And this is the nation everyone says is going to bury us.

whosasailorthen wrote:

...the rice does not behave like normal rice, it stays hard even after it has been cooked.

Ummm.  OK.  And like... nobody notices this, right?

Usually not until family members die. If your Lean Cuisine was laced with DDT, when would you notice?

Lead == solder.

fnord wrote:

What is it with China and toxic products?  Do they have a policy of disposing of toxic waste by fashioning it into consumer goods?  I have Christmas lighting cables from China (clear plastic with embedded LEDs) that came with a lead warning.  Why else would plastic cables be full of lead that gets onto anything they come into contact with?

China, in case anyone missed it, is massive. Given the enormous societal and economic changes it's currently enduring, lots of people are going into business for themselves or entering other longstanding businesses and there is very little oversight.

Quite a few of the safety problems that have arisen can be attributed to ignorance: inexperience people doing stupid things because they really just don't know what they're doing. That's exacerbated, of course, by the lack of any real regulation from local or national governments.

Then there are the cases where someone is intentionally doing harmful things, like adding melamine to milk, because they're trying to cut costs and make even more money. That's exacerbated, of course, by the lack of any real regulation from local or national governments.

If anyone wants to make the case for businesses being allowed to regulate themselves, forget Somalia. China's the best example as to just how bad an idea that is. The government of China recognizes this and is trying to do something about it but when faced with the sheer volume of people concerned and the very small amount of regulatory authority or resources it actually has, the problem's only going to get worse before it gets better.

Taint wrote:

Quite a few of the safety problems that have arisen can be attributed to ignorance: inexperience people doing stupid things because they really just don't know what they're doing. That's exacerbated, of course, by the lack of any real regulation from local or national governments.

As someone who has dealt with Chinese businesses, their expectation* of what regulation means seems to be "try to figure out which lie will make the regulator happy, and then tell that lie."  This occurs even when the truth is perfectly acceptable - we have to convince them that we really do want to know the truth and not the lie they think we want to hear.

It's also surprising the number of twentysomethings that are in senior positions at these businesses.  I wonder how they are able to come up with the capital to get started.

*I can only assume this is based on their experience with local officials.

choad wrote:

square wrote:

As someone who has dealt with Chinese businesses, their expectation* of what regulation means seems to be "try to figure out which lie will make the regulator happy, and then tell that lie."

Sounds like salesmen the world over. Figure out what the punter is thinking, then think that, too. My own brother is like this and it's maddening, made marginally better when I know the last person he talked to. What's the Chinese version of Dale Carnegie?

Apropos of fuckall nothing, a friend recently passed along his own definition of an ASSHOLE and it's perfect. An asshole is entirely self absorbed and indifferent to those around him, who are insignificant walk-on extras in the asshole's epic life story.

My definition is someone who's actions smell bad, is full of shit and most often needs a good fucking. Also, I've always said that violence is like an enema: As an adult you should be able to use it gracefully when you need to, but only a sick asshole needs it every day.

Last edited by Tall Paul (2011-02-07 18:00:38)

This whole story sounds bogus.  I mean, can we believe someone could buy sweet potatoes, potatoes, resin, and a machine to combine it all into fake rice grains, which would then sell for less than real rice?  Don't think so.  Mass hysteria is a more likely scenario.

opsec wrote:

As a ton of rice costs about half what a ton of oil does, this makes no sense.

It makes sense only if:
1) the products being used to make the bogus rice are waste products that the seller either needs to dispose of or can obtain for free or for cheap (I suspect the melamine in the milk products was such a scenario--either that or the perpetrator was one sadistic sonofabee); and/or
2) the phony rice is mixed into the real rice in smallish amounts.  That way, you wouldn't know the rice you bought contained plastic until you'd cooked it and found the little hard bits mixed into your rice.

Government regulators are pretty much useless and they are bought and sold just as much as any other product on the market and most regulations out there are lobbied for by large corporations in an attempt to keep out competition.  The only real way to buy trusted products as a consumer are to have them certified by an independent source like Underwriters Laboratories.  The only way they can stay in business is to keep a solid reputation in the market and actually test the products for safety.

Dirckman wrote:

Government regulators are pretty much useless and they are bought and sold just as much as any other product on the market and most regulations out there are lobbied for by large corporations in an attempt to keep out competition.  The only real way to buy trusted products as a consumer are to have them certified by an independent source like Underwriters Laboratories.  The only way they can stay in business is to keep a solid reputation in the market and actually test the products for safety.

UL is pretty much useless and are bought and sold faster than Gov't regulators (who, despite Dirk's assertations, are mostly public service driven individuals); there are no end to the UL Fraud web sites out there.  After all - independent testing is capitalism and capitalism boils down to getting paid before the opportunity disappears.

It's funny how the non-public service type people assume the public service people are as crooked as they are; let's just look at the super bowl as an example:  some silly public service fire marshall refused to certify the temporary seats causing no end of problems to the big money of Jerry Jones and the NFL.  That fire marshall was obviously corrupt and on the take, driven only by greed and sloth.

Just cuz you selfish fuckers don't understand those who desire to serve the greater community doesn't mean those individuals are as selfish and corrupt as you.  Whine all you want but the vast majority those "beuaracrats" actually take professional pride in the job they do and they execute that responsibility at the highest level.

You sound like a Rush Limbaugh ball washer.

Dmtdust wrote:

Are we related?  Do you know my relatives or what?

I was cribbing from memory and a college entrance essay I wrote 40 years ago. Got more mileage off that inspired rant than anything since and sadly, it still rings true. I'll make it out to Portland one day soon.

George Orr wrote:

1) the products being used to make the bogus rice are waste products that the seller either needs to dispose of or can obtain for free or for cheap (I suspect the melamine in the milk products was such a scenario--either that or the perpetrator was one sadistic sonofabee); and/or

Actually, the melamine was mixed into the milk as a way of fooling the tests for protein. Even a tiny bit of melamine make it look like the milk is much stronger than it really is.

So: 1 gallon milk + 1 gallon water + 1 tiny pinch melamine == whole milk, at least according to the
chemical test by the food safety guys.

Just a case of the manufacturer being smarter than the regulator.