Brekkie Crumbs (Notes from the NewsRadio Breakfast team) for Wednesday November 11th
Glen - Breakfast presenter …
I see the Australian distributor of strollers recalled in the United States over safety concerns, says there won’t be a recall of the products locally.
British company Maclaren is recalling one million single and double umbrella strollers in the US after 12 cases were reported of children slicing off their fingertips in the hinge mechanism.
But the Australian distributor, CNP Brands, says that none of the injuries happened while a child was seated in the stroller, rather when safety instructions weren’t being followed on opening and closing the strollers.
It says the products won’t be recalled because they meet stringent safety standards, but has offered to supply a free elbow joint cover kit to Australian customers who remain concerned.
That’s for the stroller not the child, I presume.
Despite the strollers being made in the UK, Britain isn’t participating in the recall either. One view out of Britain today claimed the different approaches centre around the more litigious nature of the United States compared to the rest of us. Lawsuits are a way of life there and liability is always a big issue.
A British comment this morning pointed out that the injuries occur when children’s fingers have been caught in the mechanism while it was being assembled.
They instead suggested that the British approach would be to perhaps recommend not putting your kid’s fingers anywhere it while you were assembling it.
Who’d have thought ?
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Meanwhile, in unrelated news from the wires:
In Brazil, famed for its tiny bikinis and carefree attitude, a university student has been expelled after violent protests by students outraged at the short outfit she wore on campus.
The Universidade Bandeirante (Uniban) said it had expelled the student, Geysi Villa Nova Arruda, 20, for “flagrant disrespect of ethical principles, academic dignity and morality.” ( In Brazil ??)
Her dress sparked student protests on October 22 in this largely Roman Catholic country.
A video showed Arruda sitting in a classroom in a mid-thigh length red dress, then six military police officers protecting her as she left the campus wearing a white jacket. A line of students stood by chanting “whore.” ( a bit of an over reaction perhaps ? )
Another video showed a mob stopping and kicking her car and blocking her when she tried to escape on foot. ( IT’S BRAZIL !!! )
Comments on Brazilian websites pointed out the irony of the hatred directed at Arruda by fellow students in a nation obsessed with physical beauty and said the university’s actions were unfair.
“Pure hypocrisy … Once February and the Carnival comes round everyone will be naked and no one will find it abnormal,” said one comment posted by a reader on the O Globo news website. ( Indeed )
Uniban said it had also suspended a number of students identified by video footage and witness accounts of taking part in the violence last month. The university’s legal advisor said Arruda had been expelled for “gestures” and “attitudes” she had manifested rather than because of her short outfits. He would not give details.
You’ve got to watch those ‘manifest attitudes’.
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