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To visit our slide show of the facility which manufactures Hestia Global's toys in China,
please click:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wm3C1RgFbQ
This slideshow presents some pictures of the different wood processing locations within a region.
It is a rural region which has the vocation of producing wooden toys. The work conditions are rural, farm like and close to nature. Workers are often working in the open air in conditions which are similar to that of many organic farms all over the world.
The wood used, as seen on the pictures, is wood from the local area, which is often not dried, but dries in the production process. The machines used are simple, sturdy and heavy duty industrial machines which still do the job.
As seen in the pictures, many boards are even sawed by two people managing a piece of wood through a band saw.
The conditions around this "factory" are those which correspond with the people who work in it. These conditions may not appear ideal, by our standards, but having this work strengthens these people and provides them with a livelihood. And so, this factory is a developing element for this region.
We would also support more modern factories with conditions which are part of today's humanity experiences, at this stage of world and human development. The modern factory offers indeed conditions which may not be so "nice" compared to previous times in humanity's earlier stages. But what it is that modern factories offers, is that workers are personally less involved and more removed, more seperate of the product, thus creating products which are "objective", "new", and identical in quality. The whole modern production process is the result of organisational thinking work, which allows a group of people to produce products "together", products which will start to "come to life" when finally used by the consumer.
A few pictures show one of the final finishing phases of the woolen children's clothing production process. It shows a clean and cared for environment with healthy people at work.
A WIDER PERSPECTIVE
The economy is globally interdependent. Fewer sales and cut backs will affect the economy here as well as world wide by cutting jobs elsewhere, which will affect us again back here. This can be illustrated with the toy industry: less toy sales here will affect factories and factory workers world wide. It will undermine people’s livelihood and affect the markets, creating global instability.
It is often believed that the markets and the economy regulate themselves in the same way as nature seems to auto regulate herself, and upon which the liberal system and free markets theories are based. These are views however originating many centuries back, and they somehow include that it may now and then take catastrophic events to bring things back to normal. These views uphold that there is a greater wisdom behind it all then the human wisdom , an “Invisible Hand”, which regulates human (economic) activity. It is believed that the human being by intervening too much in this can only create more chaos.
Chaos is created when we fail to see how interdependent everything is, and we are not able to see what exist beyond our immediate realities.
The msnbc video above offers some more contemporary glimpses into China and also of factory life , eventually freeing fixed images of China and allowing to connect with the broader reality of today.
Also again we want to stress that although artisans, small workshops, etc, have their place in today’s world, that factories have their beauty as “organizations”. They are organisms with almost their own life, biographies and complexities which are a challenge and opportunity to modern humanity. As organizations, they have raised primary human work force and natural materials into complex new “goods” which serve our everyday lives. This “organizing” principle allows efficiency which results in making products available to all which, in regard to past conditions, is a huge achievement. Also, they are places, as any institution or business, where people meet, interact and work together out of their different and individual capacities.
To be aware of the interdependencies in social and the economic life is of tremendous importance for a healthy social world organism. It is of great importance to go beyond ourselves and realize how interconnected we are and to bring this awareness in our conception and organizing of life.
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