Chicken feet. It’s what’s for lunch

Having a bad day at work? Next time you sit at your computer keyboard, typing e-mails to friends about how much your job sucks, pause for a moment and ask yourself if that very keyboard was assembled by people who get payed 40 cents an hour, and get 15 minute lunches to slurp down milky-colored rice gruel (Friday bonus: chicken feet!). High Tech Misery in China is a project created by the National Labor Committee to investigate the abusive labor conditions at a Chinese factory where keyboards are manfactured for American computer retailers like Dell, HP, and Lenovo. I’ll let you take a swig of your Coke while you ponder that, and then read about Colombia’s other Coke. That really puts a new twist on the phrase “dying of thirst”, doesn’t it? At least those keyboard factory workers appear to be getting paid, unlike the Chinese slave labor that builds the bricks that build the factories. Okay, quietly back to your cubicle now.