Michael Crichton, the author of such best-selling science fiction extravaganzas like the Jurassic Park has a quieter, less known book which bristles over with a rabid fear of all things Japanese. In the Sun Rising, Crichton talks of the Japanese taking over the US economy. The book is US xenophobia at its best. Replace Japan with China and we have harsh reality in the US. MSNBC reports that more than three quarters of the American population wants to boycott Chinese products, everything from seafood to electrical goods to exotic herbs for spicing food. And of course, toys for millions were recalled from the markets due to fears of lead and nickel poisoning. One does agree with recalling poisonous toys but the other arguments being posited for such recalls will need to be closely studied.

Only the refusal to buy Chinese will force the reprehensible sweatshops from shutting down, rants one section of the newly and suddenly conscious US media. Another group of self-declared Southeast Asia pundits point out how the Chinese protect their own and care hoots for others. They are referring to the hanging of Chinese officials found guilty of food and medicine adulteration. Yet ironically this sudden US turnaround from off shoring is definitely not what it seems. It is a concerted effort by the hands-in-gloves media and politicians to drum up racial prejudices before the Presidential elections. Also did not the US citizenry know about the sweatshops from before? Why then they did not boycott everything Southeast Asian? The political conservatives in the US are very well aware that this sort of mass hysteria against the non-white countries in Asia will win those votes. The ordinary American will be hopeful that the era of off-shoring of US jobs is going to be over and all will be fine if only they stop buying all things Chinese. America is after all WASP (White-Anglo Saxon-Protestant) country and all political leaders there have to be in the good books of the WASPs and what better way to blame other nations for one’s own problems.

The US also knows something which lends a sinister quality to this whole movement. It knows that if China suffers economically in its export business, then the whole Southeast Asian economy will have a prolonged slump. The future giants of Southeast Asia will continue remaining dwarves and toeing the US line. This the US calls peace and stability in a region. Lastly, we must consider this anti-Asia movement in the light of what the Nobel Laureate geneticist has recently said. He has declared that all darker people have lesser brains. Is it a wonder that White America thinks Chinese goods bad?

VIA: MSNBC

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