Cucaracha En Jamonilla Tulip Era Plan Para Mejorarle El Sabor

San Juan, Puerto Rico - Luego de que se diseminara la noticia de que el jueves pasado una consumidora halló una cucaracha entera en una lata de Jamonilla Tulip, su casa manufacturadora admitió que esto se trataba de un plan secerto para "mejorarle el sabor y la textura a este producto".

"Se supone que fuera una sorpresa, pero nos la arruinaron", lamentó Manuel Méndez, el encargado de mercadear la mercancía de la compañía que manufactura el alimento. "Por años la gente se nos ha quejado de la Jamonilla Tulip: que si no sabe a na', que si ni el perro de casa se la come, que si es solamente 'comida de huracán'... así que me dije, '¿ah sí?'. Acto seguido empecé a hablar con nuestros científicos de alimentos a ver cuál sería una forma económica y efectiva de añadirle sabor y textura al producto, y llegamos a la conclusión que si dejábamos los potes abiertos en el almacén, se le meterían cucarachas, las cuales podríamos luego atrapar en las latas para preservar su sabor... ¡y en realidad no fue fácil, porque muchas veces ni las mismas cucarachas se querían comer la dichosa jamonilla!".



El nuevo producto será próximamente enlatado en recipientes que destaquen las virtudes del nuevo "ingrediente secreto", con frases excitantes tales como: "¡Nuevo sabor!", "¡Ahora con más proteínas y minerales!" y "¡Más crujiente!". Sin embargo, la compañía distribuidora de la Jamonilla Tulip no sabe si ahora que la gente sabe cuál es su "ingrediente secreto", el plan de "reinventarse la jamonilla" será tan exitoso como lo hubiera sido de otro modo: "La realidad es que no debimos haber dejado una cucaracha entera ahí encima de la jamonilla: ésa fue mala nuestra, y me disculpo por eso.. ¡debimos haberla triturado y haberla mezclado más en la jamonilla, y así nadie se hubiera enterado! Pero pues, se vive y se aprende... ¡será para la próxima!", aseguró espeluznantemente.



Por su parte, muchos antiguos consumidores del alimento confirmaron las sospechas de la casa manufacturadora: "Yo no voy a poder comerme un sangüichito de mezcla sin tener esa imagen mental de la cucaracha sobre la jamonilla: ¡qué asco!", juró con cara de disgusto María Jiménez, una ama de casa que antes solía comprar ese producto a menudo. "O sea, yo prefiero mil veces comer en sitios como McDonald's y restaurantes chinos, donde tú sabes que hay cucarachas y ratones por to's la'os en la cocina, ¡pero al menos no los ves! Ojos que no ven, estómago que no siente náuseas". Aparte de los consumidores, otro personaje atribulado por todo este asunto es la latita parlanchina de la Jamonilla Tulip (la que en los anuncios ochentosos se la pasaba exclamando: "¡Tulip! ¡Tulip!"), quien aseguró: "¡A mí me repugnan las cucarachas! ¡No quiero ni imaginarme cuántos de esos malditos insectos albergué en mis adentros! Bueno, ahora si me disculpan, tengo que irme a pegarme un tiro".

Volunteer Initiatives

Grameen Foundation offers many ways for you to use your passion to help stop poverty. We offer exciting and challenging opportunities for volunteers across the globe to become part of the solution.

Bankers without Borders®

We are pleased to announce our newest initiative, Bankers without Borders®. Volunteers will dedicate their time, skills, knowledge and experience to support microfinance and technology sector developments in Asia, Africa, the Americas, the Middle East and in the United States. Whether you choose a U.S.-based opportunity or an engagement in a developing country, you will contribute to empowering the world’s poorest people, most often women, to escape poverty.

Mission Statement: Grameen Foundation's mission is to enable the poor, especially the poorest, to create a world without poverty.

Who we are

Grameen Foundation is a leader in the fight against poverty in Sub Saharan Africa, Asia, the Arab World, and the Americas. Since our beginning in 1997, our programs, resources and fresh ideas have helped more than 45 million poor people, mostly women and children, improve their lives.

Building strong local institutions that reach even more people in the poorest communities is a cornerstone of our work. We help microfinance institutions (MFIs), credit unions, cooperatives and poverty-focused organizations secure financing, develop strategies to attract and maintain a talented and dedicated workforce, and better track how quickly their clients are leaving poverty. Our technology initiatives focus on helping MFIs work more efficiently and serve more people and on providing new business opportunities and access for poor people.

Our team is guided by our values and our Grameen heritage, and our work is made possible by supporters who share our passion and commitment for defeating poverty through microfinance. We invite you to learn more about our work through our annual reports.

Awards and Recognition

Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance


Grameen Foundation was awarded the BBB Wise Giving Alliance Seal in 2007 in recognition of their outstanding industry practices. Before national charities can even apply to use the seal, they must undergo evaluation by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, the nation’s most experienced charity evaluator. The evaluation process involves rigorous scrutiny of a charity’s governance, effectiveness, finances and solicitations and informational materials. The standards go beyond what government regulators require.


SEEP Network 2007 Member of the Year
Grameen Foundation has been honored as the 2007 Member of the Year by the Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (SEEP) Network. With 67 members whose activities cover more than 140 countries, the SEEP Network is the leading international network and promoter of best practices in enterprise development and financial services geared towards reducing poverty.

Fast Company Social Capitalist Awards for 2005, 2006, and 2007

The Fast Company/Monitor Social Capitalist Awards is the only award program that quantitatively measures a non-profit group’s innovation and social impact, as well as the viability and sustainability of its business model. For three years in a row, Grameen Foundation has been recognized for its groundbreaking work in expanding the reach of microfinance around the world while applying innovative technology to increase efficiency and provide new opportunities for the poor.

American Institute of Philanthropy Top-Rated Charity

Grameen Foundation is designated a top-rated charity from American Institute of Philanthropy for maintaining high financial standards including low fundraising costs, reasonable asset reserves, and an "open book" financial record policy.



Tech Museum Awards

In October 2004, the Tech Museum of Innovation announced the 25 laureates for the 2004 Tech Museum Awards. Grameen Technology Center was awarded one of five Accenture Economic Development Awards for its work on the Village Phone Program. The Tech Awards are designed to honor individuals and for-profit, public and not-for-profit organizations from around the world who are applying technology to profoundly improve the human condition in the areas of environment, economic development, education, equality and health.

Pro-Poor Innovation Award

In recognition of innovation in financial services for very poor clients, Grameen Foundation was awarded the Pro-Poor Innovation Award by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) for our work on the Village Phone Program. The Pro-Poor Innovation Challenge (PPIC) gives awards up to $50,000 to microfinance organizations that have developed innovative methodologies to deepen poverty outreach and impact.

The Dark Side of Plan Colombia

by TEO BALLVÉ

This article appeared in the June 15, 2009 edition of The Nation.
May 27, 2009.

Research support for this article was provided by the Puffin Foundation Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, with additional support from Project Word, a Massachusetts-based media nonprofit organization.


On May 14 Colombia's attorney general quietly posted notice on his office's website of a public hearing that will decide the fate of Coproagrosur, a palm oil cooperative based in the town of Simití in the northern province of Bolívar. A confessed drug-trafficking paramilitary chief known as Macaco had turned over to the government the cooperative's assets, which he claims to own, as part of a victim reparations program.

Macaco, whose real name is Carlos Mario Jiménez, was one of the bloodiest paramilitary commanders in Colombia's long-running civil war and has confessed to the murder of 4,000 civilians. He and his cohorts are also largely responsible for forcing 4.3 million Colombians into internal refugee status, the largest internally displaced population in the world after Sudan's. In May 2008, Macaco was extradited to the United States on drug trafficking and "narco-terrorism" charges. He is awaiting trial in a jail cell in Washington, DC.
Macaco turned himself in to authorities in late 2005 as part of a government amnesty program that requires paramilitary commanders to surrender their ill-gotten assets--including lands obtained through violent displacement. Macaco offered up Coproagrosur as part of the deal.




But the attorney general's notice made no mention that Coproagrosur had received a grant in 2004 from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). That grant--paid for through Plan Colombia, the multibillion-dollar US aid package aimed at fighting the drug trade--appears to have put drug-war dollars into the hands of a notorious paramilitary narco-trafficker, in possible violation of federal law. Colombia's paramilitaries are on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations. USAID's due diligence process "did not fail," according to an official response from the US embassy there, because Macaco was not officially listed among Coproagrosur's owners.
Since 2002 Plan Colombia has authorized about $75 million a year for "alternative development" programs like palm oil production. These programs provide funds for agribusiness partnerships with campesinos in order to wean them from cultivating illicit crops like coca, which can be used to make cocaine. These projects are concentrated in parts of northern Colombia that were ground zero for the mass displacement of campesinos.
USAID officials say the projects provide an alternative to drug-related violence for a battle-scarred country. They insist that the agency screens vigilantly for illegal activity and has not rewarded cultivators of stolen lands. But a study of USAID internal documents, corporate filings and press reports raises questions about the agency's vetting of applicants, in particular its ability to detect their links to narco-paramilitaries, violent crimes and illegal land seizures.
In addition to the $161,000 granted to Coproagrosur, USAID also awarded $650,000 to Gradesa, a palm company with two accused paramilitary-linked narco-traffickers on its board of directors. A third palm company, Urapalma, also accused of links with paramilitaries, nearly won approval for a grant before its application stalled because of missing paperwork. Critics say such grants defeat the antidrug mission of Plan Colombia.


"Plan Colombia is fighting against drugs militarily at the same time it gives money to support palm, which is used by paramilitary mafias to launder money," says Colombian Senator Gustavo Petro, an outspoken critic of the palm industry. "The United States is implicitly subsidizing drug traffickers."

Keep reading here.