SO, I think I am one of the worst bloggers ever! It's funny because I have a running dialogue in my head all day long of things to post, but I have a hard time doing it. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that my camera sucks and I don't like posting my crappy pictures. Anyhow, after not having written anything for awhile, I've got a lot to talk about... maybe, we'll see when the baby starts to cry!I had this epiphany last night. We need to have a China free Christmas. I don't know exactly how to do it, but I'd like very much this year to have a Christmas without anything having a made in China label. The more research I do on this the more strongly I feel about it. I think I can sum it up one way by comparing it to people who have to work on Sundays.
We don't go anywhere and buy things on Sundays because I really think people should be allowed to stay home with their families and be able to worship how they choose. However, because there are people who do choose to do shopping or whatever on Sundays, there will always be someone who needs to be behind the cash register to help those people.
I would not want my children to be working in horrendous working conditions for pennies an hour, so why support a system that thrives on that?
I know that not everything that comes out of China is bad or made under wretched conditions. But today when I was cleaning out the toy boxes and closets, all the cheap crap that needed to be thrown away all had that same label on it.
I'm thinking if we have a Made in China Free Christmas, the gifts would be more creative and better quality. The one thing that's really getting to me right now if I decide to do this, is that I had planned on getting each of the kids a CD player. When was the last time you saw any electronics that weren't MIC? There's a lot of things I need to consider, but I really think this is the right thing to do. I'll keep you informed.
8 comments:
Funny, we've been talking about this whole MIC thing a lot at our house, too (me, my husband, and our 9-year-old son). We've decided that everyone will get at least one homemade gift from us (and in some cases that will be our only gift) and that we'll go out of our way to support small,local companies and avoid MIC as much as possible.
Yay you!!! That's really why I started making things again with such passion.
Once you start looking at the labels it is quite depressing. I was just thinking about CHristmas tonight, dreading the insane amount of toys that could invade our home. Is it crazy? I just want to purge and only have a minimal amount of toys. The there are the attachments to the toys, which we are struggling with right now. Ugh.
jaja... i see "made in china" is all over the world!!! i think i could never have a china free christmas!! here in Argentina EVERYTHING is made in china!!! and the other day returned my mom from Italy and half of the thingsshe broght were "made in china" (sorry if my english isn´t so good)
bye, read you soon
I like your blog!
oh wow ~ thanks for making me think about this ... though for christmas we kind of have a it has to be handmade (which can include local artisans). we can give books and we always buy one new game but otherwise we have been trying to avoid the big consumer gift buying crazyness that we see happening everywhere.
This is a great idea - tricky but definately do-able! I did a trade fair last year with my handmade cards which I have been making and selling for a number of years, and although it was amazing and quite successful, I was such a small fish....It is so hard to compete. My brother in law is an importer of leather products and he is selling between $80- 100,000 worth of product A MONTH!!! Thats a lot of product. Sad but true. I believe in what I do though and have not yet succumbed to mass production of my products! Cheers!
Just came across your blog for the first time today and I just LOVE this idea! I'd love to do this too, but I think it would be a lot more realistic to target a 90% China free Christmas. Like you said, it's really, really hard to get electronics that aren't MIC.
I agree too. I would love to completely but China free all year round. I am going to TRY and make an effort to make handmade presents for Christmas too.
But going back to China. There are a lot problems that go with boycotting Chinese goods. Job loss of the Chinese workers is one of them. I can see big corporations simply going somewhere else. The problems are not as simple as my argument here. I am sure they are more complex.
I prefer handmade and independent labels anyway because I don't like to wear what everyone else is wearing.
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