international
Sender: owner-orchid@ganoksin.com
Precedence: bulk
Dear Martin, How right you are ! We Americans have a long history of
being smugly self satisfied and isolationist. There is absolutely no
excuse for our not having converted to the metric system…we are
still living in the dark ages and losing money as a result. At least
the jewelry community has , for the most part, adopted the metric
measurements…now if only we could make that last leap to Celsius
! As for volumetric measurement ,it is truly ironic that we are
drinking booze by the liter and milk by the quart…more than likely
the booze people saw an opportunity to tune up profits by putting out
containers that skimped a bit by using half liter units ( 1.5 liters
instead of a half gallon and 3 liters instead of a gallon) Our foreign
policy is also hampered by the foregoing antidiluvian attitudes. Our
official USAID policy has been to assist foreign business interests
while attempting to get them to do business with American suppliers.
When I have attempted to get American suppliers to do business with
foreign entities I got stonewalled…most American jewelry suppliers
are either too un-sophisticated or condescending to be bothered by
doing business abroad. The only major American supplier that rose to
the occaision was Gesswein…I heartily recommend them to any of
you
non-American subscribers…they even have an export department.
Furthermore, Elaine Thompson does a hell of a good job with technical
back-up. We, as jewelers, and participants in a worldwide community,
should lend our fullest support to legal measures that would support
international standards. Our trade organizations should be encouraged
to support those legislators who have the vision to change archaic
laws and industry guidelines. Thanks , Martin , for a well deserved
constructive criticism ! Ron at Mills Gem, Los Osos, CA.