A Day at the Zoo

Well, it was a night at the zoo, really.

Sunday, December 17, 2006 was a day like most other Sundays, except that it was the last weekend before I went home for the holidays for two weeks. We spent a good portion of the weekend doing holiday stuff: baking, avoiding Christmas shopping, me trying to figure out what Luke was going to get me for Christmas and frequently reminding him that if he did not hurry up, our ban would go into effect before he knew it.

We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo that night (which, as far as I am concerned, is one of the only wonderful things Chicago has to offer) for the free holiday lights display. The entire zoo is free all year, which is really cool and it is a great zoo at that. (I do have mixed feelings about zoos however. The concept of animals penned up in unnatural surroundings so people from all over the world can gawk at them seems unsettling. I guess it is an educational place, I learn something new each time I go there, but in general, it is the cute, cuddly looking animals which people go to see and those are the ones we fight to save from extinction. I mean, is anyone trying to save the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, the Warthog or the Wildebeest? They need love too!)

Ok, I'm off that soapbox.

It was a wonderful night at the zoo with all the lights and not a ton of people. Most of the people there seemed in holiday spirits and the animals, those that were awake anyway, seemed to be wondering what the hell was going on.

After viewing the lights, drinking our eggnog, not freezing our butts off and generally feeling all lovely towards each other, we went into the gift shop. Typically, since we're broke, I try not to buy frivolous things, but this is the cool free zoo and I really wanted a Christmas ornament (a lingering childhood tradition to get a new ornament each year)and...and...well, I wanted to go shopping and forget about pinching pennies.

We were still 15 days away from Boycott Day, so we thought we would get a feel for how much fun this was going to be by looking at the tags on everything that interested us. First stop, the Christmas ornaments. All of the nice ones were made...in China. Yes, there were some made in America, and they looked like they would fall apart once you took them off the display rack. I was instantly disappointed.

Now, I could have purchased one anyway, regardless of where it was made, it was still 2006 after all. But the whole experience was feeling like a recriminating reminder that I shouldn't be spending money anyway.

We moved on to the tee shirts and safari hats. From there is was the more sensible scarves and gloves. Most of these products were made in China.

Surely the stuffed animals would be different, I tried to convince myself. I wandered over to the kid's side of the store and was happy (?) to find a wider array of countries being exploited to make this toys. In a rather flippant tone, I read off where each product was made.

"Oh, the monkey is made in Malaysia."

"Hey look, this is made in the Philippines, not China, so that's okay."

"Ooops, we can't buy this penguin next year." etc., etc.

I am often unaware of just how loud I can be and it seems that my enthusiasm caught the attention of a bored looking gift shop worker.

She startled me out of a daydream when she approached me and said, "Excuse me, can I ask you a question?"

I was surprised, people in Chicago don't seem to go up to someone and initiate conversation. I thought to myself, "What? What did I do? I didn't steal it, I swear!'

The no longer bored looking worker wanted to know why we were going around the store checking where everything was made. I sheepishly (where does that expression come from, I wonder?) told her that we were starting a ban on anything made in China and we were wondering where things in this store were made.

Eventually I noticed that she did not look please by this. I think my final clue was when she asked me, "Well, why is it ok to buy stuff made in the Philippines but not China?"

I felt flustered and a bit challenged, and I don't think I had the best of answers to give her. (Maybe Luke will weigh in on this with his post, this is about the point where he joined the conversation.)

I tried to stammer something out about how we weren't trying to say that it was ok to exploit one country over another, it was just that China is one of the largest importers of goods to this country, and we thought we'd start there. I may have even eked out something like, "the jobs at my old company are in China now, not in the Philippines."

She had a quick counterattack and tried to educate me about the theories that China has passed it's exporting peak. I had begun to wonder this too, while I was employed, as I noticed an marked increase in the number of e-mails and photos of factories and potential factories in places like VietNam and Thailand.

I tried to follow what she was saying, she spoke very quietly, and my own thoughts kept getting in the way.

I believe that the gist of what she was saying is, that China is failing to be the super power that it once was because their economy is doing so well that they are able to command higher prices than ever before. She was convinced that American corporations would soon find other countries to exploit and China would fall on it's face.

As I've mentioned, I've thought about that possibility, but it seems over simplified to me since China has an almost limitless supply of workers, a very narrow strip of land which is developed and benefiting from this boom, as well as an enormous amount of land which could still be developed.

I do agree that other countries are starting to be even more exploited, and I am not happy about that. I tried to tell her that I understood her point, but I didn't think this boycott would work for the two of us if we tried to ban almost everything and that I thought starting somewhere to raise awareness was better than nothing at all. I don't think she agreed with me.

She continued the conversation with Luke for a bit, while I mentally checked out and tried to process what just happened.

When we left the gift shop, sans ornament, I felt confused, frustrated, a little stupid and a bit deflated. It appeared to me that I failed at convincing the first stranger I talked with, that this was a good idea, even if it probably won't change the world.

As we walked towards the zoo's exit and smiled at the friendly person who handed us a program schedule on our way in, the lights twinkled all around us, the air was pleasantly crisp and I felt a distinct disconnect between the fun filled evening and the voice in my head musing, "I wonder where the lights were made..."