It is difficult to get fresh milk here although we do have someone who brings some to school every Tuesday and Friday and we are good customers of them but the rest of our milk is UHT long life boxed stuff (which ironically is called "Fresh Milk" because it is not powdered!). This makes me laugh as when my mum drank UHT I hated it but now I have grown accustomed to it.  Anyway, all to say that we had to throw 3 litres away this week as it fell under the China melamine scare.  It took a while for me to get rid of it as it felt like throwing away money and I kept hoping they (the people in the know, I guess) would decide this brand of milk was OK after all.  But I decided better to be safe than sorry so it went.  Lea, our helper, often updates me on what the Filipino news has listed as "potentially dangerous" and now we cannot buy stikos (my kids love these chocolate and wafer sticks), or Cloud 9 (a local chocolate bar - although I finished the box first!). They have even disappeared from the shelves of our supermarket.

I think what annoys me most about all this is that when you examine the products the Filipino company's name and address is emblazoned in big type on the box but then in small letters is "product of P.R.C.".  Which is pretty sneaky as it doesn't even spell out China!  It annoys me because a country that has millions of poor people who would benefit from a job has copied the West and farmed (sorry, outsourced) its production to another country so that, presumably, they can make more profit.  And, yet, I find it strange that Chinese workers must accept lower wages than Filipinos because they earn ridiculously low wages as it is.  Maybe it's a lower level of regulations and incentives to invest?  Either way, I think the West and its precedents have a lot to answer for. Not least, when the bottom falls out of it all. 

Lea tells me that the shoe manufacturers just down the road in Marikina (famous for its shoes) have announced they will have to suspend business because the Chinese imports are cheaper (and, frankly, less well made). How crazy is that? Countries refusing to protect their own businesses - as we in the UK know to our cost.