I was reading this thread about human poop fertilizer which is apparently common in China and elsewhere in Asia, and someone linked to a story explaining how many Asian fish farms feed chicken and pig poop to their farmed fish.
Combine that with stories about how other Vietnamese fish farms use unsanitary water to freeze their farmed shrimp which are also fed on various sorts of crap, and all the tales of pollution and general filth in China and other Asian countries, such as using old barbershop hair to produce artificial soy sauce.
Or all the stories about people taking dumps in the street in India, or how nasty the Ganges is with all the half-cremated decomposing bodies and sewage, etc…
Why is it this way? It seems like every nasty story I read in the news is someone in Asia doing something totally filthy and trying to sell it to us.
Is your question “Why does Asia seem to be so nasty and filthy” or “Why IS Asia so nasty and filthy?” I don’t know that much about Asia but when I read the thread title all the examples I thought of, you already mentioned.
I think there are a few things going on: Asia is a huge part of the globe, parts of which are very densely populated and poor, resulting in poor sanitation; stories about dirty foreigners play well to American audiences, so American media hypes up stories like this; and Americans in general are likely feeling confused by their loss of status in the world and gravitate towards stories that make them feel superior over other cultures, thus confirming their sense of the US as occupying a special place in the world order.
You don’t read too many stories like that out of Japan or South Korea, which not coincidentally are also among the wealthiest per capita countries in Asia and the world. China may be wealthy but the average person is still dirt poor.
Take any poor country, and things aren’t going to look rosy. And most of Asia is extremely poor. As is most of the world, actually. Asia just happens to be bigger, so it seems comparably worse. The rich parts of Asia, like the rich parts of the rest of the world, are pretty nice by comparison.
Yeah, if you look at Singapore, for example, it’s one of the cleanest cities you’ll ever visit. I’ve spent a lot of time there and you don’t even see cigarette butts on the sidewalk. Singapore is much cleaner than most American cities.
If you think about it, China and India alone make up over 1/3 of the entire world’s population. And has been mentioned, a lot of it is still very poor so just by the numbers there’s going to be some shady stuff going on, and these are the stories that get hyped up.
And don’t forget the US isn’t exactly squeaky clean either. Read some articles about the meat and poultry industry here, or probably just about anything agricultural and I’m sure you’ll find plenty that will turn your stomach.
I’ve traveled extensively in SE Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India) and the difference that I see is that there is abject poverty at a level not experienced in the U.S. We complain of poverty, and of “food insecurity”, and I’m not belittling those things at all. Just putting our experiences into some kind of global context. In some urban areas, millions of people are packed very densely into geographically small places that aren’t equipped to handle the health and sanitation needs of a population even a quarter of that size.
If you didn’t have a home, or your home was what you could rummage from cheap scraps and nail together yourself, with no plumbing to speak of … and the communal toilets stretched for miles and were themselves always full to overflowing with human refuse, and all you ever saw were people squatting in streets to take care of their pressing business, and they don’t give a (literal) shit about what rich tourists think of their toileting behaviors … how long do you think it would be before you were shitting in the streets?
… or that we eat hot dogs, which come on, let’s not pretend there’s actually much “meat” in them.
… or that our nursing homes are chock full of elderly people who are perfectly capable of caring for their own “activities of daily living” but cannot do so without minimal assistance. In Asia, adult children care for their elderly parents. End of story.
… or that 2/3 of adults in the U.S. have the luxury of being overweight, and that in this country, the obese are usually contained to the lower social classes, and that the average American will waste more food in a day than the average hungry person will consume in a week.
… or that we claim to enjoy freedom and independence while we are actually slave to the banks that own our ginormous gas-guzzling SUV’s and 5000 square foot homes with an average of 3-4 people living in them.
… or that we consume far more than we produce and tend to believe that this is our right.
Also, Asia accounts for roughly 60% of the world’s people. That is such a large percentage that any generalizations about Asia as a whole is meaningless.
All of which are cooked by themselves or as part of the whole head in several European countries (I know several cases for each, but they’re not always the same countries). As for the intestines, what do you think was used for sausage casings before synthetics were invented?
My fiancee is Vietnamese and she uses lots of ugly parts of the animal. Tripe (cow stomach), tendon (the connective tissue you mentioned) and beef joints with lots of gristle (more connective tissue). I hope your point was to say we’re no worse or better in our culinary habits.
I’ve traveled to Indonesia (Bali and Java) a couple times and saw squalor in the shadow of splendor. Jakarta is a big, dirty city of millions with some shiny, gorgeous buildings. Think Las Vegas with shopping malls instead of casinos, fewer traffic lights and an efficient metro train system.
The main thing that is missing from much of South East Asia is the pervasive infrastructure we have in the USA. Most homes have running water, but it’s not chlorinated. Many streets aren’t paved, and those that are are usually two narrow lanes and the afore-mentioned lack of traffic lights.
The US got much of its running water and electricity in a big push during the depression (TVA, CCC, WPA), and let’s not forget how much of electric generation and infrastructure was developed here (Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse).
Much of Asia was still extraction colonies managed by European countries until after WWII, and they’ve had wars of independence and rampant corruption since.
Central and South America and Africa have similar stories and similar infrastructure issues.
I eat hot dogs routinely My point was the latter. I get tired of witnessing what looks to me like American Imperialism. Every time I hear “thank Dog we are so free” or that we live in the “greatest country in the world”, I have to damn near literally bite my tongue instead of asking if speaker considers International Travel to encompass that one time the RV accidentally crossed into Canadian territory and golly gee, what an adventure that was.
I’m not in the slightest bit starry-eyed. My own mother, suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s, is in a home. I am pointing out some American behaviors that seem odd to Asians.
My own sneer about American egotism has probably gotten in the way of that, though.
My point was the latter. I get tired of witnessing what looks to me like American Imperialism. Every time I hear “thank Dog we are so free” or that we live in the “greatest country in the world”, I have to damn near literally bite my tongue instead of asking if speaker considers International Travel to encompass that one time the RV accidentally crossed into Canadian territory and golly gee, what an adventure that was.