Excited Utterances

A class action lawsuit was recently filed against Taco Bell; the fast food chain is accused of falsely advertising that its beef taco is made of beef. The Alabama law firm that filed the suit says only 35 % of the “seasoned ground beef” actually contains meat. The rest is made up of binders, fillers and colouring (a mixture of isolated oat product, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodextrin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch, sodium phosphate and other things). Sounds delicious. The lawsuit argues that what Taco Bell advertises as seasoned beef does not conform to the ordinary meaning of seasoned beef or meet consumers’ reasonable expectations. It also fails to meet the minimum standards required by the US Department of Agriculture to be labelled and advertised as beef. Taco Bell has aggressively challenged the allegations . In response to the lawsuit, the company launched a print ad campaign in major US publications. Under the headline “Thank you for ...

Image from cloviscartoons.com Three days ago, on January 16, Jean-Claude Duvalier made a surprise return to Haiti after 25 years in exile in France. The former dictator ruled Haiti from 1971 until 1986, after inheriting the presidency at the age of 19 from his notorious father nicknamed Papa Doc. When asked what prompted his return, Duvalier said he was not there for politics, but for “the reconstruction of Haiti.” The reconstruction? He is a year too late. It is greed that has brought him back. The international community has donated billions of dollars since the earthquake. Duvalier wants the unspent aid money, probably to re-start his lavish lifestyle after his funds were frozen in Swiss bank accounts and depleted by spousal support payments.  Some questions remain. Why did Duvalier show up just as the run-off election is set to begin? What role are France and the US playing in his return?   But most worrying is that there is so much speculation as to why h...

Today, November 25, is international day for the elimination of violence against women. This day was designated in 1999 by the UN General Assembly as a day to raise international public awareness of the problem. The date was chosen in remembrance of the three Mirabal sisters, who were political activists murdered in the Dominican Republic on this day in 1960. Their murder was ordered by the Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo.   If it were not for an email forward that I received from my Dad in Trinidad, I might not have even known that it was elimination of violence against women day. It’s possible that this is because I am trapped in the Western Law school bubble. But it might also be that we need to raise the level of awareness on this crucial issue.  Violence against women is not limited to faraway places like the Congo, although the brutal acts that have occurred in this region constitute some of the worst possible instances of abuses of human rights. Violence against wome...