join folding@home

I just used my PS3 to sign up for Stanford University's Folding@Home project. The project basically uses millions of idle computers (and I guess game consoles now) to do "protein folding". I'm not fully sure what it is, but whatever it is, it's using your processor's power to help do medical research. How can it get better than that?

I created a team called "end Iraq war". The team number is 61764. Now you can fight disease while being anti-war as well. How great is that?

If any of you have PCs or PS3 turned on all day and sitting idle, why not help out the medical community?

For more information, following the link: http://folding.stanford.edu/

turning on the water works

It has recently been recently been reported that Coca-Cola is investing in water initiatives in Africa to expand supply. It's easy to be cynical about these altruistic moves. After all, they make billions of dollars, they can certainly afford to throw out a few million here and there if it makes them look good. A 15-nation study in Europe has shown that many people feel the same cynicism against corporations who don't seem genuine when they make these performances.

In general, I like to give corporations the benefit of the doubt as much as possible. I never believed that corporations were people, even though they reap all the benefits of being treated as an individual without any of the drawbacks. (See the excellent documentary The Corporation for this argument.) Whether a board of managers sit together in a room and say "We don't really care about people but let's pretend we do by making all these gestures" is not something I want to speculate. Mainly, I don't want to give the impression that corporations can't do anything good.

Of course, this doesn't excuse Coca-Cola or any other corporation for the ills they have committed. Certainly if all corporations made these gestures and others followed, our society would be a better place regardless of their sincerity.

activism report: amy goodman interviews anti-coke activist ray rogers

Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now, talks to anti-Coke activist Ray Rogers in this 2004 interview. In it, they talk about some of the details of the allegations, including the specific incidents that ties Coca-Cola to the crimes.

Below is the introduction to the interview. I encourage everyone to check this out in full. You can download the audio or stream the video of this interview from the website.

"On the morning of December 5, 1996, two men on a motorcycle arrived at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Antioquia, Colombia, where according to eyewitnesses they breezed past a guardhouse at the factory's front gate and onto plant grounds. The men approached Isidro Gil, head of the plant's union of bottling employees, and in plain sight of his co-workers shot him ten times, mortally wounding him. Just one hour later, another top union officer was kidnapped from his home, and that evening the union's offices were ransacked and burned to the ground. Two days later, after gunmen with the Colombian paramilitary group A.U.C. threatened further violence against employees, plant managers distributed union resignation forms to workers. All of them signed the forms.

"In July of 2001, the union representing Colombia's Coca-Cola employees filed suit in a federal court in Florida, alleging Coke contracted with paramilitary death squads to torture, kidnap, and murder union leaders at its bottling plants. Though the lawsuit was initially thrown out, charges of collusion with Colombian paramilitaries continue to dog the company. An amended version of the lawsuit was filed this month with the same federal court in Miami, and at Coke's annual shareholders' meeting in Wilmington, Deleware last Wednesday, Coke Chairman and CEO Douglas Daft went on the defensive, telling investors that his company had no role in the killings."

- From Democracy Now

activism update: indians fight coca-cola

activism update: WB 11 Investigative Piece On Killer Coke

Here's a somewhat dated piece by WB on Coca-Cola's alleged human rights abuses, with interviews with councilmembers and activists about their views on the issue.

social awareness guide #4: this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes...

When Vincent Ferrari tried to cancel his account, he met with the customer representative from hell. Good thing he decided to record the conversation and post it on YouTube (see below), creating great embarassment for AOL. (If you search for AOL on YouTube, this is the first thing that pops up.)

While Vincent's experience may be extreme, many of us have tried calling customer representative or tech support before and encountered our own share of hilarious and/or annoying frustrations. My suggestion is: every time you want to call customer service, record the conversation. Whether you decide to post it on YouTube or keep it for your records, that's up to you, but you never know what it could be good for. Sometimes the people who answer your call don't always record the conversation. I imagine that they must be sitting at a computer that has predetermined codes or boxes that they fill, and that they are given limited authorization to make changes. (E.g. Toshiba had extended my warranty for a year but it never shows up on my account when I call until I remind them.)

I'm not sure if recording and publishing these calls are any violation of any law so I don't want to encourage people to do that until you and I find out more. I don't think Vincent got in any particular trouble, and if it was a legitimate grievance, the company might be too embarassed to sue. Plus, even if you retract the video, given the power of the Internet, many others would've re-posted it.

So, make sure when you hear the automated recording say "This call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes...", that you do the same.

How hard is it to cancel AOL?

book review: confessions of an economic hitman

"We must shake ourselves awake. We who live in the most powerful nation history has ever known must stop worrying so much about the outcome of soap operas, football games, quarterly balance sheets, and the daily Dow Jones average, and must instead reevaluate who we are and where we want our children to end up."

John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man tells the fascinating story of how one man was hired as part of a network of "economic hit man" whose role is to trick developing countries into accepting huge loans that benefit no one but the richest, while at the same time allowing huge corporations to get rich by building huge infrastructure projects. The books takes the reader across the world, from Indonesia to Panama, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and others.

Skepticism is good. I personally believe that one should be skeptical and critical of everything you hear, even - or maybe especially - if it comes from a view aligned with your own. I admit to share an agenda similar to Perkin's, namely that I'm against global corporate dominance and imperialism, but I still wanted to bring in a dose of skepticism and ask: Is Perkins' book believable?

I have a two part answer to that. You can separate the book into two layers: Perkin's life story (which are subjective), and historical facts (which are less subjective and can be further researched). I'm not particularly interested in Perkins life or his psychological struggles, nor am I interested in its precise veracity. As he admits, he had made some changes to the specific dialogues, and I suspect he might have made up some scenes that serve more rhetorical purposes, such as serving as a platform for discussion. This is just my speculation, and to the extent that those scenes are fabricated, I don't really care.

Then there are the historical facts, which center on whether something actually happened. For the historical facts, I urge the reader (skeptical or otherwise) to look it up. If you live in a free country, these sources are readily available, although I would not start at a high school or even college history textbook. I would maybe look into something more reliable.

Regarding whether such economic hit man actually exist, that's harder for me to prove here one way or the other. I have tried to do research into it, and nothing has come up to disprove Perkins, although the burden of proof is on him. This is like someone trying to write about a government cover-up of extraterrestials: of course you don't won't find anything 'cause it's a cover-up! Well, I would keep an open-mind about it, and do more research. Read more, look up his sources, look into the history of corporations, governments, etc. I am more inclined to think the Perkins is telling the truth, namely because I grew up in some of the places he mentioned, and it "rings true" to me, but that's as far as I have.

If nothing else, Perkins book may serve as a platform for dialogue, and whether you agree with his specific recounting of events, I think that globalization and corporate rule has had an adverse effect on the world can be substantiated.

Perkins style is not particularly interesting, but then again he's not an author. In fact, if he wrote with the eloquence of Dickens, I might be less inclined to believe him.
So, my final advice: Whatever your views, whoever you are, keep reading, researching, follow-up. We should be critical of all views, especially those we agree with, because we are more vulnerable to manipulation there.

hell hath no fury than a petowner scorned

Last weekend, pet food suppliers issued a massive recall of dry and wet foods for dogs and cats, manufactured by Menu Foods, Inc. This came after 9 cats and 1 dog reportedly died from eating those foods. Many more may still be unreported as the investigation continues.

Today, two new pieces of information have turned up. One is that 7 animals died from testing by the food maker before the recall. This means that this manufacturer knowingly sold food that could kill your pet without issuing any warning, or without even deciding that perhaps they shouldn't be sold in the first place? Why? I don't know. Maybe they figure that a lawsuit would cost less than the opportunity cost of not selling tainted food. And oh yes, there will be lawsuits.

The other piece of information is that, as it turns out, both premium pet food and the cheap kind are made from the same stuff. Both brand name foods by Eukanuba, Iams and Purina and the generic food sold in Walmart and Kroger' s were recalled. Of course, this comes as no big surprise. Most generic products aren't substantially different. Even companies that sell the basic and premium version end up selling really similar products, except maybe giving the premium stuff better packaging.

Should we be outraged? Actually, no, not so much. If I don't have money, I buy generic brand. If you're rich and have some extra money, you can buy the same stuff for a bit more money. If taxes were like that, we'd be calling it progressive taxing. Of course, if the Bush administration controlled the pricing of pet food the way they did taxes, the premium brand would cost less, and you get a large rebate.

What do I feed my dog? I feed him Purina Nestle's Beneful, both dry and wet. I only like the wet because it's not the brown gunk that you see in cans. You actually see meat, greens, carrots, rice, barley, etc. And my dog likes it more than the brown gunk 'cause I tried it.

In all seriousness, if you have a pet who eats from these brands, or even if they don't eat from those brands, be aware of what has been recalled. Symptoms that have been reported were lethargy, vomiting, and loss of appetite. Please check with your vet if you see any of these symptoms. As a dog owner myself, I know how improtant pets are to many families. It makes me angry just thinking that a food maker would knowingly send out tainted food that would killed beloved pets just so they could make an extra buck. I mean, if they didn't know it and it was an accident, that's one thing. But to be that negligent and irresponsible shows an utter contempt for its consumers.

I pray for all the sick animals out there and that a big fat lawsuit gets slapped on these assholes. A website that has been tracking the number of deaths connected to this product is petconnection.com.

social awareness guide #3: turn off the tv

After the earlier post of healthy choices, and this one on turning off the TV, you must think I'm a total square. Well, perhaps I am, but I do think I'm right in this regard. Besides, my suggestion isn't to ask you to stop watching TV shows, just not watch it from the TV.

Eh?

Okay, I used to be glued to the TV all the time. When I was living in a dorm and had free cable, I would leave the set on almost all night and day, usually on 24-hr cable news like CNN. After I moved into an apartment, after it became a pain to have to watch TV in the living room, I slowly stopped watching it. We had a digital recorder then, so I could always watch shows on it without having to adjust my life to the TV. Eventually, I stopped watching it altogether. After I moved again, I didn't even apply for cable. I don't even have the antennae connected to my TV.

I'm not a typical high-brow, elitist who thinks Frasier was the shit (never watched it; it could be the shit) and the current TV shows are "stupid." My favorite shows were/are Friends, Scrubs, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Futurama, Seinfeld, The Daily Show, Arrested Development, Iron Chef, and Desperate Housewives. But now that I've stopped watching TV, whenever I turn it on - for example, when I'm at a hotel - I just cannot believe the dribble that passes for entertainment these days. How these shows ever got on TV is unbelievable, and I began to wonder whether it was supposed to be that bad.

But I haven't stopped watching all TV shows because there are some that entertain me. And what I had to say about the dribble is just a personal opinion anyway. But I watch these shows either on DVD or through the Internet. The benefit is that 1) I don't have to suffer through the commercials, and 2) I don't have to shape my life to the TV schedule. Now, if you have something like TiVo, and if you can find ways of skipping the commercials, great. Do that. But if now, just remember that there are other ways of watching TV shows.

Over the years I've grown to be against TV. I should say, I've grown to be against the type of lifestyles that gathers around TV. Perhaps it's not the fault of the TV, or even the shows per se, it's just that it's so easy to be sucked into that lifestyle where all you do is sit or lay there flipping channels and watching reruns you've seen before. I know people who, after a certain hour, just sit in front of the TV watching the endless line of reruns. Even my family in Malaysia, whenever we go back, seem to be stuck in front of the TV despite the fact that many of us traveled thousands of miles from different corners of the world to see each other.

I should say that I study and play video games, which is also something that people have blamed for turning players into mindless robots. I definitely agree that if you play eight hours a day - and I've been there - you are overdoing it. So, I want to make sure that I'm not be hypocritical here. I do think that there's a difference between playing a video game, when your mind is actively solving problems - and watching reruns. It would be like the difference between driving a car, and watching a photo of a car. In any case, I don't think people should play too many video games either, just as I don't think people should read too many books (at the expense of being aware of the people around them.)

If you take just one minute out of each day observing something or someone you care about, you really being realize how unfortunate it is that we turn to things like TV for our exclusive entertainment.

healthy choice: not in restaurants

Let it not be said that I only pick on big corporate franchises. CNN reported that food in Chinese restaurants have way too much sodium and calories than a normal human should be consuming, and that excessive intake would lead to weight gain and hypertension. Of course, that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Really, many Chinese restaurants and take-outs are just the McD version of Chinese restaurants. It doesn't take a nutritionist to tell you that the food in those innocent little white boxes could kill ya.

The report notes that this shouldn't be seen as targeting only Chinese restaurants, or all Chinese restaurants, and I agree. I'm sure if you took a look at any other "ethnic restaurant" (maybe with the exception of Japanese restaurants), you'd get the same results. Too much sodium. It's a shame that homecooking seems to be less popular given how much easier it is to just pick up the phone and press speed-dial #2.

By the way, I'm not a health nut. I'd like to become a vegetarian some day, but for now, I'm still a meateater. I don't count my calories and I don't induce vomiting. I am trying hard to watch what I eat though while making sure I also have fun doing it. Food is great. Eating is great. And sometimes it's so easy to eat nonstop. Sometimes I see an overweight family on the bus, eating Cheetos and talking about what they want for dinner (usually something insanely unhealthy). I have nothing against overweight people. In fact, I think our culture (and not just the American culture, but perhaps it's part of the equation) generates some really unusual attitudes about weight. I see perfectly healthy-weight people, even thin people, watching their weights as if their life depended on it. Then I see people bordering on obesity munching on cakes and other unhealthy foods. What is going on here?

Just one last thing before I start rambling. I cooked for my family when I was in Malaysia, and noticed that they often needed their dishes to be a tad saltier than what I consider as normal, which came as a surprise because, when I was living with them, they would always complain when they think their food is too salty. Perhaps we slowly get used to tastes and, without knowing, take in too much salt. I try to stay away from salt as much as I can, and rely on the natural juices in meats. Maybe that's what others can try.

To parents: Stop buying soda, chips, or anything like that. Stop rewarding your children with candy bars. It's quick and easy and it shuts them up, but in the long run, you get them used to eating those things. My parents never had those things around the house, so these days, I almost never crave soda or chips or candy. It's a habit thing that really should start when the kids are young, but it's also never too late to start.

activism report: baby steps

The student senate president hasn't gotten back to me yet. I did email the Killer Coke group, who did email me back. We'll be communicating a bit soon I think. I also emailed Coca-Cola's corporate responsibility people on their website asking to see if they'd comment on the protests. I'll keep you updated if they respond.

Finally, I created a group of Facebook. Not sure how much good that'll do but you never know. I saw a "Fuck Coke" group in Purdue University, who did manage to get Coke off their campus, so maybe it'll work.

By the way, after some research last night, I found out that there was a town hall meeting regarding the banning of Coca-Cola on June 2006 but no concrete resolution seemed to have materialized from that.

The fight continues.

the price of human suffering

It's an inevitable part of war that some people will die and others will profit. I get that. I might even accept that begrudgingly. Of course, the ideal is to have no war, and to resolve issues through diplomacy, but that's not going to happen until maybe some global catastrophe forces humanity to refocus its aggression on something else. Hey, there's the silver lining to the whole global warming thing.

While war profiteering may be unavoidable, what is particular sinister is when the war-makers are the same people making the war. People go to jail for more subtle crimes, like insider trading, but somehow, when it comes to war, it's possible to turn a blind eye. CNN recently reported how Halliburton - with notorious ties to VP Cheney (former CEO of Halliburton) - stock rose from $10.25 a share to around $35 a share since the war started. More recently, reports that Halliburton will split its corporate headquarters to Dubai has raised eyebrows about its possible motives with regards to tax or anti-bribery law evasion. Where's the unpatriotic war cry now?

Incidentally, BBC journalist Greg Palast reported that Condoleeza Rice has had secret meetings with the with former Secretary-General of OPEC before the invasion to make sure that the oil wells are not destroyed. Oil prices have risen as a result of the war, and who profits? Oh yeah, Halliburton and the other oil giants, to the tune of $2.3 trillion dollars.

Who suffers? The soldiers. The families of the soldiers. And of course, the Iraqi people, especially the children. And that's not including the recent estimate of 655,000 excess deaths of Iraqi civilians who have died as a result of disease, violence, and other calamities that are indirectly associated with the occupation.

All for what? (Warning: Graphic images.)

We shouldn't just be talking about ending the war. We should be talking about how many trillions in war reparations the United States government ought to be paying for its occupation of Iraq. Hey, why not just take the trillions the oil industry profited from the war?

Madtv - Apple I-rack

Funny video from MadTV. Thanks to W for sharing it with me.

activism report: more schools join coca-cola ban

Manchester University has joined the growing list of schools banning Coca-Cola from their campus. Earlier this year, NYU became the largest private university in the United States to join the protest.

In addition, union workers have protested Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the NCAA, and have asked that it sever ties with the corporation.

Here is the entire list of colleges and high schools that are already banning Coca-Cola.

activism report: firing the first shot at coca-cola

Okay I must be crazy. I normally don't do this type of thing, but I'm motivated now. I wrote a letter to the student senate at Teachers College, Columbia University regarding a ban of all Coca-Cola products on campus. Someone wrote back saying that they can't do anything because the senate doesn't control who the school contracts with. I replied asking them if the senate can just raise the issue with the administration, and the person suggested I write to the president of the student senate. So I did. I also wrote to the Killer Coke group asking them for advice on how to start a campaign.

Anyway, this could fall flat on its face, or it could go somewhere. I think I'm going to enlist more students' help. My only concern is that I'll not have time to follow through with a lot of this so please keep pushing me.

Here is my letter to the president:

Dear XX:

I am writing with regards to the Coca-Cola vending machines and Coca-Cola products sold on the Teachers College campus. In the past few years, in response to allegations of human rights violations in Colombia, India, Turkey, and Guatemala, many institutions such as New York University, Rutgers University, The University of Michigan, Harvard University, Hofstra University, the Union Theological Seminary, CUNY, and the AAA (American Anthropological Association) have issued bans of Coca-Cola products on their campuses in protest. In NYU, for example, it was action initiated by their student senate that ultimately led to the ban. I would like to implore this student senate to follow similar action as a signal to Coca-Cola that Teachers College will not stand for its human rights abuses.

I understand that this process is arduous and time-consuming, and hope that the student senate will take the proper steps in putting this into action. Please email me if you have any questions or advice to help make this happen.

For further reading, please check out:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_04/b3968078.htm

http://www.sbindependent.org/node/1594

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=511674

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510774

http://www.killercoke.org/

For a full list of institutions that have banned Coca-Cola:

http://www.killercoke.org/active-in-campaign.htm

Sincerely yours,

Aaron

consumer report: icky-Dees

It might seem that I'm picking on McD these days, but that's not true. However, I would like to pass on some information I got today from one of the students who used to work at a McD in New York City. If you think some of the scary stories in Schossler's book is purely anecdoctal, you might want to hear from other people who've worked there before and see if it's a common occurrence.

The student described a few incidents that happened while he was at McD's:

Incident #1: On one occasion, he dropped a pack of chicken nuggets on the floor. Instead of throwing them out, he picked them right off the floor and served them. He said the McD management frowns on wastefulness and so the workers there are more likely to serve you soiled food than throwing them out.

Incident #2: At McD they tell you to cook the patties for a certain number of seconds. One time he accidentally undercooked one of the burgers. He served it anyway.

Incident #3: (You might want to stop eating while reading this) He and his co-workers used their bare hands to pry apart a stack of cheese slices. His co-worker then proceeded to lick a piece of the cheese and put it right back. When a customer ordered a cheeseburger, he used the cheese slice he just licked and served it to the customer.

Incident #4: There were plenty of rats in the McD he worked at. They usually ask the Chinese immigrant adolescents to go into the storage to get rid of the rats.

Still going to McD's? Good luck. Don't worry though. Eating a stranger's spit won't kill you. Not always, anyway.

social awareness guide #2: one less

Okay, this is less of a social awareness thing than it is a health guide, although I do think moderating individual consumption of anything can grow to become a moral issue given how consumerism has taken over society.

Anyway, it's hard to cut back on the things you like, whether it's a snack, a drink, a cigarette, or just some extra gadget you need to buy off the Internet. Here's one thing that might help. The next time you're out to get something, whatever it is, just get one less of what you might get. This can be a minor gesture, like taking one less bite of a cookie, or preferably, one less cookie. If you get into that habit, and slowly build up, you might end up cutting back a lot in the long-run.

For example, some things you can do one less of:

Less sugar in your morning coffee
Less salt in your cooking
Less turning on the lights
Less sweets and snacks
Less slab of fatty meats
Less bite of cheese
Less sip of soda
Less cigarette
Less taking the car
Less turning on the heat
Less candy

For some this might not seem like a huge deal, but I think it works. It's more realistic to cut back slowly than to expect people to make huge changes in their lifestyles.

boycott of the month: the coca-cola company

It seems that a group called the United Students Against Sweatshops are calling March 27th the "International Day of Action Against Coca-Cola", so why not make March your first boycott? Yes, this blog only started yesterday, so it'll only be a short boycott, but hey, don't worry, we'll boycott them again some time.

The Coca-Cola Company is responsible for many human rights violations around the world and have engaged in many anti-union activities. Moreover, they have been penetrating into schools with their beverages and marketing. Many universities have already removed Coca-Cola products from their campus as a way of protesting their activities. On December 2005, New York University became the largest private university to boycott Coca-Cola products. Here are some reasons to boycott Coca-Cola. Not that there are many other reasons that I suggest you look into (e.g. human rights violations in India, Turkey, etc.)

Colombia

Colombia is not the only country The Coca-Cola Company has committed atrocities in, but is perhaps one of the most widely known one. This has to do with a bottling company that the company uses in Colombia, which has been sued in a lawsuit for its crimes. According to some reports (and again, I'm not an expert, so do your own research), The Coca-Cola Company has been responsible for contracting paramilitary forces to silence, torture and kill trade union leaders in Colombia.

Health risks

Recent reports have shown that certain sodas contain a higher level of benzene, a carcinogen linked to leukemia, than water. While drinking water have to follow strict guidelines on benzene levels, sodas do not, and so companies are allowed to sell them around the world. A non-diet can of soda also contains 12 teaspoons of sugar, which can lead to many health risks associated with heart disease and diabetes. Kids who drink too much soda also tends to drink less milk, leading to risk of osteoporosis and kidney stones.

Bottled water

Bottled water has been almost ubiquitous in our communities now, and not just in the United States but in many other parts of the world (at least those I've been to). The general impression is that bottled water, because they come in pretty bottles and fancy labels, are cleaner and taste better than tap water. Not true! While tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), bottled water is regulated by the FDA (Food & Drug Administration), which applies EPA guidelines selectively. Moreover, while there's a huge staff of people overlooking tap water in the EPA, there is barely enough in the FDA to overlook bottled waters. As such, many bottled water companies often have much higher levels of toxic chemicals like arsenic and bacteria than regular tap water. On top of that, bottled water are harmful to the environment, increasing the amount of trash.

How to boycott

Remember that The Coca-Cola Company makes not just its flagship products. For a complete list of its products, check out its entire brand list. If you can't be bothered with the list, just take a good look whatever beverage you're buying, and it'll often tell you whether it's a Coca-Cola product. You are also do things such as sending petitions to The Coca-Cola Company board members or passing out flyers in your school, college and community.

By the way, I always encourage people also to do their own research and make up their own minds. If you can, talk to others who use Coca-Cola products, or even just sodas or bottled water in general, to educate them about the costs of these products. I posted a link of a speech by a union activist speaking out against the company that you can check out.

And finally, if you want to communicate with me, make corrections, suggestions, or if you think Coke is great, feel free to email me.

P.S. I was so disgusted in my research that I've upgraded The Coca-Cola Company to my permanent boycott list. Lucky them!

Further reading

United Students Against Sweatshops is leading a campaign this month to protest against Coca-Cola.

Killer Coke is a comprehensive website detailing the crimes that The Coca-Cola Company has committed.

St. Cloud Times has an op-ed piece on bottled water.

The Sierra Club has an informative brochure on the costs of bottled water.

Ray Rogers - Killer Coke (Part Six)

This is Part Six of a speech by an activist. If you're interested, please check out all nine parts of this speech on YouTube.

social awareness guide #1: read the labels

Most people don't read labels carefully, especially ingredients labels. It's not a bad habit to have. If you're in the supermarket, looking to buy something, take a minute to look at what's inside. More importantly, teach your kids or students to do it. You can even make it into a fun activity, by having them ask questions about what they're consuming.

As an example, here are the listed ingredients in my can of Campbell's Chunky Grilled Sirloin Steak with Hearty Vegetables. Yum!

• Water
• Potatoes
• Grilled seasoned sirloin beef (contains up to 10% of a solution of water, salt, sodium phosphate)
• Carrots
• Tomato puree (water, tomato paste)
• Corn
• Diced tomatoes in tomato juice
• Green beans
• Modified food starch

Contains less than 2% of the follwoing ingredients:

• Beef flavor base (roasted beef including natural juices, salt, hydrolyzed soy and corn protein, corn oil, onion powder, grill flavor, beef fat, caramel color, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, beef flavor, garlic powder, spice)
• Dehydrated onions
• Vegetable flavor base (sauteed vegetables - carrots, celery, onions), sugar, salt, corn oil, autolyzed yeast extract and natural flavoring)
• Sugar
• Monosodium glutamate
• Hydrolyzed yeast protein
• Grill flavor from vegetable oil
• Beef stock
• Yeast extract
• Beef fat
• Flavoring
• Oinion powder
• Beef
• Salt
• Dehydrated parsley
• Maltodextrin
• Dextrose
• Garlic powder
• Spice
• Partially hydrogenated soybean oil
• Natural flavoring
• Caramel color

After that you can have your kids/students look up words to find out what they mean, and you can talk about what and why food needs to undergo these processes. Sorry, no dirt here, except the insane variety of chemicals that went into this seemingly innocent can.

book review: fast food nation

"The history of the twentieth century was dominated by the struggle against totalitarian systems of state power. The twenty-first will no doubt be marked by a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power."

- Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation

I've heard about this book for a few years and had wanted to read it but had always been too busy with school. This was the first "pleasure reading" for a while, although much of what I read turned out to be highly unpleasurable.

Fast Food Nation is a report on the practices and outcomes of the fast food industry. Schlosser, a journalist, produces a description of that covers the meatpacking industry, french fries producers, potato farmers, cattle herders, (illegal) immigrant workers, and food product designers. It is a fascinating study that provides the reader with some interesting historical context, such as the birth of McDonald's and its connection to the Walt Disney company, the political connections and lobbying pressures, and of course, the frightening findings about what goes into a burger.

I was fascinated by a few points in the book. One of it was about the science behind flavoring, and how most of the things we consume, including ones that are labelled "natural flavoring", are all part of a manufacturing process that's far from natural. He points that these are often just semantics that can mislead consumers into thinking that they're eating something healthier, when in fact stuff that goes into "natural flavoring" may in fact be worse than artificial flavors.

I was also alarmed (even though I was aware of this) at how much fast food companies and other corporations such as soda companies are penetrating into schools just so they can sell and market their products to a captive and vulnerable audience. This practice needs to be stopped, especially since the ground meat sold to school cafeterias are held to less standards than those sold to fast food restaurants.

Despite the title, Fast Food Nation wasn't really that much about the fast food industry. Although he does pick on McDonald's a lot - perhaps because they are the most symbolic of them all - the book really focuses more on all the other things that are connected to the fast food industry. He avoids the simple argument that "burgers are fattening" and traces it to how the cattle were raised, slaughtered and processed, making his argument a lot more convincing and a lot less "obvious" than some of the arguments others have made (e.g. Super Size This).

One thing that baffled me a little was his nostalgic tone in various parts of the book, referring to some "good ole days". At one point he seems to lament how the high school students in Colorado (I think) were no longer into cowboys and more into pop cultural phenomenon. I don't understand the point of the lament, as these cultures change and it's neither good nor bad most of the time. It's also possible to critique that he overlooks other parts of the fast food industry by focusing mostly on McDonald's (he mentions other companies but I get the impression that McD was the main target), but perhaps he can write about those other ones later. It would make the book too difficult for most readers if it was that comprehensive.

Personally, I've given up most fast foods. Certainly given up McD and I might go to one of the other chains once a month, if that. I'm working to eliminate it completely from my diet. I encourage everyone, especially parents, to read this novel. Whether you decide to go back to these franchises, or leave, this book does provide good information and things that you might never have known.

They turned this into a movie in 2006, which was not nearly as good.

consumer report: worst of 2006

Here's my review of the worst experiences I've had last year with products and/or services. To potential consumers, I urge you to avoid these companies if you can, or at the very least, shop around a bit more. These are ranked in order of evil-ness (1 being the most evil):

1. Verizon - Phone service

My experience with Verizon cell phone verges on the incredible. For the past few years, Cingular was my cell phone service provider. When I moved to my new address, my apartment couldn't get Cingular service, so I had to apply for a land line. I first used Time-Warner's digital phone service. After a few months, I found out that Verizon also had a digital phone service that was cheaper. So, happily, I asked Verizon to port my number over so I wouldn't need to tell people I had another number.

After using Verizon's digital phone for a few weeks, I noticed that it would frequently drop calls. There were also long periods when I wouldn't get a dial tone. I tried calling technical support (whne the phone working). Tech support helpfully told me that they can't help me unless the problem was occurring at the time of the call. Since I can't call using my cell phone, and since I can't call customer service using my Verizon service if the service wasn't working, the customer support agent told me I had a "Catch-22" situation. Oh, yay.

So, I tried to get Time-Warner to take back the number. At this time, you should know that I live in Manhattan, and for some reason, Time-Warner gave me a 718 number, which is usually for Queens and Brooklyn. Verizon had no problem taking that number. However, when I asked Time-Warner to take it back, they said they couldn't. Go figure.

Okay, so I went back to Verizon, this time asking for a non-digital landline. I waited for about six weeks for this to go through. During this time, I had to call Verizon over five times, talk to over ten customer service agents, each of whom gave me a different answer. Every time they transferred me to a new agent, I had to repeat my problem again, and they'd give me a different solution, and to wait two weeks before the service can be turned on. Finally, they said they would send in a technician to complete the procedure. When the technician came, they spent about 30 minutes with the wire before informing me that I can't use a 718 number at a Manhattan address. After he left, I called Verizon again. They told me they'd send a technician again. A few days later, the same techician came, and told me I had the same problem about the 718 incompatibility with Manhattan.

Finally, I gave up and asked Verizon to give me a new number. The technician came a third time. Everything seemed fine, except that the phone never worked. I never got a dial-tone, even for the new Manhattan number.

By this time, my contract with Cingular had expired so I was free to change service without penalty. I switched to T-Mobile, which does work in my apartment, so I didn't need a land line. So, I cancelled my Verizon service. They charged me a penalty for early termination. On top of that, I'm still receiving charges for the phone that was never turned on. I called in January 2007 about this, and they said they would take off the charges. As of March 2007 I am still receiving noticed for payment.

By the way, this whole episode started in August. My Cingular contract ended in mid-November. During all this time, Verizon was giving me headaches.If you're considering any kind of phone service, my suggestion is to stay away from Verizon, especially if you're in New York.

2. Toshiba - Laptop

I bought my first Toshiba laptop in 2001. It was a Satellite S105 notebook. Even though that model had overheating problems, and would shut down without warning when it got too hot, for some reason I still liked Toshiba enough to buy a second laptop. This time it was the Qosmio G15, which was a sweet 17" widescreen. Everything was great about this laptop and for the first few months, I was quite happy with it.

Then I started hearing a strange clicking noise. It was sporadic, but when it happened, it was really loud. Since I leave my laptop on all the time, this was getting really annoying. I called up tech support, who told me that I needed to send it to the authorized service provider (ASP). When I did, they told me that all Qosmio G15s had to be sent to Los Angelas for an upgrade. About two weeks later, they sent it back. Lo and behold, the clicking noise was still there! I called the tech support again, who told me to go the the ASP again, who sent it off to L.A. again. I told them that it's already received the system upgrade, but they said Toshiba was asking them to ship all Qosmio G-15s to L.A. regardless of the problem.

Not surprisingly, when it came back two weeks later, the noise was still there. Finally I got them to send me an onsite technician. When he came, he told me it was a problem with the hard drive, and that he had to wait for Toshiba to send them a replacement hard drive. He came back again about a week or so later with the replacement hard drive. However, my laptop had two hard drives (a 60 GB and a 40 Gb), and he got the 60 Gb. So, he replaced that, and I had to reinstall the Windows and all my programs. And, of course, it wasn't the 60 Gb that was making the noise, it was the 40 Gb.

By this time, a second problem had occurred. My laptop could no longer burn DVDs. So, I had to call up tech support again and the technician came yet again with the 40 Gb hard drive replacement and the DVD-drive. I should note that, one time, he was on the phone with his girlfriend the entire time he was here.

When he finally installed the 40 Gb drive, he found out he didn't know how to get my laptop to recognize it. He told me I had to take it to an ASP to do that. After he left, I spent about 15 minutes on the Internet and found out that all he had to do was to go to Disk Management and do a Disk Partition. I'm not a techie by far, and this goes to show that whoever they hire to do these tech support things are even more incompetent than I am.

Maybe a little over six months later, my DVD-drive stopped working again. Once again, I had to ask for an onsite technician. I should mention that Toshiba, thankfully, had extended my warranty another year. However, this was apparently not readily available in the system because the tech support people on the phone would always tell me my warranty had expired, and I had to fight for it before they would see it. Anyway, this time they sent another technician, who didn't really know how to put in a DVD-drive. He pried open the top part of it quite violently, and even broke up bits of it. But he finally did get it working.

The latest problem I'm having is with the fan cooler. I got a message saying that it was not working and needed to be repaired. Again, when I called tech support, they told me my warranty had expired and that I needed to send it in to an ASP. Finally I got them to sent an onsite repairperson. I can only imagine what they'll do to my laptop this time.

If it isn't obvious enough, I just want to say that I will never ever buy another Toshiba laptop and I will urge everyone who's considering to do so to reconsider.

3. Cingular - Cell phone provider

My gripe with Cingular is not as bad when compared with the previous too. Originally, I had signed up for AT&T, which eventually merged with Cingular. For a while, they had two networks and were operating separately. When I moved to my new location and found that I wasn't getting any service, I went to Cingular to see what the problem was. They told me I needed to upgrade to a GSM plan, which apparently gets a better service. I spent about $100 on it, and found it didn't improve things very much. On top of that, they renewed my contract, so I was stuck with a cell phone that didn't work. I eventually had to sign up for a land line (see #1), which led to all sorts of problems of its own.

I added a friend to my network in order to share costs. The phone worked fine in her apartment (which was maybe six blocks away). But suddenly, around July 2006, it also started getting no signal. She decided to abandon the contract, and was fined like $200 for it. During this time, Cingular was offering another new kind of network, which we could test for a month (I think). But since we were on the old network, we couldn't go back to it if we decided that the new network also didn't work.

What annoys me the most about these companies is that they hold customers to rules that they can change any time they want. I always thought that customers were supposed to be the most important people to these service provides, but these companies have demonstrated that they're run and managed by a bunch of incompetent idiots.

Runner-ups

Sony - PlayStation 3
Amazon.com - Electronics
eBay - Fraud complaint

the boy and the starfish

Note: Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint a moment in your life that you had a change of heart about something. This story is one of the few times that I can. I heard this story for the first time from my professor in business school at the University of Michigan. It was the last class on "Corporate Strategy", and she told this story to inspire us that, after we go into the business world, we must not forget to give back. I thank her for sharing this story.

The Boy and the Starfish

A man was walking along a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked he could see a young boy in the distance, as he drew nearer he noticed that the boy kept bending down, picking something up and throwing it into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things into the ocean.

As the man approached even closer, he was able to see that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time he was throwing them back into the water.

The man asked the boy what he was doing, the boy replied,"I am throwing these washed up starfish back into the ocean, or else they will die through lack of oxygen. "But", said the man, "You can't possibly save them all, there are thousands on this beach, and this must be happening on hundreds of beaches along the coast. You can't possibly make a difference." The boy smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied.

"I made a huge difference to that one!"

- Author Unknown

corporation in the spotlight: mcdonald's

I've boycotted McDonald's for about five years now. Personally, it was because I was finding it expensive. I'm not a cheap person, but I usually throw out the fries and soda, not simply for healht reasons but simply because I can't finish them. But sadly, many people, especially kids and teens, devour those things in a single sitting, and parents don't always know that it's bad. Or, perhaps they know but they don't think it's serious enough.

What I actually wanted to share was the infamous McLibel trial, which is the perfect demonstration of how a few people can go against a global corporation as big as McDonald's. In fact, McD has became the very symbol of corporate imperialism and the spread of its fatty values to the rest of the world.

For those of you who don't know, back in 1990, McD has sued a group of activists in England who were passing out handouts that accused McD of a list of crimes and violations against the environment, children, its workers, its consumers, its cows. Most of the defendants issues a public apology, but two of them, David Morris and Helen Steel decided to go to court. They had no money for attorneys and had to defend themselves. But somehow, they managed to bring in epic volumes of witnesses and evidence that ended up making this into a public relations disaster for McD. In the process, they also found out how the UK government, particular its law enforcement, colluded with the company to spy on these two individuals. Even though the two lost, they continued to appeal the case. Ultimately, McD decided that they won't collect the fines from the two nor will they stop them from passing out pamphlets in the future.

The two have continued campaigning against McD, bringing awareness to the company's practices. They became part of a larger network of activitists and socially aware consumers around the world. For more information on their work, check out their website: McSpotlight.org.

Next corporation to shine on: Starbucks

in the beginning

About two years ago, I had a debate with my brother about corporations. I had casually dropped the line that I think corporations are the root of all evil in the world. He protested, and we had a long debate about the harms (and benefits) corporations have brought to us.

I'd like to think of myself not as a "pure anti-corporate" person who is against corporations just for the heck of it. I think that position is impossible to take up anyway, because corporations are so much part of our world. I also like to think that corporations can do good if some changes are made, and/or if people are able to find out for themselves and make changes in their lifestyles.

My attitude against corporations probably came after graduating from business school. Or perhaps, during business school. I admired the whole talk about efficiency, productivity, and motivation. I think they're good principles, but more and more I see the abuse and greed associated.

The main argument my brother made was that corporations aren't evil; and that it's people who do bad things. I think there's logical but problematic. That's like saying that despotic or fascist governments are fine; only that dictators abuse their powers. No! I say. The structure is part of the problem. We can change the structure (which will take a long time) and we can change ourselves - our values, beliefs, ways of life. We can do both. In fact, we must.

So, the point of this blog is to foster debate, discussion, and to distribute knowledge. I'd like to think of myself as a reasoned thinker. I will admit to errors if they are revealed. I invite your criticism. But more than anything, I'd like to share what I've learned.

Oh, and by the way, I'm not always this serious.