It took us more than an hour to build and spruce up our 6-feet-Christmas tree with  medium-sized balls in different shades of purple and a few in aqua and navy blues. We used the old decors and kept it simple but nonetheless, it made our home more cheerful and ready for the holidays.  

Then my wife, Tina with our son Gabby and I spent another hour in arranging the contents of these boxes under our tree; after I brought them down from the upper part of one of our wardrobes, so carefully, piece by piece.

That  volume of boxes is only half of the collection of my dad-in-law who stays in Ca with the rest of my wife’s immediate family. The tags of the price per box and warning  signs for its lead coated wires are still there (FYI, lead if ingested will lead to poisoning and eventually to anemia).

After we’ve put up our tree, we’ve raised a village under it!

Don’t you find these ceramic pieces fascinating ?   Look at those snowy roof. Don’t you just wish for a white Christmas?

I like the attention given to those intricate details …

and that wonderful craftmanship and colorful use of pallettes made it really special

The facade of this church  appears so inviting!

and look, there’s a castle too! 

The structures are amazingly beautiful when put together side by side…

A community isn’t complete without its people.  So meet the happy villagers under our tree!  

Love is apparently in the air …even with just figurines!

Everyone is joyful when it’s Christmas!  Even chirping of birds makes anyone happy

I have seen and touched a ball of snow several years ago in Fresno and Sequoia National Parks (or was it in Yosemite?) and an episode of  hail  in Auckland, New Zealand.  I wish one day that I’ll get a chance to  bring my family to a real snowy place and together we’ll create a snow man  The kid-in-me strikes again!

Have you experienced a white Christmas?  How does snow man making feels like ?

Who would not appreciate the harmony and melodies from an orchestra or whenever a band plays, moreso if a choir serenades us with Christamas carols ?

Christmas is really for kids and kid-at-hearts !

Of course Christmas won’t be complete without those reindeers and the white-bearded-old-stout-man clad in red!

Ho Ho Ho Ho !  Have you been naughty or nice ?

When dusk falls,  it’s high time for the entire village to glow!     So let there be (fiberoptic) lights !

We’re done with our tree and the village with its people were already nicely put underneath. 

We haven’t started shopping yet;  afraid if there’ll be an extra budget for it!  ha ha!

However grand we plan and prepare for our celebrations this holiday, always bear in mind that decors and other material things are irrelevant to the ‘reason for the season’  

The biggest question is,  are you ready for CHRISTmas?

May all of us be happier with our families this coming Christmas and beyond!  God bless.

Day 1 of 30 days of Insourcing Christmas.
I went to Radio Shack because I like to frequent the smaller electronic stores, rather than the big box retailers. Today’s mission: finding my six year old nephew a gift.

I found a “Hex Bug,” a micro robotic creature that responds to touch.
I was ecstatic it stated clearly that the parts were recyclable and lead free and made by a company called “Innovation First International” based in Greenville, Texas. Great so I’m supporting an American company….not quite.
$9.99….
Made in China.

Ficou lá, naquele balcão de bar, esperando. Já estava na quarta cerveja, não aguentava mais olhar para o garçom, que não parava de olhar para ela e sorrir. Só conseguia pensar “chega logo” e  “morre, infeliz”. Continuou lá, com o copo na mão, o cigarro na outra. Checava o celular de 15 em 15 segundos para ver se ele havia ligado, mandado mensagem. Nada.

Atreveu-se, então, num momento de total tédio, a retribuir aquele sorriso ao garçom. Começaram a conversar. Sentia nele uma necessidade estranha de compartilhar informações e  reparou, finalmente, que ele queria apenas desabafar suas mágoas. Nunca pensou que alguém pudesse se abrir tanto com uma pessoa que mal conhecia, mas ela ofereceu seu ombro mesmo assim, ficando encantada com tamanhas confidências. Ele contou que havia sido abandonado e que ainda tudo era muito difícil para ele. Explicou como tudo tinha acontecido e ela se comoveu. Ou era uma cantada muito boa ou ele realmente estava sofrendo muito. Ela, querendo ou não, também tinha sofrido a mesma coisa, abandonada naquele bar, sem nenhuma satisfação.

Identificou-se. Criou-se uma sintonia, fina, quase poética entre os dois. Suas vozes se calaram quando seu celular tocou. Ela não atendeu. Encarou longamente o garçom pensando “chega logo” depois olhando para o celular, “morre, infeliz.”

A package from China came in the mail today. In it came a free gift. The language use is pretty funny.

Made In China

Ele tentaria de novo. Era o que tinha colocado na cabeça. Pela primeira vez em muito tempo, tomou essa decisão, tentar de novo. Não havia sido bem sucedido da primeira vez, todos os amigos o apoiaram e tal. Tentou entrar naquela vida de bebedeira pra tentar esquecer mas sentia-se um fracassado.

Não gostava de tocar no assunto também. Quando perguntavam, tentava sair pela tangente, conversar sobre outra coisa, não gostava de encarar. Achou um emprego para tentar esquecer, afinal, não era o que todos tinham, um emprego e uma vida regrada? Mas não adiantou, pensava nela o tempo inteiro.

Foi então que se viu decidido, como nunca antes havia se visto. Todos estranharam essa decisão, pois era a mais sensata, óbvio, e ultimamente sensatez era uma coisa que lhe faltava muito.

Afinal, se não tentasse, ficaria no SE… SE tivesse tentado, SE tivesse dado certo… não queria morrer pensando nesse SE. Faria de tudo, agora, para que esse SE se transformasse em pretério perfeito. Tudo. Tentaria de novo. E se não passasse naquela prova de vestibular, paciência, pelo menos tinha tentado.

Leading on from my previous post about Christmas, I started thinking about “present sense” and how I am going to try as hard as I can to avoid buying things that are “Made in China”. An impossible task, you may think, but it is possible. I am trying desperately not to contribute to the onslaught of cheap and tacky Chinese-made goods, and aim to buy things that are made in Europe. At least they have travelled less to get to the shop, and they may be slightly less environmentally harmful due to having been made to last longer and with better, safer materials. I have recently found lovely toys made in Denmark (hoorah for Lego), Germany and England, and the quality is also so much better. My small town in Spain is full of Chinese bazaars, little shops where everything costs virtually nothing but at the same time costs the earth… My son loves them but everything that has ever been bought for him in these shops (by a well-meaning neighbour) ends up breaking within a matter of hours or days.

A friend of mine from Australia, who is an ardent environmentalist and refuses to fly (she aims to leave a zero carbon footprint, admirable stuff; more on her another time), travelled across Asia by bicycle to get to Europe, and told me about the factory towns in China. She said it was like a vision of hell…

So, if you care just a little bit about the environment, take a look at the label and buy carefully. I’m not naive, I know it isn’t a cure for all environmental ills, no single action is, but each small step we all take may contribute to preserving our planet.

Tinha medo. Medo de encarar seus medos novamente. Medo de compatilhar com ela todos seus sonhos e suas aflições. Medo de amar. De ser rejeitado. Poderia citar e desenrolar uma lista interminável de tudo que poderia dar errado, de todos os precipícios que teria que encarar, mesmo aqueles que sua própria mente cultivou. Todas suas verdades estariam desnudas novamente, pois o olhar dela… ah, seu olhar, era capaz de mover mundos, girar planetas, mudar sua cabeça novamente. Valeria a pena tentar? Tentar tudo isso novamente, ter ela pra si para que mais ninguém a possuísse, esse tornado de emoções e pesadelos?

Sabia que havia mudado, tanto ele quanto ela. Será que estaria mais forte agora sem ele, um furacão desgovernado esperando mais uma pobre alma para devastar? Não queria saber, suas pernas tremiam só de cogitar tal possibilidade. Ela teria medo daquela brisa que se transformou em vento de repente? Teria medo sim, pois agora ele não deixaria mais ela se engrandecer diante de suas fraquezas, pois as trancou bem fundo dentro de seu mais profundo eu. Tornou-se frio, mal. Tornou-se alguém que não era, nunca foi, nem nunca seria. Só em pensamento. Seria assim só para ela. Uma pedra, uma rocha, uma muralha. Substantivos tão concretos e abstratos ao mesmo tempo. Ela saberia desvendá-lo, aquele quebra-cabeça que ela entendia tão bem. E ele sabia ser o único que tinha a permissão de ficar lá no centro, no olho do furacão, onde a calmaria e o silêncio embalavam seus sonhos. Nunca quis aceitar, mas sabia, sabia que tinha esse privilégio.

Queria fugir, mas estava preso naquele sonho. Preso naquela esquina, encarando ela e seu vestido. Não conseguia fugir, nem ela. Os dois estavam algemados em suas histórias inventadas, suas fugas fantasiosas e suas vidas tão regradas. Acordou quando sentiu as formigas que subiam pelas suas pernas.

já era tarde. tentava manter os olhos que ardiam ainda abertos, mas já era luta vencida. não queria se entregar, pois ele poderia bater a qualquer momento à sua porta. traria aquele vinho, o preferido dos dois. estaria usando aquele mesmo casaco velho e surrado que usava quando chovia. ela sempre dizia para ele comprar outro e ele dizia que um dia compraria, quando sobrasse dinheiro no final do mês. na verdade, ela gostava do casaco, queria apenas ter um motivo para importuná-lo, mostrar que se preocupava.

foi até a janela e abriu, com certa dificuldade, o vidro. o vento impedia de deixar a janela aberta por muito tempo, pois trazia a água que molhava seu rosto agora para dentro do apartamento. durante aqueles segundos imaginou ele, molhado, correndo, figurando naquele ensaio para o fim do mundo. saiu da janela e o vidro fechou-se com um barulho surdo. pensou em ligar para ele, para saber onde estava, se estava bem, quem sabe se já estava a caminho. sabia que isso demonstraria pressão, pois ele havia falado que iria, que traria o vinho, que seria uma ótima noite. todas as asneiras que ela gostava e queria ouvir dele sempre. não ligou. nem secou o rosto molhado da chuva. ficou ali, parada, no centro da sala, apurando os ouvidos para ver se escutava seus passos. só o que conseguia escutar era o uivo do vento lá fora e os trovões.

Dormiu debruçada sobre o telefone. sem o vinho, sem ele e sem suas mentiras.

Hi everyone. I took a break for awhile.

Here is what’s going on here.

I did some in-store Christmas shopping today. I am normally totally opposed to this. I sympathize for all those who work retail this time of year. My Mom has always been subjected to long hours, crabby and demanding customers with unrealistic expectations, and what I see as unfair pay for all the stress that comes along with the job.

This time of year just makes me gloomy when I enter stores, so I try to save myself the bad moods and shop online or before now. Today though, I went out anyway to get a few things I knew I had to get in-store, and while I ran into a few pleasant people, most were crabby. Could it be because they are buying carts full of crap made in China that nobody really wants or appreciates? It’s hard not to feel very alone this time of year. What I see as spoiling my kids this time of year would be laughable to the average American parent who is filling stockings and stuffing gifts under the tree.

I look to see if I can find anything Made in the USA. I found one this. This.

It’s a mold for making snow bricks. I don’t even know if my kids will like it. I bought it on my annoying freaking principles.

Luckily there are lots of amazing online retailers who sell high quality, American made or Fair Trade toys. Here are a few of my favorites:

Rosie Hippo

For Small Hands

Nova Natural

A Toy Garden

Hazelnut Kids

Or, support all of the wonderful men and women making handmade and buy Etsy.

My wish is that everyone just consider buying a few higher quality toys instead of carts of cheap things.  Don’t get me wrong– Maren will be getting Connect 4 this year. I have no objections to some of this stuff.

Luckily, my 5 year old wants a lemon juicer and a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker for Christmas. Now if I could only get her to ask for a new toaster and a stockpot….

Edited to add: I am very blessed to have parents and in-laws who really respect and honor our wishes. Both buy or make handmade for our girls or stick to a specific list and do not overindulge them. I know not everyone who parents the way I do is this lucky.  If you are not the descendants of these types of people, I encourage you to speak your mind in a peaceful and respectful way. After all, you are the one who will be stepping on loose parts in the middle of the night or shoving 32 gifts in the back of your mini van and wondering where in the heck you are going to put all that stuff.

Every now and them something occurs in your personal life to provide a reasonably true picture of real life.

This past Saturday I was searching for a beer can chicken grilling product. Why? The wife had heard from a friend who had heard from a friend who…and then…which is why I had gone to Publix which did not have the beer can chicken holder I was seeking.

Try Wal-Mart was the opinion of a young Publixian answering my query. He had one at home and it worked beautifully. I asked if I could rent it for the afternoon but his sense of humor had left for the day and I headed for our Wal-Mart, a relatively new Super Store on Hillsboro Boulevard.

It was Wal-Martingly crowded which is part of my reason for avoiding Wal-Mart. I spoke to a Wal-Martian in Lawn & Garden and he said they had it but because of Christmas it was now stored away but would magically reappear après Xmas. He referred me to a “grillin’ place”

I found a “grillin’ place” and the beer can innovative product I was seeking.

It’s called (if you’re interested and I see no reason for that) a Roasted Chicken Beer Can Holder and it works, costing only five times the price of the chicken. It is, of course, made in China.

So what am I talking about?

Wal-Mart is a BIG company and a very successful one. To maintain its famous Low Cost Structure it squeezes every penny it can from its suppliers.

The suppliers pay their employees in pennies whereas we, once upon a time, paid our employees in dollars.

Of course we no longer have employees.

We now manufacture paper that we use for stock certificates; some real, some not.

We no longer make cars (OK we make some), television sets, radios, personal computers, steel, printers, dish washers, refrigerators, shoes or clothes.

When I was younger than my present 82 most of our clothes came from factories in New England. It had been that way since the days of the Industrial Revolution.

To cut costs the manufacturers headed south to the Carolinas and essentially gave the well known finger to the plants they replaced.

This was called progress.

“Time goes by,” per the song from Casablanca, and the plants that were once lower in cost than the ones they replaced were then replaced by lower cost manufacturers in China, Thailand, Honduras, The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and a dozen other hard-to-spell countries.

This was called progress by many and impolite names by others.

Our citizens now buy our “everything” from Wal-Mart (and other similar companies) at a very good price. The people who make our TVs and computers make maybe $3 a day.

So what’s the trade-off?

Jobs. The Americans who once made most of our “everything” now make very little of our “everything.”

Many of them are unemployed or underemployed or have moved in with parents or children.

Or live under bridges.

Is there a way out of this? Not if we allow China, for example, to hold much of our national debt.

One false step, one wrong word, and they won’t like our dollar anymore.

And that means a Very Depressing Depression.

So who is to blame?

Wal-Mart, the Fed, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, the Democrats, Republicans, Iraq, Iran, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Mexico, Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, NASDAQ, New York Stock Exchange, Ben Bernanke, Paul Krugman, Nancy Pelosi, California, All the Children Left Behind, Newt Gingrich, Mugabe, Darfur, Somalia, New York Yankees, Iran, Major Hasan?

You could say All of the Above, None of the Above, Some of the Above but that’s no help at all.

What should we do? What can we do?

Will muddling through work?

Will less government help? How about more government?

Will the loudmouths help? Well no.

Will reason help? The trouble with that is the Other Side doesn’t believe in reason.

The Other Side doesn’t believe in Global Warming or China or Evolution or AIDS or just about anything that makes some sense.  

The Other Side believes in the Power of NO.

And that is not a very good solution to real problems.

Where do we go?

Short aside. Wal-Mart is notoriously short on employee pay while Costco, its principal competitor pays quite well. Both use out-of-towners (China etc.) to make their “stuff.” What gives?

Does this mean that you’re eliminating American jobs when you shop at Wal-Mart?

The answer is Yes and No.

How about that for a solid, cut to the chase, straight to the point answer!

Summary: We’re trying is all I can offer. Stimulus money, Green Products, Fuel efficient cars, Solar Power, Wind Turbines, New Technology. New, NEW, NEW.

In the current issue of Newsweek there is an article on nuclear fission and a $3.5 billion dollar project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California. If it is successful – note the IF – we can create energy with virtually no power loss. (I’d explain this but I’m a guy who barely knows how a car, or even a bicycle, operates. It’s got something to do with deuterium, tritium, isotopes of hydrogen that can be extracted from water and really big lasers.)

And if all this works – note once again the IF – we’ll go to the next step in 2012. And after that? Another step.

I’m 82 and frankly I have other things to worry about so I’ll leave this with you.

Good luck.

Warren Langer

langerw@comcast.net

illini1000@gmail.com

http://warrenlanger.wordpress.com

Ha vagy annyira beteg, hogy ez tetszik, eredeti méretben megtalálod
ITT.

Ja és a kínai kisgyerekek keze is ragadós.

Christmas in America won’t be much different from the last.  Sure, there will be a higher ratio of unemployment benefit dollars spent on gifts, but just like last year, most of those dollars will end up in the accounts of Chinese exporters.  Every Christmas the American capitalist works the noose tighter around his own neck with a desperate buying spree of products made in China.  Our “cheaper at any cost” buying and indomitable voting to tax ourselves out of our own jobs has seated China as the U.S. government’s largest foreign credit holder.  Here’s an excerpt from a New York Post article regarding the subject.

“China’s investment in U.S. Treasury bonds surged by $43.6 billion to $585 billion in September, pulling ahead of the Japan, which now holds $573.2 billion worth. Overall, analysts say China’s holdings may be $800 billion or more. China is thought to be purchasing U.S. debt through third countries, purchases that are not immediately recorded by the Treasury as being held by China, analysts say.”

The thought of being “#2″ seems rather benign to you, doesn’t it?  Are you so naive to believe that if a large communist country such as China were to be stronger economically and militarily, that they would simply allow us to go about our business?  It’s twisted logic that defies nature itself.  Every form of life on our planet must adhere to a “eat or be eaten” principle.  What makes you think that humans are an exception?  It’s an innate will to power that drives us.  There’s a simple answer to a complex question:

If you could grant any country absolute power over the world, which country would it be?  Communist Russia, China, or Venezuela, to whose governments human rights are meaningless?  How about Africa, where in some parts, the AIDS rate is 90%.  How about France, a country which due to its own hyper-tolerance, is being taken over by Muslims?  How about Iraq, a peaceful nation of a peaceful religion where, if it were not for the U.S. occupation, Uday Hussein would still be randomly raping brides at weddings.

When you’re rushing through Wal-Mart to pick up your last-minute obligatory Christmas gifts, keep in mind that the ubiquitous phrase MADE IN CHINA is simply a harbinger of America’s imminent loss of title as the world’s “alpha country”.  Do you really want that to happen?  Answer honestly.

When I was much younger, most if not all of the product labels read “Made in America”.  Not so today.  We have labels from all over the globe.  Embarrassingly, on some items I don’t even recognize the country on its label.  Countries such as Liechtenstein and the Grenadines.

My family likes to visit various dollar stores.  Last month I searched a dollar store in hopes of finding a product or two with “Made in America” on its label.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch. 

That’s okay.  I still bought a few dollar items, but that got me thinking.  What does my “label” read and how about your “label”?  Made in America?  Made in Africa?  Made in Asia?  Where? 

If you really think about it, we weren’t made in America, Africa, Asia or elsewhere. We were made by God with heavenly hands and placed here on earth. The Bible says in Genesis 1…..”He created us in His image.”  That’s our “label”.

I have heard and read that some claim to be self made.  Sort of a Clint Eastwood attitude.  You almost can hear Dirty Harry in his own words saying that he got up early, pulled up his boots, dusted off his hat, worked the land, did things his way on his terms, no need for help, don’t depend on anyone, just “git r done”. 

Honestly, that couldn’t be farther from the truth for my “label”.  My “label” has many people’s influence, impartation, teaching and guiding, opportunities, smiles and words of encouragement, times and places where they chased me down and were instrumental in turning me back on the right track, loved me, graced me, mercied me, and – well you get the picture.

I am not self made.  Very far from it.  If I had a “label”, it would read:   Made by God.  Developed and improved by many others from around the globe.

What does your “label” read?

I think there is this Zhu Zhu pets craze going on recently where people seem to be looking to buy some zhu zhu pets cheap toys online. From what I understand these are just some made in china toys and they are actually soft toy pet hamsters. I made a point to create an entry on these cheap china toys on my cheap toys online blog. Anyway, the thing is that most parents are not very happy to get real pets for their children. Hopefully if they are willing to have soft toy pets instead of the real pets, these would help to solve the problems of the parents. The main concern is that children are too young to take care of real live pets, hence it is good that there are such zhu zhu pets to help fill this gap.

@dryadusingh http://bit.ly/2h2Q8l

“Made in China” can be ”Made in Egypt” as this article from Sydney Morning Herald [SMH] is suggesting. This is very smart as USA and other countries have quota for different countries’ exports to USA.

Indian’s economy is growing but it will grow better if we are smarter. You can see how China is investing in Africa and what benefit is going to China in all fronts-economic, general goodwill, political and diplomatic.

As one of our VEDAs says, “Let the good ideas come from all angles and all sources” and China is not excluded for the source of ideas. 

Yadu Singh/Sydney/09-11-09

♫ Happiness – Goldfrapp

Encontrei irmão sol irmã lua irmão lago irmão quero-quero irmãos filhotinhos-de-gato-que-eu-salvei irmã chuva irmã grama irmãs cabanas e, de repente, umas demonstrações primaveris um pouco curiosas muito lindas. ó:

sandália rasteira Divietto e necessaire e porta-celular Made in China

Next time you’re in Target, or Wal Mart, or any discount store for that matter, pay attention to the country of origin of everything you want to buy. Seriously. Just try it. Report back if you want. But just try it.

I just did it, obviously because I do it every time I’m in a store. But this time was different. Mostly because I was in Target, for the first time in a long time, and I was struck by how much stuff I wanted to buy. (It’s as if Target sells the exact same crap as any other store, but they put it through the hands of somebody who actually gives a ____ about design before they stick it on the shelves. It’s amazing how much more pleasant the experience at a Target can be compared to run of the mill imported crap from other stores. And all because somebody with some sense actually has a say in matters of aesthetics. Well done. But now I’m digressing.)

I kept seeing things I wanted to buy, and I kept checking the tags just in case. With only one exception (a rug, made in India) every single thing I looked at was Made In China. From furniture to lamps to bedding to knick knacks to cookware to holiday decorations. Everything.

Doesn’t it just make you wonder what the hell China must be like?

It does me.

So seriously, try it. Just to see. And see if it makes you wonder about that magical far off land that can produce such vast quantities of everything.

###

I got her as a present. She couldn’t have come in a perfect time. I needed someone to talk to. Not that I’m throwing Stitch, but there are things that monsters wouldn’t understand. I am really happy to have this gurl. For me, she is the kindest, most appreciative and understanding product ever Made in China- hence, the name machina. I wish I can take good care of her and reciprocate the unconditional affection she gives me.

I love you.

So cute..... and yet such a race to the bottom!

So it’s not like I have tons o’ time to shop…. I definitely do more sewing but I occasionally get gift cards and I currently have one for Anthropologie, so naturally I get the catalogue.  Beautifully photographed, perfectly styled and designed in the way that makes you want it all.  I think that it is fucked up that items in this catalogue A) do not have fiber content-you have to go to the web for that where there is a convenient Buy Now Button (even there it’s hard to find), and B) either says imported (mostly used), made in the USA, or made in COUNTRY X if it is an ethically acceptable country to have clothing manufactured in.  Does this really fool people????  What the hell does imported mean to Anthropologie ??  I think it is a disgusting way to have cheap manufacturing in countries that have known human right abuses and quality issues in their manufacturing.  They are disguising practices that do not measure up to the American public demand for some ethics in Globalization.  Since Anthropologie dose not want to use terms like Made in China (which I bet is the truth for 85% of the “imported” things in their catalogue) they mask this in the term imported.  Fucking Redonkulous!!

I just hate it when people make derogatory comments about China. They stereotype us so much that it’s ridiculous. Just see these comments regarding a KitchenAid 5qt Artisan Mixer on Amazon.com:

What, everything 'bad' is 'made in China'? So you think American-made goods are just so good?

I mean, why do Americans hold this ultra egocentric mentality that “made in China” is damn despicable? To put these comments in perspective, the author of the main review said that his KitchenAid mixer broke upon first use. Upon opening up the machine, he found that the insides looked cheap-looking and not American. Nowhere in that review did he mention the words “Made In China”, but somehow commentaries just had to blame this on China.

Why is that the case? Do Americans really believe that pushing all the fault on some other helpless country can alleviate their own guilt? Don’t they know that they are the number one fucking exploiters of children and slave labor in the world? If Americans hadn’t pushed the prices so low, China wouldn’t exploit their workers as much. If America’s consumerism isn’t so on-the-hype, they wouldn’t demand so many mass-produced products from foreign countries. Sure, America – go get your “solid American goods” from your country provided that you pay double or triple the regular consumer cost. Go ahead, Americans – rant all you want while exhibiting your ignorance: it just makes me laugh harder.

Baby Formula Hype

Another instance of American stereotype mentality from USA Today. Just to show everyone that I am not a  zealous bigot, I will openly criticize the poor quality of the Chinese baby formula that caused the health issues of many babies. Hey – I had a two-year-old brother at the time (2007-08ish) and I understand the worry by all the parents.

The thing is, not all Chinese-made food is bad. Annually we buy Chinese Moon Cakes and consume them. We buy Chinese soy sauce and seasonings regularly. We buy Chinese rice regularly. We buy Chinese instant noodles regularly. Just because one instance in the Chinese food industry made an error does not mean that someone can say “Never allow yourself, your animals or anyone else to ingest anything made in China.”

It wasn’t your children, Americans, who got poisoned by the milk – it was ours, our Chinese babies. It is easy for you to sit here on your computer and complain about how much you hate Chinese goods, but you don’t and can’t understand how hard it is to live in that situation. Nobody wanted to poison those babies. Nobody wanted to add poisonous substances in baby powder. Nobody wanted to cause harm.

Therefore, please don’t trash China. China is an awesome country, with a history that is longer than America’s by far. Chinese people actually care about grammar, and we aren’t sadists who add chemicals to baby food. Americans don’t understand how much their words hurt Chinese people like me when they utter despicable invectives upon our race and culture. Americans, grow up.

My most popular post this year, at least in terms of generating comments, was one on whether countries can launch charm offensives. This surprised me, because I thought that the concept of overhauling a poor reputation through better comms was reasonably well established.

Instead, the idea that a national government can put its reputation in the hands of a PR agency sparked some interesting responses. None perhaps more succinct that Tom Crampton’s remark that, unless the country itself has a reputation worth communicating, any image campaign would amount to ‘lipstick on a pig’.

Building on the debate, I’ve put together a feature for PRWeek UK that looks at this issue in a little more depth. Reputation of a nation puts six ‘countries’ under the spotlight – UK, US, China, India, South Africa and Dubai. Each suffers various problems in terms of how reputation issues are hampering the pursuit of specific goals. For example, China’s well-documented product quality crises continues to dog perceptions of its critically important manufacturing sector.

Each country, I further feel, overcomes the ‘lipstick on a pig’ test. They are hardly pariah states; instead you can argue that the substance of reputational change is largely in place, but more sophisticated storytelling is perhaps required to effect a genuine shift. We did consider the example of Libya in the intro, but despite the country’s progress over the past 10 years, recent events call into question whether any change is more opportunistic than genuine.

We also called in comms experts from each country to run the rule over what kind of specific steps could be taken. Perhaps the biggest frustration is that we could only feature six examples because, quite honestly, there are a host of other countries that would be rather interesting to examine in this manner as well.

Incredibil!  Arata si se comporta aproape identic cu un Iphone original, simuland destul de bine software-ul si functiile multimedia Apple. Singurul inconvenient ar fi probabil faptul ca a fost asamblat in China.

Si e si destul de ieftin. Nu te-ar tenta si pe tine unul?