I meant to write about this a few days ago but got a little sidetracked by the Gaza situation. Remember the tainted milk scandal in China? Well, the government recently offered some monetary compensation to parents whose children were sickened by the bad milk. In protest of governmental apathy and probably a little offended that the government thinks they can buy them off, they declined the compensation package.
The package would have given $29,000 to each family that lost a child, $4,400 to each family whose child suffered serious kidney ailments and $290 to each family whose child suffered minor health problems, the New York Times reports.
To give you an idea of how much money this is to Chinese families, $290 is about three month’s pay to the average worker in the Communist nation.
Parents said the compensation package, which is financed by 22 dairy companies, was not enough to quell fears that this could possibly happen again. One father even said the money failed to address the medical needs of the sickened children.
“Our biggest demand is not the compensation, but medical treatment and academic research on the influence that melamine will have on the health of our children” Zhao Lianhai, the father of a 4-year old sickened by the milk, told the New York Times.
I’m happy the parents turned the money down and rejected the attempt to be bought off. Higher standards and more honesty in this sector is exactly what should be asked for. More power to ya, Chinese parents.
Also, some of the executives at the dairy companies could now face life imprisonment. I know revenge isn’t the way to go, and taking joy in others’ shortcomings isn’t the right thing to do, but this feels pretty damn good, and I wasn’t even directly affected by the scandal.
Imagine how the families who were affected feel about that. At least something is going in their direction.
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