Dear Youth, (the young ones and the young once!)
You've heard about the Chinese milk scandal. But think about this
for a moment. What could be the connection between Chinese milk,
unstable oil prices and the US economic crisis? As you read through
the short descriptions of these events, see if you can find patterns in
how some people think...
Got Milk: Why do people put melamine in milk even when they know it's toxic? Because
melamine makes milk appear to have more protein by increasing the
milk's nitrogen levels. So some companies use it to fool government
quality tests and make their products more marketable. The
contaminated milk has already afflicted more than 50,000 children.
This is the third product scandal in China in the last 15 months. Last
year, some Chinese toy companies were found guilty of using paint that
contained high levels of lead, which is also very toxic. These
companies used lead paint to lower their costs of production and make
their toys appear glossier. Prior to that, we heard about people
selling dumplings filled with cardboard. Hmmm...
It might seem very tempting to judge the
Chinese people and look down on them for disregarding ethical business
practices. But look at what's happening in other parts of the world...
Oily Bubbles: How did the price of oil reach so high so suddenly? Although
there are many factors, a major contributing factor to the oil price
bubble is oil speculation. An oil speculator is someone who purchases
oil stocks, anticipates oil prices, and then resells the stocks at
higher prices. Oil speculation causes prices to increase by
artificially increasing demand. The real demand is actually much
lower, but oil speculators keep demand high by trading among
themselves, then selling the stocks at higher prices, thus making a
profit for themselves while everyone else pays more than they should. These oil speculators are found all over the world...
Selling it Short: Why did the US government ban short selling in the stock market?
One of the interventions to address the US economic crisis was to
temporarily ban short selling. Short selling is similar to speculation
in that it can also manipulate the market; but instead of betting on
prices to rise, short sellers bet on prices to go down and then profit
from it. For example, a short seller can make money simply by
"borrowing" 100 stocks and selling them at 2$ in the morning, then
buying these back later in the day for 1$ and returning them to the
owner. Short sellers profit when stocks drop. So with the current
crisis, it really doesn't help when you have people betting on you to
lose and making money when people lose. But even without the crisis,
short selling offers no real economic benefits to anyone other than the
people making the trades.
So, what patterns did you see?
Even in cultures with supposedly high ethical standards, people
with selfish interests still find ways to fill their pockets. They
might use different strategies, but the troubling patterns are the
same. It's just a case of different names for the same thing.
Greed. Deception. Desire for immediate
gratification. Going for short term gains at the expense of long term
stability. Profiting at the expense of others. Acting for oneself
alone without considering how it affects the big picture.
At the end of the day, it's not the milk that's spoiled...it's the people.
The best thing about being youthful is having the power to
recreate and rejuvenate. To rejuvenate means to give new life and
vigor, and to restore something spoiled to a brand new state.
Did you know that 'Juve' literally means youth? It almost
seems that, as youth, we are meant to keep the hope for change alive.
Perhaps, if we care enough, we can be the generation that breaks the
old patterns and creates new ones.
