Digital Ink

I think the technology behind information systems is almost overwhelmingly advanced, especially in todays age.

This youtube video I found, part of the “Did you know” series, really encapsulates the evolution that has and needs to occur in the way we percieve and understand information. Everyday hundreds of thousands of people interact on a second by second basis, decisions and points of view occuring at every instance. The idea that such rich media not only needs to be stored, a monumental task, and analyzed, that too at a speed relevent to such an unbelievably faster generation, is mind-boggling to me.

I haven’t got much else to say, but I will say this: I think humankind have evolved from the face-to-face interaction. Now, our ability to percieve has transcended time and space, and we have really hit something I could call the “fifth dimension”. Now, if you dont mind, I’m going to watch live Beatles concerts and maybe play some virtual World War 2.

Outsourcing, specifically in terms of large companies like Adidas and Nike, usually involves the movement of the production process to another country with less stringent monitoring policies for its people to find cheaper ways of providing us, the western consumer, our favorite toys.

Although this act has sometimes been called criminal, due to the fact that many people associate it with poor sweatshop laborers living on a pittance to produce something that, in the best of circumstances, we could only call an unnecessary luxury, it is not all bad. Take for example the situation in Vietnam.

Johan Norberg, a prominent freelance writer who often features fair-trade arguments, visited Vietnam and came to the realization that without this admittedly corrupted system, most poor Vietnamese sweatshop workers would have no means at all to produce goods. In fact, he discusses the situation of Tsi-Chi, a Vietnamese woman who, though admittedly impoverished compared to our standards, earns five times more in a sweatshop than she could otherwise, and managed to use the extra money to add an extension to her house and send her children to school.

There is no doubt in my mind that outsourcing of this nature is wrong and abusive, but I cant help but ask, whats the alternative? The western world’s convenience is the direct result of this situation, and people can hardly be asked to change an entire lifestyle for the sake of people they will never meet. Such a task has been tried before, but it usually only ends in monetary donation coupled with temporary sympathy. Hardly a solution. As it stands, I think this kind of outsourcing beats no outsourcing at all, because at the very least, it is a relatively more expensive alternative. For those who do not have an option, any option is better than none.

Vietnamese Sweatshops at Nike