This has absolutely nothing to do with finance or with anything that I usually tackle on this blog. The story was so repulsive to me though that I had to make mention of it.
I came across this horrid
story during my headline
scan. From Yahoo
News/AFP we get word that South Korea has intensified a crackdown on the smuggling of
capsules from China containing
the powdered flesh of dead babies. According to
customs officials these pills are taken by some (You have to be pretty messed up mentally in my view) as a cure for disease or
a way to boost sexual performance.
I’ve read
some pretty messed up things in my life but this one has to rank up in the top 10. In no way
do I mean to offend the Chinese here and certainly there is no intent made to do so to my Chinese
readers, (because I do believe that anyone with a right frame of mind does not partake in this sort of thing) but why do these stories always seem to originate from China? Is life in China really
such where someone woke up one day and decided that this sort of junk would make
a love potion? Give me a
break!
I have advocated my whole life against harming children and protecting them from the garbage that society exposes them to.
To read that this practice has actually been
going on sent my
‘rage meter’ to 10! According
to the story;
The gruesome practice came to light Sunday
when Korea Customs said it had
uncovered 35 attempts to
import a total of 17,451 such capsules since last August.
The pills -- filled with the dried and powdered flesh of foetuses or dead infants -- were intercepted in the mail or
in customs searches at airports.
The customs
service said that apart from ethical
questions the capsules were contaminated
with "super bacteria"
and other disease-causing
organisms.
Most pills were sent from the northeastern Chinese cities of Yanji and
Jilin as well as cities including Qingdao and Tianjin at
the request of customers
in South Korea, it said.
Some were
hidden in packages of legitimate
drugs to disguise their contents.
Of course, aside from the obvious ethical question that accompanies such a story, I’m curious as to why the report didn’t go one step further and investigate where they are getting these ingredients to begin with? Forget the fact that these sick
individuals also ingest seal penises
and bear gall bladders as male libido boosters (according
to the same story) but where
are these whack jobs getting the ingredients for these capsules? I’m both repulsed and outraged.
"It is a bizarre...practice, just like a belief that eating the penis of actively-mating seals or drinking the bile of strong bears will help your libido," Ha
Ji-Hyun, a psychiatrist at Konkuk University
medical centre, told Chosun.
"No government in the world could possibly understand the Chinese government for letting such an inhuman practice go unpunished,"
it said in an editorial.
"I'm trembling with shock that
people who eat such stuff are my compatriots," one anonymous South Korean Internet
user commented. Another called the practice "absolutely
hideous".
Memo to governments around the world: Keep sending our jobs to countries that actually think that this sort of activity is even
remotely humane. Give me a break. I was already in a foul mood when I came across this story. Take a guess how my mood is
now!
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