenzhen was a small town. They had little reed huts, little reed walkways between the huts. The men would fish in the late afternoon. I hear it was lovely.

And in all that time, until I saw those pictures, it was only then I realized, I had never thought, ever, in a dedicated way, about how they were made.

So the truth is, I never would have questioned this religion.

Can I say, I love, especially, "I am not allowed to say"? Because it implies that Siri somehow knows the answer, but she's just not allowed to tell me, which is insane, because she's a machine. Especially because-- flip over the phone. Right here, on the back, it's printed-- "Assembled in China."

The problem is that n-hexane is a potent neurotoxin, and all these people have been exposed. Their hands shake uncontrollably. Most of them can't even pick up a glass. I talk to people whose joints in their hands have disintegrated from working on the line, doing the same motion hundreds and hundreds of thousands of times. It's like carpal tunnel on a scale we can scarcely imagine.

the dormitories are cement cubes, 12 foot by 12 foot. And in that space, there are 13 beds, 14 beds-- I count-- 15 beds. They're stacked up like Jenga puzzle pieces, all the way up to the ceiling. The space between them is so narrow. None of us would actually fit in them. They have to slide into them like coffins.

The official workday in China is eight hours long, and that's a joke. I never met anyone who'd even heard of an eight-hour shift. Everyone I talked to worked 12-hour shifts standard, and often much longer than that. 14 hours a day, 15 hours a day.

And it is constant. They work a Chinese hour, and a Chinese hour has 60 Chinese minutes, and a Chinese minute has 60 Chinese seconds. It's not like like our hour. What's our hour now? 46 minutes? You have a bathroom break, and you have a smoke break, and if you don't smoke, there's a yoga break.

And I say to her, "You seem kind of young. How old are you?" And she says, "I'm 13." And I say, "13? That's young. Is it hard to get work at Foxconn when you're--" She says, "Oh, no." And her friends all agree. They don't really check ages. The outside companies do have inspections. But the workers told me Foxconn always knows when there is going to be an inspection. So what they do then-- they don't even check ages then. They just pull everyone from the affected line, and then they put the oldest workers they have on that line.

Apple has released a report stating in the year that Mike was in China, 2010, Apple's own auditors went into 127 facilities around the world that make its products and say they found 91 underage workers. It doesn't say which facilities the workers were at. The report states that Apple helped install systems to verify ages, educated suppliers on recruiting practices, and made them return underage workers to school, and made them pay for the kids' education, and then it stopped doing business with one supplier that had 42 underaged workers and showed no commitment to addressing the problem.

Mike DaiseyWell, I don't know if it's a big problem. I just know that I saw it.Ira GlassAgain, Mike Daisey. He says, sure. Maybe it's not prevalent.Mike DaiseyI know that I met people that were there. And I know that I talked to them. I mean, there weren't very many as a proportion of the total group. I talked to more than 100 people. I met five or six who were underage.Ira GlassAnd they were over the course of days?Mike DaiseyNo, they were together in a group.Ira GlassSo it's basically the girl who you described, who deals with the iPhones, who wipes off your thing, and then her friends?Mike DaiseyAnd then some people that were with her. They seemed like savvy kids, honestly.

Ira GlassAnother thing that Mike Daisey says that is disturbing to hear, is he says that the companies will deceive the auditors when the auditors come in. Have you seen that?Ian SpauldingYeah. That actually is quite common. And I think many other people have also exposed this problem.

And he says, he worked on the metal enclosures for the laptops, and he worked on the iPad. And when he says this, I reach into my satchel, and I take out my iPad.

"I did. I went to the labor board, and I told them about my problem. And they took down my name and my address and my company. And they took my name, and they put it on the blacklist, and they fired me."

a worker at Foxconn dies after working a 34-hour shift. I wish I could say that's exceptional, but it's happened before. I only mention it because it actually happened while I was there.

"Yes, Kathy. I'm going to lie to lots of people."

The outside companies do have inspections. But the workers told me Foxconn always knows when there is going to be an inspection. So what they do then-- they don't even check ages then. They just pull everyone from the affected line, and then they put the oldest workers they have on that line.

Week after week, worker after worker has been climbing all the way up to the tops of these enormous buildings, and then throwing themselves off, killing themselves in a brutal and public manner, not thinking very much about just how bad this makes Foxconn look. Foxconn's response to month after month of suicides has been to put up these nets.

Foxconn, a single company, makes a staggering amount of the electronics you use every day. They make electronics for Apple, Dell, Nokia, Panasonic, HP, Samsung, Sony, Lenovo, a third of all of it. That's Foxconn.

Can I say, I love, especially, "I am not allowed to say"? Because it implies that Siri somehow knows the answer, but she's just not allowed to tell me, which is insane, because she's a machine. Especially because-- flip over the phone. Right here, on the back, it's printed-- "Assembled in China."

And along the edges of each enormous building are the nets. Because right at the time that I am making this visit, there has been an epidemic of suicides at the Foxconn plant. Week after week, worker after worker has been climbing all the way up to the tops of these enormous buildings, and then throwing themselves off, killing themselves in a brutal and public manner, not thinking very much about just how bad this makes Foxconn look. Foxconn's response to month after month of suicides has been to put up these nets.

And I'm involuntarily reminded of a Google News alert that popped into my inbox a few weeks earlier about a Reuters photographer who was taking pictures not at the Foxconn plant, but near the Foxconn plant. And Foxconn security went out, scooped him up, and beat him before releasing him.

The Foxconn plant in Shenzhen has 430,000 workers. That can be a difficult number to conceptualize. I find it's useful to instead think about how there are more than 20 cafeterias at the plant. And then you just have to understand that workers told me that these cafeterias can hold up to 10,000 people. So now you just need to visualize a cafeteria that seats 10,000 people. I'll wait.

The problem is that n-hexane is a potent neurotoxin, and all these people have been exposed. Their hands shake uncontrollably. Most of them can't even pick up a glass. I talk to people whose joints in their hands have disintegrated from working on the line, doing the same motion hundreds and hundreds of thousands of times. It's like carpal tunnel on a scale we can scarcely imagine.

Everyone I talked to worked 12-hour shifts standard, and often much longer than that. 14 hours a day, 15 hours a day.

And I say to her, "You seem kind of young. How old are you?" And she says, "I'm 13." And I say, "13? That's young. Is it hard to get work at Foxconn when you're--" She says, "Oh, no."

Week after week, worker after worker has been climbing all the way up to the tops of these enormous buildings, and then throwing themselves off, killing themselves in a brutal and public manner, not thinking very much about just how bad this makes Foxconn look. Foxconn's response to month after month of suicides has been to put up these nets.

And Foxconn security went out, scooped him up, and beat him before releasing him.

cafeterias can hold up to 10,000 people.

I understand, as best I can, how the hardware works and how the software rests on the hardware

So the truth is, I never would have questioned this religion. I never would have looked deeply at this belief system, because it gave me so much pleasure, if it hadn't been for the pictures.

So far, no country has decided to use this international law to help Congo end slavery, but the tools are there.

The thugs have total control and can do whatever they please, so just crossing from one part of town to another means paying a tax or risking attack or even enslavement.

Slaves are producing many of the things we buy, and in the process they are forced to destroy our shared environment, increase global warming, and wipe out protected species.

Our lives are full of ways that we connect with other people—the food we serve and share, the rings and gifts we exchange—and we understand these objects primarily from the point at which they arrive in our lives.

We also know that, while some polishing and skillful carving of names and dates is needed, those heavy, dense, and sharp tombstones will first be handled by children, though they will be taking “great care,” of course, since the slave master is watching.

If we think about where the markers come from at all, we might imagine an elderly craftsman carefully chiseling a name into a polished stone.

Expecting industrial operations, they found medieval working conditions and families in slavery

“See the little girl playing with the hammer?” asked a local investigator. “Along with the child, the size of the hammer grows, and that’s the only progress in her life.”

And in India, the most cost effective way to achieve that is slavery.

Granite for German tombstones used to come from the beautiful Harz Mountains, but now no one is allowed to mine there and risk spoiling this protected national park and favorite tourist destination.

It was brilliant, but it had a cost.

Slavery, one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas producers, is hidden from us.

Out of our sight, slaves numbering in the hundreds of thousands do the work that slaves have done for millennia: digging, cutting, and carrying.

Round and round it goes— our spending drives a criminal perpetual motion machine that eats people and nature like a cancer.

But all this normally happens far from any prying eyes. It’s a hidden world that keeps its secrets.

And pulling things from the earth can be a dirty business.

some ways they spring from the same root. Our consumer economy is driven at its most basic level by resource extraction, pulling things from the earth, an extraction that we never actually see

Slaves are producing many of the things we buy, and in the process they are forced to destroy our shared environment, increase global warming, and wipe out protected species.

orrupt politicians often rule

One, two, or three soldiers will force their way into a family’s home, announcing, “We’re living with you and you will do as we say.” Anyone who resists will be killed. Then the men and boys are put to work digging and hauling minerals. Women and girls also dig and sort stone, do the housework, cook, and suffer regular sexual assaults. The violence and rape increase when the soldiers get drunk or stoned.

A little chaos is good for criminal business, but too much is disruptive, even for warlords

Nature is willing, but the people are broken. War has shattered minds and bodies and any semblance or expectation of order; life has become a scramble for survival in a population divided between those with guns and those without. This chaos is the perfect breeding ground for slavery. When valuable minerals are stirred into the mix, the odds of a slavery outbreak are even higher.

He sold these “concessions” to speculators who used torture and murder to drive whole communities into the jungle to harvest rubber.

These eastern provinces are called North Kivu and South Kivu, and they hold some of the wildest, most deeply beautiful and seriously dangerous terrain on the planet. The mixture of mountains, river valleys, great lakes, and volcanoes is spectacular, though the endemic parasites and diseases, including typhoid and plague, are a constant threat. The nature reserves and national parks in the Kivus are some of the last places to find a number of threatened animal species, like the great gorillas. Two kinds of elephants roam the forests, and hippos work the riverbanks. High in their treetop nests, this is the only place in the world to find our closest relative, the bonobo chimpanzee. Sometimes called the “hippie chimp,” bonobos are known for resolving conflicts peacefully, through sexy cuddling rather than violence—a trick humans haven’t quite mastered. But when the rebel groups pushed into these protected forests and habitats, deforestation and illegal poaching followed, and the bonobo population fell by 95 percent. But this isn’t the first time the Congo has been trampled.

Yours is probably within arm’s reach right now.

As we climbed the hill from the landing field, I took my cellphone from my pocket, out of habit more than anything. I assumed it would be useless here, but then watched as the little bars built up on its screen. No electricity or running water, no paving on the roads, and good luck if you needed a doctor, but incredibly I had a signal. “This is why I am here,” I thought, “I can’t live without my phone, and people here are dying because of it.”

Let’s talk about our phones

I started in the Eastern Congo, where all the pieces of the puzzle are exposed—slavery, greed, a war against both nature and people, all for resources that flowed right back into our consumer economy, into our work and homes and pockets. I knew if I could get there—and stay clear of the warlords and their armed gangs— I could begin to uncover the truth.

Slavery, one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas producers, is hidden from us.

Slavery is a great way to keep your costs down, but there’s another reason why that granite is so cheap—the quarries themselves are illegal, paying no mining permits or taxes.

Slavery in granite quarries is a family affair enforced by a tricky scheme based on debt

Careful handling means handwork, which requires people with drills and chisels, hammers and crowbars gently working the granite out of the ground. And in India, the most cost effective way to achieve that is slavery.

Granite for German tombstones used to come from the beautiful Harz Mountains, but now no one is allowed to mine there and risk spoiling this protected national park and favorite tourist destination

tombstone

We think of Steve Jobs in his black turtleneck as the origin of our iPhones.

Yet children stood a few feet from the soldiers, complaining about the disruption to their soccer game.

It makes sense that slavery and environmental destruction would go hand in hand.

“See the little girl playing with the hammer?” asked a local investigator. “Along with the child, the size of the hammer grows, and that’s the only progress in her life.

We think of Steve Jobs in his black turtleneck as the origin of our iPhones.

In the United States, the average cost of installing those countertops runs from $2,000 to $8,000, but the price charged by Indian exporters for polished red granite is just $5 to $15 per square meter—that comes to about $100 for all the granite your kitchen needs. The markup on tombstones is equally high. The red granite tombstones that sell for $500 to $1,000 in the United States, and more in Europe, are purchased in bulk from India for as little as $50, plus a US import duty of just 3.7 percent.

“This is why I am here,” I thought, “I can’t live without my phone, and people here are dying because of it.”

And to stop them, we don’t need more laws. We need to end slavery.

Here’s how: slaveholders are criminals, operating firmly outside of any law or regulation. When they mine gold they saturate thousands of acres with toxic mercury. When they cut timber, they clear-cut and burn, taking a few high-value trees and leaving behind a dead ecosystem.

I can’t live without my phone, and people here are dying because of it.

But all this normally happens far from any prying eyes. It’s a hidden world that keeps its secrets.

freed slaves tend to be willing workers in the rebuilding of our natural world

If slavery were an American state it would have the population of California and the economic output of the District of Columbia, but it would be the world’s third-largest producer of CO2.

The idea that people once had to call a telephone wired to a building in the hope of reaching a person who might be there seems quaint, clunky, and a little absurd to our children.

local police and forest rangers turn a blind eye.

the quarries themselves are illegal, paying no mining permits or taxes. The protected state and national forest parks rest on top of granite deposits

Just when the family feels they may have finally found some security, they are being locked into hereditary slavery.

Whether we are grilling shrimp for our friends or buying T-shirts for our children we generally think of these things as beginning where we first encountered them, at the shop, at the mall, in the grocery store. But just as each of us is deeper than our surface, just as each of us has a story to tell, so do the tools and toys and food and rings and phones that tie us together.

Cellphones have become electronic umbilical cords connecting us with our children, our partners, and our parents with an immediacy and reliability hardly known before.

The peace and order of the graves surrounding ancient churches was suddenly marred by images of slave children shaping and polishing the stone that marked those graves.

they were shocked by what they discovered. Expecting industrial operations, they found medieval working conditions and families in slavery.

This debt bondage is illegal, but illiterate workers don’t know this, and the bosses are keen to play on their sense of obligation, not alert them to the scam that’s sucking them under.

“See the little girl playing with the hammer?” asked a local investigator. “Along with the child, the size of the hammer grows, and that’s the only progress in her life.”

We think of Steve Jobs in his black turtleneck as the origin of our iPhones.

So far, no country has decided to use this international law to help Congo end slavery, but the tools are there.

For the poor South, it was cotton and iron ore that carried the “resource curse,” and kleptocratic and racist local governments moved quickly to stabilize and legitimize their control. Whether it was sharecropping or peonage slavery, the result was great riches for a white elite, and an ongoing degradation of the land and destruction of the vast Southern forests.

The Second Congo War is the modern world’s greatest forgotten war. Raging from 1998 to 2003, and overshadowed on the global stage by the events of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent “War on Terror,” it involved eight countries and about twenty-five armed groups. By its end 5.4 million people were dead, a body count second only to the two world wars.

It is the great forgotten genocide of the twentieth century. One witness was an African-American journalist named George Washington Williams. He coined the phrase “crimes against humanity” to describe what he saw.

We also have to understand that slavers—who don’t adhere to those laws and treaties—are a leading cause of the natural world’s destruction. And to stop them, we don’t need more laws. We need to end slavery.

Well, we know environmental change is part of the engine of slavery. The sharp end of environmental change, whether slow as rising sea levels and desertification, or disastrously sudden like a hurricane or a tsunami, comes first to the poor. I’ve seen men, women, children, families, and whole communities impoverished and broken by environmental change and natural disasters. Homes and livelihoods lost, these people and communities are easily abused. Especially in countries where corruption is rife, slavers act with impunity after environmental devastation, luring and capturing the refugees, the destitute, and the dispossessed.

The profits generated when we go shopping flow back down the chain and fuel more assaults on the natural world, drive more people toward enslavement, and feed more goods into the global supply chain. Round and round it goes— our spending drives a criminal perpetual motion machine that eats people and nature like a cancer.

The peace and order of the graves surrounding ancient churches was suddenly marred by images of slave children shaping and polishing the stone that marked those graves.

This debt bondage is illegal, but illiterate workers don’t know this, and the bosses are keen to play on their sense of obligation, not alert them to the scam that’s sucking them under.

but the tools are there

It’s a four-step process; simple in form yet complex in the way it plays out

Yours is probably within arm’s reach right now

The good news is that slavery can be stopped

It makes sense that slavery and environmental destruction would go hand in hand

Cellphones have become electronic umbilical cords connecting us with our children, our partners

Our view of cemetery monuments is normally restricted to what we see when we bury our loved ones or visit their graves.

Slavery is a great way to keep your costs down

the quarries themselves are illegal

Surprisingly, slavery is at the root of much of the natural world’s destruction.

We pull food from the earth, of course, but we also pull our cellphones from the earth, our clothing, our computers, our flat-screen televisions, our cars—it all comes from the earth, ultimately.

It makes sense that slavery and environmental destruction would go hand in hand.

If slavery were an American state it would have the population of California and the economic output of the District of Columbia, but it would be the world’s third-largest producer of CO2

Slaves are producing many of the things we buy, and in the process they are forced to destroy our shared environment, increase global warming, and wipe out protected species.

Cellphones have become electronic umbilical cords connecting us with our children, our partners, and our parents with an immediacy and reliability hardly known before

We know that, even though it comes all the way from India, slave-produced granite is cheap.

Slavery is a great way to keep your costs down

Slavery in granite quarries is a family affair enforced by a tricky scheme based on debt. When a poor family comes looking for work, the quarry bosses are ready to help with an “advance” on wages to help the family settle in. The rice and beans they eat, the scrap stones they use to build a hut on the side of the quarry, the hammers and crowbars they need to do their work, all of it is provided by the boss and added to the family’s debt. Just when the family feels they may have finally found some security, they are being locked into hereditary slavery.

We think of Steve Jobs in his black turtleneck as the origin of our iPhones.

the Video Computer System was manufactured in Sunnyvale, California

move to compete directly with the Channel F, Atari named the machine the Video Computer System (or VCS for short), as the Channel F

$804 adjusted for inflation

If you were a young, strong-looking African-American male, you were fair game. Brought before a local justice of the peace or sheriff, the prisoner would invariably be found guilty and ordered to pay a fine well beyond his means. At that point the sheriff, another official, or a local businessman would step forward and say that they would pay the fine, and in exchange the convict would have to work off the debt under their control.

Slaves are producing many of the things we buy, and in the process they are forced to destroy our shared environment, increase global warming, and wipe out protected species

Homes and livelihoods lost, these people and communities are easily abused.

Slaves are producing many of the things we buy, and in the process they are forced to destroy our shared environment, increase global warming, and wipe out protected species

quizzed

It’s just over one hundred years later and anti-slavery workers are back in the Congo; the sense of déjà vu is strong.

We think of Steve Jobs in his black turtleneck as the origin of our iPhones.

Leaving aside what this says about the high cost of dying

bonobos are known for resolving conflicts peacefully, through sexy cuddling rather than violence—a trick humans haven’t quite mastered

a force that is not democratic and has never tried to liberate anyone or anything

The idea that people once had to call a telephone wired to a building in the hope of reaching a person who might be there seems quaint, clunky, and a little absurd to our children

There’s always been a moral case for stopping slavery; now there’s an environmental reason too

we don’t need more laws. We need to end slavery

It makes sense that slavery and environmental destruction would go hand in hand.

There’s an intimacy in the stone we use to mark the final resting place of someone we love; there’s another sort of intimacy in the less obvious but still essential minerals that let us speak with our loved ones on phones or write to them on computers

these men were appalled when they saw footage from the quarries

People have found it easy to just walk into the forest and start mining

The protected state and national forest parks rest on top of granite deposits

gles, like wate

Improving myself, everyday

Official Website

or a range of issues, professionals in a given area might have better insight than researchers, especially where question deal with common practice.

the New York Times is thought by many to have a center-left bias and the Wall Street Journal a center-right bias, and USA Today is prone to centrist bias

the trustworthy publications are the ones saying things that are correct, and we define what “correct” is what we believe to be true. A moment’s reflection will show the flaw in this way of thinking.

Many people are taken that way and then die there from disease or cave-ins, and your family never even knows you’ve died; you just disappear.

Yours is probably within arm’s reach right now. Our phones are so ubiquitous, we tend to forget that they only arrived on the scene about twenty years ago.

Surprisingly, slavery is at the root of much of the natural world’s destruction.

Slaves are producing many of the things we buy, and in the process they are forced to destroy our shared environment, increase global warming, and wipe out protected species

Cellphones have become electronic umbilical cords connecting us with our children, our partners, and our parents with an immediacy and reliability hardly known before.

The red granite tombstones that sell for $500 to $1,000 in the United States, and more in Europe, are purchased in bulk from India for as little as $50, plus a US import duty of just 3.7 percent.

The red granite tombstones that sell for $500 to $1,000 in the United States, and more in Europe, are purchased in bulk from India for as little as $50, plus a US import duty of just 3.7 percent.

And Kathy says to her, kind of sharply, she says, "You should have gone to the labor board. That's what they're there for. You should have gone to the labor board." And the woman says, "I did. I went to the labor board, and I told them about my problem. And they took down my name and my address and my company. And they took my name, and they put it on the blacklist, and they fired me."

I talk to an older man with leathery skin. His right hand is twisted up into a claw. It was crushed in a metal press at Foxconn. He says he didn't receive any medical attention, and it healed this way. And then when he was too slow, they fired him.

And you need to know that this is eminently avoidable. If these people were rotated monthly on their jobs, this would not happen. But that would require someone to care. That would require someone at Foxconn and the other suppliers to care. That would require someone at Apple and Dell and the other customers to care. Currently, no one in the ecosystem cares enough to even enforce that.

If they can't do it, there are people behind them, watching them. And there are cameras watching both sets of people, and people watching the camera as they lock it down. They sharpen it to a fine, sharp edge every hour. And those hours are long.

They don't really check ages. The outside companies do have inspections. But the workers told me Foxconn always knows when there is going to be an inspection. So what they do then-- they don't even check ages then

They don't really check ages. The outside companies do have inspections. But the workers told me Foxconn always knows when there is going to be an inspection. So what they do then-- they don't even check ages then.

And I go to the dormitories-- I'm a valuable potential future customer. They will show me anything I ask to see-- the dormitories are cement cubes, 12 foot by 12 foot. And in that space, there are 13 beds, 14 beds-- I count-- 15 beds. They're stacked up like Jenga puzzle pieces, all the way up to the ceiling. The space between them is so narrow. None of us would actually fit in them. They have to slide into them like coffins.

, there has been an epidemic of suicides at the Foxconn plant.

Because the air in Shenzhen-- it's not good in Hong Kong, but when you get to Shenzhen, you can actually feel it, like a booted foot pressing down on your chest