{"id":17673,"date":"2024-12-19T17:12:20","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T17:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?p=17673"},"modified":"2026-03-05T10:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T10:26:17","slug":"a-decent-factory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/?p=17673","title":{"rendered":"A Decent Factory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A decent Factory - Clip\" width=\"980\" height=\"735\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JPenUV55f90?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-unset-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/ftt-ladybird-geoblogs.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-135\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size\"><strong>followthethings.com<\/strong><br><a href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?page_id=305\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"305\">Electronics<\/a><br><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons has-custom-font-size is-horizontal is-content-justification-left is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-bc275726 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\" style=\"font-size:10px\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--2\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=2005\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">2005<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--3\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-black-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=NOKIA\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">NOKIA<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--4\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-vivid-red-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=power-cord\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">MOBILE PHONE CHARGER<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--5\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-black-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=origin-CHINA\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">MADE IN CHINA<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--6\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-black-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=destination-WORLDWIDE\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">SOLD WORLDWIDE<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--7\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-vivid-purple-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=documentary-film\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">DOCUMENTARY FILM<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--8\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=TELL-THE-TRUTH\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">TELL THE TRUTH<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--9\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=SHOW-WHATS-IMPOSSIBLE\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">SHOW WHAT&#8217;S IMPOSSIBLE<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--10\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=target-the-right-brand\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">TARGET THE RIGHT BRAND<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--11\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=spend-some-time\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">SPEND SOME TIME<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--12\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=cultivate-relationships\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">CULTIVATE RELATIONSHIPS<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--13\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=bring-managers-into-view\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">BRING MANAGERS INTO VIEW<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--14\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=find-a-character\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">FIND SOME CHARACTERS<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--15\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=follow-the-people\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">FOLLOW THE PEOPLE<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--16\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=humanise-workers\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">HUMANISE WORKERS<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--17\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=include-emotion\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">INCLUDE EMOTION<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--18\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=show-both-sides\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">SHOW BOTH SIDES<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--19\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=place-things-carefully\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">PLACE THINGS CAREFULLY<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--20\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=hold-em-accountable\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">HOLD &#8216;EM ACCOUNTABLE<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-font-size is-style-outline is-style-outline--21\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?tag=make-it-a-mystery\" style=\"border-radius:5px\">MAKE IT A MYSTERY<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#f6f0ec\">&#8220;<strong>A Decent Factory<\/strong> (alternative title <strong>Made in China)<\/strong>&#8220;<br>A documentary film directed by Thomas Balm\u00e8s for Margot Films, Making Movies Oy, France 2, BBC Storyville &amp; YLE<br>Film clip embedded above. Search online to stream the whole film <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?client=firefox-b-d&amp;q=watch+%22a+decent+factory%22\">here<\/a>.<br><br>In the mid 2000s, the Finnish company Nokia was the world&#8217;s largest producer of mobile phones. French film-maker Thomas Balm\u00e8s works moves to Finland and spends 18 months in the country before getting permission to follow its executive Hanna Kosinen and business ethics consultant Louise Jamison as they undertake the company&#8217;s first &#8216;ethical audit&#8217; of a mobile phone factory in China. Hanna and Louise have been tasked by Nokia to see for themselves if and how the company can exercise its &#8216;corporate social responsibilities&#8217; both to its shareholders and to its factory workers. After a detailed tour of the plant, and some challenging and moving interviews with some of its managers and young female factory floor staff (in their cramped dorm rooms), they have to write a report for Nokia about its CSR in practice. It&#8217;s not flattering. The factory isn&#8217;t reaching even the low Chinese government expectations about minimum wages and working conditions. In the early days of a technology which later became synonymous with appalling labour conditions (see our page on the 2010 iPad factory suicides <a href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?page_id=17693\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"17693\">here<\/a>), there was a company, and some company executives, who wanted the people making their branded products to enjoy a decent standard of living. But when they visit &#8211; as Balm\u00e8s&#8217; film shows &#8211; they get a shock and start to wonder why their principles don&#8217;t seem to be possible in practice. Nokia&#8217;s managers are &#8216;walking a tightrope between profits and law&#8217;. They are disarmingly frank in front of the camera, until they find out that this isn&#8217;t a films solely for internal Nokia consumption. The film that Balm\u00e8s produces is darkly funny and tragic, It ends with Hanna leaving the company to pursue a more ethical career, where she can make a difference. This is an important, insightful film. It brings corporate managers into view in vivid and candid ways. It&#8217;s not only the factory workers who are &#8216;humanised&#8217;. In this film, its corporate managers and their consultants whom audiences are invited to empathise with. The people employed, internally, to hold a company accountable. These executives are not just being interviewed for a &#8216;talking head&#8217; perspectives and\/or briefly followed around a production site (see our page on the BBC <em>Mangetout<\/em> documentary for comparison <a href=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/?p=12769\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"12769\">here<\/a>). These executives are not being deliberately embarrassed or demonised. Audience members can see what they are tasked to do. The ethical principles they would like to see in practice. Where they go. Who they talk to. How this affects them emotionally. How their personal and company principles work out in practice. What this makes them think about their job, the company they work for, and its stated corporate values. And whether they can stomach the disappointment when reality bites, and the change that&#8217;s needed doesn&#8217;t seem possible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Page reference: Thirii Myint &amp; Chris Lee (2011) <em>A Decent Factory<\/em>. followthethings.com\/a-decent-factory.shtml (last accessed &lt;insert date here&gt;)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Estimated reading time: 29 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>25 comments<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Descriptions<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-dark-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Amazingly, when \u2018corporate ethics\u2019 consultants hired by the cellphone giant Nokia are sent to China to audit one of its factories, a camera crew was allowed to go along for the ride. The result is a peek into the conflict between corporate interests and social accountability that sometimes seems frankly unresolvable (Source: Pevere 2005, np).<br><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>In an increasingly globalized economy, more corporations are \u2018outsourcing\u2019 their production to countries with cheaper labor costs and less legal protection of workers\u2019 rights. Some corporate managers, whether out of sincere moral concern or because they must respond to the considerations of investors and shareholders, are attempting to balance profit-making with social morality. A DECENT FACTORY focuses on such an effort by Nokia, the Finnish electronics firm, which sends a team led by two business ethics advisors to examine conditions at a Chinese factory that supplies parts to Nokia. Filmmaker Thomas Balm\u00e8s, having conducted three years of research on the subject, follows them on their investigative journey. The film documents in fascinating detail their inspection of the plant, guided by its European and Chinese managers. During their tour the Nokia team investigates working and safety conditions, payroll records, and potential environmental hazards. They also conduct probing interviews with the factory managers as well as several of the young Chinese female employees who work and live in dormitories on the site. The advisors\u2019 final report to Nokia managers, which exposes numerous violations of even the less stringent Chinese laws on minimum wage and working conditions, confronts Nokia with the dilemma now facing an increasing number of Western firms\u2013how is it possible to balance the profit motive with a sense of social responsibility? (Source: Anon 2005a, np <a href=\"http:\/\/icarusfilms.com\/new2005\/dec.html\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Is the Nokia Corporation worried about the working conditions of thousands of young Chinese women employed by their suppliers to manufacture all those little bitty parts that go into your cell phone? Or is Nokia more concerned that you might hold them to account if you knew that their workers earn less than the Chinese minimum wage? That\u2019s for you to decide after watching this eye-opening investigation in which the cultural divide (Chinese workers, British managers, Finnish executives) and the even more dramatic gender divide (women workers and investigators, male managers and executives) go a long way toward explaining why the investigators\u2019 recommendation that open buckets of toxic chemicals not be stored where the workers take their tea is&nbsp;met with this response: \u201cOk, take them into the kitchen!\u201d (Source: Anon 2005b, np <a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmforum.org\/films\/decent.html\">link<\/a>: see clip below).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>The opening and closing scenes in this documentary film strike a glaring contrast between the regimented lives of Chinese factory workers and the relative insouciance enjoyed by Western business people. While his approach is subtle, it seems that filmmaker Thomas Balm\u00e9s is hoping we\u2019ll notice the irony: Nokia capitalists who benefit from cheap Chinese labor are on a mission to investigate labor law violations at an electronics factory that supplies the Finnish corporation. \u2026 Unique compared to other expos\u00e9s, Balm\u00e9s\u2019 documentary functions as a case study of Nokia and one Chinese factory, yet it does not entirely ignore the wider context. Rather than providing answers or solutions, he asks an uncomfortable question: can Western executives in a globalized world cling to ideals realized by the labor movement, or must they become cogs in a giant machine, alongside the factory workers they inevitably exploit? (Source: Islam 2005, np <a href=\"http:\/\/libweb.lib.buffalo.edu\/emro\/emroDetail.asp?Number=2075\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>+6 comments<\/summary>\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Director Thomas Balm\u00e8s follows Nokia, the world\u2019s largest manufacturer of mobile phones, in its quest to tackle the problem of sustainable enterprise. Is it possible to simultaneously make a profit and conduct business ethically? This question is becoming increasingly important for Western companies, especially when their production is taking place in poorer countries. When the film begins, the originally Finnish company Nokia has just hired Hanna Kaskinen as an \u201cethical and environmental specialist,\u201d to propagate the concept of sustainable enterprise within the company. Apparently, Nokia managers are still quite unfamiliar with the phenomenon. Filmmaker Balm\u00e8s follows Kaskinen and her English advisor to China, where they visit and inspect a number of Nokia suppliers. The filmmaker\u2019s direct cinema style mercilessly records the discomfort among the British managers, who walk the tightrope between profit and law. The executives\u2019 initial frankness changes when they find out that the film is not solely intended for internal use. By this time, though, we are already haunted by the images of factory girls on an assembly line, putting together adapters day in and day out for less than the required minimum wage (Source: Anon 2010, np <a href=\"http:\/\/www.idfa.nl\/industry\/tags\/project.aspx?id=044c504b-df88-4b40-80a5-ca7aa7e19406\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Global companies wish to be well-thought of and very successful. Being Finnish, and therefore Scandinavian, Nokia is in the lead when it comes to feeling good about capitalism. But it is not always easy to feel good about the methods by which you make piles of money. Enter ethical consultants. Thomas Balmes\u2019 funny, perceptive film follows a Nokia executive and a British ethical management consultant as they make their way around Nokia\u2019s prime phone charger suppliers in China. You get a pretty good sense from the film of what it\u2019s like to be a teenager working indirectly (the factory is not owned by Nokia) for a Western corporation in the New China. But the film is also a moral investigation into the profit motive. Is it appropriate for Western companies to make large amounts of money from low wages and generously relaxed labour laws? Should Nokia or we care where are chargers come from, or how they were made? You won\u2019t be much clearer about answers to these subjects by the end of the film \u2013 but nor is the Nokia delegation (Source: Fraser 2005, np <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/bbcfour\/documentaries\/storyville\/made-in-china.shtml\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>In the Thomas Balm\u00e8s-directed documentary A DECENT FACTORY, Finnish cell phone company Nokia resolves to enforce ethical standards in their business practices and enlists the help of an outside consultant, Louise Jamison. Led by Nokia executive Hanna Kaskinen, a team travels to China to visit one of their supplying factories, staffed by quiet young men and women completing repetitive, endless tasks. The initially cordial visit quickly turns contentious as the reality of the poor working conditions, mistreatment, and lack of proper compensation are revealed. \u2026 The findings presented in A DECENT FACTORY do not come as a surprise, but they are nonetheless moving. As the filmmakers visit one of the female dormitories (men and women are kept separate and forbidden to be romantically involved), the squalid rooms are brightened by posters and potted flowers. Interviews with the workers are further revealing, as they detail the low pay, bad food, and abusive tactics of their supervisors on the factory floor. By film\u2019s end, it becomes clear that Nokia\u2019s team members must be patient and wait for conditions to slowly improve. A DECENT FACTORY illustrates that reform is sometimes not sweeping, but instead a gradual and difficult journey (Source: Anon 2005c, np <a href=\"http:\/\/uk.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/decent_factory\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Due to increasing pressure from investors and the general public, Finnish Nokia wants to insure that its image stays \u201cclean\u201d in regard to its outsourced manufacturing. At a company meeting, one brave soul actually asks aloud what now must be the $64 million question \u2013 does Nokia truly want to commit itself to improving conditions in its outsourced factories or merely to protect its image? Not too surprisingly, the question, never answered, is tacitly delayed until the full extent of the problem is revealed. Hanna Kaskinen, Nokia\u2019s resident environmental\/ethical expert, and Louise Jamison, an English ethics consultant hired by Nokia, swap war stories, anticipating the difficulties they may encounter at factories in China, including double, even triple sets of books and hidden child labor. By the time they arrive in China, docu viewers are primed to witness untold horrors. Instead, the fairly modern factory comes across as well-maintained, as do the adjacent dormitories where 99 percent of the largely female young workers reside. Intensive inspection unearths both blatant no-nos (no signed contracts, toxic cleaning materials stored in open containers right next to drinking water) and more complex infractions (imaginative accounting disguising the fact that workers earn less than minimum wage, involuntary overtime, room and board automatically docked from paychecks). Bent over circuit boards, the girls align teensy-weensy parts without the aid of magnifying mirrors routinely installed for such detailed close work. The casually mentioned 26-day month used to calculate earnings translates into six-day work weeks of 12-hour shifts. No food is allowed in the cramped, monitored dormitories, where groups of eight employees each are stacked in smallish rooms equipped with single hole-in-the-floor toilets. While English top execs adopt a straightforward, supposedly disarming admission of shortcomings, Chinese middle-management tends toward overt repression (demanding to oversee worker interviews) and backpedaling cover-ups (the camera recording frantically whispered, later subtitled, exchanges in Chinese). \u2026 Yet the factory, as the investigators continually assure local management, is better than most. Even interviews with workers themselves yield comparatively minor complaints about harsh forewomen and poor food. As the docu progresses, the truth sinks in that this isolated, regimented, soulless environment is as \u201cdecent\u201d as the global workplace is ever likely to get (Source: Scheib 2005, p.24).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Thomas Balmes\u2019s fly-on-the-wall documentary uses your cell phone charger as a case study in how multibillion-dollar multinationals are dealing with multihorrible working conditions in the overseas plants run by their subcontractors. From Nokia\u2019s HQ in Finland, we\u2019re catapulted to the Chinese special economic zone of Shenzhen, where an earnest ethical manager and a consultant-for-hire undertake Nokia\u2019s first ever \u201cethical suppliers\u2019 assessment\u201d to satisfy their investors. They\u2019re guided though the factories by Richard, a cynical British mid-level manager with the jovial mien of a sober soccer hooligan; his jokes become increasingly bitter once the factory begins to leak violations like an oil tanker that\u2019s hit an iceberg. As in your typical Chinese factory, conditions are substandard and many workers earn about enough a month to download a P. Diddy ringtone (the underlying problem, indentured servitude, is never discussed). Balmes focuses on the forced implementation of corporate responsibility. The subtext is sexual: Not only are these female consultants (one with a major holier-than-thou attitude) telling these guys (Western and Chinese) how to run their plant ethically while remaining competitive, a large percentage of the workers are Chinese girls who will be forced to have abortions if they\u2019re discovered to be pregnant. Balmes frames his film by quoting Milton Friedman \u2013 \u2018the one and only social responsibility of business is to make profits\u2019 \u2013 and <em>A Decent Factory<\/em> is just as much about the motives of the people asking the questions as those of the people avoiding the answers (Source: Peranson 2005, np <a href=\"http:\/\/www.villagevoice.com\/2005-06-21\/film\/how-to-make-lots-of-money-while-keeping-a-clean-conscience\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>[A] frustrating dose of ironic Chinese globalization arrives in \u2018A Decent Factory.\u2019 \u2026 the documentary follows a pair of Nokia representatives as they investigate a supplier\u2019s factory in Shenzhen. \u2026 What they discover is provocative if scarcely surprising: a depressed, underpaid workforce regimented into a system exerting total control of their every social and biological need. Housed in clean but cramped dormitories on the factory grounds, the mostly young women are sustained on vats of bland food and wages equivalent to 20 euros a month. Sex is all but banned; pregnancy results in expulsion or forced abortion. The mind-numbingly repetitive work shifts range from eight hours to 12. None of the workers have contracts. French filmmaker Thomas Balmes largely refrains from commenting on his material, allowing us to draw our own conclusions. Left inconclusive is whether Nokia\u2019s ethical efforts are anything but a public-relations gesture. At the end of their investigation, the women scold the factory managers for their infractions, then jet back to Finland to give Power-Point presentations (Source: Lee 2005, np <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nysun.com\/arts\/world-is-not-enough\/16420\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:41px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Inspiration \/ Technique \/ Process \/ Methodology<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>When I first arrived to Finland in early 2002 my idea was to make a film about Nokia \u2013 and Finns behind its success \u2013 as a tribe. I wanted to know was there behind this phenomenon some sort of a Finnish or Nordic way of capitalism that would have had more human face on it then the capitalism I knew as a Frenchman. I soon found out that my task was extremely difficult. Finns turned out to be extremely modest people who did not show their emotions which I often found extremely boring. Even the small Finnish town of Nokia with a huge number of old retired Nokia workers turned millionaires with their ancient Nokia shares was a disappointment in respect to my original ideas. Then \u2013 through a French Nokia manager \u2013 I heard about a Finnish lady who was working, inside Nokia, with an Ethical Pilot Project. Her idea was to visit and audit factories of both Nokia and Nokia\u2019s suppliers around the world in order to learn about the conditions them. I immediately realized that there was something in this process. Something that would deal with globalization, with moral and ethical issues that we as Westerners have to face, and something that would have a process &#8211; a story &#8211; in it. I started to follow the Finnish lady and the film came from that (Source: Balm\u00e8s in Anon 2005d, np).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>I spent 18 months filming boring Nokia meetings all over the world before I met her. A French director at Nokia told me about this woman who for the last five years had been refusing incentives offered to the management, now worth a lot of money. She was just starting to push the Nokia management to take a new position with ethical issues (before, she had been in charge of the environmental issues). I found it very interesting because it touched on the issue \u2013 can you be a capitalist and be ethical at the same time? I was also lucky to be in at the beginning of a process \u2013 Hanna was about to do Nokia\u2019s first ever ethical assessment. When I arrived in China no one really knew who I was or what I was doing and this confusion allowed me to film. \u2026 I don\u2019t want to make films about issues that oblige me to be too simplistic. I do have testimonies from some of the workers in the film, and Chinese factories are much worse than European ones. But I don\u2019t point this out too much, because to me this isn\u2019t the focus of the film. I even thought about only filming from the side of the factory managers because it\u2019s not a film that is trying to describe workers\u2019 conditions. I wanted it to be about more than us feeling bad about how workers were being exploited. It questions how much you can hold on to your ideals. Finland is the most advanced country in the world in terms of social welfare and equality. Nevertheless, when the biggest company in the country needs to be global then they have to play the game the American way. That\u2019s the main point of the film \u2013 how can you resist? Especially when you are being traded every day in New York, 90% of the ownership is based in the United States, and they keep you on the leash and don\u2019t allow you big margins on how you should behave (Source: Thomas Balmes in Anon 2005e, np <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/bbcfour\/documentaries\/storyville\/thomas-balmes.shtml\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:41px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><strong>Discussion \/ Responses<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>\u2026 this is essential viewing for people remotely interested in more than the uniqueness of their polyphonic ring tone (Source: Low 2006, np).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-green\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Nokia\u2019s bosses want to know whether using this factory will help or harm its business. But there\u2019s certainly some ambiguity. And one director asks his colleagues openly: \u2018Does Nokia really want to commit itself to improve conditions, or simply improve its own image?\u2019 That\u2019s never really answered here. Nokia does, however, send environmental-ethical expert Hanna Kaskinen and Louise Jamison, an English business ethics consultant, to the factory to see whether conditions are to the satisfaction of their company. Balmes and crew tag along. What follows is a tightly controlled guided tour through a modern factory in which we notice cramped dormitory accommodation for the workers, some minor infractions easily corrected, Chinese managers debating which account books to show the visitors, and some Dickensian stories of workers fined for petty misdemeanours. But this is not so much a trip through obvious sweatshop horrors, more one about the effect of committed consumer activism on big business (Source: Courtis 2006, p.3).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>You cannot sex up corporate responsibility. Unless, of course, you start a documentary on the subject with three naked businessmen talking trade in a hot tub somewhere in the woods outside Helsinki. Gratuitous full-frontal nudity and milky-white tan lines aside, French director Thomas Balmes has a tough task with this exploration of the struggle of Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia to be both a profitable and ethical company. With its subtitles and single handheld camera shoot, Nokia: A Decent Factory is a visually beige film to watch. However, it does have its lighter moments. Enter Hanna Kaskinen, a Scandinavian tree hugger so green she has a fetish for fire extinguishers. Kaskinen is an ethical specialist, hired by Nokia to test the moral standards in one of its factories \u2014 aka sweatshops \u2014 in Shenzhen, China, in January 2003. But there is no character more entertaining than Middle Manager, an English-speaking boss who gets caught out cooking the pay books and in turn violating labour laws. As he says, they don\u2019t get employees to sign a contract because that would make the crap pay and equally bad food in the cafeteria illegal. Good point. In the end, Kaskinen praises the sweatshop for its transparency and quality of record keeping. But one quickly remembers a phone conversation between Shop Floor Supervisor and Middle Manager. \u2018Which books shall we show them?\u2019 Shop Floor Supervisor asks. \u2018Should we let you check the one we show them before giving it to them.\u2019 Back at Nokia HQ in Helsinki, our tree huggers cut loose and are a bit more forthcoming in their criticism of the factory to their bosses. While the factory complies with the recommendations, the whole exercise seems to have been more about public relations spin than ethical responsibility. The excuse of cultural clashes is lame, with the main problem identified as the different working cultures to those of the Nokia values, whatever they are. Kaskinen is not happy. She leaves the company and heads for the snowfields where she continues her mission to save the world by picking up dog poo while skiing. \u2018I\u2019m tired of fighting windmills,\u2019 she laments (Source: Lion, 2006, p.40).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-dark-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>In the carefully captioned A Decent Factory, viewers painstakingly follow the probing eye of filmmaker Balmes as two agenda-driven \u201cethics analysts\u201d undertake an \u201cin-depth ethics audit\u201d of a Nokia-owned factory in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Though local laws are the stated benchmark for determining a successful outcome to the audit, the frequent references to EU\/U.S. health\/labor\/environmental standards indicate that the implied measures are the latter\u2019s rather than the former\u2019s. Indeed, during the interviews, were workers ever asked if they would prefer to work in the Nokia-run factory or the typical alternative, a Third World government-operated factory not subject to outside scrutiny and known for its human rights violations? While applauding with one hand living\/working conditions, the auditors blithely ignore the human rights issues of the host nation, e.g., forced abortions. A Decent Factory does a decent job of depicting the Nokia factory; however, media librarians could almost visit PRC for the price of the video (Source: Spillman 2005, p.127).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>+6 comments<\/summary>\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-orange\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>\u2026 a cinematic olive branch to business-bashers\u2014a documentary about a corporate giant (Finnish phone maker Nokia) trying to atone for its profit-seeking excesses. But in a 79-minute public relations attempt gone horribly wrong, the rapacious capitalist is reborn as something arguably worse: the righteous fool. \u2026&nbsp; \u2018How much do we want to change the world?\u2019 one Nokia manager asks during a slideshow presentation, \u2018\u2026or do we want to make illusion that we are clean?\u2019 Hanna Kaskinen, Nokia\u2019s \u2018ethical and environmental specialist,\u2019 does not have a ready answer to that particular question. She just knows the companies who sell Nokia phones to text-happy kids don\u2019t want their product \u201cstained with the blood of the children from Southeast Asia.\u2019 \u2026 The women (described as \u201cvery reliable, very low maintenance\u201d by one of the factory\u2019s managers) are just backdrop; we learn virtually nothing of their lives, of the hukou system that limits their options, of their plans for their future and whether cutting charger cable in Shenzhen will help them get there. Instead, we follow Hanna and her coterie as they whisk their way through room after room of bored young women. Kaskinen, trotting behind an increasingly irritated British manager, doesn\u2019t know what she is doing there. She transitions from tourist (\u20196000 kilometres of cables a week!\u2019 the manager enthuses), to human rights crusader (\u2018I hope they are not just wearing those masks for us\u2019), to public relations maven (\u2018it\u2019s really a business risk\u2019) and diplomat (\u2018That\u2019s very honest of you!\u2019). In the workers\u2019 cafeteria, staring into what appears to be a garbage can full of broth, she exclaims, \u2018In fact, it looks delicious!\u2019 \u2026 The embodiment of a corporation deeply confused about its mission, Kaskinen comes off a chattering hypocrite. She vacillates between PR guru, which is what she is, and human rights activist, which she has neither the expertise nor the will to pull off. She\u2019s not pacing the halls, clearly, for the woman placing parts on the assembly line, but for the ethics-conscious consumer back in Finland. But until she can admit that she is speaking for consumers (and after their cash), she can\u2019t make precise demands to justify the \u2018ethical assessment\u2019 they\u2019re calling for. Her problem isn\u2019t, as Balmes implies, that she is concerned about the bottom line, but that she has no idea what matters when it comes to that line. The workers (more than 90 percent of them women) are paid less than minimum wage, but that\u2019s because of deductions for housing. They aren\u2019t abused, but they don\u2019t have contracts. The hours are long, but, according to Jamison, not \u2018extreme overtime.\u2019 From a P.R. perspective, what flies? When you\u2019re marketing human decency, which inequities matter? Despite the confusion, the factory is clearly a better place for Nokia having taken an interest. A promise of contracts is extracted, there are small raises to be had. There is the sense that someone is watching the foremen watching the women. Balmes precedes the film\u2019s first sequence with Milton Friedman\u2019s line, \u2018The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,\u2019 and the implication throughout the film is that profit-seeking capitalists will never change. Of course, nothing in the CSR creed says they have to. If good standards sell, everyone wins, even as Hollywood pumps out an ever-expanding cast of capitalist villains. Yet unless cause-conscious businesses can stop apologizing and start marketing, CSR will play out as a farce rather than a success story (Source: Howley 2005, np <a href=\"http:\/\/reason.com\/archives\/2005\/07\/05\/market-failure-or-marketing-fa\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-green\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>This, in part, is what makes this movie interesting. It illustrates why business ethics (or at least the ethics of supply chain management) is so challenging. Foot-stomping criticism of brutal sweatshop labour is easy. Cases like the one shown in A Decent Factory are much harder. Grey areas where things aren\u2019t perfect and improvement is possible-but-not-easy demand thoughtful problem-solving and a serious commitment to improving (rather than perfecting) performance and having better, rather than worse, answers at hand when called to account (Source: Macdonald 2006, np <a href=\"http:\/\/businessethicsblog.com\/2006\/07\/06\/movie-review-a-decent-factory\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-midnight\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>The bosses evidently think the resulting film is going to be a sort of training video, which is presumably why the director, Thomas Balmes, and his crew were admitted. When management learns that the film was commissioned by television companies and that it is destined for broadcast, there is discomfort. We are not told if the film was censored by the factory owners, but it certainly doesn\u2019t seem constricted. As far as the workers\u2019 comments are concerned, the only complaint we hear is about the food, which they find poor. They often slip out at night to buy food. And one woman reports a fight that another of the women had with a rough-tongued female supervisor. The one true grievance we do not hear from any of the women: we learn it from one of the bosses in a matter-of-fact way. The average pay is only about half the legal minimum wage. The factory had been built in China because labor is cheap, and it is being further cheapened. When the inspectors later report this fact back in Finland, management promises to do something about it. As the film progresses, expectation of expos\u00e9 dwindles. Half salary is hardly a trifling matter, but the factory seems well enough run and is apparently a haven for some of the young women whose homes are a lot less attractive. Why, then, is the picture chilling? Because it is a calm reminder of an inevitability. The sight of long lines of young women doing tiny bits of attachment work or packing hour after hour, day after day, is saddening. The fact that the factory conditions are decent, as the title says wryly, makes it even sadder. Marx said that the alienation of labor \u2013 the gap between the worker and his work \u2013 is an evil of capitalism, but this is too limited: factories like this one flourish everywhere under every system. Marx\u2019s percept is not a charge against a system but a condition of modernity. Thousands of factories around the world where the attaching and packing go on and on \u2013 it\u2019s like Chaplin\u2019s Modern Times without Charlie (Source: Kaufmann, 2005 p.22).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-dark-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Ethical capitalism may sound like an oxymoron to some, but that concept is a linchpin of the nonfiction feature \u2018A Decent Factory.\u2019 A cursory, irritatingly facile look at the human cost of globalization, the film was shot and directed by a Frenchman, Thomas Balmes, who tagged along with representatives of the Finnish cellphone giant Nokia on a trip to one of the company\u2019s suppliers in China. Mr. Balmes\u2019s underwhelming revelations in particular about that country\u2019s fusion of capitalism and communism \u2014 workers are underpaid! \u2014 will surprise only those who have never picked up a newspaper or wondered why everything now seems to be made in China. Mr. Balmes \u2026 operates his video camera in the style of traditional direct cinema, eschewing synchronous and supplemental narration \u2026 This walk-through reaps no revelations; the workers look bored out of their minds, which is exactly what you would expect. For her part, Ms. Jamison looks simultaneously pleased and alarmed when she discovers some chemicals stored next to the workers\u2019 water supply. Pouncing on this infraction, she explains the violation to one of the factory representatives, who soon orders a flunky to haul the chemicals off to the kitchen. That exchange is good for an ugly laugh, but more sobering is the revelation that probationary workers earn about $1 a day. What this actually means to these mostly anonymous human cogs remains unknown. A few workers speak on camera, largely to complain about the food and an abusive forewoman, but for the most part they appear as incidental to Mr. Balm\u00e8s\u2019s purposes as to Nokia\u2019s (Source: Dargis 2005, np <a href=\"http:\/\/movies.nytimes.com\/2005\/06\/29\/movies\/29dece.html\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>This hands-off approach by Balm\u00e8s eventually threatens to leach anything that might\u2019ve been of value in DF. He isn\u2019t filming hippos wallowing in the Hwang Ho for the National Geographic, after all. No need to showboat like Michael Moore in his more recent efforts, but at least Balm\u00e8s should\u2019ve nudged the Nokia pair into being more aggressive for the sake of his documentary (Source: tipu 2006, np <a href=\"http:\/\/webcache.googleusercontent.com\/search?q=cache:4oxA-EsqyPsJ:www.epinions.com\/review\/mvie_mu-1148051\/content_215151709828+%22This+hands-off+approach+by+Balm%C3%A8s+eventually+threatens+to+leach+anything+that+might%E2%80%99ve+been+of+value+in+DF%22&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=uk&amp;client=firefox-a&amp;source=www.google.co.uk\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Though the weight remains on the side of the interrogators, don\u2019t be too sure Balmes hasn\u2019t uncovered this century\u2019s latest twist on exploitation: ethical colonialism (Source: Peranson 2005, np <a href=\"http:\/\/www.villagevoice.com\/2005-06-21\/film\/how-to-make-lots-of-money-while-keeping-a-clean-conscience\/\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:41px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Outcomes \/ Impacts<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-blue-red\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>At the end of the film, we learn that Kaskinen, frustrated with her inability to get Big Business to do the right thing, has quit her job to work for an NGO, where she believes she can make a \u201cmeaningful difference.\u201d In the final scene, we see her, while skiing with her daughter, bend down to clean up after her dog. The message? This model citizen is doing her part to keep the environment pristine. Early in A Decent Factory, she expresses excessive embarrassment that her business cards are not made from recyclable paper. This is righteous narcissism, an obsession with one\u2019s sense of goodness (Source: Pimentel 2005, np <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popmatters.com\/film\/reviews\/d\/decent-factory-2005.shtml\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-grayscale\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>In the end, Hanna left Nokia to become a nurse \u2013 she decided to act not globally, but locally in her village hospital. I think the fact that she did that is quite revealing (Source: Thomas Balmes in Anon 2005e, np <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/bbcfour\/documentaries\/storyville\/thomas-balmes.shtml\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-not-stacked-on-mobile has-small-font-size is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:7.99%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized has-custom-border wp-duotone-purple-yellow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"872\" src=\"https:\/\/follow-the-things.onyx-sites.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-99\" style=\"border-radius:100px;object-fit:cover;width:43px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04.png 868w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-17.49.04-768x772.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:92.01%\">\n<p>Over the years, I\u2019ve worked for a wide range of clients including BT, IKEA, Marks &amp; Spencer, Mothercare, Next, Nokia, SABMiller and Virgin. The knowledge and skills I\u2019ve developed working for companies like these puts me in an ideal position to help your business. My role is essentially that of a coach. I work with your team to build skills and confidence, to develop practical tools to reduce the company\u2019s impact and to influence others to do the same. My ultimate aim is to help you build a sustainable business (Source: Jamison nd, np <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jamison-consulting.co.uk\/?con=who\">link<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:41px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-normal-font-size\" style=\"background-color:#f8f2ee\">Page compiled by Thirii Myint and Chris Lee, edited and posted by Jeff Bauer and Ian Cook (last updated April 2011). Page created for followthethings.com as part of the \u2018Anthropologies of global connection\u2019 course, Brown University. Jeff\u2019s editorial work was funded by a Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University Undergraduate Teaching and Research Assistantship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Anon (2005a) A decent factory.<em> Icarusfilms.com<\/em> (<a href=\"http:\/\/icarusfilms.com\/new2005\/dec.html\">http:\/\/icarusfilms.com\/new2005\/dec.html<\/a> last accessed 4 April 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Anon (2005b) A decent factory.<em> filmforum.org<\/em> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmforum.org\/films\/decent.html\">www.filmforum.org\/films\/decent.html<\/a> last accessed 4 April 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Anon (2005c) A decent factory (2005).<em> rottontomatoes.com<\/em> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/decent_factory\">www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/decent_factory<\/a> last accessed 4 April 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Anon (2005d) A decent factory: press kit.<em> Icarusfilms.com<\/em> (<a href=\"http:\/\/icarusfilms.com\/press\/pdfs\/dec_pk.pdf\">http:\/\/icarusfilms.com\/press\/pdfs\/dec_pk.pdf<\/a> last accessed 4 April 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>+22 sources<\/summary>\n<p>Anon (2005e) Director interview: Thomas Balmes. <em>bbc.co.uk<\/em> 3 February (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/bbcfour\/documentaries\/storyville\/thomas-balmes.shtml\">www.bbc.co.uk\/bbcfour\/documentaries\/storyville\/thomas-balmes.shtml<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anon (2010) \u2018A decent factory\u2019: more information.<em> 23rd International Documentary Film Festival<\/em> Amsterdam 17-28 November (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.idfa.nl\/industry\/tags\/project.aspx?id=044c504b-df88-4b40-80a5-ca7aa7e19406\">www.idfa.nl\/industry\/tags\/project.aspx?id=044c504b-df88-4b40-80a5-ca7aa7e19406<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bernard, S.C. (2009) <em>Documentary storytelling: making stronger and more dramatic nonfiction films.<\/em> London: Focal Press (film discussed on p.296-7)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Courtis, B. (2006) \u2018Bad\u2019 business not a good call: television preview.<em> The Age<\/em> (Melbourne) April 20, p.3<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dargis, M. (2005) When preaching globalized ethics is just corporate P.R. <em>New York Times<\/em> 29 June (<a href=\"http:\/\/movies.nytimes.com\/2005\/06\/29\/movies\/29dece.html\">http:\/\/movies.nytimes.com\/2005\/06\/29\/movies\/29dece.html?_r=1<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Foug\u00e8re, M. &amp; Solitander, N. (2009) Against corporate responsibility: critical reflections on thinking, practice, content and consequences. <em>Corporate social responsibility and envrironmental management <\/em>16(4), 217-227 (<a href=\"http:\/\/www3.interscience.wiley.com\/journal\/122456961\/abstract\">http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/csr.204\/abstract<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fraser, N. (2005) Storyville: \u2018Made in China\u2019.<em> bbc.co.uk<\/em> June (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/bbcfour\/documentaries\/storyville\/made-in-china.shtml\">www.bbc.co.uk\/bbcfour\/documentaries\/storyville\/made-in-china.shtml<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Howley (2005) Market failure or marketing failure? A Decent Factory slams corporate social responsibility.<em> reason.com<\/em> 5 July (<a href=\"http:\/\/reason.com\/archives\/2005\/07\/05\/market-failure-or-marketing-fa\">http:\/\/reason.com\/archives\/2005\/07\/05\/market-failure-or-marketing-fa<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Islam, R. (2005) A decent factory.<em> Educational media reviews online<\/em> 9 August (<a href=\"http:\/\/libweb.lib.buffalo.edu\/emro\/emroDetail.asp?Number=2075\">http:\/\/libweb.lib.buffalo.edu\/emro\/emroDetail.asp?Number=2075<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jamison, L. (nd) Who?<em> jamison-consulting.co.uk<\/em> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jamison-consulting.co.uk\/?con=who\">www.jamison-consulting.co.uk\/?con=who<\/a> last accessed 4 April 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kaufmann, S. (2005) Foolery and factory. <em>The new republic<\/em> 4 July, p.22<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lee, N. (2005) The world is not enough.<em> New York Sun<\/em> 1 July, p.15 (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nysun.com\/arts\/world-is-not-enough\/16420\/\">www.nysun.com\/arts\/world-is-not-enough\/16420\/<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lion, P. (2006) Putting ethics on the line.&nbsp;<em>The Courier Mail<\/em> (Australia) April 20, p.40<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Low, L.A. (2006) A clash between corporate power and the Third World that only Inspector Rex could solve.<em> Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> (Australia) April 20<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Macdonald, C. (2006) Movie review: A decent factory.<em> businessethics.com<\/em> 6 July (<a href=\"http:\/\/businessethicsblog.com\/2006\/07\/06\/movie-review-a-decent-factory\/\">http:\/\/businessethicsblog.com\/2006\/07\/06\/movie-review-a-decent-factory\/<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nokia (nd) Nokia standards for factory labour conditions. <em>nokia.com<\/em> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nokia.com\/corporate-responsibility\/employees\/labor-practices\/factory-labor-conditions\/nokia-standards-for-factory-labour-conditions\">www.nokia.com\/corporate-responsibility\/employees\/labor-practices\/factory-labor-conditions\/nokia-standards-for-factory-labour-conditions<\/a>&nbsp; last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peranson, M. (2005) How to make lots of money while keeping a clean conscience.<em> Village voice<\/em> (New York) 5 July (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.villagevoice.com\/2005-06-21\/film\/how-to-make-lots-of-money-while-keeping-a-clean-conscience\/\">www.villagevoice.com\/2005-06-21\/film\/how-to-make-lots-of-money-while-keeping-a-clean-conscience\/<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pevere, G. (2005) The facts\u2019 fascinating faces. <em>Toronto Sta<\/em>r 22 April<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pimentel, L. (2005) A decent factory.<em> popmatters.com<\/em> 22 July (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.popmatters.com\/film\/reviews\/d\/decent-factory-2005.shtml\">www.popmatters.com\/film\/reviews\/d\/decent-factory-2005.shtml<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scheib, R. (2005) A decent factory.<em> Variety<\/em> 11 July, p.24<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spillman, N. (2005) A decent factory.<em> Library Journal Reviews<\/em> 15 August, p.127<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>tipu (2006) Decent factory.&nbsp;<em>epinions.com<\/em> 2 October (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.epinions.com\/review\/mvie_mu-1148051\/content_215151709828\">www.epinions.com\/review\/mvie_mu-1148051\/content_215151709828<\/a> last accessed 2 March 2011)<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:18px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-small-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>Image credit<\/summary>\n<p><strong>Speaking icon:<\/strong> Speaking (https:\/\/thenounproject.com\/icon\/speaking-5549886\/) by M Faisal from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0) Modified August 2024<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div><p id=\"pvc_stats_17673\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"17673\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.0\" viewBox=\"0 0 502 315\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\"><g transform=\"translate(0,332) scale(0.1,-0.1)\" fill=\"\" stroke=\"none\"><path d=\"M2394 3279 l-29 -30 -3 -207 c-2 -182 0 -211 15 -242 39 -76 157 -76 196 0 15 31 17 60 15 243 l-3 209 -33 29 c-26 23 -41 29 -80 29 -41 0 -53 -5 -78 -31z\"\/><path d=\"M3085 3251 c-45 -19 -58 -50 -96 -229 -47 -217 -49 -260 -13 -295 52 -53 146 -42 177 20 16 31 87 366 87 410 0 70 -86 122 -155 94z\"\/><path d=\"M1751 3234 c-13 -9 -29 -31 -37 -50 -12 -29 -10 -49 21 -204 19 -94 39 -189 45 -210 14 -50 54 -80 110 -80 34 0 48 6 76 34 21 21 34 44 34 59 0 14 -18 113 -40 219 -37 178 -43 195 -70 221 -36 32 -101 37 -139 11z\"\/><path d=\"M1163 3073 c-36 -7 -73 -59 -73 -102 0 -56 133 -378 171 -413 34 -32 83 -37 129 -13 70 36 67 87 -16 290 -86 209 -89 214 -129 231 -35 14 -42 15 -82 7z\"\/><path d=\"M3689 3066 c-15 -9 -33 -30 -42 -48 -48 -103 -147 -355 -147 -375 0 -98 131 -148 192 -74 13 15 57 108 97 206 80 196 84 226 37 273 -30 30 -99 39 -137 18z\"\/><path d=\"M583 2784 c-38 -19 -67 -74 -58 -113 9 -42 211 -354 242 -373 16 -10 45 -18 66 -18 51 0 107 52 107 100 0 39 -1 41 -124 234 -80 126 -108 162 -133 173 -41 17 -61 16 -100 -3z\"\/><path d=\"M4250 2784 c-14 -9 -74 -91 -133 -183 -95 -150 -107 -173 -107 -213 0 -55 33 -94 87 -104 67 -13 90 8 211 198 130 202 137 225 78 284 -27 27 -42 34 -72 34 -22 0 -50 -8 -64 -16z\"\/><path d=\"M2275 2693 c-553 -48 -1095 -270 -1585 -649 -135 -104 -459 -423 -483 -476 -23 -49 -22 -139 2 -186 73 -142 361 -457 571 -626 285 -228 642 -407 990 -497 242 -63 336 -73 660 -74 310 0 370 5 595 52 535 111 1045 392 1455 803 122 121 250 273 275 326 19 41 19 137 0 174 -41 79 -309 363 -465 492 -447 370 -946 591 -1479 653 -113 14 -422 18 -536 8z m395 -428 c171 -34 330 -124 456 -258 112 -119 167 -219 211 -378 27 -96 24 -300 -5 -401 -72 -255 -236 -447 -474 -557 -132 -62 -201 -76 -368 -76 -167 0 -236 14 -368 76 -213 98 -373 271 -451 485 -162 444 86 934 547 1084 153 49 292 57 452 25z m909 -232 c222 -123 408 -262 593 -441 76 -74 138 -139 138 -144 0 -16 -233 -242 -330 -319 -155 -123 -309 -223 -461 -299 l-81 -41 32 46 c18 26 49 83 70 128 143 306 141 649 -6 957 -25 52 -61 116 -79 142 l-34 47 45 -20 c26 -10 76 -36 113 -56z m-2057 25 c-40 -58 -105 -190 -130 -263 -110 -324 -59 -707 132 -981 25 -35 42 -64 37 -64 -19 0 -241 119 -326 174 -188 122 -406 314 -532 468 l-58 71 108 103 c185 178 428 349 672 473 66 33 121 60 123 61 2 0 -10 -19 -26 -42z\"\/><path d=\"M2375 1950 c-198 -44 -350 -190 -395 -379 -18 -76 -8 -221 19 -290 114 -284 457 -406 731 -260 98 52 188 154 231 260 27 69 37 214 19 290 -38 163 -166 304 -326 360 -67 23 -215 33 -279 19z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/followthethings.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p><div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>followthethings.comElectronics &#8220;A Decent Factory (alternative title Made in China)&#8220;A documentary film directed by Thomas Balm\u00e8s for Margot Films, Making Movies Oy, France 2, BBC Storyville &amp; YLEFilm clip embedded above. 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