Taking Action, Saving Lives (Part 1)

This book is written in such a way that it is easier for one to digest the information compared to SF previous book that we read for the class. The book started off by talking about ethical responsibility and democratic responsibility. Democratic responsibility requires citizens to acknowledge that they cause indirect harm to others and they have the responsibility to stop or change the current system. Ethical responsibility requires citizens to acknowledge that they benefit from such harm and as a consequence, they have a responsibility to stop such practices.

She highlights the different risks caused by pollution, the most common being cancer with minorities, poor communities and children being the most susceptible to such risks. Although there seems to be overall progress in the health and safety in developed countries such as the United States, environmental conditions have not improved but have gotten worse. Health care has gotten more expensive but does not seem as effective in increasing the longevity of people in the US. Relatively speaking, other countries seem to have better environmental standards, cheaper health care and longer lifespans compared to the US.

One f the main reasons for lax environmental regulation in the US is the fact that research can no longer be trusted as many corporations fund research done by institutions of higher learning. As a result of having vested interests, university research have been suppressed and modified to suit the requirements of the funding corporations which is not only illegal but unfair. It is our right to ask about such things and to do what is right but it may mean risking one's life such as Karen Silkwood did. Corporations understand how the system works and are willing to spend large amounts of money to gain an even bigger return on their investments. They have so much at stake and will go all out to ensure that it will not be taken away from them.

That's why PR companies, lawyers and lobbyists are making so much money because corporations have almost seemingly unlimited resources to fund their own interests. Although the US may have many state and federal departments such as the EPA to deal with environmental and EJ issues, they still lack the funds and manpower needed in order to have effective regulation. Such corporations also have large influences in the media industry which in turn affects public opinion because of what we see and hear. What is shown in the media is usually subtle enough that it does not raise questions which is a scary thought because we are not able to trust what we see, hear or read anymore.

I will draw more conclusions when I read more of the book.

The Silicon Valley of Dreams - Part 3

The book has since talked about the electronics industry and how the work flows through the system. Chapters 6-7 talks more about the individual experiences of a number of employees that the authors have managed to interview. The chapters also talked about how the families of each worker is also affected in such cases of environmental injustice. In addition to all the above, chapter 7 especially talked about the piece-by-piece assembly process which is done by many immigrant families in the area.

When I was going through the chapters in this book, I momentarily forgot...well...segregated in my mind, the other environmental justice issues that we've talked about so far in this class. The other issues that we talked about in this class had to deal with overall environmental pollution and how people of color tend to live in areas that have a high disproportion of waste facilities etc. This book talked about environmental injustice in the workplace which covered different areas of focus. People were exposed to health hazards but could not do anything about it for fear of being fired from their jobs and losing income to support their families.

There is already a distinction here. In both cases of workplace and living area injustices, it feels like those who encountered workplace injustices had to risk more than those who encountered environmental injustices in where they live. Losing one's job immediately would be bad as they would lose their source of income. Fighting against a corporation that wants to put a dump near your house seem to have less immediate adverse effects.

Reading about the injustices that electronics workers face and the type of management that they have to put up with is disheartening. To think that they risk so much to support their families really is hard to read because as consumers of such goods, we are partially to blame for not asking for better workplace practices and ethics.

Regarding the piece-by-piece assembly from home; one of my friends had her entire family doing such work but it wasn't electronics but plastic instead. It was an additional source of income where everyone in the family would sit down in front of the TV in the evenings and assemble plastic parts. They were paid for each piece that they assembled. I think Asian cultures are very different in a sense that it is more family oriented with relatives pitching in to help if they can. But in the case of the electronics industry, home assembly is probably more dangerous than factory assembly because it also exposes other family members (the elderly and children) to toxic chemicals.

There were also several instances in the book that told of a few small victories achieved by a few of the workers who actually stood up against their employers but I don't think it is enough to combat the injustices that are still going on in the workplace. Also, when the government actually intervened, they also caused harm because all the workers who assembled from home got fired from their jobs. Now how is that helping?

The Silicon Valley of Dreams - Part 2

This book is really interesting to me because firstly, it approaches the issue in a different style because it first examines the history of the place before diving into the issue. The reason being that racism and environmental injustice has been going on for a long time since the Gold Rush - more than 100 years ago. It was interesting to note that although the industries changed from mining to farming and eventually electronics; the racist hierarchy that is very apparent at the workplace did not change. Those who were in the managerial positions were always Caucasian whereas the laborers and workers were mainly minority races.

In addition to this, it was also interesting to note that factories hired laborers of similar nationality in their production plants. By keeping people of different nationalities separate from each other, I suppose it does encourage some sort of indirect racism not just among the supervisors and workers but also among the workers themselves. By segregating the workers by race, the company can possibly reduce the amount of interactions that the workers have with other workers of different races, making it more difficult to organize and fight against workplace injustices.

The fact that companies transferred pregnant women to other departments because the chemicals used caused miscarriages did not make much sense. If the chemicals used were that harmful, we should stop using them altogether for fear of other health issues. When I first read this book, I was surprised to see the number of hazardous waste produced in making electronic products. I've always thought that the manufacturing process of electronics was relatively cleaner compared to other industries in a sense because it did not involve the "smokestacks" and production of soot and black smoke. This was discussed in the book as how the electronics industry was portrayed very early on before people began to realize how polluting they were.

I think some people do see the electronics industry as relatively cleaner than other industries which brings me to a different subject - the media. It is scary to think that the media influences such a large part of our lives. Almost every household in the US owns a TV. Imagine the influence the media has on us. We are being fed information, correct and incorrect on the daily basis and we make decisions and form ideas based on what we see and hear on the TV. I suppose a good way to inform the public regarding the issue of environmental injustice would be to use the media as a tool to help curb environmental injustice by informing the public.

I think it's kind of funny on how we have "fair-trade" items on the market such as coffee and chocolate but we don't have "fair-trade" computers or radios. We are willing to pay more money for items made outside our country than to sustain the local economy by paying higher prices for electronics made in our own country. I guess these are just some of the questions that came up after reading chapters 3-5 in the book.