|
LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
When a product kills 4 million people worldwide it is hardly some thing that needs congratulations. No responsible organisation or person would embrace this pathetic attempt at elevating tobacco companies to this position. One can and should fully question what motivated Price Waterhouse Cooper to put TCC in such a category as 'respected' company!
Mr. Shaen
Kawenata Bradbrook Printed in the East African (Dec 23, 2002) Dear PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Media Group: While I understand your desire to recognize business leadership in the third world, recognizing a company that produces a product which kills one third of its cosumers is obsurd! It demonstrates that you are looking strictly at bottom-line figures and not death toll figures resulting from the company's business practices. A respectable business does not knowingly kill consumers, make orphans of their children or unnecessarily burden economies with crippling healthcare costs. Likewise, a CEO worthy of respect would not participate in such business practices. In a world where the business heroes are dwindling rapidly, we must promote only those who meet the highest standards, not the lowest. What were you thinking?
Ms. Joanne
B. Koldare Printed in the East African (Dec 23, 2002) Nation Media Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers and recently listed the top ten "Most Respected Companies and Most Respected CEOs" in East Africa. Unbelievably, in December 2002, they reported that Tanzania Cigarette Company ranked 6th and its CEO ranked 3rd as, respectively, the "Most respected company" and "Most Respected CEO." The very company that pushes products on children that will kill them, is awarded a prize. Is there a special award for serial killers and snipers? Murder for profit is not acceptable. Tobacco is a killer and Tanzania Cigarette Company kills. Please do not legitimize their evil with your prizes. Sincerely, Printed in the East African (Dec 23, 2002) Officials of PricewaterhouseCoopers and Nation Media Group I think it's a world-wide strategy to give places in top ten "Most Respected Companies and Most Respected CEOs" to officials of ugly ,deadly tobacco officials. In our country (Sri Lanka) the condition is same, but the company is BAT. So how about selecting a person like Iddi Ameen for these kind of places. ( But he may not killed the amount of people killed by this ugly tobacco Industry.) Dr. Manoj
Fernando. Printed in the East African (Dec 23, 2002) Hello and good day. Unless you live in East Africa. If I killed
someone, would you thank me? I didn't think so. Then don't praise the Tanzania Cigarette Company. It makes killers of us all. Ms. Samantha
Mellema Printed in the East African (Dec 23, 2002) I find it unbelievable that Tanzania Cigarette Company was included in your list of Ten most respected companies. Do you realize that they sell death? Since when is the deliberate production and sale of a product that is known to kill RESPECTABLE? What was this ranking based on????? Mr. Ken Dahlgren There is nothing respectable about companies that make money off products that kill people when used as intended. PricewaterhouseCoopers' inclusion of the Tanzania Cigarette Company in its Top 10 list of "respected companies" condones corporate murder for profit and that in itself is no more repectable than the company. Ms. Wanda
V. Green I am very discouraged to learn that the Tanzania Cigarette Company was included in a list of the "Most Respected Companies and Most Respected CEOs." As a former resident of Arusha region, I have seen the crippling effects of so many preventable illnesses like dysentery, TB, AIDS, and malnutrition. I find it very difficult to believe that East Africans are not beginning to realize the devstating impact that millions of addicted smokers will have! By including the Tanizania Cigarette Company in your list, you have chosen to promote and normalize the idea that the business of addicting and killing one's customers is good practice. I am terribly concerned about the tobacco industry's interest in targeting new populations in developing countries. As an anti-tobacco educator in the US, I am acutely aware of how difficult it is to fight an industry with billion dollar advertising and promotion budgets. You can help by refusing to glamorize and normalize tobacco use and the tobacco industry in your paper. In providing media coverage to your readers, you have a moral responsibility to expose the globalization of tobacco slavery. Please take this message to your editors and your readers. Sincerely,
Companies that make money off of products that kill people when used as intended are NOT respectable! PricewaterhouseCoopers' inclusion of the Tanzania Cigarette Company in its Top 10 list of "respected companies" condones corporate murder for profit. Ms. Orit
Lender Ignoring the Poverty in impoverished communities all over the world especially in Africa and aiding them with cigarette products is consider as an accessory to genocide. How many people will you kill in order to remain as one of the high ranking CEOs?. Consider yourself (ves) as an accessory (ies) to geneocide. Believe it or not, it's against humanity. Review your corporate ethics if you do have one. Mrs. Theresa
T. Alaeze Please stop killing to help people, respect the people's right to live. Mrs. Felicia
Aniniba I stand with Uganda's Environmental Action Network (TEAN) in condemning the inclusion of the Tanzania Cigarette Company in your list of "East Africa's best CEOS and companies." A company selling an addictive product that kills one in two of its long-term consumers does not deserve such praise. Tobacco-related illnesses and deaths place an unneccessary burden on the health care system and rob the economy of the healthy population it needs to grow and develop. Please keep this point of view in mind when making next year's list. While BAT ranked #7 on the list in 2000, it is good to see that it was not included this year. Sincerely, In response to the top ten "Most Respected Companies and Most Respected CEOs" list: I find it hard to believe that the word respected was used to describe Tanzania Cigarette Company. It is outrageaous that in this age of knowledge companies that sell death for profit are held in high regards among the corporate world. What were the standards based on? When are people going to finally get angry enough at these murderous companies and stop seeing them as just a business? Look at what their products do to your people. Look at the devestation they cause from addicting people. I hope that the day comes soon when the general public feel that it is their duty to rise up against these Reprehensable Companies. Mrs. Tonya
Miller Bailey It is disappointing that PricewaterhouseCooper, an otherwise highly respected reporting organization, has selected a tobacco company as one of the most respected companies in East Africa. One must wonder what sort of standard you would use to indicate any level of respect for a company whose primary product is the most lethal consumer product in the history of humanity. If the measure is profitability then most any tobacco company has to be high. To be objective though, a measure of profitability would have to be offset by the costs levied against the consumers, and the societies in which they operate. The physical, emotional and monetary costs of tobacco to the public so far outweigh the profits to the owners of tobacco companies that such a measure would place them at the absolute bottom of any respectability spectrum. The fact the tobacco companies, their products and sales are “legal”, to the extent that they may be, does not negate nor refute the fact that they are immoral. Tobacco has made itself “legal” by manipulating governments at all levels. They are immoral by virtue of knowingly causing death and suffering to their consumers and heaping great costs on the societies in which they operate. To construe such characteristics as being “respectable” in any way is unthinkable. PricewaterhouseCooper has lost respectability in the process of naming a tobacco company to a “most respected” list. I would hope that you would seek to reestablish yourselves by making a very public withdrawal of any tobacco or tobacco related company from any recognition other than being the menace to public health that they are. Thank You, Human beings and corporations seem to be held to two completely different standards of morality. Political leaders that orchestrate genocide are tried for "crimes of humanity." Serial killers go to jail. Corporations that kill, however, are rarely punished. Rather, one even finds them ranked in the Top Ten "Most Respected Companies" list published by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Nation Media Group. That a group of corporate peers ranked Tanzania Cigarette Company #7 and its CEO #3 in the Top Ten list of respected companies and CEOs in East Africa is telling of the deeply held "profit-over-people" values held by today's corporate leaders. People who demonstrate a complete lack of respect for human life are not worthy of our respect. Likewise, orporations that demonstrate a complete lack of respect for human life should be no more "respected." If you want a more accurate ranking of today's most respected companies, I suggest surveying family members of the tobacco industry's victims. They intimately understand the corporate mass murder that biased corporate rankings seek to obscure. Ms. Anna
White Please define "Respected Companies." Please define "Respected CEOs." Where does this respect come from??? People interested in money????? It is absolutely appauling to think that a tobacco company or it's CEO could possibly be listed as "most respected." Tobacco products kill hundreds of thousands of people every year, worldwide. Tobacco is a highly addictive product that produces nothing but negative effects on users and those subjected to tobacco smoke pollution. Respected companies are those that make respectable products, not addicitve, potentially death causing products. Listing Tanzania Cigarette Co on a list of "Most respected companies" is hardly a respectable action. Mrs. Lynn
Martinsen I am extremely disappointed to learn that Tanzania Cigarette Company and their CEO were listed as a "respected company and CEO". It is infuriating to condone and praise a company that makes money off of deadly products that kill people when used as intended. There is nothing respectable about corporate murder for profit. I urge you to rethink and rescind your decision on including Tanzania Cigarette Company in your Top 10 list. Ms. Jennifer
J. Wieczorek Dear Editor: Here are 10 reasons why no cigarette manufacturer should be included in the top 10 respected companies on anyone's list: 10. Cigarette
smoke makes clothes stink. and 1. Smoking hurts kids. What's your list, and why should I respect cigarette makers? Mr. Dan Eumurian Poisonous nicotine is not for human consumption. Please do not sell it to people. Tar fills the lungs and causes cancer please do not market it as fun and attractive. Murder for profit is not a legitimate enterprise, please stop. Mr. Azel
Hill Beckner Tanzania Cigarette Company should NOT have the respect and honor of being on your top 10 companies and CEO- How is it respectable to kill people?? Tobacco is the only product is used as intended- or if you follow the directions like it say's to will KILL you!!! Why is it OK to target 3rd world countries with tobacco- they already have enough healthy problems and povertly- let alone being addicted to nicotine and having to spend all their money on them. Leave them alone! They want to kill you! How prude that you put them on the top 10 Companies. I think it would be really responsible of you to reprint that list and say that you have made a mistake. Thank you! Ms. K. Hamann |