Boycott Made in China?

Wow, the Internet can really lead from one thing to another...

I dressed up just a little today because we took family pictures. I've really been enjoying wearing these dangle earrings that Calvin gave me for Christmas. It got me thinking about another pair that I got for Christmas that I have never worn. I went to look and them and they were Holly Yashi. hollyyashi.com I checked out the website because I've heard a lot of people talk about Holly Yashi and thought she might be local. I'm in love. I really like the jewelry. And I like the company. Everything is made in CA.

I've always liked cheap jewelry. I think it's fun to have a lot of colorful jewelry to choose from to accessorize with. I know you wouldn't know it from the stud earings I wear lately, but I look forward to the time when Brian is out of his grabby stage so I can actually wear dangle earrings and necklaces without worrying about them being ripped off. So anyway, after looking at the website and thinking about it, I decided I would rather invest just a little more (she actually has a lot under $25, so not a lot) and get fun jewelry that come from a source I can feel good about.

So my post was going to be, "No More Made in China Jewelry". But I realized , I really don't KNOW specifically why we should do a Made in China boycott. I know their environmental protection laws are more lax, and that may be enough, of a reason, but I wanted to find out what else is going on.

The more I learned, I realized the more I don't know. (I'm finding this to be a familiar theme!)

The first site I came to was this one; www.boycottmadeinchina.org

Which lead me to realize how clueless I was about what is going on in Tibet. So it looked it up; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet

Which lead me to realize how clueless I was about the Dalai Lama. And then I remembered that I had heard about him coming to Sonoma County a few months back, which led me to this site; www.newcollege.edu/northbay/baconc_conc_overview.cfm Wow, I want to go there!

But back to my original question, should I boycott items made in China? Well the Dali Lama says yes. But a lot of the stuff I was finding seemed a little dated, and that concerns me. And some of the websites said this is a misguided boycott that will only hurt the people we are trying to help.

I do think that in general it is best to buy as locally as possible whenever possible. But is it always bad to buy from China? I want to do more research. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts- this was a long post so I expect some long comments!!!