Swai ballet

Fish from Vietnam

I've eaten Swai and liked it so I did some searching on it and found
nothing bad about it at that time but my search was shallow and it
appears there was an intense marketing drive which shoved data out of
reach for a time. Gaming google is difficult but not impossible, it's
easier to pay them buckets of cash for better results for whatever
drivel you're shilling. I've no idea which was done but the end result
was to mask out any problem with fish from Vietnam.

When I'd found out where Swai is from I have declined to eat more. I'd
intended to check to see if my assumptions were correct but I neglected
to do so and forgot about it. I was reminded to check again from a post
by a friend.

It seems that on the coast of Vietname in 2016 a steel mill dumped toxic
chemicals directly into the ocean through a sewer pipe they'd installed.
300 tons of chemicals. A massive fish kill occurred and the Vietnamese
government and the mill did nothing for a time other than a government
ban on ocean fishing in the contaminated area. This is 20 miles from the
coast and 125 miles of shore line.

"The government said the factory mixed up a toxic cocktail when it
dumped phenols, iron hydroxide and cyanide into the sea. Hanoi is still
monitoring water quality offshore and has not declared the water safe
for fishing within 20 nautical miles of the coast." --rfa.org article
about the mill admitting fault and the government's press release.

Fact about steelmaking: In 1st world steel making water is used to
clean out cyanides from blast furnace exit gas. The cyanides are
an unavoidable waste product of steelmaking. The water can be
reused several times and when testing determines it's no longer
usable the water needs to be processed to remove or neutralize
the cyanides and make it safe to return to the water source.
This is according to Metrohm the maker of an automated cyanide
lab-in-a-box test device. This device is designed to ensure
discharge water complies with the very strict regulations in the
EU. It allows testing of the water to ensure it is scrubbing out
the cyanides and when the water is spent and needs further processing.

The fishing ban devastated the local fishermen and they and millions of
people along the coast cannot be made whole without compensation. While
the mill has agreed to pay $500 million that will not be enough. I'm not
clear if that is in Vietnamese dong (sic) which is $22030.00 or if the
article used the dollar sign correctly and it's actually a half billion
US. Even if it is half a billion US dollars it would not be enough.

In building the steel mill the graft and corruption were evident, by
government, the Taiwanese plant owner, other contractors like Samsung
etc. Worker saftey was a joke. Then there was a major riot where several
hundred Filipino and Thai workers fought for 8 hours with rocks,
firebombs and whatever else they could get their hands on on. Fight took
place Sept 5 1999.

It appears the graft and corruption are not much different now than then
as the steel mill is still in operation and there has been no
prosecutions for violating Vietnamese laws.

Then there's Swai. It's a river fish that's deadly if you catch and eat
it due to the toxic sewer that is the Mekong river and delta. While the farm
raised can be good they screw that up regularly enough that the US
requires testing which may not be done and contaminated fish can end up
in groceries. Aldi is the latest victim I could find where the testing
was not done but no illness or fatalities have been reported.

So no fish from Vietnam until they quit being a 4th world country. I'll
just put them right there with the Chinese who make 'soy' sauce from
human hair and toxic chemicals.