Milk... The Other Way To Kidney Failure

I - as well as the rest of China and, I see on CNN.com, the rest of the world too - have been watching with a mix of keen interest and abject horror, the "unfolding" scandal of contaminated Chinese milk. As you may or may not know, several distributors (read: con artists/murderers) decided it'd be a *really awesome* idea to "water down" their milk. Then to make it look like it wasn't diluted, they would add in a product called melamine to make it look normal again. Melamine, or tripolycianamide, is commonly used in coatings and laminates, wood adhesives, fabric coatings, ceiling tiles and flame retardants. If ingested in sufficient quantities (in adults, say experts, more than 2 liters/day), it can lead to kidney stones, urinary tract ulcers, eye, and skin irritation.

But here's the kicker, most of this poisonous shit was then dried into powered milk, and bought by unwitting parents who fed it to their newborns and infants... Apparent 4 children have died from acute kidney failure, and thousands more are very, very sick and hospitalized.

As of now, 18 people have been arrested and at least 2 of them face the death penalty if convicted. Frankly, I can't say I object. This is the ugly - and far too common - side of the "capitalism" China so vociferously promotes. Profit at any cost, even if that cost is in human lives. It is the end result of a government which has entirely deregulated its production and industrial processes... a system that not only tolerates, but even jokingly acknowledges its own corruption, only occasionally offering up the "sacrificial lamb" of some bloated official from Bumfuck-Nowhere, Central China. As long as they keep their people "in the money," no one really cares all that much.

If I sound angry and disgusted, don't worry, it's only because I am.

Pursuit of profit without forethought or understanding of the ramifications... sound familiar? With the collapse of the Wall Street giants still echoing across the world, it really should.

One more thing that has really irked me about this... will you kindly note the timing of this whole "revelation" about the corruption and deaths? Notice that the Olympic torch in Beijing has just been extinguished at the conclusion of the Paralympics? It's no coincidence... from what I hear, internal knowledge of this has been circulating since May at least...

Ugh. Sorry to be such a downer about this... it really is just a bad mojo it's got me in...

I promise my next entry will be full of happy bunnies and kitties and rainbows! :D

(CS)WC Out.

Finding beauty in the dissonance.