Inventorspot
Just an ordinary cardboard packing carton, or is it? Let’s think inside the box for a change and lay bare the real story of these five incendiary words… and it is indeed a provocative phrase. Think how the government of China would feel if, say, an American music group released an album titled “Chinese Democracy”.
Actually there’s no need to wonder: Guns N’ Roses did, and the Chinese government reacted predictably stating that the album title “turns its spear point on China.” Are we supposed to turn the other cheek when boxes labeled “American Freedom, Made In China” arrive at American ports? Is it an insult that the money we’re paying for the products inside said boxes fattens the bank accounts of Chinese traders who are tickled pink to be tweaking the American Eagle’s tail, snickering all the while?
See that graphic logo up in the left-hand corner? It reads “Sky Slam” and the script is topped by a pair of rockets zooming upward at diverging angles. A short search of “Sky Slam American Freedom” revealed both the manufacturer and the contents, the latter being American Freedom… not THAT American Freedom, THIS American Freedom:
According to the company website, these are “SKY LANTERNS, American Freedom, 500-GRAM.” Also according to the site, “Skyslam Fireworks owns their own factory in China and we make sure every firecracker is built to the highest International standards. More Pop, More Flash. No one builds firecrackers better then Skyslam.”
Can we blame foreign exporters for trying to cater to our likes? And face it, what do Americans like more than anything else? Freedom, of course! Thus we have the curious situation of a “non-free” nation exporting “freedom” to the one country that champions the concept more than any other. I think that’s worth celebrating, don’t you? And I know just the thing.