At Least We've Still Got the Market Cornered on B.S.

Today, Ms. Julien discusses a report issued last week by the United Nations social justice and work rights agency the International Labour Organization (I.L.O.), which noted in part that

Over three-quarters of the 12 million people worldwide who are exploited in forced labor conditions are in Asia…

Defining forced labor as “work extracted under threat and against a person’s will,” the report has assessed the Asia and Pacific region as heading the worldwide list with 9.5 million people…

Total global profits earned from the exploitation of men, women and children have been calculated as being $32 billion, the first time such an estimate of the illicit industry has been made.

Yesterday, the AFP reported:

Need a plastic White House? How about an "I love Washington" sweatshirt or a Stars and Stripes for the car? Well, thanks to communist China, you won't break the bank.

[…]

Tourists can choose a "President of the United States" baseball cap, with a pirated official seal across the front -- good value at 12 dollars. Or plump for a pewter-style handheld statue of Abe Lincoln or a model of the US Capitol for eight dollars. Even more ironic is the seven buck scene of one of the quintessential moments of American mythology, the raising of the US flag by marines at the World War II battle of Iwo Jima. In one of the most patriotic nations on earth, each of these pieces bears a "Made in China" sticker on its base.

And given that according to latest statistics, Washington hosted 16.4 million domestic visitors in 2003 compared with only 0.8 million foreigners -- most of them are being
snapped up by Americans.

Only a few garments have a "Made in the USA" label, and some of those were woven in the Dominican Republic with American material.

[…]

Controversy also erupted when it emerged that some yellow ribbon car magnets honoring US troops in Iraq were also made in China.

I know the president doesn’t like big words, but at this point, I’m not sure that it’s possible irony hasn’t yet made its way into his vocabulary.