These are the words crooned by doo-wop sensation Rudy West on The Five Key’s track of the same name. The phrase is an idiom about how something can be so easily dismissed if it is not in direct view. This idiom is brought up in modern times because of a little place in China called Shenzhen.
I never really thought, nor cared, about the original origins of my many electronics. I always had the fantastic dream of little robots carefully crafting, ever so precise and diligently, the very laptop, phone and iPods in my possession. My dream was not ruined until recently thanks to a short segment on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Stewart used his comedic charm to shed a light, while a humorous one, on a very serious topic. I was fully surprised by the report. I typically thought manufacturing plants for electronics were housed with numerous robots. I also thought sweat shops were located in the tropical Pacific in old, ruined wooden shacks. I never realized I could imagine something so completely wrong. After a few quick glimpses of their living arrangements, I believed that they were being treated very well. A beautiful neon city with better-than-expected living styles. Then I heard the details. Twelve hour shifts. Non-existent breaks. Constant work days. Hopelessness. Suicides. I was appalled that such things could happen. Even now, revisiting the subject and listening to the shocking details, I am still engrossed as to how this could happen.
Then I remembered, “ignorance is bliss”. I never cared about where things came from as long as I could have it. All I wanted is the new iPod or the new gaming console, not thinking of the consequences. A sick feeling comes over me at the idea that some part of this tragedy is partly my fault. Even if it is a little bit. I think the worst part is I will forget this and continue the vicious cycle of consumer goods. Hopefully, I can be like the character at the end of Five Key’s song in which Rudy West sings,
“Out of sight, but not out of my mind.”