 |
| The authentic
African recipe burger is being sold to Norwegian consumers for
about £2.80
|
OSLO,
August 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Shortly after releasing
a new African recipe sandwich, “McAfrika”, in the Norway,
McDonald’s generated bad publicity and was attacked by Norwegian aid
organizations for insensitivity towards Africa’s starving 12 million
people.
Norwegian
newspaper Aftenposten said that the burger launch infuriated the
Norwegian Church Aid which starting distributing free
"catastrophe crackers" outside McDonald’s restaurants in
Oslo.
"This
is a special, protein-rich cracker that we hand out to people in the
hunger-stricken areas," said Linn Aas-Hansen of the Norwegian
Church Aid. .
The
concoction of beef, cheese, tomatoes and salad in a pitta-style
sandwich is said to be based upon an authentic African recipe and is
being sold to Norwegian consumers for about £2.80, said U.K. daily
newspaper the Guardian.
But
aid agencies trying to raise funds to stave off a famine in southern
Africa say that the timing of the McAfrika marketing campaign is
insensitive, crass and ill-considered and have demanded remedial
action from McDonald's, it added.
"It's
inappropriate and distasteful to launch a hamburger called McAfrika
when large portions of southern Africa are on the verge of
starvation," Linn Aas-Hansen of Norwegian Church Aid told the
Aftenposten.
"Twelve
million people are suffering from starvation in countries such as
Malawi and Zimbabwe; it is one of the biggest humanitarian disasters
we have ever seen. We have nothing against McDonald's but the timing
of this is insensitive," said Gunstein Instesjord, a senior
policy advisor at Norwegian Church Aid, reported the Guardian .
Margaret
Brusletto, a spokeswoman for the company, said she was sorry the name
of the product had offended many. "That wasn't our
intention," she told Aftenposten. "We acknowledge that we
have chosen an unfortunate time to launch this new product."
Faced
with mounting protest about the new McAfrika, she initially said the
company would "consider" a request to share proceeds from
its sales with aid agencies but a meeting with the Norwegian Red Cross
and others produced no such agreement, the Guardian said, adding that
McDonald's did not agree to withdraw the offending product from sale
either.
McDonald’s
has been featured on all boycott lists that are circulating in many
Arab and Islamic countries. The call for boycotting U.S. and Israeli
products, especially those which endorse Israel, has been widely
promoted by many national and non-governmental groups. Some fast food
chains have even had their stores vandalized in some capitals by
anti-American activists.
