From Poisioning Pets to Poisioning People: Will "China's Rise" Be Our Demise?
Sometime cooks do not ensure beforehand that they have all the necessary ingredients. When the recipe calls for an ingredient not close at hand they hunt for a substitute. Sometimes it works, and sometimes not. Usually no one dies or becomes ill from eating such cooking.
Unfortunately, such good fortune is not always the case when it comes to ingredients made in the world's factory of choice - the Peoples' Republic of China. Poisoned ingredients have made their way from China into Pooch's food; killing some of his kind, and perhaps into people food as well, potentially harming millions - some to death. Will baby Peter or 'ole Pa-Paw be the next victim of our addiction to China's cheap products.
New York Times reporters Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker in their May 6, 2007 story From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine have presented what could be interpreted as a shocking exposé on the sheer lack of respect for human life that defines Capitalism with Chinese characteristics. Selling cheap but deadly diethylene glycol as a substitute for the ingredient that makes cough medicine taste sweet and go down easy is unimaginable to anyone who respects human life, but apparently not to some in China. Can we afford "China's rise" on such terms.
If we assume, for the moment that the Chinese are not trying to poison us we can surmise that the motive was profit - the primary motivation of a capitalist. Capitalism that is grounded in freedom, democracy, and ethics has done much good to effect the rise of the middle class and the general spread of prosperity throughout the Free World. But capitalism must be built on a foundation of freedom, democracy and ethics or else it becomes tyranny. It cannot be the foundation built upon. Capitalism with Chinese characteristics, left unchecked, will be the demise of the West.
A bit of trivia: Panama is the primary recipient of the poisoned medicine discussed in the New York Times story. Panama has shunned China's many advances and stayed faithful to Taiwan, being one of the very few countries maintaining diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine
Unfortunately, such good fortune is not always the case when it comes to ingredients made in the world's factory of choice - the Peoples' Republic of China. Poisoned ingredients have made their way from China into Pooch's food; killing some of his kind, and perhaps into people food as well, potentially harming millions - some to death. Will baby Peter or 'ole Pa-Paw be the next victim of our addiction to China's cheap products.
New York Times reporters Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker in their May 6, 2007 story From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine have presented what could be interpreted as a shocking exposé on the sheer lack of respect for human life that defines Capitalism with Chinese characteristics. Selling cheap but deadly diethylene glycol as a substitute for the ingredient that makes cough medicine taste sweet and go down easy is unimaginable to anyone who respects human life, but apparently not to some in China. Can we afford "China's rise" on such terms.
If we assume, for the moment that the Chinese are not trying to poison us we can surmise that the motive was profit - the primary motivation of a capitalist. Capitalism that is grounded in freedom, democracy, and ethics has done much good to effect the rise of the middle class and the general spread of prosperity throughout the Free World. But capitalism must be built on a foundation of freedom, democracy and ethics or else it becomes tyranny. It cannot be the foundation built upon. Capitalism with Chinese characteristics, left unchecked, will be the demise of the West.
A bit of trivia: Panama is the primary recipient of the poisoned medicine discussed in the New York Times story. Panama has shunned China's many advances and stayed faithful to Taiwan, being one of the very few countries maintaining diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine
IN CHINA At least 18 people, most of them in Guangdong Province, died in a month last year after they ingested contaminated medicine. (photo source: New York Times, May 6, 2007, From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine)
The kidneys fail first. Then the central nervous system begins to misfire. Paralysis spreads, making breathing difficult, then often impossible without assistance. In the end, most victims die.
Many of them are children, poisoned at the hands of their unsuspecting parents.
The syrupy poison, diethylene glycol, is an indispensable part of the modern world, an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze.
It is also a killer. And the deaths, if not intentional, are often no accident.
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