Toy Recall: Don't Blame It All On The Chinese
I built a new garage last year, mostly to hold all my stuff(as my wife calls it). I rarely have room to put a car in the garage since we are still storing a lot of our adult kid's stuff, mowers, a tractor, furniture, shop equipment, etc. I really should have put up a big warehouse. Most of our kids are out of college now and into their own homes, but somehow, we still have their stuff. Sometime soon, I am going to announce a big garage sale. If they want their stuff, they better come and get it.
If you have built anything lately, you know the price of materials have skyrocketed, from cement to plywood. My contractor said it was because of the Chinese. The Chinese? According to him, so much building material has been shipped in preparation for the Olympics, the completion of the huge dam, and their aggressive building programs, that the prices have gone up for good 'ol American consumers. I have been told that the price of wood, steel, and even fuel is somehow related directly or indirectly to the Chinese.
Just today, Fisher-Price, one of the nation's largest and most-respected toy companies, announced that it was recalling nine million toys made in China. Apparently, the Chinese manufacturer felt that it was okay to paint the toys with toxic lead-based paint.
Our local hospital distributed tainted, Chinese-made toothpaste to patients (now recalled). Food products, particularly seafood, from China, has made it to our store shelves. Since the U.S. imports five times as many things as we export to China, and it is nearly impossible to inspect "everything", those things are going to happen again and again. You can blame that on the Chinese, but we definitely have a contributory role.
This weekend, I was working in my home office when I heard a big crash. I immediately thought the new puppy was getting into something, or the new ceiling fan that I installed fell down. After a thorough search of the house, I could not find the source of the crashing noise. A few hours later, I went to the front of my new garage and noticed a 150 year old oak tree lying in the way. My oak tree (three main trunks) split down the middle, blocking not one, but both driveways.
After a few hours of chain-sawing the smaller branches and fighting the carpenter ants (part of the problem), I was able to make a hole big enough to get my car out so that I could go to work the next day. Since the trunks were several feet in diameter, they were a bit much for my 16 inch chain saw, so I had to call in the tree cutting crew. They were here earlier in the year to drop a 70 foot tall pine that was leaning a bit too far toward the house for my comfort.
This morning, a crew of six, armed with some awesome chain saws (made mine look like a Fisher-Price toy), finished the job in about an hour. This included taking out the third main trunk that was likely to fall sometime in the near future. Lamenting the loss of this beautiful tree and knowing the shade I will now lose, I inquired as to WHY this happened. In the winter, with rain, snow, and wind, I can understand, but not in the middle of the summer.
Mr. Crabtree (his real name!) said my tree fell because of the Chinese! What! According to this self-proclaimed expert on trees, my fallen oak was a "second growth" tree. The original tree was cut down by the Chinese during the building of the transcontinental railway a hundred plus years ago. The wood was used for railroad ties, scaffolding, and of course, to keep warm in the cold Sierra winters. When the tree re-grew, it became more weakened. His theory; not mine.
The Chinese helped open the West. Without their almost slave-like labor, we would not be where we are today in some respects. Our local community has a Chinese cemetery filled with those unfortunate people that risked their lives to dynamite tunnels, to lay track, and of course, chop down my original oak tree.
One of the oldest restaurants in the Gold Country, The Shanghai, closed its doors after a hundred or so years when the descendants of the original Chinese owners did not want to keep it open any more. John Travolta filmed the movie, Phenomena, in that little restaurant. Soon, it will become a microbrewery. A piece of history lost forever. I am not sure we can totally blame that on the Chinese.
One of our children is an engineer. He wanted to go to UC Berkeley or Cal Poly but he couldn't get in. According to him, too many Chinese had been accepted. Personally, we thought it was his grades in high school, but perhaps he was completing with a deluge of highly-qualified, and well-funded foreign students competing for those precious university slots.
I work with three Chinese physicians; one is the Chief of Pediatrics, and one is Chair of our Department. All of them are outstanding and caring clinicians and I am proud to have them as colleagues. Their ethnicity does not play a role in the quality of the care they provide and all of them have loyal and devoted patients. Being in California, we have a rich cultural diversity, and yes, we have many Chinese patients.
My mother-in-law is Chinese. She is my father-in-law's second wife. My father-in-law is now in his 90's. They have been married about twenty-five years or so. Not to add to the stereotype of bad Chinese drivers, she is probably the worst driver I have ever seen. She has no business being on the road, and we are powerless to do anything about it. She has been in tons of accidents (all her fault). My father-in-law doesn't drive anymore, and the idea of him being chauffeured by her is terrifying. The Department of Motor Vehicles is not doing enough to re-test and qualify these elderly drivers.
My wife is having her car windshield replaced (again) today. We have replaced at least five windshields in the last six years from flying freeway stones. I didn't discuss this with the window guy, but it would not surprise me if he claimed Chinese people like to throw gravel out of their car windows.
Next year, the Summer Olympics will be held in China for the first time in history and the world will be in awe of what this super-power has done in the last ten years. We traveled to China about 15 years ago and were not overly impressed. We found China unbelievably noisy, crowded, and unsanitary, but I must say that our visit was limited to the cities and not the beautiful countryside. We went to one restaurant where I personally witnessed the waitress just wiping off the used dishes with a rag and then re-setting the table. The empty bowl put in front of me still had food left in it! Since I was hungry, I sterilized it by filling it up with scalding, hot tea water and let it set for a while. If I had contracted hepatitis, I would most definitely have blamed that one on the Chinese.
I guess these things just happen...toys are recalled for lead paint, contaminated pet food kills our dogs and cats, hospital toothpaste "tastes funny", the unagi (eel) at the sushi restaurant may have a bit of E.coli on it from the aquafarm in China, and an old oak tree falls down in my yard. Should I blame that on the Chinese, too?
Related Topics:
Technorati Tags: fisher-price, toy recall, lead paint, lead poisoning
If you have built anything lately, you know the price of materials have skyrocketed, from cement to plywood. My contractor said it was because of the Chinese. The Chinese? According to him, so much building material has been shipped in preparation for the Olympics, the completion of the huge dam, and their aggressive building programs, that the prices have gone up for good 'ol American consumers. I have been told that the price of wood, steel, and even fuel is somehow related directly or indirectly to the Chinese.
Just today, Fisher-Price, one of the nation's largest and most-respected toy companies, announced that it was recalling nine million toys made in China. Apparently, the Chinese manufacturer felt that it was okay to paint the toys with toxic lead-based paint.
Our local hospital distributed tainted, Chinese-made toothpaste to patients (now recalled). Food products, particularly seafood, from China, has made it to our store shelves. Since the U.S. imports five times as many things as we export to China, and it is nearly impossible to inspect "everything", those things are going to happen again and again. You can blame that on the Chinese, but we definitely have a contributory role.
This weekend, I was working in my home office when I heard a big crash. I immediately thought the new puppy was getting into something, or the new ceiling fan that I installed fell down. After a thorough search of the house, I could not find the source of the crashing noise. A few hours later, I went to the front of my new garage and noticed a 150 year old oak tree lying in the way. My oak tree (three main trunks) split down the middle, blocking not one, but both driveways.After a few hours of chain-sawing the smaller branches and fighting the carpenter ants (part of the problem), I was able to make a hole big enough to get my car out so that I could go to work the next day. Since the trunks were several feet in diameter, they were a bit much for my 16 inch chain saw, so I had to call in the tree cutting crew. They were here earlier in the year to drop a 70 foot tall pine that was leaning a bit too far toward the house for my comfort.
This morning, a crew of six, armed with some awesome chain saws (made mine look like a Fisher-Price toy), finished the job in about an hour. This included taking out the third main trunk that was likely to fall sometime in the near future. Lamenting the loss of this beautiful tree and knowing the shade I will now lose, I inquired as to WHY this happened. In the winter, with rain, snow, and wind, I can understand, but not in the middle of the summer.
Mr. Crabtree (his real name!) said my tree fell because of the Chinese! What! According to this self-proclaimed expert on trees, my fallen oak was a "second growth" tree. The original tree was cut down by the Chinese during the building of the transcontinental railway a hundred plus years ago. The wood was used for railroad ties, scaffolding, and of course, to keep warm in the cold Sierra winters. When the tree re-grew, it became more weakened. His theory; not mine.
The Chinese helped open the West. Without their almost slave-like labor, we would not be where we are today in some respects. Our local community has a Chinese cemetery filled with those unfortunate people that risked their lives to dynamite tunnels, to lay track, and of course, chop down my original oak tree.
One of the oldest restaurants in the Gold Country, The Shanghai, closed its doors after a hundred or so years when the descendants of the original Chinese owners did not want to keep it open any more. John Travolta filmed the movie, Phenomena, in that little restaurant. Soon, it will become a microbrewery. A piece of history lost forever. I am not sure we can totally blame that on the Chinese.
One of our children is an engineer. He wanted to go to UC Berkeley or Cal Poly but he couldn't get in. According to him, too many Chinese had been accepted. Personally, we thought it was his grades in high school, but perhaps he was completing with a deluge of highly-qualified, and well-funded foreign students competing for those precious university slots.
I work with three Chinese physicians; one is the Chief of Pediatrics, and one is Chair of our Department. All of them are outstanding and caring clinicians and I am proud to have them as colleagues. Their ethnicity does not play a role in the quality of the care they provide and all of them have loyal and devoted patients. Being in California, we have a rich cultural diversity, and yes, we have many Chinese patients.My mother-in-law is Chinese. She is my father-in-law's second wife. My father-in-law is now in his 90's. They have been married about twenty-five years or so. Not to add to the stereotype of bad Chinese drivers, she is probably the worst driver I have ever seen. She has no business being on the road, and we are powerless to do anything about it. She has been in tons of accidents (all her fault). My father-in-law doesn't drive anymore, and the idea of him being chauffeured by her is terrifying. The Department of Motor Vehicles is not doing enough to re-test and qualify these elderly drivers.
My wife is having her car windshield replaced (again) today. We have replaced at least five windshields in the last six years from flying freeway stones. I didn't discuss this with the window guy, but it would not surprise me if he claimed Chinese people like to throw gravel out of their car windows.
Next year, the Summer Olympics will be held in China for the first time in history and the world will be in awe of what this super-power has done in the last ten years. We traveled to China about 15 years ago and were not overly impressed. We found China unbelievably noisy, crowded, and unsanitary, but I must say that our visit was limited to the cities and not the beautiful countryside. We went to one restaurant where I personally witnessed the waitress just wiping off the used dishes with a rag and then re-setting the table. The empty bowl put in front of me still had food left in it! Since I was hungry, I sterilized it by filling it up with scalding, hot tea water and let it set for a while. If I had contracted hepatitis, I would most definitely have blamed that one on the Chinese.
I guess these things just happen...toys are recalled for lead paint, contaminated pet food kills our dogs and cats, hospital toothpaste "tastes funny", the unagi (eel) at the sushi restaurant may have a bit of E.coli on it from the aquafarm in China, and an old oak tree falls down in my yard. Should I blame that on the Chinese, too?
Related Topics:
Technorati Tags: fisher-price, toy recall, lead paint, lead poisoning
2 Comments:
Chinese- the newest terrorists
Some would call that racist. It wouldn't be fair to call the Chinese terrorists because it's not their fault for using lead paint now is it? Competition and jobs are the reason. Don't you people understand that?
For example you own Fisher Price and you have to make a million dolls to sell would you pay 9 dollars to make a doll or would you pay 2 dollars to make one? It's all business.
So don't insult people if you don't understand.
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