Are WE ever gonna get this ?????

When I was growing up my favourite toys were Lego, Matchbox cars and when I was younger my Fisher-Price play sets ... I had the three level garage, the little red school house and the dump truck garage.

The ubiquitous wooden people were the quintessential toy for little kids. In time they were changed and transformed to become a "SAFER" toy by limiting the choking factor, while still providing hours and hours of informative fun play. For kids of my generation the sturdy plastic and wooden toys from Fisher-Price were fun, omnipresent and MOST IMPORTANTLY: SAFE!!

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Now in today's headlines a MASSIVE recall of close to ONE MILLION toys has been announced. It would appear that the Fisher-Price subsidiary Mattel, has found worrisome levels of lead in the paints used in a wide variety of items they sell, and have accordingly launched a huge recall.

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Now, the question this raises for me, given the the recalls of other "made in China" products in recent weeks is simply this:

When will we realize that having so many consumer items produced in places like China offers us little or no security over WHAT goes into those products??? When will we realize that this aspect of GLOBALIZATION and providing cheap products to an insatiable market has an ENORMOUS cost, and the recall of Dora, Big Bird and Diego is a symptom of a larger more insidious problem???

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We, as consumers need to re-orient our thinking. The bottom line can no longer be the price of the item. We need to be concerned about the real cost of those "Made in China" items ... This latest recall should serve as a reminder that cheap doesn't mean better ... I'd sooner pay more for "Made in Canada" products that are safe, environmentally friendly, and economically beneficial, than to continue to read about recalls and other horror stories ...

When consumers say - ENOUGH !!!! Businesses will begin to listen ... Hopefully we can figure this out before it's too late.