Saturday 28 April 2012

Corporate Priorities.

I thought of making a long post about the $8m awarded to an Australian girl who was brain damaged and paralysed as a result of eating an infected KFC twister (whatever one of those is.) KFC say they are ‘deeply disappointed’ by the decision and intend to appeal (which means the family of the girl won’t see any money for God knows how many more years.)

I wondered whether KFC think a person’s life isn’t worth $8m. I wondered how much KFC pay their directors in salaries and bonuses. And I found KFC’s excuse that they were concerned for their ‘reputation’ sadly – very sadly – laughable.

I decided against making the long post. We all know what the fast food giants do to both people and animals, don’t we? So any further comment from me would surely be superfluous.

5 comments:

andrea kiss said...

A while back i was with a large group of people and someone started talking about KFC and my mom said, "Andrea, tell them why you won't eat at KFC." When i said because of how cruel they are to the chickens i literally got laughed out of the room. No one would let me explain the details or listen to me so i left. My brother left, too, because when he was 16 he ended up walking out on his job at KFC after learning a thing or two.

Its amazing what people are cabable of.

The most disturbing thing, which my brother told me about later, is that after that the pastor of the church we grew up attending started talking about how cruel he and a coworker were to the animals at the vets office he worked in while he was a teenager, and then went on to talk about how he and his brothers drowned puppies when they were kids. He said it like there was nothing wrong with it because were just animals and he thought people who cared so much about them were silly. Jamie was very disturbed by it because he'd always looked up to the guy, especially as a pastor.

andrea kiss said...

Oh, yeah, so you aren't confused... my brother returned to the room after a while... i did, too, but it was after he did. heh.

JJ said...

I think there are levels here, Andrea. First there's the oft-quoted Biblical justification that 'God gave man dominion over the animals,' which I'm told is actually a mistranslation from the Hebrew original (I'm told that 'stewardship' would be more accurate, which is very different.) People use this to justify doing whatever they want to animals - with God's blessing!

The second level is wondering what kind of mindset ENJOYS being cruel to animals. And is such a person given to cruelty generally - including to people?

Bree T Donovan said...

Yep. Usually being violently cruel to animals is a good sign of a disturbed mind in the making.

The other day, I was horrified to come upon a goose who looked as though she'd been shot. It was the most awful sight. WHO WOULD DO THAT?!

Last night while walking Misha, I passed a little boy, who I have seen and spoken with before. He told me that he was in trouble for shooting his bow and arrow on the side-walk.

He once trapped a squerll in a cadge to keep as a pet. I did my best to talk him out of it.

But now, I feel I have to find out who his parents are. My gut tells me he killed the goose. Everything about this child points to it. Maybe, if he is helped while he is still young, he has a chance to be "adjusted" enough not to be a murder!

JJ said...

I read once of some evidence that certain people simply don't understand the concept of cruelty. The bit of the brain in which compassion operates is missing. So how do we control such people - with compassion?

I've often said that the one piece of Christian teaching that stayed with me was 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' Maybe that's the answer - follow that principle whether you feel the meaning behind it or not.

I'm sure the corporate metality, however, is simply a matter of greed.