Jan

12

Gimme Your Charity

Filed Under Christianity, Featured, International, Social Action | 2 Comments

If you haven’t noticed, since November I have had a charity button up featuring a family that is in process of adoption.  I would like to continue featuring opportunities to give but need to know of more!  For now, I will be changing the spot to links to charities that are my favorites.  If you know of or are involved in a charity that you would like to feature here and even have a support button on my page please let me know.  I will prayerfully decide what I should and shouldn’t feature.  And of course I will have to make sure it is a legitimate charity.  Please use my Contact page to contact me.

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Sep

5

More Toy/Lead Recalls

Filed Under International | 5 Comments

Visit my Not China Made Site to see these 3 recalls.

With the holidays approaching, I would TRY to avoid Made in China if at all possible.  I know I won’t be giving my children toys from China.

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Aug

23

Can You Give Just One?

Filed Under Children, International | 2 Comments

Mommy Zabs Readers,

Wow, what an honor to write for such an esteemed crowd! Mommy Zabs has given me the honor of sharing a need with you guys. I am in the process of adopting a little boy from Liberia, West Africa. It has been and continues to be an incredible journey! You can read more about that on My Blog, but I’m not actually here to talk about my adoption. I want to share with you some of Donna’s story. Donna is the US coordinator of Adoptions, for Acres of Hope (the adoption agency that we are working with). She is just WONDERFUL!! As a mom to 10 already (5 biological kids who are a bit older, and 5 African adoptive kids), her work with Acres of Hope is definitely a sacrificial act of service to the Lord and the adoptive families.

Well, they found out a couple of months ago that there was a little baby who was going to be placed for adoption when born and they were the requested adoptive parents. Why would they be requested? This little baby is to be the sibling of two of her African children!! Their mom lives in Liberia and has Cerebral Palsy. Liberia is a war torn country with a literacy and employment rate of 10% (yes, you read that right!). Most of the children placed for adoption (like my soon to be little guy) are given up b/c the mom simply can’t feed them. So, you can imagine how hard it would be for this mom to care for her new little one. So, Donna and her husband Brian have agreed to adopt this little one when he/she is born.

Here is where you come in! Yes, they can afford this child when they come home. Feeding an extra mouth isn’t the issue, the issue is raising the $20,000 for adoption expenses! So, they are going to have to raise this money. They’ll sell stuff, apply for grants they find, probably take more money out on their home and ask anyone who is interested in helping them. At the same time, Donna will be leaving Acres of Hope to start her own ministry, Global Orphan Outreach, to help adoptive families find grants, especially families adopting special needs kids who need to get to the US asap for treatment.

My proposal is this. . .let’s spread the word and help Donna raise this money for her little one so that she can focus on raising money for kids who desperately need to come home to “first world” treatment!

How? I have encouraged Donna to set up a “one dollar adoption site”. This is a site that you can go to (and email to all your friends!) that asks people to donate just one dollar. Everyone can give a dollar! What’s so wonderful about this site, is that if you can “up” your giving to $10 or $25 you feel great! It’s not like someone asking for $100 and you saying, “well, I can only give $10 right now” and feeling bummed! They’re asking for $1 so that will bless them and anything above is just bonus!

Please consider the opportunity to join them in this wonderful journey to help a little one and give them a Home, a Hope and a Future! Go to the site right now!!

Brandi
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Thank you Brandi for this great post. Brandi and I have been friends since I moved to Florida several years ago. She spends a lot of her time involved in the church, has 2 biological children, and an adopted child on the way. Her and her husband grew up with hearts toward missions. I hope that some of you will be able to bless this family who has so willingly taken in children that need help.

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Aug

22

Feeling Pretty Sick About Recalls

Filed Under International | 3 Comments

I just finished Posting 5 different recalls due to lead on my site… 4 just released, 1 released yesterday.

I could rant forever, but that is what my other site is for, ranting about these issues with China.

Please go to Not China Made (dot) Net and check out the recent recalls to make sure your children don’t have any of the items. Here are links to each post:

Sponge Bob
Thomas & Friends, Curious George
Charm Bracelets
Toby & Me Jewelry Sets
Alphabet Train Sets

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Aug

11

Not China Made (dot) Net

Filed Under Blogging, International | 8 Comments

gotchina.png

I have not gotten to posting as regularly as I usually do in the past couple days for good reason, I have finally spent some time on my new China blog. So far there are no new posts, just all my old ‘china’ posts imported there. But I have the design just about complete and I’m ready to go for next week!

Tomorrow will be spent writing posts for both sites for the week and getting caught up on writing projects.

In the meantime, please check out www.notchinamade.net and let me know what you think! Feel free to subscribe or add it to your feed! AND PLEASE by all means spread the word. In fact, I may have to think of a contest along that lines. :) Hmmm… Also feel free to snag the button above and add it to your site!

8/12/2007- RIGHT NOW THE NOT CHINA MADE SITE IS DOWN…. WORKING ON IT ;)

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Aug

7

China Trying To Make Their One-Child Policy Sound Less Heinous.

Filed Under International | 8 Comments

Article published by BBC August 5, 2007. [Hat Tip China View Blog.]

China has decided to tone down some of the slogans used to promote its one-child policy, in a bid to make them sound less threatening. Some posters used in rural areas will be banned, such as one which read “One more baby means one more tomb.”

A list of 190 acceptable slogans is being issued instead.

Chinese authorities believe the strong language of some slogans is harming the image of the one-child policy, in place since 1979 to limit population growth.

The official Xinhua news agency explained the decision of the National Population and Family Planning Commission as “an effort to win more understanding to the country’s population control policy.”

Largest population

It gave examples of “low quality” slogans posted on rural banners or the internet: “Raise fewer babies but more piggies”, “Houses toppled, cows confiscated, if abortion demand rejected” and “One more baby means one more tomb.”

Among the new slogans recommended are “The mother earth is too tired to sustain more children” and “Both boys and girls are parents’ hearts.”

China’s 28-year-old family planning policy limits most urban couples to just one child and allows some families in the countryside to have a second child if their first is a girl.

Critics say it has led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio due to a traditional preference for male heirs, which has prompted some families to abort female fetuses in the hope of getting boys.

China has the largest population in the world - 1.3bn in 2005 - and says its policies have helped limit its growth rate.

In China they not only try to decide for you that the village can raise your child better than you can, but that they know how many children you should have. Realizing that most enlightened people find this policy repulsive and BEYOND oppressive they are trying to put it in more palatable terms.

No, No we aren’t a infanticidal government, we are just trying to reduce our carbon footprint!

You know I could rant so much longer on this… but instead I thought I would let you tell me what you think of the article.

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Aug

1

Lead Paint Recall

Filed Under Blogging, International | 9 Comments

I heard about a HUGE recall via email from T.Y.!!! Have you heard of this one by Mattell? It is an GINORMOUS amount of Sesame Street and Nickelodeon’s products. GO HERE to see if you own any (would have been bought may 2007 and on). Of course, I have been boycotting China so we are safe. ;)

On another note. If I haven’t been by your blog much, I apologize. Between family things, life, learning how to build my own page (via Girly Blog Designz consultation service!), Graphics projects, and required reading of books I need to get through, my blog reading has been spotty. I will catch up eventually! I’m trying to learn how to balance everything right now.

Onward.

Also, If I put an ‘approve’ button on the bottom of a post, (Like the previous post,) I would love for you to consider submitting it to Mother Approves if you like ;) Feel free to use it!

EDIT (2 minutes after posting): Just as I finished posting this Layguy sent me this article about the lead recall from Yahoo Australia.

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Jul

18

China News Links July 17, 2007

Filed Under Books, International, Social Action | 3 Comments

Chinese Government is at it again (no surprise here) and is set on destroying 3 home churches.

You may want to look on your tee shirt tags to see where your shirts came from. Just take a look at these photos of a contaminated cotton factory and the slave labor going on therein.

gaobook_en.jpg

A book on China human rights lawyer Gao Zheshing just came out. I will be ordering it shortly and adding it to my booklist. Here is a teaser:

Yet no words, however strong, can possibly describe the darkness and terrible barbarity of today’s dictators in China, nor the tragic annihilation of Chinese culture that they have perpetrated. Though I have strived to convey these qualities through my writing, having attempted to unveil merely one corner of China’s darkness, I cannot help but feel the futility and frailty of language.

In today’s China, where the forces of incivility run rampant, it is common practice to mock what is beautiful and to beautify what is vile. A pathological China is not ready for what I write. But I hope such a China will soon emerge.

I will add that Gao is also a Christian.

Read a full book review on A China More Just.
Read previous news items on Gao Zheshing.
Read my previous posts on China.

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Jun

20

Good Lead Results! And more from Thomas.

Filed Under Children, Entertainment, Family, International | 9 Comments

Just to let you know (thanks for the prayers,) my children are in a safe zone for lead in their blood! I’m so glad. The tests came back much sooner than I thought they would.

Today the International Herald had an interesting article on the Thomas & Friends Lead Recall situation.

When it first announced the recall, RC2 said its customers would have to cover shipping costs to mail back the trains. It reversed that decision after parents reacted angrily, but it is still going to wait about two months to send the postage refunds. Why? “Because finance is in another building,” as one customer service employee on RC2’s toll-free hotline told me.Most important of all, the company hasn’t yet explained how the lead got into the trains or what it’s doing to avoid a repeat. Like their counterparts at HIT, the RC2 executives have stayed silent.

Battening down the hatches might work if this were a scandal about sweatshop conditions. Fairly or not, Americans have a limited attention span when it comes to human rights problems on the other side of the world. But the prospect of lead paint in your child’s nervous system tends to focus the mind.

The fact that the executives at HIT and RC2 haven’t grasped the difference shows how out of date the corporate script on outsourcing has become. In many businesses, outsourcing has simply grown too big to stay behind the curtain. What happens in Chinese factories determines how good - how reliable and how safe - many products are.

So there is no way for executives to distance themselves from China without also distancing themselves from their own product.

Read entire article…

I responded to the author David Leonhardt via email because I could not seem to find out from anywhere if RC2 Corporation was willing to pay for blood testing our children for lead.

Mr. Leonhardt,

Thank you so much for your story in the Herald today regarding the Thomas recall and the problems with outsourcing. What I can’t seem to find anywhere is if they are going to cover the costs of blood tests for lead poisoning, and if a class action is started against them yet? I have some of the trains, and i have a 3 year old and 1 year old. They chew on them… paint is chipped. My pediatrician ordered a blood test right away and I’m waiting for results. This is going to blow up into a huge matter if children have lead poisoning as a result. I suppose I’m writing you in response to this with the hope that maybe you have these answers? or you may find them and write on them. I’m so upset about this problem. I for one will not be returning my trains until I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my children are not effected.

Thank You,
(my name)

To my total shock, he wrote me back!

Thanks, Elizabeth.

The customer-service representative on the RC2 hotline told me that many parents have been asking whether the company will cover the cost of the lead tests but that the company will not be. If you want to call the number for yourself, it’s 866-725-4407. And I’ll post this exchange in our reader response section.

David

Now why won’t O’Reilly write me back? ;) (please know I’m kidding- I mean, I DID write him, but in hopes it was a story his team would consider airing, but he has never written back to my other ideas, so why would he this time?- LOL)

I have not been able to find the section or reader reaction he is talking about, but I’m glad I’m in it!

Previous posts regarding Thomas Recall and reasons to Boycott China:
Thomas & Friends Recall- Update Part 2
Thomas & Friends Recall Update
Thomas & Friends Recall
China Organ Harvesting
Still Thinking about Women in China
61 Women Forced to Have Abortions in China

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Jun

19

Thomas & Friends Recall- Update Part 2

Filed Under Boycott, Children, Family, International, Motherhood, Social Action, Socialism, Trials & Tribs | 12 Comments

07212.jpg
I did what MoTu suggested and called my pediatrician this morning. I am still waiting to hear back a definite referral but her nurse said she has little doubt that she will want them to go to our Children’s’ Hospital Close to Home practice and get blood tests.

My friend and regular commenter, T.Y., sent me an article from the New York Times last night that I find interesting regarding this Thomas recall and the rising rate of recalls of toys Made in China.

If you have read me more than a couple weeks you know that I had already decided to ban (as much as possible) new made in China products from being bought by our household. This article, this recall, and other toy recalls are only strengthening my resolve and confirming my beliefs that this is necessary.

It isn’t easy! I went to the drug store on the way to the pool last week in effort to find pool toys NOT made in China. I found ONE boat, so I bought two. Everything else was made in China.

The problem is, beyond boycotting we need to scream out to the toy companies about this. It is impossible to compete with the manufacturers in China’s bottom line, but at what cost? It may mean nothing to them when a few parents are boycotting because of the human rights abuses in China, but another when it is actually putting our children’s lives at stake and affecting their health. This movement has to gain momentum and parents have to demand safer products, and in my opinion China can not ensure that. I’m not going to feel safe purchasing another Thomas Train, even if I didn’t feel strongly about the boycott previously.

The article that T.Y. recommended goes on to name other recent safety recalls. A fake eyeball (I have seen these) that had KEROSENE in it! Are you kidding me? Other wooden toys have also been painted in lead. Despite the US having a ban on lead paint since the 1970’s, China has not banned lead paint. Considering all of the other things their government restricts, this baffles me. Perhaps it is another form of population control for them?

Please see this article for more details.

As for me, these trains are not being sent back yet- no such luck for them. I will definitely be holding on to these until I am absolutely sure my children have not been effected.

On a side note: Does anyone else realize how expensive these “designer line” wooden Thomas Trains are? This is their top of the line toy, they are expensive! Why couldn’t they have at least manufactured these in the states or somewhere else more safe? When I’m paying 15-29 dollars for a silly train do they really need to have it manufactured in China for cents on the dollar?

Update as off 1pm eastern, The doctor did order a lead test and we will be going to the hospital after nap time. It will be a few days for the test and they will call if positive or negative. PLEASE if your children have been exposed to these trains call your pediatrician… if they do not know of the recall for some reason fax the articles I have been linking to. And by all means make sure your friends that have little ones are aware of this.

Previous posts regarding Thomas Recall and reasons to Boycott China:
Thomas & Friends Recall Update
Thomas & Friends Recall
China Organ Harvesting
Still Thinking about Women in China
61 Women Forced to Have Abortions in China

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