Mike Daisey has released the script of his controversial monologue on the Internet
Daisey. Photo: citylovesong.com
Even as he performs an extended stay of his monologue The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at the New York Public Theater, Mike Daisey has done a rare thing for a professional writer and performer. He has released the full text of his controversial exposé of working conditions in China's electronics factories, inviting anyone who is interested to read, adapt, re-publish or perform it, in whole or in part.
"I've already received requests from more than 500 groups in 11 countries," he says, "from mid-size regional theaters to a small community in Kurdistan on the Iraq border."
You can download the pdf here.
"I don't require credit," he says, "but I do ask for it. And I do request that you let us know when you use it."
The show, which debuted last January at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, helped draw worldwide attention to the low pay, long hours and, according to Daisey, underage workers in Foxconn's Shenzhen factories. Foxconn, the world's largest electronics manufacturer, assembles roughly 40% of the devices sold under such U.S. brands as Apple (AAPL), Cisco (CSCO), Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Intel (INTC), Microsoft (MSFT) and Motorola Mobility (MMI).
Foxconn has recently raised its wages and, at Apple's request, opened its doors to a camera crew from ABC's Nightline (see here). The moves followed a widely read series in the New York Times and the publicity generated by Daisey's monologue, which was excerpted for radio and broadcast in January on PRI's This American Life.
"The Mira Hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong," Daisey's piece begins, "is exquisitely designed. It's like the inside of a sailing ship: everything has a place and everything is in its place. I actually find myself opening and closing the little drawers just to see the intricate way they're fitted together … I can't help it. It's just the way I'm wired."
Click here for the rest.
Retail fail: SWAT teams move in after fights break out among rival gangs of scalpers
Video via M.I.C. Gadget
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 13, 2012 5:23 AM ET
Apple's new phone will arrive on the mainland -- and 21 other countries -- Friday, Jan. 13
The Year of the Dragon
New Year's Day -- the biggest shopping event of the Chinese calendar -- falls on Jan. 23 this year. And in a piece of extraordinarily fortuitous timing, Apple (AAPL) announced Wednesday that it will launch the iPhone 4S on mainland China (and 21 other countries) next Friday, Jan. 13.
That MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 4, 2012 10:46 AM ET
Apple received final certification on Dec. 22, according to a report in the People's Daily
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The news in November was that it would arrive on the mainland in December. On Dec. 6 Apple (AAPL) was reported to have been granted MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 27, 2011 8:07 AM ET
If true, Apple will have just expanded its addressable market by 167 million users
iPhone 4S crowd control in Hong Kong last month. Video: Andrew Leyden
China Unicom (CHU), the second largest carrier in the world's largest mobile phone market, received a government permit this week to begin selling the iPhone 4S on mainland China this month, according to two Chinese-based news outlets (see here and here).
However a third source, citing a MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 10, 2011 11:04 AM ET
Thousands left empty-handed as scalpers rush to feed a hungry gray market
Photo: M.I.C.Gadget
Even with the support of Chinese riot police, police dogs, private security guards and an elaborate grid of metal barricades, Apple (AAPL) could barely contain the chaos when the gates of the Hong Kong Apple Store opened Friday morning and customers began to run up the store's spiral glass staircase.
An Apple-sanctioned queue of roughly 1,250 were allowed MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 11, 2011 6:59 AM ET
Police were called in Wednesday to restore order after fighting broke out
Funneling line-sitters into holding pens. Video: Andrew Leyden
"I can't begin to accurately describe the scene on the walkways outside the Hong Kong Apple Store."
So begins the dispatch by Penguin Six's Andrew Leyden writing 24 hours before the first scheduled launch of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 4S in China.
According to Leyden, police broke up a disorganized mob of 400 line sitters Wednesday MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 10, 2011 3:59 PM ET
Bodes well for Friday's launch in 15 countries -- and maybe mainland China by December
The new Hong Kong Apple Store. Photo: Apple Inc.
Ticonderoga's Brian White, who has been keeping as close tabs on Apple's (AAPL) prospects in China as any Western analyst, reported Monday that pre-orders for the iPhone 4S ended almost as soon as they began in China last Friday.
According to his checks, pre-orders were sold out in MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 7, 2011 10:24 AM ET
My iPhone 4S was making swift progress until it landed in Kentucky
UPS' Louisville Global Operations Center. Image: Google Street View
Like more than a million Apple (AAPL) customers I ordered a new iPhone last Friday. Since then I've been been tracking its movements on UPS. I watched leave the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, Saturday afternoon. I saw it pass swiftly through Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong. I watched it jet MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 12, 2011 10:05 AM ET
It may actually reach its goal of opening 30 new stores in the last quarter of fiscal 2011
Source: MIC Gadget
This will be a big weekend for Apple (AAPL) retail, with seven grand openings scheduled on four continents over two days. The new stores, according to ifoAppleStore:
IFC Mall (Hong Kong)
Nanjing East (Shanghai)
Westfield Hornsby (Australia)
Centro Sicilia (Italy)
New Haven (Conn.)
Metrotown (Canada)
Le Chesnay (France)
Videos of huge crowds and over-excited staffers have already started to pop up on YouTube, including MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 23, 2011 7:25 AM ETEvery morning, discover the companies, deals and trends in tech that are moving markets and making headlines. SUBSCRIBE
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