Ethic Soup

Cocaine in Red Bull's New Cola Causes German Ban

 

"OH, NO YOU DON'T" says Germany. "There's cocaine in that drink."

The Germans went and tested it. Who would've figured. The authorities in six German states ordered retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola after finding traces of cocaine in the drink.  Surprise! My, but it must have shocked Red Bull execs to find out that the narcotic cocaine is an ingredient in their cola, which can't legally be put into food and drink.

Cocaine is illegal damn near everywhere in the world -- except in the Andes. (Think: Machu Picchu). While the removal of cocaine alkaloid is mandated by international anti-narcotics agencies around the world, up in the Andean region folks have chewed or brewed coca in tea to stave off hunger and exhaustion for centuries, reports TIME. So, it's okay for the Andean guys.

NO BULL -- GERMANY CHEWS ON NATIONAL BAN

For the rest of us, not so much. And now German officials may recommend a nation-wide ban. One such official, Gernhard Kuehnle is the head of the food safety department in the country's federal ministry for consumer protection. He told the German press last weekend that the Health Institute's "elaborate chemical process" examining Red Bull Cola found 0.13 micrograms of cocaine per can. Apparently it does not pose a serious health threat, but was enough to cause concern.

Burned in Fire: Slum Children Asked to Fill Aerosol Cans with Gasoline

  

THE SIX BURNED KIDS live in India's largest slum, the notorious Dharavi, home to more than one million souls. This city of squalor is an infinite stretch of open sewers, cramped huts and thousands of stray dogs. With the poorest residents in Mumbai, the former Bombay, Dharavi has as many as 18,000 people crowded into one single acre.

In what used to be a mangrove swamp, which filled in with coconut leaves, rotten fish and human waste, a person shares 300 sq. ft. of floor space with 15 other humans and innumerable rats.

Surprisingly, Dharavi has businesses with an annual turnover estimated at more than $650 million a year, due to many small-scale industries, which make products in tiny manufacturing units.

 

SLUM LIFE IS DANGEROUS

One such business is a small perfume-making unit. This week the owner asked six children who were playing in the slum to fill gas from cylinders into aerosol cans. Tempted with promised money, the kids agreed. The five teenagers and an eleven-year-old boy suffered serious burns (50 to 85 percent of their bodies) when someone lit a matchstick near the flammable gases and the entire unit caught fire.

The owner of the perfume business had left the premises, where the boys had no supervision. He, of course, knew it was an explosive environment, which is probably why he didn't want to do the dangerous job himself and why he left the premises.

RISKING THE CHILDREN

Putting children in dangerous environments is against child labor laws even in slums in far away India. Of course, there are still numerous places in the world where there are no such laws and children are  prisoners in sweat shops.

I imagine there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of small businesses in poor countries who are sub-contracted by large perfume manufacturers to handle the dangerous aspects of the business, such as putting their perfume into aerosol containers for sale. Of course, it involves many industries, other than merely the perfume manufacturers. And I doubt that it can even be tracked to find out who are profiteering over the bodies of children in slums. Bodies that are terribly burned and may not survive.  The resulting stench of child abuse doesn't smell as sweet as profits for the greedy. Would that their perfumes would carry the scent of burning child flesh.

BETTER TO BE CHILD OR ANIMAL IN SLUM?

Now if the wounded were animals, such as the hundreds of thousands of dangerous stray dogs that run in packs in India's slums, perhaps there would be more concern. The Indian government has refused to allow the killing of stray dogs -- dogs that  kill and maim the country's children. Add to that the fact that in India, about 15 million people are bitten by animals, mostly dogs every year.

Since 1985, India has reported an estimated 25,000 - 30,0000 human deaths from rabies annually. A person is bitten every 2 seconds, and someone dies from rabies every 30 minutes. With India's approx. 25 million dogs, there is a dog:man ratio of 1:36.

And thanks to animal rights advocates like PETA and people like actress Pamela Anderson protesting the killing of stray nuisance dogs in India, the government no longer puts dogs down but is trying sterilization programs. Anderson wrote to the municipal commission of Greater Mumbai, telling them that "Dogs cannot use condoms..." and advocated sterilizing the dogs instead.

WAKE UP Pamela! How about actually visiting the slums of India where most of these stray dogs are living. Hell, stay at home and watch a documentary, rather than reruns of yourself in "Baywatch." Then tell us if you would dare to walk down the lanes of Dharavi with its open sewers and human waste running alongside the path on which you walk and wild dogs which might well bite you. At least YOU could afford to buy the  rabies medicine to prevent your death. Not many of the residents of Dharavi, the poorest of the poor, have the money for the vaccine.

THE REALITY

Here's a dose of reality --"The success of this program (PETA's recommendation and India's current ruling) hinges on the sterilization of 70 percent of the strays in a given geographic area within 6 months, before the next reproductive cycle begins, otherwise the entire effort is negated. This target is difficult to achieve, given the large number of strays and the limited resources," according to an article written by Rozario Menezes MD, a retired Indian chief medical officer, in the Journal of Canadian Medical Association.

Sterilization simply cannot work in a poor country, with so many strays, as quickly as needed to save human lives.

JUST AN INKLING

Hopefully this post gives a small picture of just a few of the dangers of being a child who lives in a slum, trying to stay alive, anywhere in the world."

"Mumbai's shadow city," Dharavi, with its estimated one million residents, is the largest slum in India -- a country which will soon surpass China with the world's largest population. Mexico City's slum Neza-Chalco-Itza barrio has four times as many people. And in Asia, Karachi's slum Orangi Township has surpassed Dharavi.

In a National Geographic Magazine article, an Indian resident of Dharavi says: "This is our talent. We deal with what is."

Sadly, that is beyond the beyond.

By Sharon McEachern

Parent Attacks Little League Coach: Welcome Springtime!

 

Pretend the kid in the picture (above) is watching his father at the end of a Sunday afternoon Little League game. While the other 13- and 14-year-old players from Chicago suburbs are lining up to shake hands after a game (it teaches the kids good sportsmanship), this kid keeps his eyes on good ole Dad. "What's he going to do now?" the kid worries.

ABUSIVE SPORTS PARENT

It's one of the first abusive-sports-parent stories of the season. It's not that unusual, I know. I wonder just how many times this kind of stupid behavior will be replicated this summer at ball fields from New York to California. And ruin the game (that's suppose to be fun) for how many kids?

Last Sunday afternoon, in Antioch, Ill., Little League teams from Antioch and Bristol, WI (just 11 miles away) played a baseball game. The players were 13- and 14-year-old boys and the game was at the Antioch Upper Middle School. Not one of the news stories I read mentioned who won the game. The overwhelming feeling was that no one won. It was lose-lose game in the end.

Amid Antitrust Price-Fixing Charges, Mars Gives Candy Away Free

 MARS INC must think we're all children -- all of us who love chocolate and candy. The chocolate maker is in trouble and needs our good will. So, they are giving their candy away free in a giant PR campaign. It's as if, like children, we will give them our love and goodwill if they give us candy. (Actor Neil Patrick Harris, above, hands out free Mars candy in midtown Manhattan.)

ARE CHOCOLATE MAKERS FIXING PRICES?

What's up? In April, an Ethic Soup article told about Mars, together with Hershey, Nestle and Cadbury, facing antitrust charges of price fixing. Together these four manufacturers control 75 percent of the US chocolate market and currently have some 87 antitrust suits against them. They are accused of conspiring to raise chocolate candy prices three different times, with identical price increases at the exact same time.

THEY ARE SOOOO SWEET

So now Mars is giving away free candy -- every week through September, adding up to a quarter-of-a-million packages. I'd rather have my money back!

What's really shameful is the fact that Mars is advertising its 'magnanimous' candy give away as being altruistic. It's "Real Chocolate Relief Act" is supposed to be a national effort aimed at cheering up Americans, who are concerned about such pressing problems as the economy, with free candy. Isn't that sweet? Yessiree, that'll cheer us up, as our homes are foreclosed and we can no longer afford food for our pets. Just give us candy.

AT&T Calls 911: Cleaning Fridge of Rotten Food Sickens Office

 

THE ETHICS of using office refrigerators start with:  Don't leave your uneaten lunches to rot in the shared employee fridge. Many an office refrigerator has a warning sign taped on its front door declaring that all food still there on Friday afternoons will be tossed. No looking for mold, no sniffing for a telltale stench. It's gone in the wastebasket. And it's your turn to clean it out next Friday thank you very much -- and don't forget to bring a fresh box of baking soda -- and some vinegar for cleaning.

YUCK, YUCK, YUCK

Yesterday, a worker at one of AT&T's call centers in San Jose, Calif. decided to clean a fridge full of odoriferous, rotten food left by co-workers. Because it was such a stinking mess, the office worker put the food in a conference room (not being one to throw someone else's food way, rotting or not) and scrubbed down the mess inside the fridge.  And not being one to do the job half-way either, the AT&T employee used not one, but two, cleaning chemicals. Rrrutt-Rrrow!

Mother's Day: Las Mananitas

 "Bajando Calle Tecolote" by Donna Dickson

 

MOTHER'S DAY IN MEXICO is celebrated with enthusiasm with churches organizing a special mass.  The highpoint comes as the orchestra plays "las mananitas", with distribution of tamales and atole, a traditional early-morning breakfast for all local mothers.

Las Mananitas is a traditional Mexican song which is sung on birthdays and other important holidays, often sung as an early morning serenade to wake up a loved one.

LAS MANANITAS

Estas son las mananitas, que cantaba el Rey David,

Hoy por ser dia de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti,

Despierta, mi bien, despierta, mira que ya amanecio,

Ya los pajarillos cantan, la luna ya se metio.

Que linda esta la manana en que vengo a saludarte,

Venimos todos congusto y placer a felicitarte,

Ya viene amaneciendo, ya la luz del dia nos dio,

Levantate de manana, mira que ya amanecio.

 

 

English Translation of Las Mananitas

This is the morning song that King David sang

Because today is your saint's day we're singing it for you

Wake up, my dear, wake up, look it is already dawn

The birds are already singing and the moon has set

How lovely is the morning in which I come to greet you

We all came with joy and pleasure to congratulate you

The morning is coming now,the sun is giving us its light          

Get up in the morning, look it is already dawn. 

                                                               

TO READ OTHER HOLIDAY "MEDITATIONS & PRAYERS" IN ETHIC SOUP CLICK HERE.

Mother's Day Meditation

 

MOTHER'S SMILE

by Michael Burch

 

There never was a fonder smile

than mother's smile, no softer touch

than mother's touch. So sleep awhile

and know she loves you more than "much."

 

So more than "much," much more than "all."

Though tender words, these do not speak

of love at all, nor how we fall

and mother's there, nor how we reach

 

from nightmares in the ticking night

and she is there to hold us tight.

'Gangsta' Gov. Sarah Palin Gets Sweet Assault Rifle from NRA: Happy Mothers Day!

 SARAH PALIN will not go away. I had high hopes that Alaska would swallow her back and she'd actually work as the state's governor -- between hunting trips and keeping her eyes on Russia -- leaving we-of-the-lower-48-contiguous at last alone. But NOooo! Now I read that Palin will be part of the National Council for a New America, "an attempt by leaders in Congress and potential 2012 presidential candidates to rebrand the struggling party," says the Washington Post.  Aw, Jeez!

STILL A TOP DRAW

And then I read in the UK's Guardian:  "More proof that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is a top Republican party fundraising draw and remains a star among the party faithful." (Make that "Old Faithful" Republicans -- the old, white men who get all flushed with Palin's good looks.)

Next I read a story that I at first thought was a satire piece. (Satire often trips me up.) It's very funny and a perfect metaphor for Sarah Palin. But, slowly (you see, I was savoring its hilarity) it dawned on me that it was an honest-to-God true story. Are you ready? Set your cup of hot coffee down, please.

The National Rifle Association, of which Palin is a proud member, is honoring her with a custom made "Alaskan Hunter" rifle. It is an AR-15, the civilian model of the M-16 assault rifle widely used by the US military. For God's sake -- it's a war weapon!

Canada Suffers Blow: European Union Halts Cruel Seal Trade

The clubbing to death of hundreds of thousands of young seals every year in Canada has not ended. They're still beating baby seals with spiked clubs called "hakapiks." I am so ashamed for not realizing that it's still happening. In my ignorance, I assumed this cruel treatment was over long ago.

STILL CLUBBING-TO-DEATH BABY SEALS

My confusion resulted because Canada banned the clubbing of the youngest pups (that is, until 15 days old), with pure white pelts in the 1980s. However, the majority of seals killed today are still no more than a month or two old, according to animal welfare campaigners quoted by the New York Times. 

On Tuesday, May 5, members of the European Parliament -- representing 27 national governments --voted overwhelmingly (550 in favor and 49 against) to ban trading in seal products, "hoping that the collapse of the market will drastically reduce the massacre," reports the Guardian (UK).

The action to outlaw trade in seal products was aimed at Canada, where some 300,000 seals are killed every year and condemned as barbaric by many.

"The EU ban will enter into force by the time that next year's controversial seal hunts begin with spiked clubs and rifles on the east coast of Canada," says the Telegraph (UK). In addition to the trade ban on seal pelts are other seal products found in Omega 3 'fish oil' pills, gloves and other leather goods, and meat from the Arctic.

Inuit communities in the Arctic, and other indigenous communities, were exempted from the new ban. They will still be allowed to market seal products resulting from hunts which provide much of their subsistence.

Math Smarts from Chocolate & Gum: Suspect Research Claims

 

 

MATH is getting easier and easier. All you have to do is either chew gum and/or drink chocolate milk and you'll get smarter in math. Imagine that. How do you suppose scientific researchers came up with findings that made a direct hit on the bull's eye of what kids love to put in their mouths -- chewing gum and chocolate milk. And what parents worry about -- flunking math. It's a miracle! Do you believe it?

I'm not sure I buy it either. In fact, that's what I think is happening. They want you to buy it. There's some manipulation going on, some conflict-of-interest that makes one question the legitimacy of the research findings. Could it be that those behind the research, the sponsors who put up the money to pay the researchers, want to sell product?

CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSE-AND-EFFECT

And remember, correlational studies prove nothing except a correlation -- no evidence of cause-and-effect.

Ethic Soup first wrote about this mouth-to-brain-research, Chew on This, just five days ago after results of Wrigley gum-funded research by Baylor University of Medicine were released with much ballyhoo. The sensational and clamorous claims seemed suspect -- teenagers who chewed Wrigley sugarless gum in class during a math test were smarter (scoring higher) than the kids who didn't chew any gum.

Were the positive results really a result of chewing Wrigley's sugar-free gum? Could suddenly getting smarter at math be a result of chewing any old gum? Or, was it a result of just chewing anything, relieving stress? How about none of the above.

Come to find out, the gum-chewing kids did better on one standardized achievement test, but not on another standardized test. This suggested to us that how well the teens did depended more on the test than whether or not they chewed while taking it.