STAR LETTER: CIGARETTE CHARITY
Hello
This is an interesting one. I received a 'charity' Xmas card supported by Kraft Foods in the UK and with the strap line 'Kraft Cares'. As you know, Kraft is part of the Altria Group which includes the Phillip Morris cigarette brand. Hope this information is of some use, it should really be a Guardian/Independent article.
Simon Catton
Reply by Kraft
Hello Mr Catton Further to my previous e-mail, I am now responding to your e-mail concerning our strap line 'Kraft Cares'. Kraft is certainly part of Altria Group and Phillip Morris is another of the companies in the group. However, the companies work in very different sectors. Our 'Kraft Cares' banner is used in community work driven by Kraft Foods in the UK and in other countries where we work. For example in Gloucestershire we fund a programme called health 4 schools, which enables children in 50 schools to learn about balanced diet and active lifestyles. More than 4000 pupils have currently benefited and we're hoping to increase the number of schools involved in the next phase of the programme.
NUCLEAR NEIGHBOURS Dear Corporate Watch Will you be contacting the new owner, if there is one, of 337 Wokingham Rd, Reading, with the information you have about the site's contamination and its history? (see 'A hot property', issue 27) You can monitor the sale with the Land Registry. If Bradford and Bingley attempt to sell the site whilst withholding this information, they make themselves liable. It could be argued that they would also be committing a criminal offence: 'obtaining money by deception'. Yours Faithfully,
Miss J. Fortin
ANTI-CORPORATE KIDS Dear Corporate Watch Would a simpler section for young people be an advantage, for those enlightened enough, but who might be discouraged by too 'heavy' articles. Mark Saunders......on behalf of a 12 year old. QUESTION FOR TESCO Have the Tesco trolleys on the banks of the Colne been cleared up yet? As a company with UK sales of £29.5bn last year I think you ought to be able to ensure that the countryside isn't littered with your trolleys. Especially in the light of recent information on environmental issues, it doesn't look good for Tesco to be so laissez faire even if it's just a cosmetic effort to care for the environment. sincerely
Liz Masebo
MORE WHALE SONG Dear Corporate Watch I am leaping to my keyboard after reading your article Dispatches from within the Leviathan' (news update March 2006). Could you please say thank you to your writer? I am working for (being sold by a temping agency to) a local council, and only today wrestled with using 'we', before doing it. Up until then, I had been resolutely saying 'you', 'the council' or 'they'. I will now go and reflect on whether this has affected my inner spirit, or not. I prefer not to join authoritarian hierarchical groups - you never know what crazy ideas they'll come up with! - so I think it probably has. Many thanks for the reinforcement, yours
Anonymous Cetacean Inmate
RED RAIN IN KERALA Dear Corporate Watch New Scientist ran 'Red Rain at Kerala' as their cover story on 2 March 2006. This suggests that the cause of the blood-coloured rain in 2001 may have been a meteor carrying spores from space. The Times carried an article 'Blood Red Rain Falls Over India' echoing the same story, on the Weather/Nature page (8 March 2006), again without any real scrutiny. The actual explanation appears to be rather more prosaic, albeit ghastly: It was the result of poorly executed incineration of pesticide residues at the industrial zone in the Eloor area of Kerala. What hope do those presently suffering illness or birth defects have when New Scientist and The Times say, 'It was the spores from space wot done it' and the rest of us ignore it as a silly story. With best regards,
David Pollard
Do you have any comments on something you've seen in Corporate Watch? Drop us a line! send your letters to: The Editor
Corporate Watch
16b Cherwell St
OXFORD
OX4 1BG
mail@corporatewatch.org Disclaimer: letters printed do not reflect the views and research of Corporate Watch
Hello Mr Catton Further to my previous e-mail, I am now responding to your e-mail concerning our strap line 'Kraft Cares'. Kraft is certainly part of Altria Group and Phillip Morris is another of the companies in the group. However, the companies work in very different sectors. Our 'Kraft Cares' banner is used in community work driven by Kraft Foods in the UK and in other countries where we work. For example in Gloucestershire we fund a programme called health 4 schools, which enables children in 50 schools to learn about balanced diet and active lifestyles. More than 4000 pupils have currently benefited and we're hoping to increase the number of schools involved in the next phase of the programme.
Do you think that Kraft have answered this reader's query properly? If not, you can contact Alison Broadbent: Tel: 01242 28 4859. Or write to KRAFT FOODS, FREEPOST SWC3320, CHELTENHAM, GL50 3ZZ
NUCLEAR NEIGHBOURS Dear Corporate Watch Will you be contacting the new owner, if there is one, of 337 Wokingham Rd, Reading, with the information you have about the site's contamination and its history? (see 'A hot property', issue 27) You can monitor the sale with the Land Registry. If Bradford and Bingley attempt to sell the site whilst withholding this information, they make themselves liable. It could be argued that they would also be committing a criminal offence: 'obtaining money by deception'. Yours Faithfully,
Miss J. Fortin
ANTI-CORPORATE KIDS Dear Corporate Watch Would a simpler section for young people be an advantage, for those enlightened enough, but who might be discouraged by too 'heavy' articles. Mark Saunders......on behalf of a 12 year old. QUESTION FOR TESCO Have the Tesco trolleys on the banks of the Colne been cleared up yet? As a company with UK sales of £29.5bn last year I think you ought to be able to ensure that the countryside isn't littered with your trolleys. Especially in the light of recent information on environmental issues, it doesn't look good for Tesco to be so laissez faire even if it's just a cosmetic effort to care for the environment. sincerely
Liz Masebo
MORE WHALE SONG Dear Corporate Watch I am leaping to my keyboard after reading your article Dispatches from within the Leviathan' (news update March 2006). Could you please say thank you to your writer? I am working for (being sold by a temping agency to) a local council, and only today wrestled with using 'we', before doing it. Up until then, I had been resolutely saying 'you', 'the council' or 'they'. I will now go and reflect on whether this has affected my inner spirit, or not. I prefer not to join authoritarian hierarchical groups - you never know what crazy ideas they'll come up with! - so I think it probably has. Many thanks for the reinforcement, yours
Anonymous Cetacean Inmate
RED RAIN IN KERALA Dear Corporate Watch New Scientist ran 'Red Rain at Kerala' as their cover story on 2 March 2006. This suggests that the cause of the blood-coloured rain in 2001 may have been a meteor carrying spores from space. The Times carried an article 'Blood Red Rain Falls Over India' echoing the same story, on the Weather/Nature page (8 March 2006), again without any real scrutiny. The actual explanation appears to be rather more prosaic, albeit ghastly: It was the result of poorly executed incineration of pesticide residues at the industrial zone in the Eloor area of Kerala. What hope do those presently suffering illness or birth defects have when New Scientist and The Times say, 'It was the spores from space wot done it' and the rest of us ignore it as a silly story. With best regards,
David Pollard
Do you have any comments on something you've seen in Corporate Watch? Drop us a line! send your letters to: The Editor
Corporate Watch
16b Cherwell St
OXFORD
OX4 1BG
mail@corporatewatch.org Disclaimer: letters printed do not reflect the views and research of Corporate Watch