Filler in animal feed is open secret in China
ZHANGQIU, China: As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in this heavily polluted northern city openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein.
For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.
"Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed," said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. "I don't know if there's a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says 'don't do it,' so everyone's doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren't they? If there's no accident, there won't be any regulation."
[...]
He said he was not currently using melamine. But he then pulled out a plastic bag containing what he said was melamine powder and said he could dye it any color to match the right feed stock.
He said that melamine used in pet food would probably not be harmful. "Pets are not like pigs or chickens," he said casually, explaining that they can afford to eat less protein. "They don't need to grow fast."
The resulting melamine-tainted feed would be weak in protein, he acknowledged, which means the feed is less nutritious.
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Do you know where YOUR food comes from?
Pets don't need as much protein because they don't need to grow fast... okay. Those of us with diabetic pets who must eat high protein diets (not to mention cats for example are made to eat protein and fat, not carbs) probably do not find this very comforting.
To keep up to date on the pet food recall that now is spanning the globe, visit Itchmo.Director of United States Agency for International Development Resigns
WASHINGTON - Randall Tobias, head of the Bush administration's foreign aid programs, abruptly resigned Friday after his name surfaced in an investigation into a high-priced call-girl ring, said two people in a position to know the circumstances of his departure.
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I don't really care about politicians' sex lives. I find it far more appalling that the director of our foreign assistance programs was a former pharmaceutical executive.
Some of Tobias' greatest hits:
"In his capacity as Director of Foreign Assistance, Tobias encouraged sexual abstinence, and discounted the use of condoms, in preventing HIV/AIDS. "Statistics show that condoms really have not been very effective," Tobias told a news conference in Berlin on April 21, 2004." --on abstinence over safer sex and other approaches
Tobias also backed a religious-right feuled requirement for any organization receiving USAID funding to take an anti-prostitution oath, meaning no organization with US federal funding could do any work with sex-workers in any country. In some countries, the sex trade is one of the largest contributors to the spread of HIV/AIDS. Guess he didn't see the point, since condoms don't work, eh?
If Tobias received federal funding by drawing a salary, shouldn't he have taken the anti-prostitution oath? Then again, we know how much oaths mean to this party. Protecting and defending the constitution, anyone?
sources: Wikipedia.org, whitehouse.gov, boston.com, cnn.com
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Disclaimer: The contents of this blog represent only those of the author as a private citizen and not any entity for which she works, volunteers, or supports.
NIAMEY, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - NIAMEY, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - More strikes among primary and secondary school teachers have been met with violent protests in Niamey by their disgruntled students, and as separate protests erupt on university campuses, some observers are warning that the whole academic year is in jeopardy.
Basic education, which is only provided to 30 percent of Nigerien children, is widely viewed as one of the main pillars to reducing mortality in the desperately poor country.
However, since the start of the academic year last October, powerful unions controlling 24,000 of the 28,000 primary and secondary school teachers in the country have called almost two months of strikes at intermittent periods.
[...]
Several of the university protests have also turned violent, as students have set up barricades of burning tyres in Niamey, and thrown petrol bombs at police. On Tuesday, one soldier was "lynched", according to Niger's Interior Ministry, which declined to confirm whether the soldier was killed or wounded.
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While the term 'lynched' has been cheapened in some circles as a metaphor, let's remember what 'lynched' really means.
Lynching is a form of violence, usually murder, conceived of by its perpetrators as extrajudicial punishment for offenders or as a terrorist method of enforcing social domination. It is characterized by a summary procedure ignoring, or even contrary to, the strict forms of law, notably judicial execution. Victims of lynching have generally been members of groups marginalized or vilified by society. The practice is age-old; stoning, for example, is believed to have started long before lapidation was adopted as a judicial form of execution.
From dictionary.com:
| to put to death, esp. by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority. |
] —Related forms
Metrosexuals unwelcome in Iran
"Iranian young men have in recent years started paying more attention to the way they look and dress, especially in affluent parts of the capital Tehran. Spiked up hair, by using gel, is known as the Khorusi (Rooster) style and some also use make-up.
Several hairdressers for men in Tehran offer cuts in the style of Hollywood movie stars and other Western celebrities. Clients can also have their eyebrows plucked.
The head of the barbers' union, Mohammad Eftekharifard, said police had instructed it to "exercise specific regulations in barber shops that work under its supervision."
Barbers who do not follow these rules might be closed down for a month and even lose their permits to operate, Etemad quoted him as saying.
"Currently some barber shops apply make-up and use (hair) styles that are in line with those in European countries and America," Eftekharifard said.
He added: "An official order has been sent to the union ... not to apply make-up on men's faces (or) do eyebrows ... and hence the barbers are not allowed to do these things."
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I would think that Iran has more important things to worry about than the haircuts of its men. But maybe not. I far prefer long hair on men, myself. And while cleaned-up brows can be nice, I prefer eyebrows to retain a little bit of their spontaneity. 
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By Alexandra Steigrad
PARIS (Reuters) -- Sitting in a cafe near the Champs Elysees, the 26-year-old French-born woman of Algerian descent looks like any other Parisian. But two months ago, she did something none of her friends have done.
She had her hymen re-sewn, technically making her a virgin again.
"I'm glad I had it done," said the woman, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. "I wanted to reconstruct part of my life, to reconstruct myself so that I could feel better about myself."
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Nothing says 'modern' like attaching a woman's self-worth to a piece of skin. This is one of the few things you'll find me not getting all culturally relativistic.
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Vigilante justice in Brazil
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — For as long as anyone can remember, the cracked asphalt soccer field in the Roquete Pinto slum was off-limits to children — "reserved" by gangs selling marijuana and cocaine. Then, a few months ago, a mysterious squad of beefy men with submachine guns started patrolling on foot, and the drug dealers disappeared.
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As for vigilante justice, it's always interesting to debate its merits. In theory, I'm not much a fan of vigilante justice, but on the other hand, I'm not a mother who lives in a favela and relies on luck and the goodwill of drug lords for my children's safety.
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East Timor Elections Fail to Meet UN Benchmarks
The first round of East Timor's presidential election has failed to meet most of the benchmarks set out by a United Nations monitoring team.
A report released by the team formed at the request of UN secretary-general says improvements are needed in the election process before next week's run-off vote.
The run-off will be contested by Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta and ruling Fretilin party candidate Francisco Guterres.
The report found the election fully satisfied just 13 of 52 international benchmarks the team had established.
The UN mission in East Timor says despite the report's findings, the election had been free and fair.
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It's wonderful the UN sends election observers to places that are attempting democratic procedures. Hopefully they'll send some our way next year.
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Skybus, the newest budget airline, has announced it will begin air service on May 22, 2007, from its hub in Columbus, Ohio. The airline, which has a fleet of 150-seat Airbus A319 jets, begins service to Burbank, Kansas City, and Boston (Portsmouth) on May 22; to Ft. Lauderdale, Seattle (Bellingham), and Greensboro (North Carolina) on May 29; and to Oakland, California, on June 12. One-way tickets are roughly half the rate of other airlines serving the same destinations. To attract customers, the airline is promising that every flight every day will have 10 seats up for grabs for $10.
Don't expect frills. Blankets will cost you a couple of bucks, as will snacks and drinks.
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Show of hands of people who would be confident flying an airline that prides itself on being "el cheapo." First of all, while I appreciate an affordable fare as much as the next person, I also enjoy reaching my destination in one piece, and the term 'el cheapo' does not, perhaps unfairly so, inspire confidence in such actually happening. Second of all, 'el cheapo'? I'm not sure this is what people mean when they suggest the US is becoming bilingual.
The rest is fine, though. I might consider paying airlines to not give me blankets or food. I travel with my own, generally speaking. This doesn't apply if you're flying up front, of course.
Education in India is a topic I often find myself writing about. It's probably because of all the places I have worked, and all the poverty I have seen from the Mississippi Delta in the United States to rural Niger to the favelas of Brazil, India has made the most impact on me, personally.
I wish I could say that I roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty, a modern-day Mother Theresa (minus the Catholicism, overwhelming sense of duty, purity of heart, and nun stuff of course), but in reality, my work is hard to explain. "Evaluating programs and policies in order to eventually contribute to systemic change" doesn't sound quite as fulfilling as, say, "feeding hungry people" or "teaching poor children how to read." But I do what I can, and try to learn something about the world, the country, the people, and myself.
India is in the news a lot these days. The cover of TIME last year described "India, Inc." The New York Times article and video I linked the other day pointed out that the booming economy will stall unless the workforce of India changes. First and foremost among this is educating its children. The top schools and students in India are among the best in the world. The rest are not even close.
The NYT piece highlighted rural poverty. India also has significant urban poverty: the fabled slums known the world over and covered in such recent books as Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters by Robert Neuwirth and Planet of Slums by Mike Davis.
Urban poverty in India, specifically Mumbai, is the focus of a feature in the May 2007 National Geographic Magazine. The community of Dharavi, one of Mumabai's slum pockets that is a city in itself, is focused on. It is considered prime real estate by politicians and developers who want to shift its 1 million residents to high rise projects and raize the slum so it can be redeveloped for the growing middle class and more affluent residents.
Further on in the magazine is a section called How You Can Help that highlights two Indian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in slums.
One of the organizations featured is Pratham, an organization that is working in 21 states across India to improve the sobering illiteracy and primary school completion rates of the country's children. In the course of my work, I've been given the privilege of spending time in some of these so-called slum communities in Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune, and working with some of the leaders and implementers in the Pratham network including the Akshara Foundation in Bangalore and Pratham Hyderabad.
As an evaluator, I guess I am supposed to be objective. However, I am always impressed by the passion and dedication of all the people and organizations I have "evaluated" over the years, and even those who aren't superstars have still accomplished important things in their communities. I think it's really important to acknowlege that, because really, the idea of being "evaluated" will always conjure up the picture of a pencil pusher who operates on a deficit model: find out what people are doing wrong and make sure their mom, their boss, and their funder knows about it! That's not what I'm about, and it's not what evaluation should be about.
Even with my glass-is-half-full attitude, I just can't say enough about Pratham and their work. They keep things to a fundamental level.
-Find out how many children can't read
-Train teachers in a methodology that will show them how to read
-Assess students regularly for progress, so you know if they can read now.
Repeat as necessary.
That's it. I've been a part of such complicated development projects with a million objectives and sophisticated models and millions upon millions of dollars in equipment and infrastructure. This isn't one of them.
It can be implemented in government schools or in a clearing under a tree.
I don't mean to oversimplify things. There's a lot more that goes into it, from pre-school to access to books to adapting to each city's languages and unique culture. It's hard work, what this oragnization does, from the very top level of building political will to the very logistical challenges posed by delivering millions of storycards to students every day. Not to mention the sheer scope of that needs to be done. If 40% of the nation's children can't read to grade level...in a country of more than a billion people... that's almost unfathomable to many here.
I wrote an article on my experiences in India for my university's alumni magazine. It's not yet online, although I have the hard copy right here. In it, I recount hearing children in these slums speak of becoming engineers, doctors, lawyers, and astronauts, and how hard the road will be for them when simply learning to read is such an obstacle for many. I concluded the piece by saying: "Who says they won't succeed? India is changing at a pace unfathomable to many who live here. Maybe these children will flourish in ways we can't begin to imagine."
If they do, it will be in large part due to oragnizations like Pratham.
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photos copyright Caryn Sweeney, 2006. Do not reproduce without permission.
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Prepare to be amazed. Some of this I knew, since I am actively involved in researching education in India and China, but...wow. What a world we live in, and will live in, if we can keep ourselves from killing each other and the planet before we get there.
In Its Match With China, India Penalizes Its Own Team. Paid content (sorry).
The above article by Nicholas Kristof starts:
"India is stirring after many centuries of torpor, and it has a chance of ending this century as the capital of the world, the most important nation on earth. You see up-and-coming cities like Hyderabad or Ahmedabad, and it’s easy to believe that India will eventually surpass China.
But here in rural Bihar state in northern India, there’s no economic miracle to be seen. And it’s difficult to see how India can emerge on top unless it takes advantage of its greatest untapped resource: its rural population..."
The author then continues:
"So in the middle of this century, India will still be held back by its failure to educate, feed and vaccinate its children today. This failure will haunt India for many decades to come. Sure, China has many similar problems, with growing gaps between rich and poor and an interior that is being left far behind. But rural Chinese schools provide a basic education, including solid math and science skills."
I've had the privilege to spend time in both Indian and Chinese schools, and the author here makes a tremendous point. The two countries don't even compare. You can't even compare many urban Indian schools to rural Chinese schools.
However, I think the point is very well-made. There is room in India for rapid-scale improvements, made not because the government or the party makes it happen, but because it makes good business sense, and the intellectual brain power, capacity, competitive dirve, market, and political will exists in-country to make it happen. Which is not to say China doesn't have it, but in my opinion (as a civilian, not in my professional capacity), China's development is hampered by hierarchy and acceptance of an inability to change that is part of living in a country where censorship abounds, mistrust and xenophobia isn't challenged, and voicing dissent is punishable.
It's easy for folks over on my side of the globe to see India and China and shrug and say "two countries," like they would list, say, France and Germany.
However, when we talk of the potential of India and China, we are talking about countries that are starting to get a sense of what would happen if they harnass the resources they have, which at the moment is roughly 2.5 BILLION people.
Billion. That's a lotta million. (tm) Cameron Crowe.
That's a workforce that can certainly bring some of the old guard of the world powers to their knees. And when these countries do overtake some of the current super economic-powers... who will they work with? The relics of former colonizers (with whom they still do share some strong ties)? Or...Africa? South America?
Like they say...shift happens.
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photos (c) Caryn Sweeney, 2006. Do not reproduce. (on the top: community class in the middle of Hyderabad, India. On the bottom: rural impoverished school in Du An, China, outside of Nanning)
Maxine Turner, one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre, is the daughter of one of my coworkers. Our company president announced the plans for her funeral and burial today, along with the following: To contribute to an engineering scholarship in Maxine’s name, checks may be made payable to Alpha Omega Epsilon National Foundation Inc. and sent to AOE National Foundation, PO Box 3150, Brunswick, GA 31521. (Memo line: Maxine Turner Fund) Women who pursue engineering have a tough road in a lot of cases. Help make it a little easier for one, and donate in memory of this lovely woman.
Oregon Governor Starts Week on Foodstamps: A news story on the governor of Oregon's trip to the supermarket to spend $21 in food stamps, which is the average amount of food assistance provided to qualified families per week in Oregon.
It's both frustrating and amusing to read, to realize how little many people understand living on a budget. I know I don't worry too much about how much I spend at the grocery store, despite my own upbringing on generic brands of hot dogs, cheese, spaghetti and instant potatoes necessitated by being poor.
It's also interesting to me that $21 a week can't feed a family in the United States. How much of that is because we want so much variety in our diet, so much colorfully packaged and convenient food? There are whole villages in some countries who can live off that amount of money, because they grow their own food, eat what is in season, and eat staples (staple crops, not metallic fasteners) every day.
I often hear that it is so expensive to eat well and healthfully. I've said so myself. But really, a lot of it seems to be because we make it so. A sack of rice, some dried beans, some canisters of spices, some oil, and some produce from a garden that costs next to nothing to have, and you can feed a family something way more nutritious than transfat peanut butter and macaroni and cheese. But you won't find the USDA recommending that anytime soon. The A in that acronym stands for agriculture, and the agricultural lobby is one of the most powerful in this country. The Farm Bill that subsidizes American farmers, and sometimes pays them NOT to grow things? How much of that money actually gets to real family farmers? Not a whole lot. The USDA claims that 91% of farms in the USA are family farms, but how many of those are contracted to corporations and agribusiness to sell and distribute their crops? How many of them actually earn over the poverty line for a family of four? Agriculture, like every other industry around, is corporatized.
To an extent that makes sense, I suppose. Agriculture is an industry where huge economies of scale can be reached. Large-scale production and vertically integrated food systems are the most efficient, when efficiency is measured in how much money a corporation can make out of the least amount of effort. Corporate farming practices may also more readily involve the use of genetically modified crops, hormones, preservatives, color additives and insecticides, again with a view to maximising yield and profit.
I've drive through the Mississippi Delta in July, and watched planes spray chemicals and large machines harvest corn, beans and cotton so that it could be processed in a plant, packaged in another, and then shipped to a produce distibutor (or textile mill) across the country and then sent along to the companies that then distibute them to restaurants and grocery stores. I've also met with family farmers in the region, who might plant 40 acres of corn, join a cooperative for processing or marketing it, make very little money, and then have to go and collect food stamps so they can drive into town to buy macaroni and cheese and peas and chicken.
Have you ever thought about the journey your food takes to reach your mouth? I never used to, really, not even after I read Fast Food Nation. I'm a carnivore, and I can't see becoming a vegetarian, so I deliberately try not to think too hard about where all the chickens I eat come from. Just like I try not to think about the animals that my life-saving medications were tested on. It's probably cowardly of me.
We now know quite a bit about the path pet food takes before it reaches our pets, and that path is international and full of potential contamination at intermediate points along the way. How much different is human food processing, I wonder? Processed food is practically a religion in this country. Foods are processed by large conglomerates too, and they would not want you to start eating rice and beans and home baked goods and your own produce any more than the corporate farmers would. One of the biggest is Altria Group-- you may know them as Philip Morris, the parent company of KRAFT, Marlboro, Miller Brewing, and more. Powdered cheese, cigarettes, and cheap beer: the American Way. At least you can't buy two of the three with food stamps, which is a program through, you guessed it, the USDA.
The USDA set the dietary guidelines, too. That food pyramid that suggests we all eat a huge amount of carbohydrates including bread, pasta, and rice (minus the beans)? Set by the USDA.
Of course, I'm still about to go spend $10 on my lunch, and try not to think too hard about how it got to me AND about how that's half of how much some families have to spend in a week on food.
... sorry about the title. I heard that song in the supermarket and it reminded me of being a young teenager and thinking these New Kids guys were good-looking and talented. Thankfully, I woke up around the time grunge came in. And then realized they weren't good looking or talented either... ever since my life has been a fruitless search for good looks and talent. El sigh*
Anyway, new blog that will be an amalgamation of the group emails, livejournals, Myspaces, and all the other junk I wax on about around the internets. Benefits of this new blog are numerous and include:
- You can subscribe to the feed from multiple places!
- It's a fandom-free zone!
- I can't see your journals from here!
- I can give this link to RL people without being embarassed!
- I haven't figured out how to privatize or delete things here! (yet)
How exciting!!!!!!
*Mixing it up a little since I know 'le sigh' annoys French speakers
** I actually can't stand exclamation points.
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