Titanium bottle cages
- Thread starter ferrus
- Start date
If you buy from China you're effectively buying a war bond for the CCP.
Products made in china cannot by dint of their origin be either ethical or sustainable due to the social, economic and environmental (non) policies of the CCP. Positive certification or accreditation of products manufactured in China does not negate this. To believe these labels is, at best, naive and, likely, cynical. You don't even have to think very hard about this. It does not require much research. Even the most cursory search of "china human rights" will yield sufficiently chilling results to stop your purchase in its tracks - if you allowed it to. Yet people choose to fool themselves.
In an era in which no inspection agency can establish meaningful transparency in China such certifications can only really be regarded as a cover for widespread abuse of human rights and abysmal environmental practices. The CCP is not interested in accountability or honesty. They have created terror in their country and a "truth" that most of its population is too afraid to challenge. It is interested in anti-competitive economic domination to fund an anti-democratic military industrial complex.
When i challenge people about purchasing chinese products i regularly get these responses:
It's not possible to buy things made anywhere else
My answer: it is, just try, even a little bit
You're being a snob, just because you can afford more expensive things
My answer: i'm not. I likely make fewer purchases than most people, many second hand and almost all as a result of checking carefully the country of origin. Obviously country of origin is only a guide, but you're starting from a much stronger ethical/humanitarian/environmental/social etc etc point by taking this stance than bovinely handing your cash to a hostile authoritarian regime (which is exactly what you're doing with China).
You're being a racist.
My answer: i'm not. I use money and my purchasing decisions to support basic human rights. I am not anti-chinese, but i am anti-authoritarian. I believe it is our responsibility to stand for people who have no voice.
It's time to stop being such willing suckers and take responsibility for the impact of your purchases.
I don't like popcorn neither.
Products made in china cannot by dint of their origin be either ethical or sustainable due to the social, economic and environmental (non) policies of the CCP. Positive certification or accreditation of products manufactured in China does not negate this. To believe these labels is, at best, naive and, likely, cynical. You don't even have to think very hard about this. It does not require much research. Even the most cursory search of "china human rights" will yield sufficiently chilling results to stop your purchase in its tracks - if you allowed it to. Yet people choose to fool themselves.
In an era in which no inspection agency can establish meaningful transparency in China such certifications can only really be regarded as a cover for widespread abuse of human rights and abysmal environmental practices. The CCP is not interested in accountability or honesty. They have created terror in their country and a "truth" that most of its population is too afraid to challenge. It is interested in anti-competitive economic domination to fund an anti-democratic military industrial complex.
When i challenge people about purchasing chinese products i regularly get these responses:
It's not possible to buy things made anywhere else
My answer: it is, just try, even a little bit
You're being a snob, just because you can afford more expensive things
My answer: i'm not. I likely make fewer purchases than most people, many second hand and almost all as a result of checking carefully the country of origin. Obviously country of origin is only a guide, but you're starting from a much stronger ethical/humanitarian/environmental/social etc etc point by taking this stance than bovinely handing your cash to a hostile authoritarian regime (which is exactly what you're doing with China).
You're being a racist.
My answer: i'm not. I use money and my purchasing decisions to support basic human rights. I am not anti-chinese, but i am anti-authoritarian. I believe it is our responsibility to stand for people who have no voice.
It's time to stop being such willing suckers and take responsibility for the impact of your purchases.
I don't like popcorn neither.
Guinessisgoodforyou
rBotM Winner
Thank you for that wynne, you’ve saved me a lot of effort there expressing sentiments far better than I’d have managed.
I’m struggling to understand fossala’s implication that ‘we’re all as bad as each other, so it’s therefore irrelevant where you spend your money and who you finance’ This is manifestly incorrect (and irresponsible).
From where do you suggest any solution, or at least improvement might come? Are governments exclusively culpable and only a paradigm shift in economics is viable? Good luck with that.
Personally I can’t bloody stand mass consumerism. Our insatiable appetite for cheap disposable crap. The tragedy is, if we’d only been prepared to pay a little more, our buying power could easily have been leverage to demand better humanitarian and environmental standards! Instead we’ve financially enabled an economic superpower with appalling credentials and dubious prospects for the future.
I don’t have much faith in Governments, hence I don’t much subscribe to fashionable Protest Politics. We’re (relatively) fortunate to live in a democracy and with that privilege comes Responsibility. If you’re banking on governments transforming your ideals into reality, you’re deluded!
We are the ‘Powers That Be’ (- the place is teeming with us!)
Be the change you want to see.
And regarding my house being empty, well not exactly! - it’s full of basic but solid antique furniture, ancient artefacts and, erm, old derailleurs..
Looking around, the only Chinese items I can see are the TV and this iPad. Oh and a Bronze Age vase.
I can’t vouch for the working conditions of the potter who made the vase, but hopefully it’ll last a while longer yet
I’m struggling to understand fossala’s implication that ‘we’re all as bad as each other, so it’s therefore irrelevant where you spend your money and who you finance’ This is manifestly incorrect (and irresponsible).
From where do you suggest any solution, or at least improvement might come? Are governments exclusively culpable and only a paradigm shift in economics is viable? Good luck with that.
Personally I can’t bloody stand mass consumerism. Our insatiable appetite for cheap disposable crap. The tragedy is, if we’d only been prepared to pay a little more, our buying power could easily have been leverage to demand better humanitarian and environmental standards! Instead we’ve financially enabled an economic superpower with appalling credentials and dubious prospects for the future.
I don’t have much faith in Governments, hence I don’t much subscribe to fashionable Protest Politics. We’re (relatively) fortunate to live in a democracy and with that privilege comes Responsibility. If you’re banking on governments transforming your ideals into reality, you’re deluded!
We are the ‘Powers That Be’ (- the place is teeming with us!)
Be the change you want to see.
And regarding my house being empty, well not exactly! - it’s full of basic but solid antique furniture, ancient artefacts and, erm, old derailleurs..
Looking around, the only Chinese items I can see are the TV and this iPad. Oh and a Bronze Age vase.
I can’t vouch for the working conditions of the potter who made the vase, but hopefully it’ll last a while longer yet
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Elite make a stainless steel bottle cage FWIW:
https://www.elite-it.com/en/products/bottle-cages/metal-inox/ciussi-inox
https://www.elite-it.com/en/company
https://www.elite-it.com/uploads/document/data/31/CODE_OF_ETHICS.pdf
https://www.elite-it.com/en/products/bottle-cages/metal-inox/ciussi-inox
https://www.elite-it.com/en/company
https://www.elite-it.com/uploads/document/data/31/CODE_OF_ETHICS.pdf
