IV. International
(10-16-08)
.
Supermarkets in
Hong Kong
pulled ice cream imported from mainland China that had
traces of the chemical melamine off their
shelves.
Taiwan issued
an across-the-board ban on dairy products from Chinese
companies involved in the scandal. Chinese exporters
scrambled to test samples of milk powder sent to
Bangladesh, Yemen and
Burma.
.
The delayed disclosure of the discovery of melamine in
the milk powder highlights the weakness of China’s
2-tiered product safety regulatory system, designed to
protect and nurture a handful of privileged, mostly
state-owned companies, such as the Sanler Group whose
products were first found to be contaminated.
.
Even as inspectors at other food-producing companies
have grown more strict over the past year, Saler was
exempt from these checks through a controversial program
that is based on the idea companies that had done well
on quality tests in the past could be trusted to
regulate themselves. At least 9 of 22 dairy companies
found to have problems were exempt from government
inspections for their milk powder or baby formula.
. Melamine,
a white crystalline powder used in making plastics
and tanning leather that was found in infant
formula, was at the heart of China’s troubles last year
as well. The chemical was linked to the deaths of
thousands of dogs and cats, triggering an international
inquiry into the safety of China’s products.
.
For most of China’s food producers, the month since 3/07
(investigation of contaminated pet food) have been
marked by turmoil. Their profits have been cut by
inflation and their markets wiped out by import bans
from countries concerned about food safety.
.
Dairy products from Mengmin, Yashili and Shanghai Yili
AB Foods that were recalled last month were also part of
this inspection-exempt program. Chinese milk powder is
banned from the US, but FDA is concerned that some may
have made its way into the country illegally and warned
consumers to avoid milk powder from China.
.
A global backlash to the
milk scandal continues to uncover melamine-tainted
foods, from chocolate sweets in
Osaka to a milkshake in
Austria to white rabbit creamy candies in Hartford,
CT. The scandal
has touched some of the world’s largest food companies,
e.g., Nestle, Cadbury, Mars and Kraft Food have recalled
products or suspended sales. Imports of Chinese dairy
products have been suspended worldwide.
.
China
is overwhelming other countries with its ability to
produce things at a cheaper price. As long as the global
consumer system prevails, there will be always the next
melamine. For the second time last month, the General
Administration on Quality Supervision (in China) has
said that tests have found no contamination.
.
Hundreds of police officers have since raided pastures,
breeding farms and milk-purchasing stations in
Shijizhuang, capital of Heibei province. The agriculture
ministry said it was trying to help dairy farmers whose
businesses have been ruined by collapsing demand for
milk.
. After 7
years in Guantanamo, a small band of Chinese Muslims are
no longer considered enemy combatants but won’t be sent
to China for fear of being tortured as Beijing still
considers them terrorists.
.
Geothermal power
accounts for about 28% of electricity generated in the
Philippines.
With 90 million people, 40% of whom live on less than $2
a day, PI has become the world’s largest consumer of
electricity from geothermal sources. It saved the
country billions of dollars from importing oil and coal.
. In
installed geothermal power capacity, PI ranks 2nd
in the world, narrowly trailing the US, which has far
more geothermal potential, far more engineering talent,
and far greater demand for clean sustainable power.
.
Philippine engineers
have made the most of their natural blessings, inventing
the world’s first large-scale injection system. After 25
years of operation, this system has consumed nearly all
of the fields’ heat and steam pressure. The islands are
among the path of a chain of volcanoes that line the
Pacific waters. A volcano is a reliable source of heat
and steam that begs to be harnessed to improve the
quality of life.
.
With a population of
more than 10 million,
Bangkok (Thailand)
suffers from many of the ailments of fast-growing cities
elsewhere in the developing world: Polls put traffic
congestion, corruption and overburdened services at the
top of a long list of complaints from its long-suffering
residents.
.
Across Bangkok, Chuwit Kamolvisit, former massage parlor
king and self-confessed briber of police, hoped to win
the election for governor of Thailand’s largest city. He
campaigned as someone angry at the corruption in the
city. He lost to the incumbent (Apirak Kosayodhin) who
won reelection.
.
Chuwit was the most colorful of 16 candidates. He made
his money from a string of thinly disguised brothels and
once boasted of paying the police almost 3.5 billion
baht in bribes. But he sold his business, cleaned up
his image and reinvented himself as an independent
politician.
. Burma,
where one of the world’s most repressive and isolated
military governments relies on trade with China, has now
warned its people to stay clear of all Chinese dairy
products. Because of the tainted milk, China’s product
safety regulation is plunging new depths.
.
The Burmese government has publicized its destruction of
16 tons of Chinese baby food tainted with melamine, the
industrial chemical that was mixed with milk products
leading to the deaths in China of 4 infants, the
sickening of more than 54k babies and a Chinese
government crackdown on 22 dairy companies.
. The
anomaly of consumer protection in Burma points to the
scale and severity of China’s global public-relations
disaster in the wake of what appears to have been a
long-standing, industrial-scale scheme to adulterate
infant formula and other milk products.
.
After months of violent
demonstrations, Tata Motors, the Indian
manufacturer of the world’s cheapest car, will abandon
its $350 million factory in
West Bengal state.
.
From the start, farmers said the government had given
them too little compensation and pressured them too hard
to leave their land so that Tata could build a
1,000-acre plant an hour’s drive from Kolkota (Calcutta)
.
Across India, land acquisition projects for about 92k
acres (estimated to be worth $54 billion) are stalled by
protests launched mainly by peasant farmers. Kolkota’s
formerly left-wing intellectuals and celebrities were
torn on the Tata issue, saying the case is symbolic of a
society wrestling with its transformation.
.
India banned smoking in
public places, a move the government hopes will help
curb the habit in a country that has one of the world’s
largest populations of smokers.
.
In the past 3 years,
collection agents from call centers in
India
phoned hundreds of Americans a day and politely asked
them to pay up. As the financial crisis plunges
Americans into debt, it is one of the fastest-growing
sectors in Indian outsourcing. It is one of the few
outsourcing sectors that is still hiring aggressively.
.
Collection agents are
starting to see the flip side of the cult of America
whose hopes and dreams are easily accomplished by people
who live in brand-name wonderland of high-paying jobs,
big houses & luxury getaways .They see a country hobbled
by debt & filled with people scared of losing their
jobs, homes & cars.
. Talking to
so many anguished Americans has taught these agents an
important lesson: Live within your means. Agents with
credit cards vow to pay them off every month, even
during the upcoming holiday shopping season when malls
feature neon signs advertising flat-screen TVs and
air-conditioners.
. India
handles an estimated $16 billion (or about 5%) of
delinquent US accounts. More complicated health
insurance bills and mortgage payments are still handled
inside the US, industry executives say.
. Pakistan’s
president (Asif Ali Zardari) united one of the
country’s hard-line mosques and its feminists after his
friendly conversation with Sarah Palin at the UN,
calling his gestures indecent, his remarks filthy, and
his disposition cordial towards a non-Muslim woman
wearing a short skirt. Pakistani press concurred.
.
Against the backdrop of
a string of suicide bombings, British, American and UN
officials are grappling with ideas of a negotiated
settlement with the Taliban. Naiwar Sharif is playing a
key role with the Saudis about settlement between Karzai
and the Taliban for withdrawal of foreign forces from
Afghanistan.
.
Its foreign reserves
exchange is so low that it can only afford one month of
imports and faces possible bankruptcy.
