OPINION: Higher standards will find their level.

from BUSINESS LINE, October 27, 2008 We need to take a break from all the discussion about the financial crisis and impending recession that my last two columns were on. Not because it is not important but the gloom will still be there when we return. Meanwhile, other events have been taking place that require our attention. The big news that got pushed to the inside pages of the world's newspapers was the milk crisis in China. Several milk-based products produced in China were found to have been contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical.

The addition of melamine, normally used in plastics, fertilisers and cleaning products, fools testing procedures into believing that there is a higher protein content of an otherwise weak product. Among the products that were contaminated were milk powder, baby foods, and yoghurt. Most of those hurt by this in China have been children. A few have died, several dozens were diagnosed with kidney stones, and …