Here’s a follow-up on the origin of
my EFF hat. Apparently the EFF
didn’t even consider where the hats were made when they started, which is pretty
normal for most folks. They simply searched for the best deal. It sounds like
they have a decent amount of hats stored up still that they will continue to
distribute rather than dispose of; that makes sense. In fairness to the EFF,
my impression is that these were part of bulk order a while back. Possibly
before China got really draconian with beefing up the firewall and shutting
down netcafes, and maybe even before the blog explosion of the last two years which they’ve fought
desperately to control.
It just shows, it’s difficult to know where products are made and it’s difficult
not to support regimes that you don’t agree with or that violate human rights.
Other big exporters, such as Indonesia and Malaysia also have their own human
rights issues. We could also resort to saying buy American, but then we’re
also deluding ourselves to a degree. I suppose at least with capitalist
countries you’re not really supporting the oppression like you may be with
communist nations. Intuitively I would think that shopping at Ikea
would be fine, but I just looked a few Ikea picture frames; made in China.
Thanks to whichever one of my blog readers gave the helpful pointer to the EFF.
I noticed that they looked at the weblog entry from last night and in the email
they made a comment about persevering after no response. Thanks to the EFF for taking time to
respond. You guys and girls rock. Thanks for fighting the good fights.
