2012 Challenge: Game On!

January 10, 2012

Don’t buy anything MADE IN CHINA. 

This resolution topped my list for 2012, mostly out of concern for human rights in Tibet. As of the tenth of January (2012) three Tibetan monks have self-immolated (since the 1^st of the year) to protest increasing Chinese oppression. 

At the end of 2011, as I was meditating about the coming year, I thought, “I have to stop buying things from China until they Free Tibet.” Then I said it aloud to myself. Later I wrote it down at the top of my New Year’s Resolutions list. 

Later I told my husband. He remembered the brightly colored bumper sticker on my little white convertible––FREE TIBET. That sticker stayed on the car for years, fading in the sun. Meanwhile, China stayed in Tibet and continued to  systematically oppress and overtake Tibetan culture. 

What difference could we make if we stopped buying products made in China? When I talk about this idea with friends and acquaintances, responses range from “good idea” to “good luck.”  Most people jump from the human rights issue to the issue of our very own, U.S. economy, shifting the focus to how few products are made in the US. 

It’s true. Finding products “Made in the USA” is tough. Even more challenging is finding necessities NOT made in China. I recently went to buy tennis balls. Not one tennis ball is made in the US. Of the four brands carried by the retailer, three were made in China. Dunlop tennis balls are made in the Philippines. That’s okay. We aren’t an island and it seems fair that we engage in world-wide trade, as long as we are reasonable about it, consider the consumption of fossil fuels for transport and watch out for human rights issues. 

I’m finding it interesting to read the labels and challenging to avoid some purchases. But I’m committed. It couldn’t hurt us to move toward a greater consumer independence of China. If enough people supported this movement, we just might make a noise to be heard around the world. Something other than the boom-boom of guns and artillery. Something even greater than the “ca-ching, ca-ching” of the cash register. How about when it comes to our economic dealings with China––We the People––exercise the Sounds of Silence. If we stop buying these products, we just might benefit the peaceful Tibetans, the exploited Chinese people and ourselves. 

Now that sounds like a New Year’s Resolution worthy of adoption. Will you consider it? Why not spread the word on your very  own social network platform? Maybe your Facebook friends will like you for it?