What signal does it send when ‘Old Glory’ is made in China?

She’s reported to be toying with the idea of accepting an "invitation" to attend a Mass sponsored at the EDSA Shrine this afternoon by the Council for Philippine Affairs (COPA), her proclaimed "termite" Pastor "Boy" Saycon’s civil-society organization. What a foolish decision that would be for the President who’ll look like an urong-sulong, spineless leader – a reed shaken by the wind. What COPA can muster is not even a stormy or substantial gust, but just a plain old bag of wind.

President Macapagal-Arroyo was applauded when she sent a message that she’s through being bullied by any group which claims to have put her in office. "Civil Society", which includes not merely COPA but a mixed-bag of wannabes and sanctimonious "Powerpuffs" from the pious right to the far left and the "left-out", has been the most insulting and uncivil to her. Now, she’s wavering. She’s contemplating kowtowing to this arrogant bunch in the pursuit kuno of "reconciliation". Sus: "Reconciliation", how many crimes have been committed in thy name?

To begin with, we all ought to find repugnant any attempt to hold a political rally or demonstration at the EDSA Shrine under the guise of "prayer". Using prayer for purposes of blackmail, surely, was not sanctioned by the Lord. Yet we see meddling churchmen, from the Sin called Cardinal to Manila Auxiliary Bishop "Soc" Villegas, unctuously brandishing prayer rallies as their weapon of choice. Does this writer sound (horrors!) disrespectful? You bet. When our religious leaders and venerated clerics insist on grubbing about, like us plebeians and sinners, in the muck of politics, they can’t help getting mud on their habits.

If the Chief Executive caves in to pressure and appears at that Mass – significantly on Barangay Election day where there should be no electioneering – she’ll be exposed as a wimp. Worse, such a clumsy appearance will announce that she’s so desperate to slurp up the extra vote or two that she’ll do anything to appease her critics – and enemies. Much as they may rant that they placed her in power, neither COPA nor any Uncivil Society group accomplished this at EDSA II. If 13 million Filipino voters – even more than cast their ballots for her predecessor, the popular ex-President Erap Estrada – had not elected her Vice President, no hocus-pocus on earth could have "made" GMA President in January 2001.

She owes those 13 million supporters her "election", and her dedication – not a gaggle of noisy, self-serving groups, many of whom wanted to oust Estrada more than they wished to promote her. Let our President be guided accordingly. Let her be guided by God, too – and she can start this by praying separately, not being pushed and pulled here and there by the whim, caprice, and frenzied elocution of the mob.

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General Eric Shinseki, the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, is a brave soldier. He fought valiantly in the Vietnam War, where he lost a leg in combat. This much-decorated warrior, as his name indicates, is apparently a sansei (third generation) Japanese-American from the island of Kuaui, to the west of the Hawaiian island chain. One of his main sponsors in a distinguished military career is Hawaii’s venerable Senator Daniel Inouye, who himself lost an arm fighting in Europe during World War II – and happens to be the longtime Chairman of the Senate Defense Committee.

In this case, General Shinseki should have consulted Dan Inouye, since, as it turned out, he doesn’t know jack shit about politics.

General Shinseki hit upon a bright idea to boost overall morale in the US Army by giving the troops a distinguishing "beret" as their badge of service. He chose a Black Beret to be distributed for daily wear by Army personnel. (This drew an initial protest from the US Rangers, who pointed out that the Black Beret had, for years, been the uniform headgear for Darby’s Rangers. Shinseki appeased the Rangers and mollified the protesters by granting the Rangers a Tan Beret as their badge of honor.)

When the Pentagon called for tenders to manufacture and supply the 800,000 Black Berets needed – guess who won the contest with the lowest bid? Suppliers from the People’s Republic of China! Nonetheless, the green light was given to the Chinese to provide the US Army with 800,000 Black Berets. When US Senators and members of the House of Representatives discovered that the Army’s berets were coming from China, the shit hit the fan. Congress angrily demanded that the 800,000 Black Berets already manufactured be discarded and scrapped. Naturally, despite this move, they had to pay the Chinese.

Can you beat that? Could you imagine those 800,000 US Army troops smartly parading in Chinese-made Berets? They would be chuckling themselves to death over that in Beijing, and the persecuted Falun Gong and Falun Dafa would become even more despondent.

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But that’s not all.

In its Fourth of July issue, the Financial Times (edited in London but published internationally) revealed that "after the worst flag shortage in modern times, Americans will mark their July 4 holiday today with an abundance of flags to wave. Ironically, they have mostly China to thank for that."

Edward Alden of FT reported that "US flagmakers could not keep up with demand after September 11 prompted a wave of patriotism. Fortunately the Chinese stepped in.

"For a people with a deep, traditional attachment to their national symbols, Americans from all walks of life embraced their flag with unprecedented passion in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The result was an astonishing surge of demand for the star-spangled banner."

Unfortunately, US flagmakers were not quite up to the challenge, although they had rushed to double and even triple their production. The Americans, in their desperation, had to turn to foreign factories.

I know this for a fact. I happened to be in San Francisco on September 11, 2001, and had been scheduled to fly by United Airlines (UA 95) to Newark, New Jersey, the following morning. It turned out that my flight, which was supposed to arrive in San Francisco from Newark under the tag of UA 93, had been among the planes hijacked. It was the aircraft aboard which some brave passengers tried to wrestle control away from the hijackers, but it crashed instead into Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Anyway, since all airports were closed in the wake of the Twin Towers and Pentagon attacks, I had to wait four days in S.F. before an eastward flight was available. In this period, every store ran out of American flags. There was such a demand that all stocks were depleted – I even witnessed a heated argument in one convenience shop over the last remaining banner. By the time I got to New York City and "Ground Zero", there were already enough flags available there – in Chinatown (on Bayard street) only a few blocks from Ground Zero. One vendor told me that those flags had been air-speeded from Shanghai. Maybe he was only kidding, but the figures which were just made public show that the US imported more than 112 million American flags in the year 2001, including everything from the small banners that suddenly appeared fluttering from millions of cars and SUVs to full-sized pole top flags. (In 1999, the US had imported only 2.6 million flags.) Indeed, in 2001, the US imported $51.7 million worth of flags – about $34.8 million in October alone.

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"China alone," the FT disclosed, "accounted for more than half the 2001 record imports, supplying the US with $29.7 million worth of American flags. "(The Washington Post reported that, just a week after the September 11 attacks, two factories near Shanghai had already received orders for more than $1 million in US flags.)

"There was nothing in the pipeline," one American flag manufacturer sheepishly explained. "Everybody wanted a flag instantly!" The nylon, canvas, dyes and embroidery needed to make flags were clearly not available on short notice. Annin & Company of New Jersey, the country’s biggest flagmaker, was saddled with a 15-week backlog of orders despite scheduling its work shifts around the clock. This is crucial since, by law, members of Congress can only distribute flags made in the USA. How could they cope with the "intense and chaotic" surge in requests from their constituents to send them flags?

Jim Forbes of the House administration committee said Congress still had a backlog of over 30,000 unfilled orders. The congressmen, to their dismay, are short of 120,000 US-manufactured flags.

Oh, well. America may be the world’s only remaining military superpower, but the People’s Republic of China has emerged as the manufacturing superpower. Why not? They not only have – to invoke the original term – "coolie labor", but millions of hands classified as prison labor. No wonder the Chinese are grabbing all those multinational firms and manufacturing complexes away from not only us, but much of the rest of the world.

I remember one personal incident. I was strolling, five years ago, along the Bund in Shanghai with a Chinese professor. He excused himself and ducked into a nearby store. He returned with "a small gift" for me. I was surprised to see that it was a cap which proclaimed, "United States Military Academy".

My friend grinned: "This is the cap they’re selling in souvenir shops outside of West Point. As you can see, it’s made in China."

Look more closely when you pick up a religious article in one of those shops around the Vatican. The chances are, it’s made in China, too. As are many "genuine" fakes with big-name brands.

What about making trouble? Haven’t you heard? As you know, Russia and the United States are now running neck-and-neck as the biggest arms, weapons and military hardware suppliers in the globe. Both are "friendly neighborhood merchants of death". (The Russians prefer dollars to rubles, incidentally.) Russian sources have just reported that China will buy eight Project 636 Kilo-class "Vashavyanka" diesel-electric submarines (SSKs) under a deal worth an estimated $1.6 billion. What happens then, Jane’s Defence Weekly inquires, to Beijing’s indigenous Type 039 Song SSK submarine program?

I’ll bet part of the $1.6 billion being readied in payment for those Russian subs came from China’s manufacture and sale to the US of those American flags.