Talk me into (or out of) Hello Kitty - Page 5

[BroodyWoodsgal]

Originally Posted by meemee 

right on avery'smom.

the one country that i have some knowledge of is jamaica. how the WB and IMF totally "screwed" them in the form of loans destroying their local agriculture and local dairy industry. 

yes IMF did go in and create 'good work' like hospitals and other usual stuff. but its only after they created the need for such kind of institutions. and in many of those countries a hospital is an imposed thing that the people didnt want but the govt insisted. schools and education are to our standards - not to their standards. but then those educated from those schools get jobs at the foreign corporations. and so the locals leave their own education and want to follow the ;generously gifted' education system.

yes aid has created the destruction of culture. 

just like farm subsidies here is getting our kids used to chemical tastes so that our children are choosing good looking terrible tasting food over not so hot looking tasty food. 

Well and the destruction of agriculture is so heartbreaking...even moreso than some of the other ways in which third world people are robbed.  In some places, people are fighting back...farmers in India are fighting tooth and nail to keep their right to save seeds and not be beholden to Monsanto (boooo hissss!) for genetically modified seeds every year. But the headline in the US reads more like: Farmers in India Getting a Hand From US Corporations or whatever. People don't understand how much blatant twisting of truth goes into the headlines they read and hear on the news every night.

I think in America we have this idea that we're the best, greatest thing to ever pop up on the face of the earth...and while I love America and I am a proud citizen of this country...I also know a lot of people who come from other places and I know that it's great -sometimes kind of better- in other places, too. We have problems, real problems. Our population seems to have this idea that if it comes from us, it's gotta be the best and the "natives" in other places must be jumping up and down to have it....that's simply not true in many cases. Many people, especially in Africa, are very suspicious of our medical aide programs...but when we go to give shots, we hand out food at the same time...watch the lines stack up. Anyone on this forum who has a problem with vaccination...should take a minute to look into the crap that we shoot into the arms of kids nobody cares about. It can be extremely hard to find information, but there are some people out there doing good work to look into these things.

When your country's leaders decide to do business with the WB/IMF...you are beholden to an organization of international bankers and outside forces. Yeah...they build you a school...and roads, whatever..an extremely small price for them to pay to gain access and control over your country's natural resources. Wanna be kind of frightened...go and look for a map of the world with all the countries doing business with the WB/IMF highlighted...yeah.

Money is nothing, money is not the root of all evil...it is our relationship with money which keeps the river of heartache and hunger flowing through the heart of this world. There is enough money in the pockets of the top two wealthiest people on the planet, to lift every single person in the world out of poverty. A moderate percentage of what we've spent on the war in Irq, could have put food in every belly, built REAL healing centers in every place one is needed, put clothes and shoes on EVERY kid who has none. We HAVE the resources to heal, to lift up and to nourish every person. But that is not the point of this game being played out.

Really and truly think about what my paragraph above means. We HAVE the money, we HAVE the man power, we HAVE the resources....but the intention is NOT to stop starving children from dying. Just like the intention of the research that goes into cancer, AIDS, Lyme Disease, etc is NOT to cure these illness which create chronically ill people who "need" medication. Why? Money, of course.

You really want to turn your whole brain upside down...here is a video which will throw most of what you think you know about "AIDS" out the window, fascinating stuff. This is just the trailer and it doesn't do the movie justice (The full movie is SO GOOD - you will NOT stop thinking about it)...but keep in mind while you're watching this short clip about it, that AIDS research and aid programs are a multi, multi, multi BILLION dollar industry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_N4zgjF0K0

It's an instant view on Amazon.com (and possibly Netflix? or Google Videos) It's called House of Numbers and I highly recommend it.

Anyway. To put the discussion back on track...it is all of these things; poor exploited people, lies told by oppressive governments, the incredible importance placed by our society on money...all of these things and more...are the reasons I wont put a Hello Kitty teeshirt on my kid. I don't know what I'll do when she's 8 if she wants to wear one. But to me, it's not about the character or the cuteness factor...it's about my kid wearing a symbol on her shirt, of everything that has gone wrong with the world. To me, it is a symbol of perhaps the darkest hour in human history. I look at HKs face and I see everything I wish I could erase about human existence today...all the things that are covering up what a brilliant, wonderful, intensely capable species we are.

Amma_Mama: Let's put aside the debatable facts about the Fed, that's fine. I'm sorry you view my thoughts as "Conspiracy Theory" - but I get that some people are more comfortable with the Government Sponsored "Official" version of things. There is one thing that no one here can debate:

The stated intention of the Federal Reserve is not being met...not even a small effort is being made. There is NO accountability, there is NO transparency and The Fed gets away with the murder of  our currency with most every policy since the beginning of it's existence.

It is a non-debatable FACT that because of the Federal Reserve System, our currency has lost 98% of it's spending power in the hundred years since since the Central Bankers took over. People, do you understand what this means? Everyone thinks it's "normal" that things get more expensive with time...that's not NORMAL. THe fact that a home cost, in the 50's, what a nice car costs NOW...that's called INFLATION...it's not "just how things go".

You can believe what you want, I don't take it personally at all when people think I'm crazy...and yes, if you go to the Federal Reserve website or even just mainstream news sites, you will get an education about the Federal Reserve that will make a lot of sense to a more traditional thinker and will make just about everything I've said about the Federal Reserve seem very alarmist and lunatic-y. That's okay with me. Because I know that some people won't buy that, some people will say "I want to look closer" and will seek out information that is not in the textbooks....and they will come to have a better understanding of what it means to be alive in this time.

In any case...been fun, ladies. Thanks for the awesome conversation. <3

[2xy]

Really? All of us? Even me? Because a couple of the posts I read seem to suggest that I spend my time at the mall sucking up merchandise and don't care about where it comes from.

I worked a 12 hour shift yesterday and missed the evolution of this thread. After reading the first couple of posts that seem tied to mine, I think I'll bow out now because I'm also working all weekend and don't have the energy to engage here. You know....I gotta rake in that dough so I can hit Macy's later.
 

Originally Posted by woodchick 

Is that a little snark?  I'm pretty sure that no one on this thread has said that they are perfect.  I really get the impression that we're all trying to find the balance between wants and needs and necessities and we really just want to do the least damage we can while still participating in the greater society.

[2xy]

glitch

[2xy]

more glitch

[ewe+lamb]

Putting aside the - very good arguments, I have genuinely enjoyed reading the whole of this thread and the wisdom all the people taking part have expressed, basically it comes down to this for me, I don't want my kids to be walking publicity for large corporate 'mark' brands, simple - I think they should pay us for letting the kdis wear this sort of thing, thankfully our dd doesn't want to have anything to do with branding - in fact at 8 years old she told her father and I one day when in the market that she if we ever bought her 'whatever' type of sweatshirt she would never wear it - in my heart I was jumping - we have never had to explain commercialism to her - she's just sort of got it, our ds however, is a different child and wants everything to do with Ben10, Spiderman etc, so it's a little more interesting, we use charity shops a whole lot and buy 'good' clothing, fairtrade is something that we invest in - and we see it as an investment for our and everyone's future, the same as we avoid Nestle and all the crap that goes along with that - it's amazing the amount of branched off companies and manufacturers that have Nestle hidden somewhere!

[meemee]

the thing in this case (back on track) is it all comes down to the bottom lines.

what are we as parents doing rather than what we speak.

are we wearing branded logo'd clothes. are our sweatshirts shouting gap or whatever there is. even from thrift stores. if we do then how do we tell our children not to do so.

dd wore a lot of branded stuff that were passed down to her. even toys. i even got her some stuff because she wanted it.

that is just one part of our life. i volunteer a lot and tow the middle line. i am radical in places most people are not. i dont invite dd to walk the same path as me. but just by being around me dd gets to think and decide for herself. 

all i can say is i look back and realise i spent a lot of wasted energy on worrying about things because i thought they mattered. that i was corrupting my child in some way. i had to figure out a middle line where due to my agenda i wasnt forcing myself on dd and allowed myself to do things for her while i cringed. 

[cloudswinger]

Originally Posted by woodchick 

I have to wonder if HK is geared towards adults now because they are cashing in on the love of HK that these adults had in the 80s when they were kids...

Well, the biggest market for HK in Japan is adult women. Personally, I think it's a weird part of their culture that makes adult women act more teenagerish, and adult men be attracted to the teenage age group. It's all about cutsie(kawaii), generally big eyes, small bodies. The products sold here are just a small percentage of what is sold, and probably someone decided that the US market wouldn't really support the more grown up products, so they gear their product sales to kids.

[Tjej]

Haven't read the whole thread, but wanted to say that while I do think Hello Kitty is cute and I do share the OPs dislike of characters marketed to kids, my DD has been given a lot of HK by family.  Most of it I don't mind, but the DVD was AWFUL (very mean kittens!) and I don't personally like the clothes.  It's like having a walking ad.

Tjej