Getting Started

New Year's Resolutions come in many varieties, many of which are discarded with the Christmas trees by the middle of January at the latest. Fortunately, this is a resolution a long time in the making. It may seem completely asinine, utterly ridiculous and downright pointless (I've already been told some of these things and more) to issue a self-imposed ban on anything that will effect one's quality of life, especially when "no one is being harmed".

While I disagree that no one is being harmed (I believe the intense and seemingly endless whooshing sound of jobs being sent overseas will and are, having tremendous impacts all over the world, not just in America), and I try not to be the champion of lost causes, I do recognize that this seems to be a rather bizarre protest. China is after all, America's largest importer of everything from fortune cookies, to cheap plastic crap to high end technology baubles that I know nothing about.

Despite all of the goods we consume everyday, most of which are from China, we (my partner and I) have decided, after some reflection and contemplation, to deliberately forbid ourselves from purchasing anything made in China for one calender year. We aren't crazy (although we've been told that we are), we aren't financially well off (in fact, we're rather broke), we don't have a ton of time on our hands to scheme about inane ways to stay busy, we just thought it would be a good idea. The reasons for our boycott vary and they will be made known throughout the course of this blog, the consequences of our decisions are being felt already and the reactions we receive to this project are just as varied as the goods imported from China.

This project is not intended to lambaste China, nor is it intended to demonize a country, a way of life or a group of people. China is one of many (sometimes a seemingly endless vortex of) countries which are being exploited by consumerism. When discussing the possibility of undertaking this boycott, we tossed around many ideas....banning products from all first world countries other than America, banning all things not made in America (an ambiguous term at best, and a concept which I almost immediately discarded as it probably meant I'd never be able to go shopping for a year. Perish the thought!)even banning only selected countries. The possibilities of the boycott are endless and they seemed overwhelming from the get go. We even discussed trashing the whole idea altogether. In the end though, we both feel it is a good idea to do this, even if the only lives it effects are our own. Ultimately the choice to ban made in China products stemmed from a variety of reasons, some of which are practical, some of which are downright selfish, all of which I hope will be explored this year and throughout this blog.

I hope that people will read this and give me their uncensored reactions. This is an undertaking which will stir up intense feelings, ideas and controversies. I think it is safe to say that neither my partner nor myself fully know what we are getting ourselves into, and it has already been a bumpy ride. We'd like to invite you along....