A new law has been passed that will shut down the GreenSeam business unless it is amended or appealed. The CPSIA (consumer product safety improvement act) law requires all products sold in the US intended for children 12 and under to undergo finished product lead testing. The testing is so expensive that all crafters and most small businesses will not be able to comply. For big companies, the huge cost burden will drive up the cost of children's products. The law was drafted in reaction to the Chinese lead-tainted toys, which is a great idea in theory, but the law as written has not been well thought out. For example, US or EU manufacturers who source their raw materials from their respective countries will be performing redundant testing since all the supplies sold in these countries are already tested for lead. For GreenSeam, it doesn't matter that the onesie and the paints have lead-free certification, the finished product must be tested. Not just one, but each size, each style, and each new batch of raw materials.
A big gray area is whether this law applies to used products. There is some talk that no baby/child items will be allowed to be donated to charity. Secondhand stores may have to shut down and eBay and Craigslist will no longer be able to carry baby/kids items.
The law goes into effect February 10, and there is no grandfather clause. All baby/kids items on shelves in US retailers will have to be recalled, even books.
I admit I haven't read the entire law and much of what I state in this post is rumor. If you Google CPSIA law you will find tons of major news articles about the law. Virtually all say it was poorly written. You can help fight this law, as is, by going to Obama's page and "vote up". Click here to access it. The more responses, the more likely Obama will review the law before it goes into effect.
Another major problem with the law: it is intended to police foreign imports mainly from China. Products must be tested in the country of manufacture meaning if a US company manufactures in China, the company has to pay a Chinese testing lab huge amounts of money keeping more US dollars in China. In the US, there are very few labs capable of doing this testing which will likely result in huge lead times for US manufactured goods. You don't need to know much about doing business in China to know it is very corrupt. It is so obvious that shady Chinese companies will simply pay a bribe for a fake lead-free certificate.
I intentionally try to not bash China or get political on this blog, but I had to speak up on this law. I encourage all of my readers to Google the CPSIA and read some of the articles about it.
Thank you for your support.
amy
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Delhi & Jaipur
(Note: we plan to post all the good photos onto a photo viewing website once we have finished sifting and editing.)
We didn't spend very much time in Delhi other than wandering around the streets near our hotel, which resulted in a few good street shots such as this one: the bangle bracelet vendor.
As I mentioned, our schedule was hectic. It doesn't seem like a big deal to drive 150 km (about 100 miles) in a morning, but it takes about 5 hours in India because the traffic is so crazy and the roads are so bad. We've experienced some crazy driving in China, Vietnam, and Bali; tons of bikes, rickshaws, pedestrians, constant horn blowing, driving in the opposite lane, etc., but in India it is compounded by all the animals both working and wild. I'll talk more about the animals soon. Upon leaving Delhi, we went to Jaipur.
Here is an excerpt from our dossier which I'll quote frequently: "Unusual for India, Jaipur is a planned city, and is one of the most interesting cities in the country, with exuberant 18th and 19th century palaces and an exotic street life. Though it is rapidly expanding and has long ago outgrown the confines of its ancient walls, the Old City of Jaipur is still a fascinating and unique place. Known as the Pink City for the colour of these city walls, the street life has to be seen to be believed. On Jaipur’s streets, camel carts, scooters, cycle rickshaws, modern cars and bullock carts all jostle for space. There are palaces, observatories, parks, shops and a total riot of colour everywhere. Jaipur never fails to thrill."
Note the woman in the foreground who is begging us for food using the universal hand to mouth gesture. More on the begging and poverty to come.
There was excellent shopping in India, but the haggling and salesmen were ferocious. The vendors would chase us down the street pushing items in our faces and tugging on our arms. We are pretty good at negotiating, but it wears you down, and by the end of the trip we had our fill. The rumor about India is when you touch a product you must buy it. This was not true for us, but if you even glanced or paused on an item, the vendor would attack. 
Amber Fort is a magnificent complex of palaces, halls, pavilions, gardens and temples built over a period of 125 years by successive rulers.
One of many shots of/through the stone carved screens.
Mirrored hallway:
Outside the Amber Fort. Yes, it's a real cobra.
The City Palace, the principal residence of the former royal family, also houses a museum for textiles, costumes, miniatures, carpets, manuscripts, and arms and armour. 
Jantar Mantar is a stone observatory created by an astronomer king in the 18th century to measure everything from altitude to time, and map the movement of the planets and the stars.
Giant sundial: this was a pretty cool place.
Temple:
Lake Palace: looks beautiful doesn't it?
Riding a cramped bus: There are just too many people in India. Most vehicles' occupancy was at least 4 times what it should have been including riding on the roof of the bus. Auto rickshaws (tuk-tuks) meant for two, often carried 12--the people are skinny.
Buying saris: I wanted to buy a sari, but the huge selection, quality differences, and cost were so vast, I was instantly overwhelmed and crossed it off my list. I did buy a real pashmina, hand embroidered scarf.
We didn't spend very much time in Delhi other than wandering around the streets near our hotel, which resulted in a few good street shots such as this one: the bangle bracelet vendor.
As I mentioned, our schedule was hectic. It doesn't seem like a big deal to drive 150 km (about 100 miles) in a morning, but it takes about 5 hours in India because the traffic is so crazy and the roads are so bad. We've experienced some crazy driving in China, Vietnam, and Bali; tons of bikes, rickshaws, pedestrians, constant horn blowing, driving in the opposite lane, etc., but in India it is compounded by all the animals both working and wild. I'll talk more about the animals soon. Upon leaving Delhi, we went to Jaipur.Here is an excerpt from our dossier which I'll quote frequently: "Unusual for India, Jaipur is a planned city, and is one of the most interesting cities in the country, with exuberant 18th and 19th century palaces and an exotic street life. Though it is rapidly expanding and has long ago outgrown the confines of its ancient walls, the Old City of Jaipur is still a fascinating and unique place. Known as the Pink City for the colour of these city walls, the street life has to be seen to be believed. On Jaipur’s streets, camel carts, scooters, cycle rickshaws, modern cars and bullock carts all jostle for space. There are palaces, observatories, parks, shops and a total riot of colour everywhere. Jaipur never fails to thrill."
Note the woman in the foreground who is begging us for food using the universal hand to mouth gesture. More on the begging and poverty to come.
There was excellent shopping in India, but the haggling and salesmen were ferocious. The vendors would chase us down the street pushing items in our faces and tugging on our arms. We are pretty good at negotiating, but it wears you down, and by the end of the trip we had our fill. The rumor about India is when you touch a product you must buy it. This was not true for us, but if you even glanced or paused on an item, the vendor would attack. Amber Fort is a magnificent complex of palaces, halls, pavilions, gardens and temples built over a period of 125 years by successive rulers. One of many shots of/through the stone carved screens. Mirrored hallway: Outside the Amber Fort. Yes, it's a real cobra. The City Palace, the principal residence of the former royal family, also houses a museum for textiles, costumes, miniatures, carpets, manuscripts, and arms and armour. Jantar Mantar is a stone observatory created by an astronomer king in the 18th century to measure everything from altitude to time, and map the movement of the planets and the stars.Giant sundial: this was a pretty cool place.
Temple:Lake Palace: looks beautiful doesn't it? Until you see the water. Like much of India, it smelled of raw sewage and probably was.
Streets of Jaipur: ladies sifting lentils while sitting in the street (notice the trash.)
Streets of Jaipur: ladies sifting lentils while sitting in the street (notice the trash.)
Riding a cramped bus: There are just too many people in India. Most vehicles' occupancy was at least 4 times what it should have been including riding on the roof of the bus. Auto rickshaws (tuk-tuks) meant for two, often carried 12--the people are skinny.Buying saris: I wanted to buy a sari, but the huge selection, quality differences, and cost were so vast, I was instantly overwhelmed and crossed it off my list. I did buy a real pashmina, hand embroidered scarf. Elephant: fairly common mode of transportation making this one lane alley difficult to navigate with 2-way traffic plus animals.
Finally, I am including this picture. It is not a quality photograph, but it captures so much of what makes India different. See the monkey on top of the building sitting next to the jumble of electric wires? See the mass of people in the background and all the motorcycles, bikes, and rickshaws in the foreground? Note the trash. The building is in shabby shape. This was on Sunday when many of the shops were closed, and the sidewalks were inhabited by sleeping homeless and playing children. However, despite it all, the man on the left is smiling.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Overwhelmed
This weekend, I attempted to start blogging about the India trip. To beging this task, I reviewed all the pictures we took—an unmanageable amount totaling close to 1,000. How do you dwindle 1,000 down to about 30 for the blog? I guess I’ve lost my touch, because I used to do photo selection and editing at my former job. I am suffering from writer’s block and can’t seem to gather my thoughts about the trip. Overall, it was very enjoyable and met my expectations, but every time I begin to describe the trip, I focus on all the negative aspects of India. The trip was not all bad, but the bad parts were really bad. For today, I’ll brief you on some basics.
A big decision has been made; I will not attempt to describe each sight we saw accompanied by its historic relevance—can’t do it. You’ll have to settle for vague descriptions and your own internet research. The basics: we took a private tour using the company Imaginative Traveller who offers many group tours. We weren’t entirely sure how the private tour was going to work until we arrived and met with our local coordinator. At each city, we had a private driver, booked and pre-paid hotels, tour guides and set itinerary. There was some down time to explore on our own or just crash in the hotel. Imaginative Traveller was excellent, and I highly recommend the company.
One of the difficulties in India is a lack of mid-range hotels. There are world class hotels such as the Taj which run US$500+ a night, as well as, many places for US$10. The hotels chosen for us ran between US$50-200/night. We were pleased with our hotels, but they were not US standards—probably about a 2 star US rating. Mostly, we stayed in small hotels resembling B&Bs.
Our trip was focused on northern India and Rajasthan along with a trip to Varanasi to see the famous Ganges river. The sights we saw were primarily ancient monuments, temples, forts, and castles. The cities visited: Delhi, Jaipur, Madhogarh, Agra, Khajuraho, Orchha, and Varanasi. We were in India for a total of 13 days. In retrospect, we should have not have visited so many places. It was a rather hectic schedule, and traveling between cities is so much more difficult in reality than on paper, especially in India.
For me, the food was certainly a highlight of the trip, but I always seem to focus on food. We love Indian food, and what we ate did not disappoint. Being a semi-vegetarian, it was awesome that every place had a vast menu of vegetarian items. On buffets, food was classified as veg and non-veg. I’ll try anything listed as veg. To repeat, we did not get sick at all. We were very careful to only eat cooked food and checked buffets to make sure they were piping hot. Of course, we only drank bottled water and used it to brush our teeth. No street food was consumed. Honestly, I was repelled by the general sanitation of the streets and food vendors to even consider it. For example, I saw a small flock of birds eating samosas when the vendor wasn’t looking. Nothing we consumed was too spicy, but we have a pretty high tolerance for heat. We ate Indian food at every meal except for two lunches when we had pizza—once at Pizza Hut!
There were a few Pizza Huts and McDonalds. We didn’t eat at McDonalds but did examine the menu since beef is not eaten in India because cows are sacred. The only meats we saw on menus were chicken and lamb. At McDonalds, there was a chicken sandwich, fish sandwich, and a few varieties of veggie burgers. Surprisingly, no Starbucks were encountered. (For reference, there are over 100 in Hong Kong.) We were jonesing for some good coffee. Chai tea is the drink of choice and it is very good, mostly due to the large volume of milk and sugar. The food was inexpensive, approximately US$50 a day for both of us not including breakfast.
More soon...
A big decision has been made; I will not attempt to describe each sight we saw accompanied by its historic relevance—can’t do it. You’ll have to settle for vague descriptions and your own internet research. The basics: we took a private tour using the company Imaginative Traveller who offers many group tours. We weren’t entirely sure how the private tour was going to work until we arrived and met with our local coordinator. At each city, we had a private driver, booked and pre-paid hotels, tour guides and set itinerary. There was some down time to explore on our own or just crash in the hotel. Imaginative Traveller was excellent, and I highly recommend the company.
One of the difficulties in India is a lack of mid-range hotels. There are world class hotels such as the Taj which run US$500+ a night, as well as, many places for US$10. The hotels chosen for us ran between US$50-200/night. We were pleased with our hotels, but they were not US standards—probably about a 2 star US rating. Mostly, we stayed in small hotels resembling B&Bs.
Our trip was focused on northern India and Rajasthan along with a trip to Varanasi to see the famous Ganges river. The sights we saw were primarily ancient monuments, temples, forts, and castles. The cities visited: Delhi, Jaipur, Madhogarh, Agra, Khajuraho, Orchha, and Varanasi. We were in India for a total of 13 days. In retrospect, we should have not have visited so many places. It was a rather hectic schedule, and traveling between cities is so much more difficult in reality than on paper, especially in India.
For me, the food was certainly a highlight of the trip, but I always seem to focus on food. We love Indian food, and what we ate did not disappoint. Being a semi-vegetarian, it was awesome that every place had a vast menu of vegetarian items. On buffets, food was classified as veg and non-veg. I’ll try anything listed as veg. To repeat, we did not get sick at all. We were very careful to only eat cooked food and checked buffets to make sure they were piping hot. Of course, we only drank bottled water and used it to brush our teeth. No street food was consumed. Honestly, I was repelled by the general sanitation of the streets and food vendors to even consider it. For example, I saw a small flock of birds eating samosas when the vendor wasn’t looking. Nothing we consumed was too spicy, but we have a pretty high tolerance for heat. We ate Indian food at every meal except for two lunches when we had pizza—once at Pizza Hut!
There were a few Pizza Huts and McDonalds. We didn’t eat at McDonalds but did examine the menu since beef is not eaten in India because cows are sacred. The only meats we saw on menus were chicken and lamb. At McDonalds, there was a chicken sandwich, fish sandwich, and a few varieties of veggie burgers. Surprisingly, no Starbucks were encountered. (For reference, there are over 100 in Hong Kong.) We were jonesing for some good coffee. Chai tea is the drink of choice and it is very good, mostly due to the large volume of milk and sugar. The food was inexpensive, approximately US$50 a day for both of us not including breakfast.
More soon...
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Return to Civilization
We are back from India and managed to travel for 13 days and avoid bombs and food poisoning. The experience is still settling in, and what an experience is was—equally beautiful and horrible. India is a country of extremes and contrasts. We have tons of pictures and stories, but until they all get sorted, here is the money shot: 
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas
We had a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we both worked but got out early. We went to a very nice Italian restaurant for dinner. After the meal, we went for a few drinks in the popular bar area of town. It was completely packed--the level of Halloween or New Year's Eve. I guess we can't hang, because we were home before midnight, right when things were getting going.
On Christmas day, we had a nice breakfast, opened gifts, packed for our trip to India, and relaxed. I made a nice dinner of crab cakes, smashed blue cheese potatoes, and sugar snap peas. I surprised Erik with a Wii, and he spoiled me with a new wedding band I had my eye on. We each received some smaller gifts too. It was a wonderful day. We miss all of you terribly!
On onto the next adventure: INDIA!!!
Chrsitmas Eve dinner:
Rooftop bar in Lan Kwai Fong after dinner Christmas Eve:
Christmas Day:
Our Christmas tree adorned with peacock feathers and Chinese silk tree skirt:
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas Decorations in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is loaded with huge shopping malls. They are all decorated for Christmas. I seemed to be drawn to the Christmas trees more than other types of decorations. The holiday decor in the mall near our apartment is weird: black and red victorian circus???
Landmark:
My office building, Hutchison House (real tree):
Kowloon Tong:
Mong Kok is blue and white this year with a huge dessert tower and some girls posing as reindeer (I think?):
Exchange Square with beautiful poinsettias:
Finally, the most beautiful display is in the long hallway of the subway station where I walk everyday. It is an advertisement for Swarovski crystal, and the whole ceiling is covered in crystal snowflakes the size of my palm. It is hard to capture with the camera, because as you walk, all the snowflakes glitter and sparkle. (Yes, this is a normal volume of people for rush hour.)
Landmark:
My office building, Hutchison House (real tree):Kowloon Tong:Mong Kok is blue and white this year with a huge dessert tower and some girls posing as reindeer (I think?):Exchange Square with beautiful poinsettias:Finally, the most beautiful display is in the long hallway of the subway station where I walk everyday. It is an advertisement for Swarovski crystal, and the whole ceiling is covered in crystal snowflakes the size of my palm. It is hard to capture with the camera, because as you walk, all the snowflakes glitter and sparkle. (Yes, this is a normal volume of people for rush hour.)
Monday, December 22, 2008
Christmas in Hong Kong
Some of you have asked if Christmas is celebrated in Hong Kong. Yes it is. Christmas Day and the day after Christmas (Boxing Day) are public holidays in Hong Kong. In mainland China and at Erik's plant, Christmas is not observed. The city is very decorated, and many of the buildings have Christmas lights which make the skyline even more spectacular than normal. Most of these building light displays are animated which makes the pictures a bit blurry.
The HSBC building is normally red and white but is red and green for Christmas.
I'll post more Christmas decor in the next few days. I have heard that the east coast has been having very cold weather. On Sunday, it was almost 80 here.
The HSBC building is normally red and white but is red and green for Christmas.
I'll post more Christmas decor in the next few days. I have heard that the east coast has been having very cold weather. On Sunday, it was almost 80 here.
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