ark (03/24/83)
None of the articles on this subject so far has contained a single documented fact. They are full of phrases like "I heard" or "they say" or "everyone knows". A popular children's game is called "Telephone". One player thinks up a phrase and whispers it to the next, who whispers it to the next, and so on. What comes out at the end bears little resemblance to what went in at the beginning, even when all parties are trying to reproduce what they have heard as faithfully as possible. I think, therefore, that I am not out of place in pleading with people who make apparently factual assertions about emotional issues to state their sources.
janetr (03/28/83)
The best source of background information on this topic is an article in Mother Jones magazine about four years ago. The cover showed an African woman at her child's grave--on the grave were a cross, a baby bottle, and a can of baby formula. The article made the point that third world women were viewing bottle feeding as something wonderfully progressive and western--they thought so highly of it that they put the bottle feeding apparatus on the grave so it would bring the baby good luck in the next world. The American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) has a lot of literature and some films about this subject--they and a number of other churches were involved in organizing the boycott. Ken Long's charge about dumping tainted formula into 3d world nations certainly seems plausible, although this is the first I've heard of it (other than on a Lou Grant show that dealt with the same practice applied to IUDs instead of formula). The UN debate was about marketing practices--specifically, that Nestle's and other companies visit new mothers in the hospital (which is another western custom introduced into developing nations) DRESSED UP AS NURSES, don't identify themselves as company people, talk about the wonders of bottle feeding, and distribute samples of formula. Of course they don't mention the problems that are associated with over-diluting the formula, mixing it with contaminated water, not keeping mixed formula cold, etc. etc. The UN debate was about this practice-- not selling the formula itself, or selling tainted formula. My recollection is that the US was the *only* nation that voted against condemning this practice--Ronnie felt it wouldn't be appropriate for the UN to deal with a matter of corporate policy. I missed the original posting about this subject so maybe someone can fill me in--but I thought that after the UN debate last year, Nestles agreed to change their practices and the boycott was called off. Jan Rowell Tektronix Portland, Or.
hutch (03/28/83)
Sorry to post rumors in reply to relatively well-documetned fact, but I don't have last years' newspapers at hand, so . . . Nestle corp. agreed under UN pressure to stop the practice of having their employees masquerade as nurses, but in both newspaper and magazine articles I recall reading that in fact, they are still doing that, when they think they can get away with it. The most horrendous part of the Nestle practice was that they were using (and still are, to my knowledge) modern advertising techniques to convince *VERY* *POOR* people that it is animalistic to breast-feed babies, so that they could sell (still nutritious, for what it's worth) past-expiration-dated baby formula at a dollar a container to people whose entire annual income rarely exceeds 50 dollars. This is not only sleazy and unethical, but it is even criminal, in the U.S. But of course, they don't have to obey U.S. law in those inferior countries, right? (pardon my visible disgust) The Nestle activities make any of the slanders aimed at missionaries look benificent and friendly (not that I believe the slanders in the first place, but the comparison is there). Hutch
bis (03/30/83)
I believe that Nestle is a Swiss company, and therefore does not have to obey U.S. law in any country, inferior or not, other than the U.S... Also, what's all this about missionaries? Andrew Shaw BTLHO x4715 houxq!bis (possible) houxm!hocpc!ams (possible)
mabgarstin (03/30/83)
I've had just about enough of this Nestle boycott junk. We all have been
informed to the point that any more is going to make one regurgitate his baby
formula, no matter how old they are and how long ago it was they were last
fed the goop.
I sympathize with the boycott cause but this has gone on to adnauseam.
Please, no more.
If any of you out there feel a burning need to submit more please send it
along with all the Patty O'Furniture and lightbulb jokes from net.jokes to
/dev/black_hole.
MAB
(wearing out his 'n' key
over boycott articles)