Posted by WTO Watch Qld on December 23, 2001 at 20:20:44:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"And so this is Christmas for black and for white,
for yellow and red, let's stop all the fight." -- John Lennon
FOCUS ON CHRISTMAS
WTO Watch Qld would like to wish you all a happy, safe and peaceful Christmas.
I had a really good article earmarked for this Christmas bulletin. It was a story from London where last (?) year, the car maker Renault 'sponsored'
the giant Christmas tree in the heart of London. On top of the tree, instead of an angel or a star, there was....yes...you guessed it.. a picture of Renault's latest car.
However, having whetted your appetite for a good story, I have to inform you that I can't find it anywhere on my computer. Maybe next year....
a) From Fairwear.
***Away in a Sweatshop***
(to the tune of "Away in a Manger")
Away in a sweatshop, where no one can see
the immigrant seamstresses work constantly.
Conditions are awful, the pay is absurd
the boss he will fire them, if they say a word.
Away in a factory, an ocean away
young girls make shoes for a dollar a day.
But please don't complain 'bout such exploitation
'cause this factory's in a Most Favoured Nation.
Away in the Parliament, the MPs get fat
count their PAC dollars, pass NAFTA and GATT.
They couldn't care less about workers in need
They've traded their conscience to service their greed.
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b)
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11953
Recycled Christmas: One Family's Revolution Against the Shopping Mall
Brian Smith, AlterNet November 21, 2001
Sitting around the dinner table out at the farm last Thanksgiving, the subject of what to do about
Christmas came up. How would we organize a family gathering now that
we kids are grown and scattered across the state? Whose house would
we use? How would we deal with the whole gift-giving thing?
Everyone seemed completely unenthusiastic about engaging in another
orgy of shopping and crowds and waste. There was the sense of duty:
to tradition, to the nation. TV newscasters claimed that the very
health of the US economy depended upon our generous holiday
spending. Christmas consumerism is patriotic. Don't think about it
too much, just shut up and shop. After confessing distaste for the
entire affair, one rebel relative proposed we just bag the whole
holiday. The lobbying for this option was fierce and convincing. And
for an agnostic family, ignoring Christmas altogether seemed like a
perfectly viable option. Though we really enjoyed coming together
for a mid-winter celebration, the very thought of shopping ruined
Christmas. Wasn't there another option? Didn't we have the right to
reclaim the holiday and create our own family tradition? After
an hour of discussion, and a few more glasses of wine, we arrived at a
solution: Recycled Christmas. And it turned out to be the best
Christmas since I was a child. Here is how it works. Everyone
is invited to give presents to anyone else, but these rules must be
followed: you can only give a gift that has been previously owned,
nothing new; you can make a present, a painting, a song, a poem, or
whatever; you can give away something you already own; you can
purchase your gift at a second-hand store or garage sale; and all
gifts should be wrapped in newspaper. (Sunday comics if you want to
get fancy.) That's it. Simple. Well, not exactly. As it
turns out, giving the perfect Recycled Christmas present is a much
more personal experience than just going to the mall with a credit
card. When you give a present from a garage sale, or from your
attic, you must understand and care about the person on the
receiving end. Another tie for dad or bath soap set for auntie just
won't do. You really have to think about your loved ones and who
they are as people. My mother found some used photo albums for
each of us kids and filled them with pictures from our childhoods.
She had written personal memories next to each picture. I was in
tears seeing photos that had lingered in shoeboxes and drawers for
twenty years. I gave my intellectual cousin one of my favorite
novels that she instantly curled up with and read by the fire until
she fell asleep. My father received a big plastic lawn-goose, with
a light bulb inside. It was the perfect gift for a man who had
discovered his love for raising birds on the farm in his 50s. He
giggled with delight as he turned it on and placed it proudly on the
mantel. My aunt gave my girlfriend her favorite cookbook, with the
best recipes clearly marked by gravy stains -- a subtle hint to make
sure I was eating right. My brother and I baked loaves of beer
bread and handed them out to family members still warm and wrapped
in tinfoil. The gift giving went late into the night because each
person told a story about what they were thinking when they chose
the gift. We laughed and felt like a family again. We participated
in the holiday on our own terms. The advantages of Recycled
Christmas became apparent quickly. We all saved a ton of money. We
had a lot more fun. We never even stepped foot in a mall or felt the
crush of the holiday traffic. We contributed nothing to the local
landfill. And best of all, we knew the presents we gave and received
had all come from the heart.
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c) Tuesday, December 19, 2000
Aussie Christmas Giant Disqualified by Brits
"Not Proper!" Snipes London
The Guinness Book of Records has disqualified the world's biggest ever
Christmas tree, in Tasmania's Styx River Valley of the Giants' as "not a
proper Christmas Tree", Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.
In a letter to the Wilderness Society from its Euston Road HQ, Guinness
applauded the antipodean effort but said the tree should have been a spruce,
not a eucalypt, to qualify.
Greens Senator Bob Brown said the 78 metres Tasmanian tree which drew world
acclaim last Christmas when it was decorated with 3000 fairy lights and, on
top, a 4 metre star* is the world's tallest ever.
"No desk-bound London expert is going to rule the Australian giant out. We
suspect Forestry Tasmania or John Howard , who has listed the Styx forests
for logging, may have slipped Guinness a quid.
"The spruce rule is new. Next they will be telling Australians you can't
have Christmas in summer!
"A survey last week showed most Brits would prefer Christmas on the beach.
So the Guinness Book of Records is right out of touch.
"A Christmas tree is an evergreen tree decorated for Christmas. That's
that. I've written back asking them to think again," Senator Brown said.
*This star remains. It will light up automatically (via solar power) 9pm
each night over this Christmas period.
Tallest Christmas Trees
1. 77.8m Styx Valley Christmas giant. Eucalypt. Tasmania. Australia
1999-2000
2. 76.8m Tallest artificial Christmas tree (decorated smokestack).
Concrete. Mass. USA 1999
3. 67.4m Tallest cut Christmas tree. Spruce. Seattle. USA. 1952
4. 37.1m Tallest current US Christmas tree. Woodinville. WA. USA
5. 25.9m Tallest indoor Christmas tree. Dallas. Texas.
(35 million Christmas trees are sold each year in the USA alone! GULP.)
Further information: Ben Oquist 02 62773170 or 0419 704095
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Tasmania's magnificent forests are being reduced to woodchips at an all time record rate. Twice the quantity of woodchips come out of Tasmania than all other states combined. Yet the Styx 'Valley of the Giants' - home to the tallest flowering plants on earth--is being sacrificed to produce even more.
The Wilderness Society has a campaign up and running to end the woodchipping of these magnificent trees. Give the forests a Christmas present---visit the Wilderness Society's site and find out how you can help.
www.wilderness.org.au
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Terrie Templeton WTO watch Qld gumbus@powerup.com.au
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