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.    


         

Here's why I started that blog

My first anniversary of living in Edmonton is coming up. It’s been a few years since I have lived in on and the same place for so long. And my conclusion is: I’m living in the wrong place! And I have had enough of it. For somebody like me who loves the outdoors, is young, healthy, and a recently-turned mum of a very cute, active little girl it’s difficult to live in Edmonton, oil-country Alberta, Canada. I have become an environmentalist.

After lots of bureaucratic hassles and constant head shaking about Alberta’s (provincial) and Canada’s (federal) politics, especially on environmental issues, writing letters to my mayor, city councillor, ministers and representatives of the provincial and federal government has become my hobby. It’s not a pleasant one but I believe nothing will change if nobody does anything. It’s time to act, it’s getting really late.     

I don’t want to raise my child in a country that refuses to sign any paper on the protection of the environment, whether that is in the form of a federal law or through the United Nations, a country that puts the economy above anything, where government is industry’s best friend, acts short-sighted and does not seem to realize that you can’t eat money and you can’t drink oil; a country that destroys vast stretches of beautiful countryside to dig up oil; that mines asbestos for the import to India; that allows tons of chemicals being used in everyday toiletries/cosmetics knowing that there are potentially harmful, a country that is so car-obsessed and has too many gas-guzzlers on the roads.

Watching “Being Caribou” last night, sequences of both Bush presidents were shown, with a 10 year lapse in between, where both of them said that they did not care about protecting the caribou and their habitat, they only cared about the American people and jobs for these people. The deal is that the US wants to drill for oil in the calving grounds of the caribou in North East Alaska. Why I am mentioning this? I think that attitude also applies to the Canadian government – not for the caribou itself which is surprisingly protected in Canada but for the habitat. But then it’s only an example. I wonder: Who do they want to create jobs for when people suffer from floods and droughts, when people come down with cancers, pulmonary and heart diseases because all warnings about climate change and pollution have been ignored and denied, when people are so obese that they can’t move? Suggestions, anyone? I don’t think they think that far! 

I hope this blog helps to let others know what's going wrong in Edmonton, in Alberta, in Canada and maybe I find some like-minded people willing to confront those in charge.