Milk

[Chelsea Patterson]

Manny Francisco, Manila, The Philippines, 09/23/2008



In this cartoon, we are shown a baby bottle, but instead of a nipple on the top, there is a skeleton head wearing what appears to be a cloak. The bottle is filled with a white liquid that could only be milk. The bottle is casting a shadow. The shadow bottle says “CONTAMINATED CHINESE MILK.” The skeleton on top of the bottle is meant to symbolize Death. It is meaning to say that anyone who drinks from the bottle will die. This is due to the fact that several children died from drinking contaminated milk in China recently.


I think that this is preposterous. Four babies have died and “more than 6,000 others have been sickened. Some 1,300 babies, mostly newborns, remain hospitalized, with 158 suffering from acute kidney failure.”¹ Companies should regulate and test their products for contaminants more frequently. If they had, this would have never happened.


¹ Chang, Anita. "Chinese parents seek answers on tainted baby milk." Associated Press. 18 Sep 2008. Associated Press. 26 Sep 2008 <ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCL58EMBN1tqq6xujZlsaITAFpCQD939KI7G0>.

[alyssaostroff]

The political cartoon is bad enough without the grim reaper resting atop the formula like you said “meant to symbolize Death.” It’s disconcerting as well as “preposterous.” I mean, they mixed the formula with melamine – which is mixed with formaldehyde to form plastic – and tainted milk thousands of Chinese babies were going to consume. Melamine is detected as protein in certain food tests, so by adding the cheap substance, manufacturers were able to raise the price saying that the formula contained protein. Because the formula was “more nutritious,” parents would naturally buy it for their growing infant. The same substance was also found in the contaminated dog food. I find it sick on the manufacturers’ part. Obviously if the substance would kill dogs, why in the world would they put that chemical in infants’ milk? Money is not the right answer. Three babies have already died and a whole bunch of them are ill. I think something should be done about this because twice is the limit. Those manufacturers need to learn from their mistakes if this incident was even a mistake. If it killed animals, what would make them test it out on babies? What is this world coming to?

Source: Lindquist, Ariana. "Tainted Baby-Food Shock." Time Magazine: How Wall Street Sold Out America Sept. 2008: 1-68.

[Mr. Wells]

Good work, Chelsea; pet peeve error in beginning of paragraph 2; good research in each earned extra points.

25/25