Frequent Fliers

We’re home!

It was a long journey, but not too bad. The flight to Australia wasn’t overfull so we had two seats each. Well, for Littletree two seats was enough to stretch out and lie down, so she slept most of the flight. For me it was just less-uncomfortable, but still pretty nasty.

I hate flying. Being stuck in the air-conditioning, it’s loud and uncomfortable and rough on the immune system.

Here’s Littletree, the mega frequent-traveller, boarding the plane on leaving her 24th country.

So, things I have learned on this trip: Phuket International Airport sucks. Most airports these days don’t allow you to bring any liquids through security into the departure lounge – including drinking water. Normally I bring my usual crocheted drinking water bottle with the water tipped out and the lid off. After we’ve passed security I find a drinking fountain to refill the bottle for drinking on the plane. But Phuket airport, there were *no* drinking water taps at all anywhere, and every single shop in the entire place sold *only* Nestlé water. :(

HERE is what I think about Nestlé, especially their water. So I was wandering around the departure lounge for ages, desperately wanting a drink of water, not wanting to buy Nestlé water. Not wanting to get on a flight without water, not wanting to buy Nestlé. Argh!

On the other hand, Kuala Lumpur LCCT Airport has filtered drinking water fountains, free WiFi, and not just WiFi, but electric sockets you can plug computers into (rare and hard to get in many places), nice bathrooms – even with free showers(!), and a reasonable selection of cheap food. Yay KL!

I will admit the shuttle bus to KL airport made me very nervous. The driver not only had his day bag sitting loose on the floor,

he also had a sticker of a motorbike racing driver covering the speedometer! yikes!

We did at least arrive safely :) Ah, it’s great to be home!

Nestlé – Voiding Your Right to Water

I’ve talked about boycotting Nestlé before, and you might have noticed the links I have on this page. I’ve been refusing Nestlé products for more than a decade now.

I knew Nestlé was a deplorable company, but I stumbled across an interview clip with the CEO of Nestlé, Peter Brabeck, and I have to say, I had no idea just how terrible these guys are.

Brabeck starts off by saying that organic food is stupid.

“Today people believe that everything that comes from nature is good… A good example is the organic movement… but organic is not best. After 15 years of eating GM products in the USA, not one single illness has occurred from eating them to date.”

Which is a bold statement to make, considering the mountains of evidence contradicting him.

But then he goes right off into saying that the concept of access to clean drinking water as a basic human right is a radical, extreme notion held by NGOs. I had no idea the UN was a radical, extreme NGO.

“Water is, of course, the most important raw material we have today in the world… there are two different opinions on the matter; the one opinion I think is extreme, is represented by the NGOs, who bang on about declaring water a public right. That means that as a human being you should have a right to water. That’s an extreme solution. And the other view says that water is a foodstuff like any other, and like any other foodstuff it should have a market value.”

What a coup! Not only should everyone feed their babies with Nestlé formula, but they should pay for Nestlé bottled water to mix it with too. Unless you listen to radical, extreme NGOs like the United Nations, and chose to BREASTFEED, which is safer, healthier, and free.

Anyway, the interview is so outrageously shocking it’s almost comical. Unbridled Capitalism at its best! You can see the tape here: 

I don’t believe that my boycotting will really make a difference to the company’s policy, but I personally can’t support Nestlé. I won’t go into it all now, but you can read HERE to get more information if you’re interested.

I’m off now to drink some water while it’s still free, and perhaps enjoy a little air before the price rise hits.

Children's Book Prize Winner Refuses Nestle Cheque

I just stumbled across this Article about Sean Taylor, who won the Gold Medal in the Nestlé Children's Book Prize, under-5 category, for his book When a Monster is Born.

Taylor decided not to accept the prize money from Nestle, because of their record of aggressive marketing of baby foods, which contributes to the unnecessary death and suffering of infants around the world.

Taylor wrote a letter refusing the prize, saying (bolding mine)

...it is my view that their interpretation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes sets up the risk that profit is put before infant health. And, in addition, it seems that the actions of some of their employees on the ground are inconsistent with company policy as set out in the Head Office.

For these reasons I do not feel that Nestlé are the most appropriate sponsors for this major children’s book prize.

Nestle has also failed to answer reports on child slavery in its cocoa production.
Well, I applaud Taylor's decision, and I wonder if maybe accepting the prize but publicly donating the money to Baby Milk Action might have been a better use?

Reason #451,986 Why We Don't Live in Israel

I just happened along this interesting little article, Osem Recalls Snacks With Lead-Tainted Toy Jewelry in the English version of Haaretz; one of the biggest newspapers in Israel.

The jist of it, is that Osem, Israel's largest snack-food company, made a promotion of putting a little plastic necklace in packets of their salty snack foods, Bissli, Bamba and Dubonim. Turns out (like pretty much everything that comes out of China lately), the necklaces contain 3.5 times the acceptable levels of lead.

The Israeli Ministry of Health standards director said "The danger is not immediate, like electrocution, but there is clear danger".
Yep; clear danger. Lead poisoning, in fact.

Of course, the CEO of Osem, Aviezer Kaplan didn't want to do a recall, saying "there was no point". In fact, "All the experts we checked with say there is no danger to public health."

How convenient that the "experts" the company checked with (and which experts might they be, I'd like to know) say there is no danger to public health. Yet, the Ministry of Health (whom would count pretty high amongst the list of experts, and are easily found in the Israel Yellow Pages, not to mention in direct contact with Aviezer Kaplan) gave a direct order that they toys be recalled.

So basically, though Osem has been ordered to recall the snacks, they're still on the shelves. All that Osem has so far done is run a small newspaper ad.

and yes, this is more-or-less acceptable to Israeli standards.

Seems that while the CEO of Osem may or may not care about the health of children in Israel (who happen to be his best customers), he is much more afraid of his boss, Nestle, who owns 50.1% of the company. Nestle, as we all know, don't have any issue with killing children in third world countries.