So I saw in the news tonight that the Chinese gymnasts are being called into question for possibly being too young to legally compete. This brought an interesting thought to my mind; what does China have to do to get us pissed off enough to actually do something meaningful and worthwhile about all the things they're doing that are so obviously and openly wrong?
For years now China has been killing, crushing, or buying everything that contests it or make it compete for market. Nobody seems to really pay any attention to them, until now. In the past few years China, being a world "super power", has now also become a considerable force within the world economy. I'll take a moment to say that this is not without the fault of the America consumer who, stupidly fills their cart with cheap Chinese made junk. This is further perpetuated by this trend in America society of using, using up, then tossing out everything. It's what I've begin to refer to as the "Disposable Nation" trend. We'll get into that more later.
It seems to me, the average Joe-on-the-street, that as China becomes more of a part of the world market, so grows the attention that is brought to the horrible and just plain wrong things they're doing. I have no doubt these things have been going on for some time, just as I'm sure this country isn't without it's own deplorable actions.
What really kills me is that as a nation, we just shrug and let it happen. Sure we get pissed and we say a lot of stuff, but we keep going to Wal-Mart, we keep filling our carts with cheap garbage because "it costs less", and we keep up that trend of tossing it out and buying a new one when we don't have to. So in the end we're just talking a lot of hot nothing.
We all know all know about the products that have killed people and pets because of some chemical that shouldn't have been in there in the first place. And it's not like an accident, it's in there because it's cheaper than making the product right. But we just shrugged and changed the channel. In this day, an Iraqi farts, and the "terror" level goes up. Chinese kill some people, "but, well, you know, it's not like they met it or anything."
So now they've gone over the line again and messed with the Olympics. I don't just mean the underage athletes. If you watched the Gymnastic competition at all, it was pretty clear that the Chinese were not competing on the same level. Then all the drama going on at the judging tables? Sure it was typical drive-by sensational television, but there's no arguing that something was going on back there. The lady in the red coat running around so angry, the pissed sweaty judges looking like scolded 8 year olds. I don't pretend to know what going on there but the results speak for themselves. It's almost like they had to find some way for the Chinese athletes to come out ahead.
I kind of equate messing with the Olympics to wrestling with you little brother in the rec room. Things start out innocently enough with some slap and tickle, but inevitably they heat up, and you find yourself moments from being impaled with a pool stick. This is the moment when you must stop, take a breath and explain to your younger sibling that going too far is just "not cool". It a duty any and all good older brothers and sisters have had to face. In this case, we're the older sibling, and China is the one who has crossed the line. As the older world super power I feel it's our responsibility to call them out on the many recent "not cool" things. We can talk till we're blue in the face, sign "accords", and have Kofi Annan and his rolling circus of kookery spout all sorts of "good will or else" crap, or we can send the message that counts. The message that they'll hear.
We can stop buying all there crap.
We could again employ Americans to make the products that we buy, we could stop being so wasteful and we could start sending the message that it's "not cool" to be doing some of the things your doing. Sure we'll pay a little more for stuff, but surprise, it's just might be better quality! Instead of buying that hummer, and paying a car payment a month for 3800 channels of cable, why don't pay a little more next time, buy American, keep someone who might live right in your home town employed instead of funneling money to China where they can do whatever they want.
This is not a Buy American rate, buy buying at home, and buying from companies with good business ethics anywhere can never hurt. The bottom line is, you don't like people dying, pets dying and messing with the Olympics is just all around bad, so get up off the couch do something and hit them where it counts, in the wallet.
The One Timer.
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