CR WEEK #35:
[Double Mine] / [雙重礦]
Tomas Boiy
Vernissage: vr 29.08:
19u-24u
Finissage: za 30.08:
17u-19u
‘The nature of conflict lies in its inversion’
I remember being not very surprised on discovering that the american designed shoes that I bought, were actually made in china. Were it not that I probably got carried away and was led by a nostalgic node when buying the same shoes as I used to wear skating long time ago, could only lead to disappointment. I arrived home and eagerly pulled the box out of the bag, I couldn’t help noticing the small print on the side, ‘made in china’. Slightly disappointed, feeling ripped off, I put them on and walked around the house. Suspiciously inspecting them inside and out for defects or bad quality materials, almost as if the ‘made in china’ label was synonymous with any of these.
After 2 weeks the shoes ripped on the side when I walked home one night. It seemed that the americans had managed to outsource the labor, but not the quality.
Because I had bought the shoes to wear on a trip to china, I decided to wait till I was actually there to have them repaired. A shoemaker by the side of the road in the town of Dali, re-stitched my american designed// chinese made shoes for 5 Yuan(RMB), the equivalent of 25 eurocent.
Allthough the quality of the shoes might be less, they surely cover more mile. A trip from Brussels to Shanghai via Amsterdam quickly adds up to roughly 10000 kilometers. In the process of buying my E-ticket, a pop-up window informed me about the benefits of the greenseat. Somehow we must be very conscious these days of how we get from point a to point b. It doesn’t matter so much how the goods we use and wear get around but atleast for ourselves we can have our emmisions calculated to find out how many trees we must plant to make up for the carbon dioxide we’ve created. About 50 trees must grow a year long to take up
1 ton of carbon dioxide from the air. Using the software provided in the pop-up window I came to the sum of 4 tons of CO2 for my trip to china, so roughly 200 trees. Still remebering the slight disappointment I experienced on discovering the ‘made in china’ label, I couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious on the price of that greenseat. Paying 17€ covers the growing and nurturing of 200 trees for the time of a year. I can’t help wondering where they will grow those trees for that price, just guessing it’s not going to be near here.
I ticked the ‘no thanks’ box at the bottem of the pop-up and ordered a special meal and a windowseat instead.
Vernissage: vr 29.08:
19u-24u
Finissage: za 30.08:
17u-19u
‘The nature of conflict lies in its inversion’
I remember being not very surprised on discovering that the american designed shoes that I bought, were actually made in china. Were it not that I probably got carried away and was led by a nostalgic node when buying the same shoes as I used to wear skating long time ago, could only lead to disappointment. I arrived home and eagerly pulled the box out of the bag, I couldn’t help noticing the small print on the side, ‘made in china’. Slightly disappointed, feeling ripped off, I put them on and walked around the house. Suspiciously inspecting them inside and out for defects or bad quality materials, almost as if the ‘made in china’ label was synonymous with any of these.
After 2 weeks the shoes ripped on the side when I walked home one night. It seemed that the americans had managed to outsource the labor, but not the quality.
Because I had bought the shoes to wear on a trip to china, I decided to wait till I was actually there to have them repaired. A shoemaker by the side of the road in the town of Dali, re-stitched my american designed// chinese made shoes for 5 Yuan(RMB), the equivalent of 25 eurocent.
Allthough the quality of the shoes might be less, they surely cover more mile. A trip from Brussels to Shanghai via Amsterdam quickly adds up to roughly 10000 kilometers. In the process of buying my E-ticket, a pop-up window informed me about the benefits of the greenseat. Somehow we must be very conscious these days of how we get from point a to point b. It doesn’t matter so much how the goods we use and wear get around but atleast for ourselves we can have our emmisions calculated to find out how many trees we must plant to make up for the carbon dioxide we’ve created. About 50 trees must grow a year long to take up
1 ton of carbon dioxide from the air. Using the software provided in the pop-up window I came to the sum of 4 tons of CO2 for my trip to china, so roughly 200 trees. Still remebering the slight disappointment I experienced on discovering the ‘made in china’ label, I couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious on the price of that greenseat. Paying 17€ covers the growing and nurturing of 200 trees for the time of a year. I can’t help wondering where they will grow those trees for that price, just guessing it’s not going to be near here.
I ticked the ‘no thanks’ box at the bottem of the pop-up and ordered a special meal and a windowseat instead.
