A bill o’ goods
Fear and Loathing in Waynesboro column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
One more rant on the Reo Hatfield-China deal, and then I promise to stop.
(For this week. It’s Friday, so it’s not much of a promise, I know.)
Reo Distribution’s director of global logistics, Tom Sikes, had something interesting to say on NBC-29 the other night that I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss.
“China is an amazing country. It is warm. It’s open. It’s friendly,” Sikes said. With a straight face, I will point out.
(If you’re reading this on Friday, June 20, the video was still up on the NBC29 website as of this morning. The comments from Sikes begin at the 1:41 mark in the report from Matt Talhelm, if you want to skip ahead.)
Let’s parse this, shall we?
OK, first, as a student of world history, I’m not going to dispute Sikes on the “amazing country” part of what he had to say. I’ve read every book I can get my hands on about China’s own rich history, studied Chinese religions, its modern-day culture. It is an amazing country.
It would be even more so if its communist government wasn’t setting itself up to be our next great political rival, if it isn’t that already.
“It is warm.” Literally, yes. And that’s going to be a problem in the ’08 Summer Olympics. I don’t think Sikes was using the word warm in that way, of course.
“It’s open.” Ha! Maybe Sikes isn’t aware of the $256 billion (with a b) trade deficit that we had last year with China. We’re having the hardest time getting any kind of a foothold in their markets specifically because they’re not open.
Then ask political dissidents if they think China is “open.” If they’ve not already been executed, or sent to the mountains to make little rocks out of big rocks.
And then ask Chinese who want to access the web uncensored if they think China is “open.” Just don’t try to do it by e-mail. You might inadvertently turn them into political dissidents, and we all know what would happen then.
“It’s friendly.” Well, aside from the above, and also the troubles that China has with its neighbors, like Tibet, I can’t dispute this one all that much. I mean, I would expect them to be friendly with somebody like Tom Sikes, who is doing what he can to make it easier for Chinese companies to sell their goods to American consumers.
One last thing that Sikes told Talhelm jumps out at me.
“It’s ready to do business with America.” It is, as long as it’s on our soil where the business is being done, and our dollars are able to go back to the Far East when the transaction is done.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being sold a bill o’ goods.
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[...] would seem to shed some interesting light to a comment made by Tom Sikes, the director of global logistics at Reo Distribution, in reference to a “Fear and [...]
Wow, it’s good to see mild-mannered Chris Graham become such a raging populist. He’s the William Jennings Bryan of our day! He’s not going to let small-town, blue-collar America be crucified on the cross of a steady stream of cheap foreign goods, produced in countries such as China and sold by big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart.
Oh wait, maybe that has already happened.
Brian Rostron lives! It’s great to hear from you. And to know that you’re still paying attention to Waynesboro.
Yep. It’s already happened. And it’s going to happen some more here. No matter how hard we try.
Well Chris since you are already an expert on foreign relations I dare say that anything I say here will really make a difference to you. However, as some journalists go, you seem to pick out a single issue and miss the whole picture. My recent trip to China to establish a Friendly City relationship between Waynesboro and Wanzhou was intended to establish relationships with an interior city of China to promote sharing of educational, cultural and economic opportunities. Our team composed of Reo, Valley Dominion Enterprises, and Waynesboro EDA staff funded in full by Reo Distribution, was introduced to secondary schools, universities, medical schools, hospitals and factories. We talked to the students in English and we enjoyed meeting the people of the city as we toured many locations. The high school students had interesting environmental questions showing an ernest concern about cleaning up their polution problems very similiar to the pre-EPA days in the USA back in the 1960′s. Their medical students were eager for us to introduce them to some of our universities in order to exchange ideas and training techniques for better medical care. Their government officials were interested in creating jobs not only in their country but were very receptive to our inquiries regarding Augusta County farmers, shipping agriculture products to their region. When I referred to the people of China being warm, friendly and eager to do business, I was talking about a personal experience, face to face with real people, not something that I read or heard from some liberal reporter with their own agenda. It was a sincere exchange of one individual to another across a different culture extending an open hand of friendship, something that is totally different from what we in Waynesboro experience in our little petty policital wars.
In your single point attack on our efforts you totally forgot to mention our efforts in establishing a processing center for Augusta County protein exporting to China that will provide jobs, growth and stability to our local agriculture community. Since this community has lost over 9000 manufacturing jobs in the recent years, I feel it’s time to start creating production jobs in the Valley. The USA is still the world’s leader in quality agriculture production and one of VDE goals is to offset some of the trade deficit by promoting and exporting Virginia agriculture products ranging from beef to peanuts. It may not offset some of the retail giants but it is a start.
As a member of the Reo Distribution management team, a director of Valley Dominion Enterprises, and a committee member of the Waynesboro Economic Development Authority I submit that instead of sitting behind my computer taking shots, I am putting forth the effort to establish relationships with different international communities to promote our region and to let the international community know that not all Americans are prejudiced and closed minded to world peace.
I hope you guy succeed at this beef-processing center deal. I really do. If only the Chinese market were as open to U.S. beef as you suggest. That’s a battle being fought well above our pay grades by people who haven’t had much success in getting China to lift its restrictions on American beef put in place in 2003 after the mad-cow scare despite Chinese leaders declaring in 2006 and again last year that they would do just that.
Our beef-industry people are more concerned that China is going to become a major beef exporter to the U.S. in the coming years. The industry has been telling Congress and the Bush administration that they’re seeing signs of that in China’s agricultural policies, including their measures aimed at discouraging consumers in China from buying imported beef from any source, American or otherwise.
Now, I might not have had a warm and friendly welcome from a Communist Party apparatchik telling me what I wanted to hear because I was about to be doing his bidding for him back in the States, and I’m certainly no foreign-policy expert, but I do have the common sense to tell when I’m being sold a bill o’ goods. Or in this case, being sold another bill o’ goods.
“Now, I might not have had a warm and friendly welcome from a Communist Party apparatchik telling me what I wanted to hear because I was about to be doing his bidding for him back in the States ….”
Oh, snap! It’s funny, because it’s true.
Two things:
1. Doesn’t the name “Reo Hatfield” instantly conjure up images of a mustache-twirling silent film villain who’s tied some innocent damsel to train tracks? Reo Hatfield. I’m sure he’s a lovely fellow, regardless.
2. The manufacturing idea is great, but how often do these type of economic development plans actually work out? Just ask the people of Southwest Virginia. Perhaps Waynesboro should figure out a feasible way to extract entertainment dollars from residents of the Charlottesville and, to a lesser extent, Harrisonburg areas. My suggestion: program the Wayne Theatre as a burlesque theatre on weekends. Sure, you can also have the silent film, vaudeville, and radio drama that I love, but burlesque could draw in young males with disposable income and it’s a culturally viable medium with a long artistic history. I mean, it’s not as though it would be a strip club. (Although if you could somehow actually have a strip club in a more socially conservative area of the commonwealth of Virginia, then just go ahead and do that. That or Indian gaming would be an economic panacea.)
1. No ‘stache on the current Reo Hatfield. Not a bad idea, though, if he were thinking of a new look.
2. Burlesque in the ‘Boro. Hmmm. Probably more realistic than selling U.S. beef in China.