consider this: the US has a multi-billion dollar trade deficit with china. add to that the fact that china has had a ban on american beef since the mad cow “epidemic” and you have what is shaping up to be quite an interesting exercise in the US media and government propaganda machine.

for the past month i have listened to and read countless stories about the chinese recalls and the lack of safety standards there, etc. etc. etc. meanwhile, US companies continue to outsource jobs to countries where the cost of labor is cheaper. this could get very ugly. what better way to force china to lift it’s ban on beef and bring jobs back to the US where it’s “safe” than to begin a scare campaign against the “made in china” label. i mean hey, it worked with iraq! they didn’t even have weapons, and just the implication that they might, that the “smoking gun might be a mushroom cloud” was enough to send this country into a fear induced tizzy that is now a trillion dollar failed war.

china makes 70 percent of the world’s toys. of the hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, a nine million dollar recall is not even a drop in the bucket. think about that. there have been MUCH larger recalls from american made toys (i will need to research and cite here but i don’t have time to do so right now). not to mention that the latest recall of the magnet based polly pocket etc. has nothing to do with the manufacturing and EVERYTHING to do with the engineering and design. where was it designed? the US. so we should blame china for building to spec? the last time I checked, the law didn’t work that way.

i am so tired of people not thinking and just buying into any and everything just because it was on the news. i for one, am NOT buying into the propaganda machine. my beef is not with china, i’ll leave that to the cattle industry.

i am a people watcher. not in a creepy way that makes someone feel uncomfortable, moreso an observatory way that is not intrusive. i especially enjoy couples. the subtle intimacy of two people who share a romantic interest makes me smile.

today while i was eating lunch, i saw one such couple. i noticed them when they walked in. they had an aura of positive energy. they passed my table when they were being seated. i liked how the man placed his hand (ever so lightly) on the small of the woman’s back to guide her toward the table, pulling her chair out as though it were second nature. their lunch was a series of these familiar exchanges and i found myself drawn to the comfort of their interaction. i think it was the implied history that intruiged me. knowing that they’d grown accustom to the rythm of one another’s speech– the space between words, inevitable pauses, the punctuation of a smile. He silently predicting that she would order the same thing, just like she always did every time they came to this restaurant, even though she always said she would try something new. She anticipating the exact moment when he would systematically clean each utensil with the extra napkin that she knew he would ask the waitress for. things they could only know because they knew each other.

these moments in life are my secret pleasures. the daddy who lovingly brushes a stray hair from his baby girl’s cheek. two friends giggling as a look that only they can interperet passes between them. in this cold world of strangers, i search for glimpses of humanity. the couple in the restaurant did not speak english, but love needs no interpreter. with the constant barrage of negativity it is easy to forget how much good still exists, it’s what keeps me grounded. no matter what storms rage externally, to quote india arie, “ain’t nothin in the whole wide world like the peace that i have found, in the little things, and the joy they bring.”

peace and love to you all — gary bartz.