Ellen and I were at Target the other day. There were a few items on the list, but only two presented some difficulty.
Soccer Ball: All of them were MIC (Made in China) except for one. Made in Pakistan. Great. Now I get to support a guy that suspended his country's constitution, and threw their Supreme Court in jail. At least the country is a Republic, so their is hope that they can get their act together.
Power Strip: Everybody needs these. So much to plug in, so few outlets where you need them. At Target, ALL the power strips were made by one company, and all of them were... say it with me... Made in China. So - I bought one. Not even one month through and I have already broken the rules. *sigh* But - I'm going to keep going. And for every China purchase I make ($6.99 so far), I'm going to donate an equal amount to an organization that will directly help the Chinese people that have been oppressed by their government. I'm open to suggestions on this... Feel free to make one in the comments.
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A few days ago, I did some online shopping at Amazon. I temporarily forgot all about my boycott and just added a few things to my cart without a second thought. One of those things arrived today and guess what... MIC. I went back to the original product description and the country of manufacture is nowhere to be found. This is going to be tough. I have an invisible enemy.
There are two more purchases arriving soon from the same shopping spree. Neither of them mention the country of manufacture in the description. I have a bad feeling about both of them, but maybe I'll get lucky. I'll keep you posted.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Boycott China :: It Begins
I officially have a 2008 New Year's Resolution:
I'm going to attempt to avoid buying anything "Made in China" this year.
Why?
Mostly because China censors their Internetz, poisons children, forces women to get abortions, takes US jobs and beats up their own citizens for filming them beat up other citizens. Also - because I like a challenge.
Thankfully, I've already purchased my Chumby and my XO Laptop; both made in China. I agree that it's going to be difficult to justify abstaining from some of these purchases, especially a product like the XO that, theoretically, is going to be doing so much good for the children of the world. There are certainly some very complex equations to solve in the global marketplace. But - for now - at least I will feel like I'm doing something to make the world a better place.
My First Non-Purchase
My first substitution was at Target. I wanted to buy a new beard trimmer after my previous one died on me. Like I normally do, I shopped around online for a while and settled on a model from Remington that had received good reviews. Notice that the country of manufacture is not listed in the product information. However, I had already decided to purchase this locally due to shipping costs, so no problem there. Off to the store... and... yep... Made in China. So, instead, I looked at the rest of the products on the rack and ended up with a model from Wahl that proudly declared "Assembled in the USA." It works fine, but yesterday I noticed on one of the plastic trimmer guides, stamped in tiny letters: CHINA.
I'm going to attempt to avoid buying anything "Made in China" this year.
Why?
Mostly because China censors their Internetz, poisons children, forces women to get abortions, takes US jobs and beats up their own citizens for filming them beat up other citizens. Also - because I like a challenge.
Thankfully, I've already purchased my Chumby and my XO Laptop; both made in China. I agree that it's going to be difficult to justify abstaining from some of these purchases, especially a product like the XO that, theoretically, is going to be doing so much good for the children of the world. There are certainly some very complex equations to solve in the global marketplace. But - for now - at least I will feel like I'm doing something to make the world a better place.
My First Non-Purchase
My first substitution was at Target. I wanted to buy a new beard trimmer after my previous one died on me. Like I normally do, I shopped around online for a while and settled on a model from Remington that had received good reviews. Notice that the country of manufacture is not listed in the product information. However, I had already decided to purchase this locally due to shipping costs, so no problem there. Off to the store... and... yep... Made in China. So, instead, I looked at the rest of the products on the rack and ended up with a model from Wahl that proudly declared "Assembled in the USA." It works fine, but yesterday I noticed on one of the plastic trimmer guides, stamped in tiny letters: CHINA.
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