August 17, 2007

Go Play With Sticks and Stones-la!

Another China-related manufacturing scandal.

This time, this scandal has a world-wide effect. It involves children toys.

The last scandal involving China's manufacturing industry had to do with food, to be precise, certain ingredients in pet foods have been tainted. This caused some pets to die, i.e. mainly dogs or cats. When the pet foods company performed a detailed investigation, they found out that some food manufacturers in China were responsible for having ingredients being tainted.

I kept tabs on this. 'Coz I have a dog and ever since the Pedigree scare several years back which caused renal failure, I've taken her off the big commercial pet foods and went for those foods certified/recommended by the vets.

Meanwhile, due to this issue, several big companies in US decided to sit up and take a closer look at their operations, especially those where they outsourced ingredients or components from China.

Anyway, one of the more tragic news out of this new scandal is about how one manufacturer has committed suicide after learning that the products his factory manufactured contained lead in the paint and that it was being recalled. He paid his workers before hanging himself. The worse part is that the paint was supplied by his friend, who has disappeared once the scandal broke. So much for friendship.

The other issue I have with this is... Who in their right fxxking mind will put tiny magnets in toys???? What more, the tiny magnets can come out! Whoever designed these types of toys are real idiots. Sure, you can put labels to warn parents about small parts or the appropriate age for the kid to play, but who reads labels???

Due to this scandal, I now think I should throw away about 99% of my old toys which I intend to give away to my future kids or nephews/nieces as it is now dangerous. Hehehehehee... I can't imagine how I managed to grow up without much health problems due to such toys.

Oh well, back in the day when toys were a luxury, we had to make due with our imagination. We played with whatever was around us - rice, sticks, stones, earth, grass, old tyres, metal pieces, floor tiles... If you can make a game out of something, it was a toy. I remembered asking my grandma for rice so that I can make my five or seven stones. We had some spare cloth lying around and we thought it was a good idea. Boy, those days, toys were easy to come by. And I was an urban kid!!

These days, I doubt any kid will take up a stick to play with. When I say kid, I refer to the urban kid. Kids these days will settle for nothing less than the best toys - mostly electric generated. During my time, a battery operated toy was the ultimate type of toy to get for Christmas or your b'day.

Times have changed. Tastes have changed. Parents have a bit more spending power than parents of past generations and they can afford to splurge on their kids - buying some gadgets which will apparently increase their brainpower. Kekeekeke... I don't have kids but please do let me know in 17 years time if buying a really expensive toy which is supposed to stimulate brain activity in a gurgling baby to produce 25As in his SPM.

Sekian, Terima Kasihhhhh...

2 comments:

  1. Hahahahah! You've found a kindred spirit in me, Angie. I make toys for my kid to play with. Since they say that colour and sound is what stimulates them, I use a plastic container with a bright cap, fill it up with rice and screw on the top.

    *Shake! shake! shake! shake!*

    Captures her attention just the same. 60-odd ringgit cheaper. I just have a hard time using the same excuse when going for other kid's birthday parties.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kekekekekekeke...

    Yeap, making your own toys are so much more fun. I intend to keep my old Lego toys as those classic ones are the best. However, hopefully, the paint on those toys do not have any lead. :-S

    Anyway, for kids b'day parties, I'm always the one advocating for books at any age.

    Must teach them the joys of reading at an early age.

    ReplyDelete

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