a year without "made in china"

"A Year Without Made in China"

Sara Bongiorni's attempt to not buy anything made in China for a year was tremendously funny. I can't stop laughing at the part where her husband loses his sunglasses and is reduced to wearing pink baby sunglasses he found. They break and then he has to wear glacier glasses with thick blinders on the sides. "People stare when I'm running... they think I'm blind," he said. I think that is hilarious!

Beyond the comic bits, they get more resourceful - making Halloween costumes, sewing sleeping bags as gifts for their kids. But why are they doing this? The answer is not clear except for a vague sense of threat about China's growing power. It makes them more thoughtful instead of mindless consumers of cheap plastic, which is surely a good thing. But there are certainly sweatshops in other countries. And it's not like they replaced their purchases with items made in America. So it seemed like something of a pointless exercise on a political level. "Not Buying It" by Judith Levine was about her family's attempt to spend a year without buying anything and I think that is more worthwhile as far as helping the environment.

But the book did something valuable and make me curious about where things I buy are made! This morning's outfit - Wool sweater made in China, jeans made in Egypt. For Christmas, I got little mister lots of wooden toys - and yes, a plastic baby cell phone made in China.