English Column: To Boycott or Not to Boycott today’s Nazis?
“It may look soft but it isn’t”
Picture by by ~shiaking of deviantart.com
It is said that “The Holocaust” was the excuse to slaughter the Palestinians by the Zionists. Nothing is more despicable than using the massacre of them by the Nazis to justify the genocide of other people.
Well, if this Holocaust is true, the one who exterminated them was the German Nazis but now, the Nazis of today are the Zionists! They are repeating the same animalization as the German’s once did!
Given the brutalization of today upon the Palestinians, the question has to be asked, is it advisable to boycott or not to boycott today’s Nazis?
The contribution of Israel to the world
The term Israel, Jews, Zionist are different. But in this article, it connotes the same.
Nobody can deny the contributions of Israel to the world in the development of science, technology, food and almost everything under the sun.
The lists of boycott Israeli companies are long. But the most close to the heart of Malaysians are McDonalds, Nestle, Arsenal FC, Nokia, Disney, Starbucks, Coca Cola, Danone, Motorola, Intel, Huggies, Cadbury, L’OREAL and many more. Too long. Almost every goods sold in the market are Israeli-related products.
In the advances of computer for example, the most preferred processor by Intel raging from Pentium MMX Chip to the fastest i7 were all designed, developed and produced by Israel. Even the alternative of Intel such as AMD has negative rumors surrounding it.
For the food industry, Nestle is by far the most dominant food maker in the world. From a personal point of view, the products of Nestle are unparalleled in every way; in its taste, its price and its design. For example, Nestle’s breakfast cereal of Kokokrunch and Honeystars are the best compared to other cereals.
In addition, in Malaysia, ironically, the company that champions the Halal Project is Nestle not any full-fledged Muslim product but Nestle, the infamous supporter of Israel.
How hard any Muslim product tries to rival Milo, they will fail. Milo is sold in every single stall; either it is a stall near a dumpsite or in any first-class air-conditioned luxurious restaurant. Milo is unrivaled, HPA produced “Radix Coco”, DH Mega produced “Smylo”, and even the once famous “Vico” by a Chinese company Yan Haw still could not challenge Milo.
The answer “Sorry we don’t sell them here, we only have Milo” will heard whenever the question “Do you have Vico (or the aforementioned products) here?“ is asked.
How impactful is the boycott effort?
Humans are interested in truth that are definite and tangible not indefinite and intangible. So before jumping into any conclusions, it is crucial to discuss how impactful is the effort of boycott of Israeli-related companies.
Published in 1994, Constance A. Hamilton conducted a research titled “Effects of the Arab League Boycott of Israel on U. S. Businesses,” to estimate the costs to U.S business of the implementation of the Arab League boycott of Israel for the year 1992 to 1993. In 1993, it is reported that all the 1,020 US companies experienced $410 million loss of export sales to the boycotting countries and Israel due to the boycott effort made.
But, the $410 million is not as gigantic as it sounds. It is just a small-minute amount. The total for export sales in 1993 is $165.2 billion. 1 billion is equivalent to 1000 million. When $410 million is divided to $165.2 billion, the lost is just 1 out of 40, which is an insignificant amount.
That is why some countries claim that boycott is “not important” in resulting companies investment decisions.
But, given by the weak impact on their economy, is boycott absurd?
Every effort counts
The saying “It’s not the destination that’s important, it’s the journey” taken from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote “Life is a journey, not a destination,” signifies that effort is more important than the result.
Boycott is an effort. Even though it is still not impactful enough to hit the enemy dead on the ground, it still gives impact. This is called strategy, a strategy to downgrade the enemy’s economy.
The ones who deserve to be mocked are those who couldn’t care less about their brothers and sisters out there. No need to mock those who promote the idea of boycott which is in line with the idea of “promoting good and prohibiting evil.”
Learn from McDonalds Malaysia
The Public Relation (PR) of McDonalds Malaysia is really efficient. They will try their best in securing their customers confidence in them.
Since the assassination of Ahmed Al-Jaabari, who ran the organization’s armed wing, Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam on November 15 by Israel, McDonalds Malaysia managed to tackle the situation by giving out 200,000 free burgers two days after that.
Although they said that “to reinforce the importance of starting the day with a wholesome breakfast”, it is obvious to spot it as a desperate tactical effort to not lose their customers. This is followed by the statement to exonerate any accusation that McDonalds has a link with Israel.
The most obvious and recent tactical strategy is the “Prosperity Burger.” Usually it will come out during Chinese New Year, but why now?
Muslim companies have to learn from McDonalds. There are many reasons why McDonalds is one of the most preferred fast food restaurants.
It has been over six decades the issue of boycott has been discussed but Muslims still fail to produce their own companies to rival these aforementioned companies.
Why can’t the Malaysia’s Ramly Burger change their nature of company instead of being suppliers, why don’t they set up a fast food restaurant to rival the Big Mac or the prosperity burger?
Conclusion: AGREE to DISAGREE
If you do not agree on the issue of boycott, it is recommended for you not to ridicule the people who promote it.
Let us AGREE to DISAGREE.
“Boycott will not affect Zionis, I repeat, boycott will not affect Zionist but it will affect you, the degree of your love and concern to your brothers and sisters” – Dr. Syed Haleem (Mavi Marmara Hero).
It’s not about boycott, it’s about love.
To boycott or not?
It’s your call.
