Endless events of one sort or another are doing the rounds and at most of these gatherings one receives a different type of satchel with loads of packed goodies ranging from printed tee-shirts, hot & cold beakers, badges, battery chargers, notepads and pens to name just some of the promo items that come to mind.
All are promoting one brand or another if not the actual event with the event date as well – so that one does not forget where you were at a certain moment in the history of the event circuit.
Taking a closer look at all these intriguing branded goodies – the number that are produced off of the African continent and those produced predominantly in China are staggering.
Should we be sourcing from the land of the rising sun while there is a huge unemployment challenge in our land? The fact that the Chinese can produce cheaper and generally faster due to vast numbers of loyal, energetic Chinese folk with no union to fight the fight – willing to be paid lower than a minimum wage – may be a hollow reason.
If we were all hugely patriotic and purchased locally – the argument is that the South African price would be lower than, perhaps – the Chinese product.
Of course a corporate / association-sponsored event can purchase where and how they wish as it is not tax-payers money and though the private sector has a great deal of empathy for the unemployed – business is business and the lower the price at the same standard is just fine with the decision-makers.
But the public sector surely has a duty to purchase all promo products from local sources? Well here’s the dilemma from well-informed parliamentary pundits. Various trade agreements, some even mutually-beneficial secret deals, make it OK to buy Chinese. That includes the question of ‘green-washing’ which is also a dirty word in many circles.
‘May you live in interesting times‘ is widely reported as being of ancient Chinese origin but is neither Chinese nor ancient, being recent and western. … There is a Chinese curse which says ‘May he live in interesting times.’ Like it or not we live in interesting times – especially with the do’s and don’ts of imported promotional products from those lurking in the East.
The jury remains out.
