Showing posts with label Filthy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Filthy. Show all posts

February 19, 2019

Cockroach Tea



So I went into this store in Chinatown in Washington, D.C. and was looking around. 

I saw this chest of draws with all sorts of herbs and insects listed. 

One draw included a label for "Cockroach".

I asked innocently:
Do you have cockroaches in there?

The lady behind the counter responds in broken English:
Oh yes, there are roaches in there. 

Again, not understanding the relationship to the herbs for sale, I inquire:
What are the roaches used for?

The lady looks at me a little more intently and says:
It is for tea--cockroach tea!

My eyes literally bugged out and I go for a third round:
Do people drink that for health reasons?

She responds:
Yes, and it is good for managing pain. 

Hesitatingly, I asked her to take out the bag and open it so I could see for myself. 

I don't know about you, but growing up in NYC, we definitely didn't value cockroaches as part of our diet--in fact, we did everything we could to try and rid ourselves of these disgusting insects--but usually to no avail. 

The roaches survived everything we could throw at them!

If they are so resilient, maybe they can provide some health benefits to people (who knows--you've got to respect ancient alternative medicines), but I will only say this, you won't get me anywhere near this roach tea--and not for all the tea in China!  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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February 5, 2016

Even Our Water

So I was in a meeting yesterday. 

And someone had a bottle of what looked like very dirty water. 

I said to the guy sad-jokingly, "Where's that from--Flint, Michigan?"

He sadly smiles back and says, "No, I just filled the bottle with iced tea!"

But everyone around the table sighed at the tragic state of affairs with the filthy, contaminated water in Flint. 

The high levels of lead in the water has allegedly resulted in "skin lessons, hair loss, high levels of lead in the blood, vision loss, memory loss, depression and anxiety."

It's unbelievable that in an American city with a population around 100,000 that they cannot safely shower or drink their water. 

To make things even worse, now banks are hunkering down and don't want to give mortgages to people in Flint until they can prove that their water is safe

What's amazing is that this miserable situation in our cities is not the exception, but the rule. 

As of 2003 already, The American Society for Civil Engineering gives us a hideous grade of D on our infrastructure that is aged and in disrepair.

This includes our:
- Energy
- Transportation
- Ports
- Aviation
- Levees
- Dams
- Schools
- Roads
- Inland Waterways
- Wastewater
- Hazardous Waste
- Parks and Recreation
- Rail
- Bridges
- Solid Waste
- Drinking Water

They estimate we need at least $3.6 trillion of investment for infrastructure renewal just by 2020. 

Interestingly enough, the useless decade-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan costs us over $4 trillion and the lives of almost 14,000 American military and contractor personnel.

What would you rather have a destabilized Middle East now swarming with ISIS, the Taliban, and a resurgent $100 billion richer and nuclear- and terror-determined Iran or a proper country here for us to live in with an actual strategy-driven national security and good schools and clean drinking water? 

(Source Photo: here with attribution to B1ue5sky)
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February 4, 2016

Stupid Stupid Ties

So ties are an unfortunate part of a man's wardrobe. 

But while some ties may look nice (in a feminine type of way), for the most part they are nothing but a pain in the neck.

- Feels like a noose

- Looks like a dog collar

- Enforced as the yoke of oppression

- Constraining since a tie ties 

- Costs as much as $385 at Nordstrom

- Klutzy when oops!! it hangs out your fly

- Hazardous when caught in an office shredder. 

- Filthy when eating soup, spaghetti, etc. 

- Disgusting when bending over and it flops into the toilet

Some day fashion will grow up and ties will go the way of The Waltons, and even Goodwill will throw them unabashedly into the trash where they most rightfully belong.

(Source Photo: here with attribution to bark)
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May 11, 2013

Factory Floor Servitude

As a kid, I was all too familiar with factory settings--my dad worked in one. 

Dad is an incredibly persistent hard worker who went to the factory every day--tuna sandwich in tow--worked hard and was the voice of reason in advancing the business--and worked his way up to manage the place.  My dad is a modern-day success story!


He worked in everything figuring out how to design products, make them, sell them, and ensure the business stayed afloat. A lot of people depended on him in the factory to keep production humming, put bread on their tables, and most importantly to be treated fairly and like human beings. 


My dad never became arrogant as he advanced himself, he always believed that we only have what the Almighty above grants to us. 


What a contrast between the way my dad managed a factory and the decrepit working conditions that led to the factory collapse two weeks ago in Bangladesh that has now left at least 1,038 dead. 


The collapse has raised ethical questions again about the horrific working conditions in factories overseas--where low wages and hazardous conditions is the rule--low wages lead to growing outsourcing and hence, a $18 billion garment industry in Bangladesh that has tripled in size between 2005 and 2010 and is expected to triple again by 2020. 


The average monthly pay in 2009--$47!


By 2010, Bangladesh had 5,000 garment factories--2nd only to China.


Now most of the factories are gone from the U.S. moving overseas to the cheapest providers, with jobs in manufacturing decreasing almost in half from nearly 20 million in the U.S. in 1979 to less than 12 million in 2010.


Bloomberg BusinessWeek (9 May 2010) chronicles the ten years of stagnant wages and horrible working conditions there--verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical punishment and humiliations for not meeting quotas (like having to forcibly stand on tables for hours and undress in front of workers), rare bathroom breaks to filthy and overflowing toilets, and much more. 


When the Savar building developed cracks on April 23, one man begged his wife not to go to work the next day, but when she called in and asked for the day off, she was told she would be docked a whole months salary if she didn't show up--she went to work and the building collapsed on April 24--leaving her buried under the rubble. Eventually, when the rescuers could not free her, they chopped off her legs!


Cheap labor means cheap goods--that's a draw for us getting more branded goods for less. In a large sense, our insatiable demand fuels the cruel, servile conditions overseas. 


This is also a broken market, where people sell their labor just to provide subsistence living for their families, while big corporations increase profits, investors smile all the way to the bank, and we get our boatloads of stuff cheap, cheap, cheap. 


There is nothing wrong with making money or saving money--it's an incentive-based system, but the only measure of success is not money. 


We need global standards of ethical conduct in the labor market, and this should be part of every organization's financial reporting, disclosure, and audit requirements.


People and organizations should not just be penalized for cooking the books or insider-trading, but for how they treat their people. 


Those organizations and leaders that balance making money with treating people decently have a leg up on those that don't--not that they will necessarily do better in the marketplace (maybe they won't), but that they make their money with their integrity intact and that's something money cannot buy. ;-)


(Source Photo: here with attribution to Ronn "Blue" Aldaman)



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