Thursday, December 16, 2010
Made somewhere, sold elsewhere, all for money
By the way, Bummi diaper covers are made in Canada, so are Ruby's Stonz boots. That does not necessarily mean made locally since Canada is huge but if had the choice between made in Montana (US), just South of Alberta, or Ontario I'd still go for the Ontario item. Just saying. Talking about it, I just checked where my laptop was made: Malaysia. That's not around the corner but I prefer that over China. China to me equals human rights abuse big scale. That's why I try to avoid Dollar stores - too much Chinese throw-away stuff that seems to be produced by slave labour or sold below cost and adds to the landfills. Logically, if I buy less I can buy better quality at a higher price and produced under good working conditions and still not end up being poorer. Unfortunately this logic does not work because lots of expensive garment labels produce cheaply in sweat shops overseas, mostly Asia, and add a huge mark up so they can fill their own pockets. That's unethical to me. Tragedy. Makes me not want to buy anything at all, not more than absolutely necessary anyway.
Two things about the above paragraph: Poor - Poor is actually the wrong word because we don't feel poor. But when it comes to government money we don't mind to take what we can get, child tax benefit, GST refund, child health benefit etc. Better we get the money than the government supporting some super rich US company with a 0% interest loan of $300 million so they build their research facility in Canada and apparently create 200 jobs with that - those jobs might or might not be given to Canadians. Hello! I know the government wants to get the economy rocking again but please support Canadian companies not US company that already swim in money.
Unethical - that's the word I used yesterday writing yet another letter to Stephen Harper and this time the Quebec government. The owner of the Jeffrey Mine in Quebec is seeking help form the government to expand extraction of asbestos. Yes, asbestos! It's banned in Canada due to its health hazards and I remember a very well-known building in East Berlin, Germany, being torn down for being built with asbestos. Asbestos is banned in Germany, too. But Quebec happily mines it and sells it to India where people are not informed about the dangers and the Indian distributors play down the risks because they too make money of that business. I told Harper & Co. it was unethical to produce asbestos and sell it for profit to other countries where the citizens don't know any better - the government damn should not dare to even consider helping this mine. What's wrong with us? Since when is it acceptable to knowingly expose others to hazardous materials and cash in it? It's been like this for a long time though, standard business practice for those keen on money. Ethical values gone downstream, never to be fished out of the deep again. Not to talk about the impact on the Quebecois countryside due to mining.
Labels:
asbestos,
Stephen Harper
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