Je T'adore

Filipinos are suckers for imported stuff. Well that's the general tone anyway. Balikbayans or people coming home from a foreign country are suddenly flocked by a plethora of long-lost relatives asking for pasalubong or gifts that are made in whatever country the poor hapless guy spent a fraction of his life in.
I have a lot of relatives in the States, one of them, an aunt, sends us Christmas packages every year. I opened mine and among the stuff inside, a sheer pink top caught my eye. The brand was Je t'adore. Cool, I thought, must be from France, but I got the laugh of my life when, while I was checking on the washing instructions I saw a smaller print that said Made in the Philippines. Yup. The pink top went places and now it found it's way back home. I congratulated it and let it rest in my closet.
It's about world trade, globalization, whatever you want to call it. There are a lot of factors that contribute to the status of the global economy but lately what's so obvious is that small-scale local manufacturers are being overshadowed by big companies who can afford to out-source cheaper labor, produce at break-neck speed, and export, export, export. There are so many things Made in China nowadays, even Nokia cellphones, because of their cheap labor. But imagine, a Chinese factory worker who assembles Nokia parts all day, walks by a store and ogles at a cellphone he has always wanted to buy to contact his daughter in the city but can't.
Something to think about.