Fox meat makes an ass of Wal-Mart's China donkey product

Beijing: Global retail giant Wal-Mart Stores has recalled a donkey meat product from some Chinese stores after tests found traces of other animals' DNA, the company said today, after authorities said it contained fox meat.

The world's largest retailer will reimburse customers who bought the "Five Spice Donkey Meat" 50 yuan (USD 8.25), a spokeswoman told AFP.

The company would also independently DNA test all of its "high risk" meats in China, a procedure which is not required by retailers under Chinese food laws, the spokeswoman said.

Wal-Mart would also cooperate with food officials in the eastern province of Shandong with their probe into the "adulteration incident", said a statement posted on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter equivalent.

The Shandong Food and Drug Administration had previously said the "Five Spice Donkey Meat" product contained fox.

"We are deeply sorry for this whole affair," said Wal-Mart's China president and CEO Greg Foran according to the Weibo statement, posted yesterday.

It did not give an explanation for how the contamination happened, but Foran added that the company would increase its focus on "supplier management".

Donkey meat is not a Chinese staple meat dish, but is commonly consumed as a snack.

China has seen several food safety scares in recent years, including one in which the industrial chemical melamine was added to milk formula in 2008, killing at least six babies and making 300,000 ill.

Wal-Mart plans to open up to 110 new stores in China over the next two years, according to the company's website.

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Fox meat makes an ass of Wal-Mart's China donkey product

Beijing: Global retail giant Wal-Mart Stores has recalled a donkey meat product from some Chinese stores after tests found traces of other animals' DNA, the company said today, after authorities said it contained fox meat.

The world's largest retailer will reimburse customers who bought the "Five Spice Donkey Meat" 50 yuan (USD 8.25), a spokeswoman told AFP.

The company would also independently DNA test all of its "high risk" meats in China, a procedure which is not required by retailers under Chinese food laws, the spokeswoman said.

Wal-Mart would also cooperate with food officials in the eastern province of Shandong with their probe into the "adulteration incident", said a statement posted on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter equivalent.

The Shandong Food and Drug Administration had previously said the "Five Spice Donkey Meat" product contained fox.

"We are deeply sorry for this whole affair," said Wal-Mart's China president and CEO Greg Foran according to the Weibo statement, posted yesterday.

It did not give an explanation for how the contamination happened, but Foran added that the company would increase its focus on "supplier management".

Donkey meat is not a Chinese staple meat dish, but is commonly consumed as a snack.

China has seen several food safety scares in recent years, including one in which the industrial chemical melamine was added to milk formula in 2008, killing at least six babies and making 300,000 ill.

Wal-Mart plans to open up to 110 new stores in China over the next two years, according to the company's website.

View the original article here

Oommen Chandy makes the right contact

Oommen Chandy’s hugely successful mass contact programmes helped him stay afloat even as hard-hitting controversies rocked the United Democratic Front boat badly. (Seen here is Oommen Chandy collecting petitions from the public during a mass contact programme held recently in Pathanamthitta) —DC

Thiruvananthapuram: Few thought the Chandy Ministry on a wafer thin majority (67 LDF, 74 UDF) would last so long, given the aspirations of parties and communities and their tendency to fish in troubled waters. To cap it all, the passing year saw Chief Minister Oommen Chandy buffeted by scandals.

But Chandy, the cool strategist, weathered it on the strength of his track record and the image of a man of the masses. Many reckoned that the threats, intimidations and scandals would sink the boat but Chandy, the skipper, saw “the positive side” of things and sailed the waves.

He faced Government Chief Whip P C George’s no-holds-barred punches, the Marxist cadres’ massing on the Government Secretariat on August12-13 and the disloyalty by a section of party men with a sense of detachment and astuteness. 

When the red cadre laid siege to the Secretariat for a little over a day on October 12-13 in a seemingly long-haul campaign, Chandy gave his chief rival- CPM secretary Pinarayi Vijayan- sound reason to call off the stir. He offered a judicial probe into the Solar scam. But the LDF leaders and cadre still rue the anticlimax. Chandy’s masterstroke it was, though several theories abound on how he pulled it off.   

Chandy belies classical superman concepts. It is as if he is running on errands all the time. He lacks the late K Karunakaran’s cunning but manages to outfox rivals and foes of his time. He was a darling of the youth in the 70’s and 80’s.  By the late 60’s, he was a student leader. But he was content to remain in the shadows of A.K. Antony for decades.

All the while he built up a mass base on trust. The mass contact programme is an offshoot of this trust with the common folks. Even local CPM neta E P Omana, sister of Kannur firebrand leader E P Jayarajan, could not resist the temptation of tiptoeing into Chandy’s mass contact programme in Kannur last week.

Political pundits fail to differentiate between the ‘work to rule’ mode of many politicians and tedium that’s Chandy routine. Chandy connects with the faceless poor and helpless them in ways he thinks best, ignoring the criticism that it’s all a stunt.

Even the high command could not fault Chandy who ensured the three essentials prescribed by it to continue in office-the majority in the Congress Legislative Party, the support from coalition partners and successful by-elections.

At 70, Chandy has shed his unkempt looks, shows no fatigue. When the Solar scam snowballed, he sacked three buddies but has managed to fob off charges that he was personally involved in murky deals. He has picked up more patience and spunk.

(Writer is CMP leader and Planning Board member)

View the original article here

Oommen Chandy makes the right contact

Oommen Chandy’s hugely successful mass contact programmes helped him stay afloat even as hard-hitting controversies rocked the United Democratic Front boat badly. (Seen here is Oommen Chandy collecting petitions from the public during a mass contact programme held recently in Pathanamthitta) —DC

Thiruvananthapuram: Few thought the Chandy Ministry on a wafer thin majority (67 LDF, 74 UDF) would last so long, given the aspirations of parties and communities and their tendency to fish in troubled waters. To cap it all, the passing year saw Chief Minister Oommen Chandy buffeted by scandals.

But Chandy, the cool strategist, weathered it on the strength of his track record and the image of a man of the masses. Many reckoned that the threats, intimidations and scandals would sink the boat but Chandy, the skipper, saw “the positive side” of things and sailed the waves.

He faced Government Chief Whip P C George’s no-holds-barred punches, the Marxist cadres’ massing on the Government Secretariat on August12-13 and the disloyalty by a section of party men with a sense of detachment and astuteness. 

When the red cadre laid siege to the Secretariat for a little over a day on October 12-13 in a seemingly long-haul campaign, Chandy gave his chief rival- CPM secretary Pinarayi Vijayan- sound reason to call off the stir. He offered a judicial probe into the Solar scam. But the LDF leaders and cadre still rue the anticlimax. Chandy’s masterstroke it was, though several theories abound on how he pulled it off.   

Chandy belies classical superman concepts. It is as if he is running on errands all the time. He lacks the late K Karunakaran’s cunning but manages to outfox rivals and foes of his time. He was a darling of the youth in the 70’s and 80’s.  By the late 60’s, he was a student leader. But he was content to remain in the shadows of A.K. Antony for decades.

All the while he built up a mass base on trust. The mass contact programme is an offshoot of this trust with the common folks. Even local CPM neta E P Omana, sister of Kannur firebrand leader E P Jayarajan, could not resist the temptation of tiptoeing into Chandy’s mass contact programme in Kannur last week.

Political pundits fail to differentiate between the ‘work to rule’ mode of many politicians and tedium that’s Chandy routine. Chandy connects with the faceless poor and helpless them in ways he thinks best, ignoring the criticism that it’s all a stunt.

Even the high command could not fault Chandy who ensured the three essentials prescribed by it to continue in office-the majority in the Congress Legislative Party, the support from coalition partners and successful by-elections.

At 70, Chandy has shed his unkempt looks, shows no fatigue. When the Solar scam snowballed, he sacked three buddies but has managed to fob off charges that he was personally involved in murky deals. He has picked up more patience and spunk.

(Writer is CMP leader and Planning Board member)

View the original article here

Oommen Chandy makes the right contact

Oommen Chandy’s hugely successful mass contact programmes helped him stay afloat even as hard-hitting controversies rocked the United Democratic Front boat badly. (Seen here is Oommen Chandy collecting petitions from the public during a mass contact programme held recently in Pathanamthitta) —DC

Thiruvananthapuram: Few thought the Chandy Ministry on a wafer thin majority (67 LDF, 74 UDF) would last so long, given the aspirations of parties and communities and their tendency to fish in troubled waters. To cap it all, the passing year saw Chief Minister Oommen Chandy buffeted by scandals.

But Chandy, the cool strategist, weathered it on the strength of his track record and the image of a man of the masses. Many reckoned that the threats, intimidations and scandals would sink the boat but Chandy, the skipper, saw “the positive side” of things and sailed the waves.

He faced Government Chief Whip P C George’s no-holds-barred punches, the Marxist cadres’ massing on the Government Secretariat on August12-13 and the disloyalty by a section of party men with a sense of detachment and astuteness. 

When the red cadre laid siege to the Secretariat for a little over a day on October 12-13 in a seemingly long-haul campaign, Chandy gave his chief rival- CPM secretary Pinarayi Vijayan- sound reason to call off the stir. He offered a judicial probe into the Solar scam. But the LDF leaders and cadre still rue the anticlimax. Chandy’s masterstroke it was, though several theories abound on how he pulled it off.   

Chandy belies classical superman concepts. It is as if he is running on errands all the time. He lacks the late K Karunakaran’s cunning but manages to outfox rivals and foes of his time. He was a darling of the youth in the 70’s and 80’s.  By the late 60’s, he was a student leader. But he was content to remain in the shadows of A.K. Antony for decades.

All the while he built up a mass base on trust. The mass contact programme is an offshoot of this trust with the common folks. Even local CPM neta E P Omana, sister of Kannur firebrand leader E P Jayarajan, could not resist the temptation of tiptoeing into Chandy’s mass contact programme in Kannur last week.

Political pundits fail to differentiate between the ‘work to rule’ mode of many politicians and tedium that’s Chandy routine. Chandy connects with the faceless poor and helpless them in ways he thinks best, ignoring the criticism that it’s all a stunt.

Even the high command could not fault Chandy who ensured the three essentials prescribed by it to continue in office-the majority in the Congress Legislative Party, the support from coalition partners and successful by-elections.

At 70, Chandy has shed his unkempt looks, shows no fatigue. When the Solar scam snowballed, he sacked three buddies but has managed to fob off charges that he was personally involved in murky deals. He has picked up more patience and spunk.

(Writer is CMP leader and Planning Board member)

View the original article here