According to AP, hundreds of slaves from Myanmar (Burma)--housed in cages on the Indonesian island of Benjina thousands of miles from home--are being forced to catch fish working 20- to 22- hour shifts and drinking unclean water. If they complain or attempt to rest, they are kicked, beaten, or whipped with toxic stingray tails. They were paid little or nothing. Many slaves die at sea. 60+ slave graves can be found in a with neatly-labeled, small, wooden markers identifying slaves' falsified names. Only friends remember where the bodies are buried.
If Americans and Europeans are eating this fish, they should remember
us. There must be a mountain of bones under the sea. The bones of the
people could be an island, it's that many.
The narrative is somewhat cloudly but it seems the Myanmar slaves provide the supply network of fish that's shipped to Thailand and is subsequently sold by major U.S. distributors (Sysco), supermarket chains (Kroger, Albertsons, and Safeway), and restaurants (squid, snapper, grouper, and shrimp as well as calamari, and imitation crab in a California sushi rolls). The fish is also found in pet food (Meow Mix, Kibbles, and Iams).
Yes, the fish that many people and pets in the US consume may be the product of slave labor.
Where are the stormy petrels? It's the perfect narrative they'd normally be trumpeting in the media, in boycotts, and protests attempting to force those distributors, supermarket chains, and restaurants selling the fish to end the obscene and immoral practice. The Motley Monk could write their script:
Those greedy capitalists are paying off greedy owners of fisheries to
market fish that's been caught off the sweat of the back of Myanmar
slaves. This abhorrent practice has everything to do with the social
injustices perpetrated by capitalists. It's time to put an end to this
criminal activity and shut them all down.
Yes, where are the stormy petrels?
The answer couldn't possibly be that because the AP's narrative concerns enslaved males the social justice lobby isn't much interested, could it?
Let the discussion begin...
To read the AP story, click on the following link:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/ap-investigation-is-the-fish-you-buy-caught-by-slaves/ar-AA9Xvst