Ni hao!
It's Monday night here on the other side of the world and I'm a little sad. The Tibet portion of my trip has been canceled due to riots, protests and people being shot. Here are some details. I get why they are protesting, but the timing for us couldn't be worse. The BBC figures that even if things are brought "under control", foreigners won't be allowed in for another four to five months. Bummer. I can get access to news reports now that I have a way around the Internet ban. An American teacher here gave me a very helpful website to aid my reconnection to the world. I miss freedom of information.
So before I go on about the trip:
Michelle - sorry to hear about the raisins. It sounds like Koda hasn't been exposed to that many especially if the raisins are listed way down on the list. Ingredients are listed in order of weight - most to least. Since there is a lot of sugar and fat in cookies, my guess is the raisin content is low. But I will defer you to our resident animal nutrition expert - Bonnie. My specialty is putting together the ingredients that Bonnie tells me is good for dogs. You might just have to stick to Lucky Dog treats. You can use the frozen dough to make big dog treats. They flatten out like a big oatmeal cookie.
Jennifer - yes I'm still in China and it is purely personal development - a little sabbatical where I get paid to see the world and work on my teaching skills. I am a little envious of the blue waters of Mexico that Bonnie and Quinn were enjoying. Mexico is one of my favourite places. Pure relaxation. Mind you - I go without a 1.5 year old so I actually get a chance to relax :-)
Back here in China, I had the opportunity to talk to my marketing class about business ethics last week. I didn't get on a soapbox since Canada doesn't exactly have a pristine track record with business, (hello Conrad - how's the clink?), but I was able to slip in the "melamine in the pet food issue" as an example of the consumer's right to safe products and truthful information. And since a Canadian manufacturer was also involved, it made sense to talk about it. No one had heard about it. I guess it isn't a surprise given most students don't own a pet, they study every waking moment, and they don't have a lot of access to international news, or at least not uncensored access. But now 46 business students know that North Americans get very angry when the safety of their pets or babies are in question.
46 + 1 teacher. I mentioned the melamine/pet and lead/baby toy issues to the marketing teacher when she asked me what Canadians thought of Chinese products. I'm not an expert on every Canadians' opinion but I certainly have opinions of my own. I told her about the recent issues and how angry consumers were. She also hadn't heard about it. How do you fix a problem if you don't know you have one? These are business students who don't know about some fairly significant international trade issues. It is a very different world over here. Don't get me wrong. I'm enjoying my time here but I'm very thankful to be Canadian.
So that is the China report for today. I have a lot more to say but I will save it for another day. I'll leave you with this little tidbit though... pet or dinner?
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