[Arm-netbook] Will EOMA68-A20 be sweatshop-free?

[Sam Pablo Kuper]

On 27/08/16 13:41, Xavi Drudis Ferran wrote:
> El Sat, Aug 27, 2016 at 08:15:04AM +0100, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
deia:
>> you get an intuitive feel [...]
>> if there's anything "off" i'll know about it.
>
> [...]
>
> It doesn't mean you have to change anything, sleep badly or risk not
> being able to deliver what you promised because you suddenly need to
> raise to higher standards of purity in every conceivable subject.
> At this phase we know you'll do the best you can. It's ok.
> I'm just trying to suggest you might at your leisure, start taking
> a look at some websites, keeping track of some agendas and even maybe
> visting some events, so that you can start forming an opinion about
> broader issues. And maybe even letting them know about your project
> (anyone can do that, I guess) in ase they might be interested.

Thank you, Xavi, for putting this better than I could. I agree with
everything you said in your email.

Luke, Xavi is right. Maybe I can summarise by saying: we're not asking
you to commit to anything concrete right now - I already backed the
crowd-funder - but it would at least be great to know that you won't
rule out seeking expert independent advice on this front in the longer
term, especially if production scale increases.

Please see anti-sweatshop groups as potentially valuable partners like
ThinkPenguin and CrowdSupply and the FSF, who will want you to make a
success of EOMA-68 implementations as an ethical way for people to meet
their computing needs. And please don't fall prey to the overconfidence
bias, Dunning-Kruger effect, or System 1 thinking about this. You are a
smart fellow, but you are not an expert in Chinese labour relations, so
- despite your intelligence - as a human being, you risk over-estimating
your present abilities in that area.

And it is a fraught area: "According to the China Labor Support Network,
more than a quarter of the labor force in China is at risk of
occupational poisoning." (Source:
http://www.wired.com/2015/04/inside-chinese-factories .) Factor in other
risks besides poisoning, and the percentage of the labour force at risk
is probably very high indeed.*

The world isn't perfect: there might not be a factory that is 100%
ideal. But just as the EOMA68-A20 is more ethical than the Intel Skylake
or the Raspberry Pi in ways that it takes detailed knowledge of the
field in order to understand (e.g. knowing about the Intel Management
Engine, for example); so there are likely to be factories whose managers
really do make conscientious efforts to avoid bad practices, but which
can only be reliably identified by people with detailed knowledge of the
field.

Thanks again for your time. I also want EOMA-68 to be a success :)

- spk

* Another example:

"There are reports that children ages 13-15 are forced to produce
electronics in China.  Based on the most recently available data from
media sources, government raids, and NGOs, hundreds of cases of forced
child labor have been reported in factories in Guangdong province, but
the children are often from Henan, Shanxi, or Sichuan provinces.  In
some cases, children are forced to work in electronics factories through
arrangements between the factories and the schools that the children
attend in order to cover alleged tuition debts.  The forced labor
programs are described as student apprenticeships; however, the children
report that they were forced to remain on the job and not allowed to
return home.  Half of the students' wages are sent directly to the
schools, and the children receive little compensation after deductions
are made for food and accommodations.  In other cases, children are
abducted or deceived by recruiters, sent to Guangdong, and sold to
employers.  Some children are held captive, forced to work long hours
for little pay." (Source:
https://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-products/ .)