Madam, – The much-reported suicides at the Foxconn facilities in China are tragic. However, I wonder if the focus on the conditions at the plant and the attention now being placed on Foxconn’s customers (Apple, Dell, etc) misrepresent what is a tragic reality of the world we live in?
We are told that there are more than 400,000 workers in the Foxconn Shenzen plant alone, where 10 people have died by suicide this year. On looking at the suicide rate in Ireland in 2008, I see that 9.3 people per 100,000 died by suicide (with a rate of 14.5 per 100,000 for men). This compares to 11.1 for the US, 9.4 for Germany and 6.8 for the UK).
The pro rata suicide rate in the Foxconn factory in Shenzen for the first five months of this year would be six per 100,000, in a demographic actually more prone to death by suicide.
While tragic, the statistics would suggest a societal problem rather than one specific to the company in question. – Yours, etc,