"Mrs. Chen," as CNN calls her, works in a Foxconn plant installing iPad screens for virtually every waking hour of her life. Despite this, she never actually saw an iPad until CNN whisked her away. Her reaction will surprise you.
The video investigation, popping up (deliberately) close to the NY Times' piece on Apple labor practices, tells us what we already know: many Foxconn employees complain of inhumane conditions while building the gadgets we love:
During my first day of work, an older worker said to me, ‘why did you come to Foxconn? Don't ever think about it again and leave right now'…Foxconn employees have a saying, "they use women as men and men as machines… there's another way of saying it, ‘they use women as men, and use men as animals."
But when Mrs. Chen is handed an iPad—an object that's for her entirely foreign, despite being front of her face daily—she loves the alien slate that rules her life. "I like it," she says, adding that she'd like to own one someday if she ever has enough money. Not even brutal, humanity-bending work conditions are enough to kill gadget lust. [CNN via 9to5Mac]