April 10, 2005
Sunday

It takes a special kind of cynicism to be a rich white member of the ruling class, claiming to care about poor third world mothers, when your solution is for them to spend most of their meager income purchasing artificial baby milk from a multi-national corporation. After all, breastmilk is one thing poor mothers actually are able to produce for free. Just last month, a new Australian study valued Aussie's mother's milk at 2.2 billion a year. No wonder the corporate elite is worried about the WHO standing with thousands of other groups and professionals who take a stand about the value of human milk for human babies.

I find it curious, that a so called "scholar" from a "think tank" can write something so unbelievably, simplistically, innacurate and uninformed, and have it printed purely on the basis of his elite connections. Has Mr. Glassman a degree in a lactation-related field? Has he studied health science, perhaps? Is he an HIV expert? Did he do a stint in the Peace Corps and return to dedicate his life to the concerns of the poor and hungry?

No, this is a man who a colleague admiringly described as "know(ing) how to talk like an expert on something even if he doesn't know anything about it" according to the Washington Monthly. This is a man who writes PR for corporate clients. Yes, it takes a special kind of moral code to cry great big alligator tears for poor babies in the third world even while trying to sell them something they don't even need.

Sue Jacoby, IBCLC
Clovis, CA - USA

Related Commentary:

Time for Congress to get serious about WHO's excesses by James Glassman

 

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