WALT DISNEY AND THE SWAZI SOAP INSULT

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the news that some Americans have such contempt for Swazis that they are prepared to send them their used soap and shampoo.

Walt Disney, which owns hotels, as well as the famous movie studio, has decided to collect up all the half used bars of soap and shampoo bottles that guests leave behind and send them off to Swaziland.

Can you believe it? They’re not sending over crates of new soap and shampoo, or other goods that might be of use. Instead they’re sending over partly used stuff that has been wiped around some American’s sweaty body and left out with the trash.

I think it’s an insult, but Walt Disney seems very proud of its generosity. It told the world in a press release that it ‘will recycle all the partly used amenities which would usually be discarded and destined for landfill’ and send it to ‘those in desperate need’.

Swaziland is one of a number of countries that will receive this load of soiled toiletries. I don’t know if anyone in Swaziland was asked about this, but I suspect not. Even Swaziland is not so desperate it needs this kind of aid.