by Joe Snyder
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Santa was good to me again this year. Since I am 92 years old and in my second childhood, I guess, Santa brought me a little chipmunk who talks, wiggles his tail and bends over to eat his food. He’s a cute little guy and fun to play with. When I turned him over, guess where he was made? You guessed it, "Made in China." Yes, I did get some things made in the U.S.A. I got three lovely books which I will enjoy. I got a beautiful wooden deer and it’s baby which I’m sure was hand carved by someone in U.S.A. and also a tiny dachshund, also carved in our country. I still love wood carvings. Oh, yes, another gift was a Van Heusen shirt. Would you believe it was made in Vietnam? Did you know that most of our clothing is not made in the United States?
An interesting article I read said that many of our gifts around the tree were wrapped in beautiful paper and tied with ribbons and bows which had been manufactured by firms in China. Scotch tape used for the packages is still made in Hutchinson, Minn. But cellophane tape which is commonly called scotch tape, is manufactured by a company in Hong Kong.
Another popular gift is the Apple iPod or an iPhone assembled by a subsidiary of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Company which is the world’s largest manufacturer of electronic components.
Maybe you had a question about a toy you received and dialed a 1-800 number for help from India. The majority of toys that are received in the United States were made in China or some country close to it. Very few toys are actually made in the United States these days.
Even perfectly formed Barbie is molded in Indonesia and China. And "Real American Hero," G.I. Joe? More like G.I. Jian.
Like the toys at the base, the tree, itself, may be made of plastic from a company not in the U.S.A. The National Christmas Tree Association says that up to 85% of the artificial trees come from China. Even when you dress up a real tree grown in the United States, you may end up decorating with ornaments, garlands and tinsel from China or any place but the United States.
Maybe we can use our "Made in U.S.A." labels for those bizarre financial instruments we manufactured out of paper we borrowed from China.
It’s scary to think that maybe one cold Christmas morning America might wake up from their yuletide dreams and there may not be so many wonderful things below the festooned boughs of their fake Christmas tree.
I can remember many years ago I heard someone say that we must watch "Sleeping China," as that sleepy nation would someday wake up. And I think it has happened. Happy New Year friends. Let’s hope 2011 isn’t as bad as I might have made it sound.