What It'll Turn Into

Many American airline operators are cryin’ about high oil prices. By August, there will be hundreds of cut flights and you’ll be lucky if an airline even circles Topeka. Once again, flying may the dominion of the rich and wealthy and that means we’re all stuck here, hitchhiking to the border. But don’t count AirAsia in on all that fun. CEO Tony Fernandes is brushing his shoulders off and thinks this is all some fun ‘n’ games. He says: “We are comfortable even with oil at US$200 (a barrel). There is a silver lining. We have taken a very different approach in that we will market ourselves out of this problem. We think that just putting your head in the sand and crying about oil and cutting routes is not the solution.”

I tend to agree. It’s business! Things come up, you have to figure a way out. Charging everyone $15 is just going to get people mad at you. What if everyone just up and said “what’s this talking picture business? Silent films are great!” Airlines: change happens! Adapt!

With Concern for the Garment District...

With forethought and hope, I have been continuing my ban on Chinese products but now it looks like I’ll have to include the rest of Asia as well. It’s been tough…I really try hard not to purchase these products, but our economy is such a whore to Asia that nary an American (or European, or South American) product is in sight.

I, maybe somewhat naively, thought all Asian factories were the same. They all get the same orders from the people at Company X and the workers get paid in rice and so on and so forth. There’s not much I can do about that but ban my consumption. I don’t even eat Chinese food.

Continue reading for a list of sweatshop - free companies - because Asians are humans too. In case you were wondering.

Then I learned about Cambodia. I am falling in love with this country. I was listening to This American Life on the radio and heard that Cambodia has amazing labor laws which rival our own out here in the developed world. To quote from FashionIncubator.com :

“Imagine a nation where the sewing industry is characterized by:

Eight hour work days
Seamstresses earn two to three times as much as teachers and policemen.
Child labor is unheard of.
All overtime is paid.
Free medical care on site.
Three months paid maternity leave.
Employers must give breast feeding mothers unimpeded access to their infants
Forty three paid vacation days per year (no, we’re not talking about France, although it once was a French colony).

Does this sound like Shangri la? It’s not. It’s Cambodia; the only poor country in the world to guarantee fair labor practices in the needle trades. Comparatively, their successes far outweigh the standards used in more developed nations. Yes, Cambodia, where one third of the population was killed during the civil war in the 70’s. Today, the needle trade amounts to nearly 100% of the nation’s exports and one third of GDP, thanks to a program instituted under the Clinton Administration. Then, Cambodia agreed to become an unlikely experiment in quality manufacturing and workplace standards, agreeing to random and unsceduled factory monitoring. By all accounts, the experiment was a rousing success. That is until preferential trade practices expired in 2005. Then, it seemed that all could be undone.”

Outsourcing you can feel good about. Though still and underdeveloped country whose teachers and civil servants, etc. are underpaid (hey, not much different than here), their garment industry is leaps and bounds above China’s horror show.

And now, as promised, links to buying super cute, sweat-shop free clothes and other items:

Sweatshop Watch’s Shop With a Conscience

Behind the Label

It won’t keep you up at night to shop at:

American Apparel
Gap Inc. (with 45 factories in Cambodia)
Levi’s (also with large presence in Cambodia)

You’ll have nightmares about:

Nike
Wal-mart (of course)

I’m trying to find more…but these big companies are pretty sneaky.

A Little Rant...

Barack Obama (yay!!) and Mike Huckabee (boo!) won at the Iowa caucuses today. To me, Iowa doesn’t mean squat because by November, no one’ll remember who won and who lost–just like the Oscar movies from early 2007. Iowa, to me, doesn’t seem to correctly identify with the rest of the country, so I don’t like to count them - before anyone gets in a tizzy - I’ve been to Iowa and wasn’t impressed. But I really can’t believe Huckabee won - it’s as if the Democrats have too many great candidates and the Republicans are up in the mountains doing a jig. Just look at their choices! A adulterer (most of us have been there, but conservative Repubs can’t like him), a capitalist Mormon (can’t decide which is worse) and (for now) a Baptist minister/rocker/ex-governor. All hacks. I can’t see anything genuine in any of them and I’m ready (been ready for about 8 years) for something genuine. Maybe I’m too far from the religious crazies but I just don’t see how Americans blindly believe in what people say if they are backed by religious fervor. Maybe I just can’t trust anyone too closely tied to religion…Bush is a born-again and all I see is a nation-building, poor-people killing, ignoramus. But you already knew that.

So my question about Huckabee is this…do we really want another 4+ years of idiocy and anti-intellectualism and a continued restriction on our human rights? That’s what this guy is clearly advocating…so I’ll gladly take the Mormon or the adulterer.

A Failed Comic Career

Imagine me up on stage being a complete nutcase. You don’t have to imagine that for a while. Here are some “jokes” that have been rolling around in my head. Because I’m a comic “genius”…

I used to work in the hotel industry and had to research a lot of fancy luxury hotels and things like that. A lot of times, I’d come across words like “family get togethers” or family getaways…now I don’t have a family by choice and I always hear people bitching about theirs. So–reading that, wouldn’t you want to getaway from your family? That’s what that sounds like to me. A nice, relaxing get…AWAY!!!!!

My mom was a big influence in my life. I don’t know if she or I knew what exactly she was influencing, but I don’t think that matters.

I have a big problem with food. You know that diet–the eat everything diet? I’m a believer in that. I was a vegan for 9 or so years and now I’m making up for it. And I can’t believe it because I would always say no to meat and now if I see it I have to have it. I dream about it, I hoard it. I actually yell at my boyfriend if he tries to take my meat. But it’s not a problem if I take his. But I’m selective, you know, I won’t eat at McDonald’s for instance. But you can’t really call that meat anyhow.

My body still has issues processing milk though–I always wondered who was the crazy bastard who put that udder in his mouth for the first time. Cuz you know a woman wouldn’t do it. Women are too cautious. It’s like “hey honey, I’m riding this mechanical bull drunker than a monkey who just snorted horseradish!” We smart, uterus-having folk say “ok go ahead”. Many women are very reserved, very cautious. I know I am. In real life. This, me up on this stage? This is not real life. But in real life, it’s hard for women to say what they really feel–they are afraid they won’t get taken seriously, or won’t get a promotion or endless reasons why they won’t bust out and dance on a table. And that is my philosophy for why women drink. I drink, heavily. I’m a beer and sangria girl. I feel it’s best to stick with a couple things and do them right.

I was in a sorority–where drinking is both a sprint and an endurance trial. Every night when we’d go out we’d drink like 8 shots of 151 and run outside in our little halter tops and heels without jackets in negative 7 degree weather. Are ya’ll aware of the term “drinking jacket”? You can’t find it in any store and it’s a figment of your drunk imagination.