Bad Product Awards

Been a while I haven't posted. I'm still busy and without a regular internet connection, so blogging is a low priority. I should get internet within the next week, so I'll try to resume my useless ramblings...

But here's a press release that caught my attention, as I'm quite interested by everything that touches consumerism.

In regards to Dasani, I used to laugh at tourists in Banff who would drink those expansive bottles when the town's tap water is actually coming from a source in the surrounding glaciers...

Global consumer movement announces winners of International Bad Products Awards

CI Press Release - Congress 2007

The world federation of consumer organisations, Consumers International (CI) today announced the winners of the International Bad Product Awards, to be presented at CI’s World Congress in Sydney, Australia, 29 Oct – 1 November 2007.

The awards aim to highlight failings of corporate responsibility and the abuse of consumer trust by internationally recognised brands. The announcement comes as 400 delegates from national consumer organisations and governments, convene in Sydney to attend CI’s World Congress.
This year’s winners* are:

Coca-Cola – for continuing the international marketing of its bottled water, Dasani, despite admitting it comes from the same sources as local tap water.



Kellogg’s – for the worldwide use of cartoon-type characters and product tie-ins aimed at children, despite high levels of sugar and salt in their food products.

Mattel – for stonewalling US congressional investigations and avoiding overall responsibility for the global recall of 21 million products.

With the overall prize going to:

Takeda Pharmaceuticals – for taking advantage of poor US regulation and advertising sleeping pills to children, despite health warnings about pediatric use.

Richard Lloyd, Director General of Consumers International, said:

"These multi-billion dollar companies are global brands with a responsibility to be honest, accountable and responsible. In highlighting their short-comings Consumers International and its 220 member organisations are holding corporations to account and demanding businesses take social responsibility seriously."
Download the CI press briefing

*Full details of each nomination can be found in the accompanying CI Press briefing, which can be downloaded here.



Time to go wish I was a kid again, so I could eat, play and sleep thanks to all that good stuff!

Update

So, I finally moved in my new appartment, with my friends as roommates and neighbours. It's just great. But I'm still looking for a job, getting things settled and I have no internet connection, so no long, frequent bloggings for now. Should happen soon enough though!

Until then, here's a little drunken video of the stupid things we'd do at the staff accomodation, back in Banff. It features Sam as the Triceratops and me as the Bear, Carl the Cop is filming. It's in french so I translated the dialogue below.



Here's what it says:

Me: Oh no, a triceratops charge, I'm only a bear! Ahhhh, ahhhhh!!! I'm dead-ish, I'm dead-ish
Sam: Did you get that? Did you get that or what? You're still filming?
Carl: Yep, still
Sam: Oh well...
Carl: Always trying to get the attention, eh Tup?
Me: It's only 'cause it's fun!

Allright, time to go find a job (again, always again!)

Tourista!

So it's been a while, again. But I've been busy and the internet connection at the staff accom is frustrating, to be polite. Here's a few pictures from my first weeks back in Banff. I'll stick to a few scenic pictures for now, next post should be about my efforts to reinvigorate my staff accomodation house, the good old 426 cougar!


Me at Lake Bow


Lake Louise's vista


J-P and Stéphane on top of Tunnel Mountain


Stéphane, P-A and J-P by the Bow river, accross from the hordes of tourists


P-A and J-P overlooking the Bow rapids and the tourists by the Banff Springs Hotel.


Lake Louise, recreating a picture taken by my brother two years ago


Moontains...


A John-John picture(Long story short, a few years ago, we found a picture of a japanese family called the John-Johns who would stand like this) with Sophie, Stef, Cyn and me)

And so I'm back in Banff...

Wow, I really need to start posting more regularly, you stop and it's hard to get back on track!

I needed some rest before heading to yet another contract, this time delivering/crewbossing a tree spraying (with pesticides, so the trees that were planted a few years ago don't die too early) contract, so I asked my supervisor to leave the actual contract early so I could have actual down time. Since I didn't feel like heading all the way back east, I decided to go back to Banff.

And since Banff is an expensive place, mostly when you have about two weeks to kill, I found a job back at my old hotel, in order to save/make money and have a place to sleep. So what can I say about it? Well, it was th best/worst idea I ever got, as I'm having a blast, seeing old friends and meeting new people, but leaving will be hard, even if I'm scheduled to come back for a little longer in a month. It also sucks that one of my good friends will be in Banff for two weeks, only days after I leave back to the bush!

I took a few nice pictures, but I'll leave that for tomorrow as I want to post a few pics from my Alberta contract:



The land as it is between Edson and Hinton, in between Edmonton and the Rockies. The bush beeing heavily industrialized, thanks to the oil industry, you can see an oil well in the background, in front of a tarped cache where we'd plant trees(Where I had to plant a "finger" of really shitty land that became known as "my finger"...)



That's what you might run into while planting trees in the middle of a forest.



The FIST (Fiberglass Insulated Seedling Transport) unit and float trailer I had to use for most of my stint as a tree-deliverer in Alberta. A different experience.



A "crummy", a weird hybrid between a pick-up truck and a bus. As you can see from the pic, it's relatively sketchy and you won't be surprised to read that it got pulled over by the police. They asked us to get it inspected so I drove it to town and it failed for many reasons, including the deer remains on the hood, so we couldn't transport planters in the back anymore). Once, I also got locked inside the passenger area while getting my water bottle, I had to get out by a very small window...



Daily management meeting. Conrad, Matty and a beer bottle.



Aaron, Andy and Mel planning the next day.



Flip Cup Tournament.



The shirtless team had a girl who was unwilling to go farther than halfway... and a half!



We even got a referee!



Polish Luke will show up anywhere, as long as there's a decent party and some booze!



Victory!



Lost in thoughts.