I was really upset in the novel, The Sound of Butterflies, when Rodrigues recounted how Santos’ employees “tie them (the Indians) to trees and cut off their limbs…the company pretends to employ the Indians, but they are slaves.” This description is so graphic and it distressed me that Thomas and his companions were powerless to change how the Indians were treated. They could have helped if they were not Santos’ guests, or the Brazilian rubber tycoons were not so corrupt. This reminded me of the disturbing accusations against Foxconn, the company that owns Chinese Apple factories. It is alleged that workers regularly perform up to almost 3 times the legal overtime limit, are sometimes humiliated in front of fellow workers if performing unsatisfactorily,
