 Dusty:Starlight:Culture
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mommie power
2007-05-02 9:38 a.m. Hooray for civil society & protest: it's not a sit-in, or a walk-out, it's a boob-in. Mommies rock. Article follows the following expounding of my saltiness. In the Philippines, where only a small AND declining portion of mothers breastfeed their children, infant mortality and serious childhood illnesses are endemic. There's a link, according to most of the research, with many blaming improper feeding/nutrition. Polls & medical records reveal mothers' mistaken beliefs that baby formula is better than breast milk. I wonder what on earth could have made them think that? Survey (of UNICEF & other non-profits addressing the issue) says...advertising! They blame this misconception of formulas' almighty nutritional power - certainly superior to anything their bodies could produce, since we all know that whatever is made in a lab is much better for you than anything made in nature - on commercials that mislead people into believing this. Sometimes, what corporations can no longer get away with in the West because of media education and awareness campaigns (or laws prohibiting false claims in advertising), they simply take elsewhere to continue this type of profit generation. Yes, I'm salty: last week a few of my (non-teenaged) students said "advertising doesn't have negative impacts on society", but is merely a "healthy economy booster". Also, a (non-teenaged) colleague said "there is no global media", implying disapproval of what I teach: that the un-checked globalization of Western media forms, say, for example, commercials for Nestle Baby Formula on, perhaps, Philippine TV, will have and are having a detrimental impact on other societies. Oh, and "non-teenaged" here is my nice way of saying "should no better" or "no excuse for being so ignorant" or "get your head out of the sand" or something similar. Here: Philippines attempts world record for breastfeeding
MANILA (Reuters) - About 10,000 mothers gathered on Wednesday in nearly 300 state and private hospitals, day-care centres and parks across the Philippines to raise awareness of breastfeeding and try to set a Guinness record for the event. Only 16 percent of mothers in the Philippines were practising breastfeeding, an extraordinarily low rate for a poor country, said the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which warned of serious health risks for infants. "Breastfeeding is on the decline in the Philippines," Dale Rutstein, UNICEF's chief of communications, told Reuters at an open-air basketball court in Manila, where more than 1,000 mothers took part in the simultaneous breastfeeding. Nearly 9,000 women were taking part in the event elsewhere across the archipelago, aiming to set a Guinness record for the most number of mothers simultaneously breastfeeding their children. Guinness were to rule on the record attempt in three weeks. UNICEF said breastfeeding provided the required nutrition for babies, and also reduced the risks of exposing them to diseases arising from unhygienic preparation of infant formula. "It's a beautiful way to relate to my child," Elvira Henares Esguerra, a dermatologist and mother of a five-year-old boy, told Reuters. "It's not only food, it's not only the perfect food for any infant from zero to six months, but the perfect milk for any child.
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