Yesterday, the night before the great March 4th demonstration, the professor of my wealth and poverty course proposed a simple question. He asked the class, “What is happening tomorrow? I hear there’s a strike. Can someone explain this to me?” A girl in the back of the lecture hall raised her hand and proceeded to address the injustice faced by students in the UC system, and how the strike was meant to create awareness for this issue across the state (as if it wasn’t well-known already). Most of what she said was valid; however, Professor Reich then asked, “What is the purpose of this strike? Where is the power? Who are we striking against?”
Everyone let that question sink in for a few moments. It made us think – can we really call this a strike? For the past week, campus has been dotted with white, maroon, and black posters. All of them loudly proclaim, “MARCH 4TH STRIKE!” It seems we’ve forgotten the real meaning of the word. In the past, strikes were about a group of people, namely workers, banding together to gain economic power to fight unfair wages and conditions. The workers essentially shut down the factory for the duration of their strike, which in turn was costly for the employers. So here, at UC Berkeley, who exactly are we striking against? Some say it’s the legislators – but who are they to care whether or not we attend classes? We’re not directly hurting them or their business by refusing to step onto campus. Who ends up sustaining the brunt of the damage?
In fact, we’re only hurting ourselves by refusing the very product that we are paying for. I’m not against protests and demonstrations – they’re powerful if executed in a non-violent and rational manner. And of all things to defend, public education is most definitely high up on the list, if not at the top. However, let’s stop kidding ourselves with illusions of grandeur and stop describing these acts as strikes. Instead, let us defend public education through our own means, without stripping words of their true meaning.
activism, UC Berkeley
Politics, School 
View Comments
Recently, Apple announced that during a check-up on their overseas factories they found a number of factories using child labor. Rather than try to hide this unsavory discovery, Apple decided to admit to the public that yes, a 10 year old probably helped make the very MacBook Pro you’re using right now. At first glance, this action seemed like the socially responsible thing to do. Let the public know, remind them that this is not something the company condones, and assure them that this is not Apple’s fault, not at all. Damn those sneaky production centers. This course of action has produced commentators like the one quoted here:
Please name any other tech company that is actually working to ensure that the working conditions in the factories where these components are made are at least tolerable and the workers are not exploited? Please list what Nokia or Palm or HTC are doing to ensure the parts that go into their phones are not fabricated by exploited workers or child labourers?
Really? Just like anyone else, I too want to believe that companies are adopting these so-called “corporate social responsibility” measures for the good of the world. But when it really comes down to it, why does a corporation spend the extra time and money to go through these steps? It’s all about the bottom line, baby. The media is ready to pounce on any company with Ecuadorian factories that hire five-year olds or managers who lock-in employees overnight. Customers become defiant, refuse to buy products from these evil evil corporate monsters, and then what? Profitability drops, investors become worried and disgruntled, and executives run around scrambling to come up with a half-decent damage control plan.
Although this specific example only looks at Apple (and yes, I do use a Macbook Pro), they’re not alone in this practice. Most companies, no matter how much they try to deny it, practice CSR to make customers happy. If customers are happy, then they’ll continue to support the company and buy more products and pay for more services, which means mo’ money. It is so easy for a consumer to simply exit if he or she doesn’t like the current options, so it is in the best interest of a company to use CSR as a component of its competitive strategy. After all, if everyone else is doing it, there’s really no other option. And if no one else in the industry does it, well hey, the first mover has a lot more to gain than to lose.
Here’s what Fake Steve has to say about this issue, since no piece of Apple news is complete without him.
Apple, CSR
Media, Tech View Comments
January 25, 2010
Kristy Wen
Tech
With less than 48 hours to go, the web is buzzing about the unveiling of Apple’s shiniest new toy. To be honest, though, when I see my RSS feed filled with posts containing the words “Apple” and “tablet”, I purse my lips and shift my eyes to the right a la Miranda Priestley in The Devil Wears Prada. I know, I know, technically I’m just adding on to the plethora of blog posts – feel free to point fingers at me and exclaim “Hypocrite!”
Admittedly, Apple has done an excellent job in generating a crap ton of hype for the tablet, but it’s burning out. Fortunately for them, the product is finally (and that’s a “finally” with the i and y drawn out) being revealed this Wednesday, so we won’t have to endure any more “Apple Tablet Has Been Spotted!11one1″ posts. I mean, it’s great that people are speculating, but by this point do we really need confirmation on the product via web analytics? On the other hand, there will instead be an influx of “AMAZINGEST PRODUCT EVAR” and “Ew, this sux so much lyk lolwut” review posts.
I don’t doubt that the tablet will be anything short of revolutionary in the tech world, as Apple seems to have a knack for taking on the First Mover role and succeeding. I’m sure that when it’s officially released in stores, I’ll be right there elbowing my way past thirty-something tech execs and thirteen year olds to get my hands on a demo. And then I’ll walk away after ten minutes of fiddling, with my curiosity satiated. If anything, what I’m really looking forward to is Lenovo’s Ideapad U1, which has the best of both worlds.
Anyways, it’s time to sit back and await The Big Event. I have to say, it’ll be pretty funny if they don’t end up announcing the tablet. However, I sincerely hope this doesn’t happen, as it would subject us all to another X months of rumors and speculation.
Apple, marketing, rumor, tablet
Tech View Comments
It’s almost comforting to know that even in this uncertain job market, you can’t have it as bad as this fool who’s dug his own grave at the age of 21.
Enter Jeffrey Chiang.
The entire story is over here at Dealbreakers, so I’ll just give you the quick and dirty. Jeffrey Chiang is the prime example of what to do if you want to see your potential career go up in flames after dousing it with a hefty amount of gasoline. So Jeffrey Chiang was interviewing for Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he was asked if he had received any other offers so far. He claimed that he was currently in his second round of interviews for Morgan Stanley. Lucky for Jeffrey, a BoA-ML associate had a buddy over at Morgan Stanley, whom he contacted about Jeffrey’s prospects. Apparently, he only had a phone interview with Morgan Stanley, at which time he claimed to have gotten an offer from BoA-ML. He was even so nice as to forward the “offer” over to Morgan Stanley, which was then forwarded to the associate at BoA-ML. After performing a bit of recon and finding out that the letter was a fake, the story was forwarded to the rest of Wall Street and has found its way onto the rest of the internet.
Read the rest of this entry »
lulz
Jobs, Media View Comments
October 06, 2009
Kristy Wen
Media
As the reign of social media grows every day and extends into previously uncharted territories, more and more people are becoming solely reliant on such tools for many aspects of their lives. For example, even healthcare has begun branching out into the hip social media arena – Obama hosts virtual town halls regarding his healthcare plans and health information websites are popping up all over the place.
According to this article, social media is “revolutionizing your doctor visits.” I won’t argue that websites haven’t made our lives easier in terms of finding out if you have symptoms of H1N1 or researching which specialized hospitals are best for what. However, there is still a long way to go until healthcare becomes “revolutionized” vis-a-vis social media. It seems that a significant number of people are expecting to find great doctors in the same manner we find nomnom-licious restaurants on Yelp. This isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Why? While the crowd who scours the internet looking for the best underground cafes and undiscovered treasures certainly can contribute to the social media-lizing of healthcare, there is a significant chunk of people, people who are the majority players in the healthcare community, who don’t.
Read the rest of this entry »
healthcare, social media
Media View Comments
