Juice Boxes and Dubai Slavery

I know, those two really have nothing to do with one another. But I like both articles. So. The Dubai article from The Independent is quite long, but completely arresting. The juice boxes are just damn cute, and I want to bring them to show and tell. They will cheer you up after you read the disturbing article. I can also summarize the article for you: you can't have air-conditioned beaches, artificial islands shaped like palm trees, or a hundred under-construction skyscrapers without slave labor. Which makes despotic rule with a facade of benevolence really lame. Which makes the rich people who abuse their indentured nannies oblivious assholes. Which makes the rich people who ignore all that slave labor while they partypartyparty - yes, that makes them total assholes.

I might even be a total asshole for visiting Dubai years ago. I'm not sure if asshole-itude is retroactive.

The Dark Side of Dubai, by Johann Hari from The Independent. Found on BoingBoing.

Now, as relief, juice boxes that recreate the skin/texture of the fruit whose juice they claim to hold. I like the seed-studded strawberry one, but the fuzzy kiwi box is obviously the best. These I found on Geekologie. Originally the post was from OhGizmo...and probably from others. Here is a quote from OhGizmo:

Created by Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa, the juice box’s packaging is supposed to be more appealing to the eye by imitating the actual fruit they contain. As Naoto puts it; “I imagined that if the surface of the package imitated the colour and texture of the fruit skin, then the object would reproduce the feeling of the real skin.


Juice Boxes That Look Like Fruit!