China - Response

Through watching "Mardi Gras Made in China" and "China Blue", I realized how words and stories can sometimes have no impact on an individual, even if they are go against our standards of how we define life. Majority of people have most likely heard about the negative side of Wal-Mart's convenient and low-prices business, but those spoken words and stories don't hold much value in our hearts after the conversations are over. At least they didn't for me. I was always aware of it, another not-so-good thing that America is partaking in, enjoying, and completely disconnected from, but it took seeing the conditions of the Chinese compounds and hearing the stories of the workers to actually connect and personalize the issue.

These documentaries also allowed me to see just how huge the disconnect between manufacturers and buyers really is. In the end "China Blue", Jasmine writes a letter to whoever will purchase the jeans that are about to be shipped out of the country, and in it, she says something that stirred many emotions inside of me and made me see this gap. She says something along the lines of "I hope you like the jeans me and my friends made...she sewed on the pockets, Orchid put on the zipper and I clipped all of the thread off at the end." I have never gotten a new pair of jeans and even thought about the lives of the people who put them together.

Supply chains in America are probably necessary for the kind of demand our people now know, love, and expect, but I think Wal-Mart's recognition of expecting leeway in place of providing the many needs for a low-price says a lot. They understand what they are doing, but also know they are doing the best supply-chaining around. With that said, one reading points out that "Wal-Mart doesn't make anything" and I think this ties in with the unawareness or disconnect from the harm that is actually being done.

I understand that America has a different standard of life than most other countries, but for a nation that wants to spread its ways to the rest of the world, it is constantly implementing the suppressing lifestyles further. Obviously, there are issues in all of our systems that are working with and against each other everyday, and most people find themselves only talking about it....