Boycott or not to boycott???

As a consumer, I do not want my money to be used to fuel wars, environmental destruction and human-rights violations. Due to these, I am willing to boycott America’s products. Don’t get me wrong, this boycott is not an anti-American, it is pro-UN and pro-international laws though. The boycott is not against the American people but against the Bush administration and its unfair policies.

Some people say the boycott will hurt the economy and the working class. Actually, not at all because to be logic and lucid, it is the current US policy which is destabilizing the economy and causing job loss in the United States. If you want to know, many of the targeted US companies endanger the environment, disrespect human rights, and many also contribute to the weakening or collapse of local markets. With people choosing to buy local or fair trade products, the boycott might therefore help to put money again into local and fair economies, where it will bring greater yields to workers. And finally, if the US would invest fewer resources to the military, it could put these resources towards job creation in other vital social sectors (health care, education, culture, etc...).

We Malaysians can implement this boycotting by stop buying things that are identifiable as the listed products. There are plenty local and other alternatives. For example, if you stop consuming food or drink produced by US multinationals, and switch to products produced by other companies, you will be sending a powerful message to the White House that consumers do not want a war against Iraq. We just to have to make the effort to change our daily habits, but that’s for a very good reason. Each time we don’t buy a US product and go for an alternative, means we are saying NO to the US foreign policies.

There are many reasons why we should boycott. If you switch from smoking Marlboro, you will be contributing to stopping the war against Iraq. By the way, think again, if you still smoking, you will be putting your own health and also the health of people round you in danger, and contributing to deforestation and pollution caused by tobacco production. Coca-Cola is one of the sponsors of Bush. From 2000 till now, Coca-Cola have given US$1,060,000 to the Republican Party. PepsiCo is abusing animals. They have in-house animal-testing facilities, where it conducts nutritional studies on laboratory rats. McDonald's spend over two billion dollars each year on advertising its junk food - high in fat, sugar and salt, and low in fiber and vitamins. A diet of this type is linked with a greater risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other diseases. The menus of McDonald's are based on the torture and murder of millions of animals.

The main reason why I boycott US products is because they US disobey Kyoto Protocol! US boycott Kyoto, so we boycott US...Fair enough! With 5% of the world’s population, the US is responsible for emitting 25% of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. It is time to support Asians' poducts. Buy Anna Sui instead of L'oreal..hehehs..