Thursday, May 19, 2011

Exploding watermelons?

Hello Thursday. It's good to see you. We are living in some strange times, don't you think, on this May 19, 2011? Strange indeed. How about those watermelons being grown in China? Here's the news item from Reuters that got my attention: BEIJING: Watermelon fields in eastern China are a mess of burst fruit after farmers abused growth chemicals in an attempt to make extra money but ended up ruining their crops, state media reported Tuesday. The article goes on to report that the watermelon fields look like they were hit by landmines. The farmers needed more money so they attempted to grow the melons faster by adding growth chemicals but the weather did not cooperate and the result was field after field of exploding watermelons. If you Google how much food is imported into the USA from china, you will get a ton of sites and articles. CNN had one that said we most likely couldn't even avoid them if we wanted to because they are so totally integrated into the food chain of our country. Sometimes you have to wonder how really smart we are. We know that from a financial viewpoint, the US is practically owned by the Chinese in terms of the debt they hold. Now they are so much a part of the food that lands on our table we most likely couldn't do without it. And, we know for a fact that things like the exploding watermelons are most likely going on throughout their farming businesses. Okay. I'm from Louisiana and we are not thought of as being that bright but does something really begin to smell as much as rotting watermelons wasting away in the hot sun? They are, after all, the Red Chinese, as in Communist, and we are now beholden to them for our cash flow and our food. If that makes sense to you, then you are likely showing up at a different watermelon seed spitting contest than I am.

I suppose I would prefer to go back to the days when all I did was go on and on about all the junk coming over here from China, like the Barbie Doll. What about the safety of our food supply? I'm sure their system is really on top of all of this. Can you remember the baby food scare? Folks, you may think I am an alarmist but it just seems that every week or so I feel like I have walked into a really strange episode of The Twilight Zone already in progress. We see all the elements of weirdness in our news sources each day. All we need is that eerie music to play as we read and for the most part, we weep.Their response to the baby food contamination deal was to sentence a few folks to death or life in prison. That wasn't a big deal for them because they do these types of things daily to folks who speak out for their Christian faith. It's one thing to engage them, to exchange goods and services with them, and to seek ways to maintain order and peace. It's another thing entirely to become subservient to a sworn enemy who is using the billions we send to them each day to build weaponry targeting our defenses. No playing nice will make this problem go away. They now have the most potent power that anyone in this world can wield. Economic power! I would guess that the masses for the most part are pretty much satisfied with the cheap goods available but fail to appreciate that these policy decisions like who we do business with, they do have an impact on how many new folks each day must shop at the Dollar Store. We end up looking pretty foolish in all of this. At least that is the way I see it and may God help us is my prayer. Amen.

Don't blame the messenger here. They started all of this a long time ago but those doctored watermelons that began bursting open all over the place just goes to show you that whatever it takes to fill up the assembly line including the food line, they will do it with their well being in mind, not ours, and we put ourselves at risk to operate as if this were not the case. We spent all those years after WW2 doing everything we could to bring down Communism and now we are up to our necks in bondage to the largest communistic nation on the planet. All in the name of free trade that isn't free at all and some day we may well understand the cost even as we are experiencing the early waves of a coming tsunami. We can't really do much about it at this stage. If we were to impair goods coming in, Walmart would have to shut down within weeks. I read a number of years ago that Walmart was being constrained in some areas in building more stores because the world does not produce enough product. One can only imagine what would happen if the Chinese supply line was interrupted, even for a few days. We might even end up having to go back and figure out how to make things for ourselves again. As late as the early 1960's we still made more than 90% of the shoes we wear. Today, we import 98%. Look down at your feet and see if that doesn't give you a reason to consider all of this. Shoes. Electronics. Raw building materials. Food. Clothing. And, yes, even the toys our children play with. Remember the lead paint used in all those Thomas the Train sets? I know it's not pleasant to think about all of this but it is the reality of our situation today and we have to see it begin to change if we are to once again be that shining city set high upon the hill that President Reagan talked about. At this juncture, only God can help. I pray that He will. Amen.                       ......More later.

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