Gawd, Whose Fault Is It?

Really, whose fault is it? If you narrow your options because of short-sightedness, you take what results and lump it. Or you get smart, become informed and involved.

If, for example, modern agricultural techniques embrace the use of fewer types of grains because through genetic manipulation a single species seems to offer attributes seen as more favourable, such as more reliable crops through the use of more successful seeds impervious to insect, mould or weed infestation, it may be a formula for future disaster. When mono-species are wiped out by a catastrophic insect invasion.

Without the option of diversity we're vulnerable. We've gone the route of placing all our eggs in one basket of productivity. Where once goods were manufactured proudly all over the world, and the reliability of the product in question was assured by a good track record from the country of origin, we've placed ourselves in an untenable position through our demands to have it all; goods and cheap goods.

Human beings are greedy, they want it all. We insist on having the availability of all manner of products once undreamed of but now widely approachable through anyone's income, because the goods and products come cheap. Manufacturers and growers look for less expensive sources, and they lower their quality control expectations in the process. Just giving consumers what they want, they insist. And they're right, really they are.

Not always, though. In some countries where people really cannot afford badly needed medicines, and cheap fakes are introduced into the marketplace their deleterious effects on peoples' health makes this a far more serious matter. People become more ill because they're using a formula that contains too little of the key ingredient that they need to aid them. People die because the constituents of the 'medicine' they've bought cheaply include harmful chemicals.

On the other hand there's an incredible proliferation of all manner of consumer goods, from the mundane to the more consumer-elevated that are now produced and manufactured in China, that steadily emerging giant of industry. China's immense population and highly adaptable working demographic has proven itself more than capable of providing the world with products ranging from cheap food to inexpensive electronics, pharmaceuticals to toys.

And because we're looking for cheap, we look for these avenues where cheap wages exploit the workers while enlarging the country's economy and satisfying the acquisitive urges of consumers around the world. A newly-emerging realization that all is not quite what it seems has shaken the world's confidence in the quality of products coming out of China. But is that China's fault entirely?

Why aren't the quality standards of the receiving countries observed? Why aren't the receiving countries ensuring that the quality of their standards are recognized and an agreement to supply quality goods assured? Because the fact of the matter is, the responsibility to ensure that base quality needs are met is the responsibility of that government that permits its importers and manufacturers to bring goods to their public.

And if matters continue to proceed on this same frightening trajectory of contaminated foods and tainted pharmaceuticals, replacement of approved ingredients with potentially dangerous ones, lead-laden cheap jewellery and children's toys, consumers have to start getting more involved in protecting the quality of their lives through judicious purchasing. It's certainly not that good quality goods aren't available through Chinese production sources; they most certainly are.

We have to begin demanding not cheap, but quality. Due diligence is lacking. We're all responsible.