Who Should Be Blamed for the Straight Suicides?

Foxconn, the world’s largest subcontracted manufacturer of electronics and computer components, has been haunted by its Shenzhen plant’s employees committing suicide this year.

From January 23 to May 27, thirteen Foxconn employees jumped from their apartments and died or got injured. These tragedies carry heavy implications and have been subjected to heavy media scrutiny.

Who should be blamed for these tragedies? Terry Guo, Foxconn chief, attributed them to the haunting of ghosts. A ritual was held to get rid of the “ghosts” but no effect was seen.

Of course ghosts ought not to be blamed! But then who was responsible for the seem-to-be-endless jumps? Someone blamed Foxconn who forced these employees to work overtime and to isolate them from the outside (by setting up strict management measures). Some people even called Foxconn’s plant in Shenzhen the “bloody plant”. But all Foxconn’s measures related with overtime work conformed to the government regulations. Their remunerations for the employees were much better than the dirty underground plants widely distributed in the coastal areas of China. As for the management, well, it is good for managing and training the employees, explained Foxconn.

Someone said that these employees committing suicides should be blamed because they could not stand the pressure and “were eliminated by the society”. It was really cruel to accuse these people who have already lost their lives. How could these young men, who are not older than 20, endure 12-hour-workload each day, especially when they didn’t bear so many hardships at home?

More people attributed these tragedies to the society which allowed the existence of Foxconn’s “bloody plant” and became indifferent to the citizens, especially the vulnerable groups. However, it is hard to take care of every one for a society which is still undergoing progress and changes. In addition, there is too large a population in this society.

Committing suicide is not a rare thing any more. The reason that Foxconn’s tragedy was put into limelight is that a group of certain kinds of people working for a famous company committed suicides one by one in a relatively short period. One scholar pointed out that there were many enterprises in China that had the same or even worse conditions compared with Foxconn. Many Chinese people are suffering from the overtime job, low salaries and bad working conditions. This is inevitable for China, which is home to the largest population and seeing fastest growth in the world.

The problem is how to change the pressing problems as soon as possible. In short, it needs the integrated efforts of the country, the enterprises and the people. The country, as it is doing, should change the economic development pattern which previously focused on the labor-intensive industry to the one featured with application of technology and high added value. The enterprises should distract some of their focus on profits to the employees’ working confitions as well as their physical and mental status; they also need to fulfill their social responsibilities, which is important for their corporate images. People should try to find back the traditional spirit of bearing hardships which is gradually vanishing. Meanwhile, they should be more tolerable for the things that go against their wills and be optimistic towards the future. Above all, the country, enterprises and people should hold the respect for life and work together to prevent the tragedies from becoming a norm!