More On Boycotting

Have you taken a look at the list of Israel-related-products-and-brands to boycott? Some of the links to the list is here and here. What goes through your mind as you look through the extensive list? There are many familiar brands isn't it?

As I've mentioned before, I'm not against boycotting at all. I don't use many of the brands that can be referred to as luxury items or the want-list items. Most of the items I bought would be under necessary items or the need-list items only. Even then, there shouldn't be any problem to switch brands on most of the product if an alternative is available. Having said that, I'm not going to throw away my N73 and laptop that proudly displays the Intel logo as that would affect me economically and that's not wise at all but I won't be a proud owner of those items.

What occurs to me as I look through the list was... what a strong economy the Israel must have because people all over the world has been using these products and brands for years. They can make many head government a puppet because of their strength. How did they attain such strength? What do they have that other countries can't emulate and become as strong economically and politically?

Most of the time we will cry boycott only when something happened to our Palestinian brothers and sisters. We will cry boycott only when we saw on TV all the babies being killed and all the massacre done by the Zionists. When there are ceasefire or things are relatively calm in Gaza area, we will continue using those products again because we thought our voices have been heard and there's no more war, even if temporarily. Thank God I can have McD or Starbucks coffee again or thank God I can buy Donna Karan or Calvin Klein again. Didn't we realize we're enriching them as they sit and plan for their next action?

If we are serious, we shouldn't have let all the boycotted product thrive in our beloved land at all. Then there would be no issue of what's going to happen to all the Malaysian workers if all the McDs and Starbucks franchise, Nestle and Maggi factories, the TGV that played many 20th Century Fox movies, closed down. Then Aminah Hassan, Safi, Puteri, Mi Ku and all the local brands wouldn't have to worry about where to sell their products because Carrefour never existed. They'd have make a different arrangement to market and sell their products.

I'm not against boycotting. I just hate it when people cry boycott this and that only when things like this happen. I also hate it when people cry boycott without thinking of Malaysian worker's fate. What??? Losing their job is not as worse a fate as those people being killed in Gaza? Of course it is not. Let's just call it civilian casualties. Let's just call it Jihad. But you know what? A country has economic strength when their people has economic strength. A country can rule the world and make other head government as puppets because they have economic strength.

What options, what alternatives do these workers who works for a company that produces boycotted product and brand names have? How can they strengthen their economy while the ruling government only enrich their cronies coffers? What are our long term stand on these boycotted products and brands? What are our politician doing for the long term other than parroting boycott this and that now to score points for the by-election?

Having said all these, I hope those workers affected will start looking for a new job or open a business for their own peace of mind. There will be a lot of business opportunities we can look at if all those products and brands are being boycotted forever. If Malaysian wants to boycott products and brands that have been enriching Israel, let's do it continuously instead of only when a certain atrocities happen. Otherwise, let's just not do it at all. There's not much point.