Vicious Cycle

We point fingers at China for ignoring the human rights abuses in Sudan in order to get its oil--but we are contributing to the problem. I just read today that a significant percentage of our goods come from factories in China. And while we blame China for its apparent immoral actions as it supplies Sudan with money for its oil which the government uses to murder its southern population--we forget one key factor...China wouldnt need all that oil if we didnt rely on them for cheap labor for iPods. So, in a way, we are responsible too. Ill admit, I benefit from cheap labor like everyone else and I'd rather pay $250 for an iPod than $450 for an American laborer to do it--but does that make me part of the problem? By buying a new iPod and I contributing to the death of a woman and her child in Darfur? Did that toaster I bought aid in displacing the Lost Boys? In this "shrinking" world, it is good that we are interconnected, but that also means that our actions can negatively impact someone on the other side of the world. I know that people need jobs, and even if they are low paid by American standards, they are still making some income, but what happens to my conscience? Although this might be terrible to admit, I am a little more concerned with dollars aiding the genocidal slaughter of people whose only crime is to be alive in southern Sudan than I am with underpaid workers in China. However, whenever I buy an item and discover on the bottom the little words "Made in China" will I see a picture of a 14 year old boy covered in grime bringing pennies home to his family because I bought something I didnt need in the first place? Was I helping or hurting him? And because I bought that toaster oven, and the money filtered its way upwards through the bureaucracy of socialism into the government's hands, will it make its way into the hands of the Sudanese government and janjaweed? Will the toaster oven, iPod, shirt, or dog toy I buy eventually pay for a machine gun put in the hands of a ten year old boy who has been brain-washed into killing his whole village? How do we live with our materialistic selves?!?!