IRSHAD SALIM — Has China gone too far? In my opinion not really. It’s just that others been spending too much time drinking Red Bull “watching the birds” at a pit stop.
Shiploads of “Made in China” products (even American brands such as iPhone) have been berthing New York harbor. They are so cost-effective, that even I can’t make a sunnyside up egg for breakfast so fast and cheap and earn a smiley from my Harvey the Rabbit.
Therefore, if winning means making sure the other loses or create a situation that it happens, that would be another cup of coffee, not a Wawa for me or for others like me ready for Social Security plus relief.
Gave up a Dunkin Donut or a Starbucks decades back when told by Joe, my Manager, and by my foreman Carlos that contractors don’t drink these. They buy things cheap — life-cycle cost and “Buy American” clause notwithstanding.
Here’s something to consider also: Starbucks versus Sattar Baksh. The latter wins his right to his “birth name” for doing coffee business using it (D/B/A or T/A) and Starbucks is up in arms.
I visited Sattar Baksh here and enjoyed the fusion (Made in Pakistan). Starbucks is not available.
Sattar Baksh confuses many as they have “Starbucks” in mind. But the former upends patent and trademark nuance on “birth-name, birth-right” benchmark.
Not that China has a right to lead, but other’s have no right to make it lose either, in my opinion. We all are at stake worldwide. Remember we are a global village now?
The game should be fair, not with loaded dice, and the croupier fixed. This is what I learnt and practiced. Anything different I saw was akin to public bids getting thrown out or challenged.
A responsive, and a responsible bid at bid opening has this at stake I was taught: public money (public trust). That’s all of our money and others money added up globally. Since its all about global, rules ought to be the same –tweaking aloud. Can’t have Starbucks and Sattar Baksh situation in the new economy unless Tylenol or Aspirin is made free worldwide by all sides, regardless of brand name.
We need them here besides mask and ventilators: This US-China spat has all of us confused, specially lately me with this: I asked a professional how old he was. He game me his year of birth. I asked another for his brief intro on WhatsApp. He shared a link that stores all his documents including more than one version of his resume/profile.
Terrorism has taken its toll on the young ones also.
Therefore, drawing a parallel, the world economy hit appears more than a Mamosa. Going forward, we all wish it isn’t “frontloaded” or “unbalanced” just as in public bidding it can’t be –even if all documents have T’s slashed and I’s dotted.
Not that economy is all about fair game, I agree. But when one adds “supremacy” versus “imperialism” argument into the mix, some bidders –nations south of the Atlantic get confused and disadvantaged, such as Pakistan. It decided to berth with China. Next could be Turkey, Malyasia, et al.
Out of the 5 W’s (why, what, when, where, who/whom) of this situation, some remain unanswered. What went wrong or what’s going wrong? On the flip side, several nations are lining up or being asked to line up for a trip to the new world order based economy. Whatever that means.
Meanwhile, we are all here in a Starbucks versus Sattar Baksh like situation it seems.
My Grandma always said “make sure you carry change in your pocket”. I forgot that on my first bus ride (in Jan 1983) to the Port Authority in New York, from Hoboken. Since then not anymore, even if the bus is manufactured in China by an American auto giant.
Now it seems I’m gonna get short-changed, not US or China (sans tariff war) but me at the end of the day.
How would I carry change (quarters, dimes, nickles) in my pocket. We have cryptocurrency coming, and I don’t know yet whether to go for country of manufacturing, or country of brand name or an Internet of Things (Iot) product. Sattar Baksh has no answer also.
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The writer is Islamabad based.
