modern civilization is a bane for the people-1

                                         

 

Modern civilization is bane to all living beings. Except human being others creatures do not understand its machinations and can not protest against the onslaughts of market system pampered, protected and promoted by this capital driven civilization. Even the loud protests by the suffering human kind of the world  and the two major revolutions in the twentieth century have failed to change its character. Rather after 70 years this system has succeeded in uprooting the ‘socialist’ system from the Soviet Union and totally changed its character in China. To day both the Chinese and the Soviet regimes are said to be much more corrupt, decadent and anti people than the regimes in the‘democratic’ systems of the west. A glance at the news inside China shows that like the people of the rest of the world the Chinese are also groaning under the pressure of market forces. The pressure of these forces is such that even the new born babies are not safe. For example BBC News  Asia-Pacific on 11 April 2011 quoted the Chinese news agency Xinhua and  reported that the industrial salt nitrite was being added to fresh milk at two dairies in the north-western Gansu province. As a result on 8 April three children died after drinking tainted milk. They were all under the age of two, with the youngest only 36 days old. Thirty-six other people, mostly children, were taken to hospital after drinking the tainted milk. Earlier in 2008, at least six babies died and another 300,000 became ill by drinking infant formula tainted with melamine. This industrial chemical had been added to dairy products to make them seem high in protein.[1] On 25 January 2010 BBC reported that on 26 Oct 2008 Hong Kong authorities discovered eggs produced by Dalian Hanwei Group contained melamine. on 30 Oct 2008, two more egg brands from Shanxi and Hubei provinces were found to contain melamine. It was suspected that melamine was being routinely added to Chinese animal feed. On 27 Dec 2008,  the state media admitted that nearly 300,000 people affected. On11 Jan 2009 Chinese authorities said that a total of 296,000 children had fallen ill from consuming milk products tainted with melamine. Earlier on 8 Jan 2009, a two-month-old boy died after consuming baby milk powder produced under new guidelines.  [2]
On 29 September 2008, Vaudine explained in BBC news Hong Kong the reasons for this milk adulteration. He said that the problems start at source - the cows owned by mostly poor farmers who keep them (a herds of just three to five) in substandard, filthy conditions. The farmers have generally do not have the means to monitor the quality of the milk their cows. The middle men who are not regulated by the state buy milk from the farmers on their own   terms ( at very low prices). To meet the increasing demand for milk products  these poor farmers are goaded to produce more milk. To make their milk production more profitable first they dilute the raw milk with water to increase its volume. Experts in industry assess this adulteration to be about 30%. The dilution of water lowers the nutrient content of the milk, especially its protein, which in turn lowers the price paid for the milk.  To hide this low protein content melamine a nitrogen compound is added. Till 2008 no dairy in China was testing its milk for melamine. Australasia which was importing milk products from China was also not testing melamine.  Actually in this era of globalization all kinds of food items are manufactured not for domestic or local consumption but for national and international market. In such a scenario the dairy sector in China has grown to worth of about $20bn in less than five years. Till 2008, it has been growing at the rate of about 30% a year. The local governments have important role in promoting and regulating export business in China. Most of time promotion part gets priority over the regulation part. In this case the Sanlu Company’s executives and the local government are said to be aware of melamine adulteration. Instead of taking immediate action the city government is reported to have blocked the information, and tried to avoid a public recall of the product," [3] 
People Are Not the Priority of the Government—There is enough evidence to show that the governments at various levels of Chinese State are not bothered about the consumers. Their top priority is to increase volume of domestic and international trade. To attain this objective they pamper industries and traders.[4] That is why the concerned authorities ignored the set norms. For example according to UN agency for food standards the permitted limit for the melamine concentration for powder infant milk formula is one milligram per kilogram and for other food it is 2.5 milligrams. This is identical with the Chinese Health Ministry’s standard released in 2008. Contrary to this set limit, the highest melamine concentration in milk products at that time exceeded 2500 milligrams per kilo.
Like India food safety problem in China has become epidemic. In the late 1990s, Zhou Qing began to investigate food safety in China. His findings were published in book form titled "What Kind of God – A Survey of the Current Safety of China's Food" in 2004 in China. But he had to delete two thirds of the content. In this book he writes about a producers using  sick and dead animals to make their well-known "braised chicken". A famous ham producer soaked the meat in Dichlorvos – a toxic pesticide, so the ham later would not attract flies. He also forecast that scandals related to food safety would drastically increase. This happened with the tainted milk powder scam emerging soon after the 2008 Olympics. In it, the author makes another prediction that  the so-called "Egg and Milk Project" in Chinese schools will lead to the next huge scandal. The government has ordered that school children in rural areas be given a glass of milk and an egg at low prices every day. Zhou Qing says the safety of these products is not guaranteed, so the risk of children falling sick in large numbers is very high. He believes government officials are promoting this project for their own interests. Can this be compared with our mid day meal programme where there in no quality control and we have frequent news of children falling sick after eating the food served there.
Like India in China too there are plenty of rules and regulations in China as far as food safety is concerned. But again like India in China too there is no respect for rule of law feels Zhou Qing. Food is the people's Heaven, a Chinese saying goes. But it seems this heaven has turned into hell for many Chinese consumers.[5]
Why- Because  the Key Operation Is carefully left unchecked. According to , Zhi Jianhua, a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) "In China, milk production is controlled by agricultural departments, dairy products are overseen by quality control departments, but milk purchasing stations – the key link – come under nobody's jurisdiction,". "That was the precise cause of Sanlu (baby milk) formula contamination scandal."
Wang Dingmian, an official from the China Dairy Association, said the two main threats to food safety were pollution of raw materials and deliberate adulteration. Incidents caused by pollution were few in number. Most were caused by adulteration added Wang. The examples of latter were:
 a fatal alcohol poisoning case in north China's Shanxi Province in February 1998, a milk formula case in 2004 which caused babies' heads to swell while their bodies wasted away, and the Sanlu scandal in 2008.
Then there is the question of testing standards.  Wang gave the example of benzoic acid content found in food production over the past years. Benzoic acid is a prohibited additive. But China had not tested for its presence in milk powder production over the past few years informed Wang. When it was found in food, especially baby food, consumers were overwhelmed with panic and anger. The new Food Safety Law sets stricter and more scientific requirements for food additives. It says "Any use of the additives prohibited by state law will be regarded as illegal. However, there are tens of thousands of additives in use by the food industry. Without specific standards, there are bound to be illegal activities" feared Wang. Zhi Jianhua agreed, saying: "The country lacks appropriate testing standards. The number of testing standards is over 4,000 in developed countries, while there are less than 300 in China. That's why illegal substances such as Sudan Red are found in food products and supervisory departments only find out after the events."
Faulty food processing
In addition to additives, faulty processing also threatens food safety, said Wang Dingmian an official from the China Dairy Association, "For example, the popular 'flash processing technique' (pasteurization by flash heating) doubles the ash content and sugar acid in milk and endangers people's health, especially their kidneys and digestive systems."But the hazardous materials are not detected by existing product testing. The state doesn't have any rules or regulations in this regard. Some enterprises are still using the technique and thus pose a big threat to food safety."[6]
Who Benefits By Food Manufactured for Market—There is all round violence in this process of manufacturing food items for the market. The producers suffer the violence because they have no control over prices. They are overtly of covertly forced to accept low prices for their products and thus remain perennially poor. Most of them can not afford consuming their costly products. The consumers suffer violence, because they can not get good quality products. Rather are made to buy  and consume hazardous products. Once the scandals become public government machinery becomes proactive to do damage control. People are arrested and subjected tor summary trials. Death sentences  are liberally awarded. One does not know how many innocent get convicted.   Only the middle men, adulterators, their protectors in the government—the corrupt politicians and officials-- and business and industry tycoons gain materially. Morally and spiritually they also suffer violence. They might not feel it. In short in this monster of market operation there is a false projection of all round prosperity and abundance. In reality every individual is forced to live in an environment of fear and apprehension.
 In India milk producers  are agitating against milk manufacturing companies for quite some time. From 20th may 2012 they are fasting at Jantan Mantar.

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[1]Milk poisoning in northwest China 'deliberate' BBC News  Asia-Pacific  11 April 2011

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13036943

[2]Timeline: China milk scandal 25 January 2010

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7720404.stm

[3]Vaudine England ,Why China's milk industry went sour , BBC News, Hong Kong, 29 September 2008

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7635466.stm

[4] According to Hans Troedsson, WHO's China representative,this incident was aggravated by delays in reporting at a number of sources. "These delays were probably a combination of ignorance and deliberate failure to report." [snip] , Xinhua News Agency reported on Sept. 22 that Sanlu Group received complaints in December 2007 and knew of the contamination in June 2008. It didn't notify the city government of Shijiazhuang, where it's based, until Aug. 2008. The nation's quality and safety watchdog started an investigation on Sept. 10 2008. See, The Chinese food scandal: at least it wasn't a bird flu outbreak, September 27, 2008, http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2008/09/the_chinese_food_scandal_at_le.php

[5] Miao Tian Food adulteration: a much bigger problem than assumed

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,5778587,00.html

[6] Li Jingrong, Loopholes in food safety system: CPPCC member, March 10, 2009 http://www.china.org.cn/government/NPC_CPPCC_2009/2009-03/10/content_17416966.htm

Tibet:Serfs Emancipation Day or Assertion of Political Domination

On January 19, 2009, at the 2nd session of the Ninth Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Congress, it was decided to observe March 28 as an annual Serfs Emancipation Day.  On this day in 1959, the State Council issued a decree to announce the dissolution of the former Tibetan local government. This decree, it wasclaimed that emancipated the Tibetan serfs and slaves, who made up 95 percent of local population, and made them masters of their own destiny. Xinhua news agency of March 27, 2012 carried photographs of lavishly clad well fed Tibetans dancing and singing to celebrate upcoming Serfs Emancipation Day. These photographs reminded of Japan’s occupation of China and creation of the state of Manchukuo in 1930s and 40s. As the Chinese Government admits that after more than 50 years of' ' democratic reforms Tibet Autonomous Region' continues to be one of china’s most poor regions. In this poor and backward region the ‘liberated serfs and slaves' could not possibly be attired in such elegant clothes. Xinhua did not publish any photograph of ordinary Tibetan rejoicing the day. Even the photographs of 2010 and 2011 published by the Xinhua did not show  the ‘liberated serfs and slaves' singing and dancing to celebrate their liberation.

 On the contrary(as reported by Xinhua of March 27, 2012 ) on Mar.28, 2011, more than 3,000 deputies of different nationalities assembled at the Potala Square to watch the national flag raising ceremony in celebration of the 3rd Serfs' Emancipation Day. Flag raising ceremonies and playing national anthems were held across the Tibet Autonomous Region on Sunday, or March 28th, 2011 to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the emancipation of serfs. These Flag raising and playing national anthems ceremonies seem to be more asserting Chinese control over Tibet rather than liberation of 90 percent of Tibetan population. That is why the People’s Daily of March 29,2010 wrote that “The entire Chinese people, including all Tibetans as well as compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and Chinese compatriots residing worldwide, who belong to all but one Chinese nation. Linking by heart to heart and hand in hand, they take up joint responsibilities and the glorious mission for China's great rejuvenation.” It was also reported that, “As part of an effort to mark the first anniversary of the Serf Emancipation Day, the first group of overseas Chinese and Chinese Europeans has planned to come to their motherland on a study tour in June or July this year, which will enable them to take a look at a "dreamlike Tibet", a Tibet with a wonderful scene and a Tibet, where there is a plenty of the nature-endowed products and people are living in much contentment.” They are reported to have commented that "We very much want to see, hear and experience things indigenous to Tibet personally, and take our reminiscence of all these things we have collected during the trip to Tibet back to Europe and proceed to spread them across the world." (This they did not do in any other  part of China.) And people should really cherish and treasure "the hard-won peace and stability in Tibet, and the hard-won prosperity and development in Tibet.” This observation makes Tibet motherland of all Chinese not of Tibetan only. It is pertinent to add that before 1949 China was also characterized semi-colonial and semi feudal by Mao. After People’s Democratic Revolution the old system was replaced by people’s democratic Dictatorship. This new political system uprooted the old system and tried to develop the new system. After the demise of Mao this ‘new’ system has virtually been discarded. But the news of people of a particular region of China observing their liberation from pre 1949 feudalism on a particular day is conspicuous by its absence. Holding of  state sponsored annual Serfs Emancipation Day from 2009 and publishing pictures of lavishly attired Tibetans singing and dancing in Peoples daily shows China’s indirect admission of her failure to integrate Tibet with rest of China.
tibet,china, liberation, occupation

Maoists today (4,5,2012) released DM A.P. Menon and the whole nation was relieved. Earlier electronic media flashed the stories of trauma the family of DM was undergoing. Today the trauma has ended like a bad dream. In the process of highlighting the news pertaining the DM and his family the media has forgotten the tragedy of death of his two of his body guards. The families of these bodyguards will never see them alive again. It is high time the media tell the nation the steps the state has taken to compensate and rehabilitate the families of these bodyguards

Maoists today (4,5,2012) released DM A.P. Menon and the whole nation was relieved. Earlier electronic media flashed the stories of trauma the family of DM was undergoing. Today the trauma has ended like a bad dream. In the process of highlighting the news pertaining the DM and his family the media has forgotten the tragedy of death of his two of his body guards. The families of these bodyguards will never see them alive again. It is high time the media tell the nation the steps the state has taken to compensate and rehabilitate the families of these bodyguards