Boycott Chinese products? Yeah, sure
Recently a rather strange campaign has gained spread in Latvia - don`t buy Chinese products, in order to support the struggle of Tibet. Although on an emotional level I can understand such an attitude, this whole situation is way too laughable to be taken seriously. Boycott China? How is that possible. Almost everything is made in China and even with wares that have labels "made in Spain" probably are made in China anyhow. Plus if you boycott China, aren`t there tons of other countries that you can boycott just as well? Russia drowned Chechnya in blood (or didn`t it?) - perhaps we should restrain from using Russia`s natural gas and warm ourselves entirely by rubbing one against another? Turkey doesn`t recognize the Armenian genocide plus it oppresses the Kurds - let`s boycott Turkey then? India and Pakistan are two war-crazy states because of the Kashmir region for decades - I don`t want to support either of them. Israel and Arab states around it are constantly on the brink of war and their actions are usually targeted against civilians - let`s boycott them (although I`m not sure that even if I wanted to I could buy any Lebanese products). USA invaded Iraq for no clear reasons and has caused death of thousands of civilians there - let`s boycott the Americans. And all the countries that supported the invasion. Including Latvia.
Why is Tibet exclusive? There are tens of places around the world where oppression is on the same level and where civil (and all other) rights are treated as if they didn`t exist. And it is perfectly clear that if I buy a Vietnamese shirt instead of a Chinese one I`m not making any impact, just as I`m not making it by signing an Internet petition. I could make some impact if I became the prime minister of Latvia and would start persuading heads of other EU member states to take some global steps in order to support Tibet, Darfur or maybe even Catalan people. While I`m not - it`s all just bullshit in order to show myself and have a clear conscience. You don`t fight an entire army with a paper knife and you don`t fight China by buying a T-shirt made in India.