My husband came home in an interesting mood yesterday. Grayson and I were chillin’ in front of the tube watching the Olympic festivities. Really, just a bunch of mindless something to do on a hot day and the couch was appropriately cool and comfy. Plus I was totally fascinated by the 2008 drummers all drumming in sync. Amazing, really, when I know how hard it is to get 7 snares all doing the same thing on the drumline.
Sooooo….
Craig came in and started ranting about China and how our economy and Americans are way too dependent on Chinese products. He’s right you know. Check out the “made in…” part of most any item you own. Guaranteed that 95% of it says, “Made in China.” I guess he was even more steamed about the lack of freedom of religion in the country and the fact that the population truly does not earn an honest wage for those millions of cheap items we buy from them.
Case in point…they Olympics commentators were talking about how much it cost to put on the whole big impressive show (and it was very impressive) for the opening of the games. Did you hear how much? Over $300 MILLION. Any idea how much the average person makes per day in China? $2 a DAY. There’s something wrong about that, I don’t care HOW fabulous the production was. How much did it help the average person in the populace? Probably now much outside of a little national pride.
I’m not saying we should have boycotted the games. I just think we are too dependent on the Chinese economy for our own comfort and well-being at the expense of a lot of very poor people who are terribly oppressed.
Ok, I’ll step off the soapbox now.
11+ years ago I worked for an International Christian Radio Ministry (Far East Broadcasting Co.). China was and continues to be one of the target audiences. My boss had a lot of insights having been involved his whole life (his dad was one of the founders). He said that when the US purchases things made in China, it was a better environment for Chinese Christians. When the US was boycotting or reducing the amount purchased from China, the local authorities seemed to take out their frustrations on the Chinese Christians more. This seemed to play out in many of the letters received from listeners. I don’t like that we seem so dependant on China for many of our items but I have never forgotten what Jim has said either.
Wish I had seen the opening ceremonies. Unfortunately all I saw was the road from Iowa to Texas for 14 hours.
Natalie Hite
By: Anonymous on August 10, 2008
at 8:48 pm
It’s nice to know someone DOES benefit from our American consumerism and desire to make the biggest profit possible. I look at some of our hand-made items from China (like crocheted doilies) and think of the Chinese women who have carpal tunnel syndrome and gnarled hands and get next to nothing for the efforts!
By: cookiehawk77 on August 10, 2008
at 9:06 pm
Hey, we all have to get on a soapbox once in a while. In fact, in my time “away”, I’ve been journaling through a couple of them and look forward to getting back to blogging about them again, albeit sporadically.
By: mutt on a mission on August 11, 2008
at 1:50 am