America was outraged in 2007 when pets started dropping dead from melamine-tainted pet food exported from China. Last year, China was even more outraged when melamine-tainted milk killed six children and sickened 300,000, some experiencing acute kidney failure.
Acute kidney failure means a lifetime of dialysis without an organ transplant. Either way, that's a lifetime of serious and expensive medical issues to drop on a baby and their family, for the rest of what will probably be their much shorter lives.
Two managers identified as particularly responsible for continuing to distribute milk they knew was contaminated have now been executed and several others have been jailed, including the former chair of the offending corporation, who has been given a life sentence.
Before I write anything else about the Clinton Global Initiative, there's something I've wanted to say about charitable corporate giving of all kinds ever since I went last year.
Companies like WalMart and Goldman Sachs who headline such well-intentioned, high-powered gatherings where so much good is done should be told every day, that if they want to really help their fellow humans, they should just pay their sodding taxes as a small demonstration of good faith.
They should be asked, perhaps, for their charity commitment next year to be that they will faithfully pay their full dues to the governments that provide the roads, educated workers, municipal utilities, free community policing and regulatory services that let customers feel comfortable buying sealed containers from complete strangers - all the things that allow them to make those profits in the first place. You couldn't have most modern businesses without these things, except maybe Blackwater Xe. Seriously. Pay. Your. Taxes.
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