BUFFETS: Behind Asian Smiles, A River of Tears Part 3
With
Chinese corporations permeating the Asian restaurant scene within the
United States I’ve been doing an on going investigation. Previous
stories exposed some very disturbing facts about some mainland Chinese
food corporations who use Taiwan as a store front. FOXCONN is a classic
example of a Chinese shill corporation that abuses employees for fun and
profit. From Human Trafficking to the sale of rancid food, I’ve
uncovered some distasteful facts from many employees who work or worked
in Chinese owned kitchens. Now I have another update that will peel the
varnish off your chopsticks.In a gathering I attended with my Asian associates we got into another conversation about the Asian food industry. A Vietnamese friend of mine told a tale about a bogus Vietnamese restaurant his wife worked at. His wife got the job since she assumed it was owned and operated by Vietnamese here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area but sadly she soon discovered it was owned by a Chinese woman. My friend called the kitchen of the restaurant a ‘chamber of horrors’ because of its scurrilously repugnant nature.
The working conditions were similar to that of other Chinese owned buffets that dot the landscape, you work 12 to 16 hours a day with only one break, 7 days a week. For Chinese immigrants their plight was compounded by the fact many were illegal and worked as indentured servants in a tyrannical atmosphere. For a national to make waves to the Department of Labor would guarantee their families back in mainland China would be tortured and murdered. The language barrier and the fact they were illegal also was a factor allowing unsavory Chinese employers to abuse them at their leisure. Other victims, citizen or not, are completely oblivious to US labor laws and continue to abide by the caste system and accept their place as slaves.
Fortunately my Vietnamese friends were US citizens for several decades and not so willing to bow to anyone especially a Chinese tyrant. In fact the husband was a war veteran of the Vietnam the conflict. In any event his bride worked in the pseudo Vietnamese restaurant for only one week because the working conditions were so horrific. According to the husband when he picked up his wife at the end of her first week of employment he could not believe his eyes since she was so haggard. “I could not recognize her” he said. After just one week at the kitchen she appeared to age 20 years and that was when he asked her to quit. Then she revealed what transpired during her first week and only week of employment.
No one was allowed to speak to each other while they sorted dirty dishes. Sorting dishes consisted of getting plates from previous customers and taking out the ‘good’ bits of food and ‘recycling’ them. Shrimp, noodles, rice, veggies, egg rolls, soups, and other foods that were not eaten by previous customers were sorted and placed back in the heap for resale, yummy. They would isolate all the good looking food with no teeth marks and discard only a fraction of the remainder of the used platter. Imagine all those dishes of used food entering a production line to be reused on someone else’s plate for that is exactly what they were doing. Boneheads rant and rave about ultra lean meat falsely labeled as ‘pink slime’ while real garbage is being served up piping hot across the country.
Is this a new revelation about some Asian proprietors? Nope, if you read my older *stories you would know this is actually old news since this is common practice in many unscrupulous Chinese Buffets and sushi bars. I’ve interviewed a multitude of people within this industry and for the most part they are scared to death to say a word to outsiders. Since some folks don’t have legal status in America they would face death whence they were deported back to China if they said a word to the health department. It is a Catch 22 for them since they loose either way. So it’s a win, win situation for morally bankrupt Chinese entrepreneurs because silence is the order of the day. With no regard for the working caste replacing disgruntled employees is just a matter of a simple coded phone call back to mainland China and voila; the order is filled with new and obedient slaves. The trouble makers are dispatched and their families back on the mainland are harassed or murdered for this blatant act of disobedience. Illegal aliens who disappear are not missed for they never existed in the first place. It all works out.
Malaysia is a hot spot for human trafficking, there is no question but there is another route many Chinese kitchen workers arrive that does not garner much media attention and that is the trusty old shipping container. It is said many people die from asphyxia in containers and their bodies are simply discarded like rubbish whence discovered by people other than port authorities. It is hard for a container filled with dead and bloated bodies to go undetected at customs but some do. Others perish when container ships sink like the one off the coast of New Zealand did a few months back. In any event human trafficking has become more innovative as shipping technologies continue to expand and evolve globally. Like notable Progressive Billary Clinton once said; ‘There are way too many people on earth’ so what’s the big deal about a few dead Asian peasants anyway? It’s all about the corporate bottom line and recycling used food is probably not so bad after all. Waste not, want not eh…
Shipping containers from China have many commodities in them and according to some Chinese workers I’ve spoken to they were one of these commodities packaged and shipped to the USA. Once the shipping container cleared customs at the harbor it was delivered to a warehouse. The migrants were fed and watered then ultimately redistributed around the country to various Chinese owned and operated enterprises who ordered them. I was surprised these human beings did not have a bar code tattooed on them. Other means of access to the USA include the assistance of corrupt UN officials who assist well funded and organized human traffickers in garnering bogus papers (UN Name) to refugees. Once they are documented they’re shipped to countries to fill orders in yet another elaborate human trafficking scheme. There is no question migrant and refugees from around the world are utilized in this manner to suit the needs of other corporate thugs. Globalization at it’s best.
Young Asian boys and girls enter the country with bogus papers all the time and not just for kitchen staff. Their actual ages range from between 13 to 17 buy crafty UN officials that reassign them 5 to 15 years older when drafting their new and improved birth certificates. So it all works out for people in the restaurant and sex trade supplying them with cute slaves they can use and abuse at their leisure. One sushi proprietor used to order gals out of Malaysia to the pleasure of him and his workers like he was ordering pizza or a Harry Potter DVD. Then he would sell them to other store owners or traffickers within the USA and Canada. Ordering women out of Asia is not relegated only to unscrupulous Asian restaurateurs either. It’s a cancer that has infected other cultures, particularly those with affluence who can afford this luxury.
On a side note I was made aware of an Asian man who was actually in his late 20’s but was issued an ID and UN name making him to 17 years old, again. He was attending high school and having a field day with teenage girls. Maybe I should go to Malaysia and get a new improved UN name and be 39 years old legitimately. Unfortunately I am not Asian and my age clearly shows an old native dude who was rode hard and put up wet. Toss in a few scars, holes, burn marks and a bad case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, I seriously doubt I could pass for 39 either. UN name and ID or not I would still be an old buzzard with anger management issues. Maybe if I dyed my hair blond, spiked it, worn an Anime tee-shirt and baggy pants that revealed my color coded boxers. Hmm, I wonder…………..
The sex slave market place is booming throughout the United States and Canada. Young guys and gals are subjected to every kind of abuse imaginable including torture and death. But this is another story. When I cover stories about Chinese employer abuses the issue gets muddled since it gets hard to differentiate between the food & labor and human trafficking issues since they appear to run in unison. Mainland Chinese front corporations out ofTaiwan are notorious for food and employee abuses. They are a pocks to the food industry as a whole since criminality flourishes with corporations that have the blessings of the World Trade Organization and their member, the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese oligarchist’s disdain for Americans is all too apparent in the foods they serve us. Ask a Vietnamese about the garbage China sends their people in Vietnam, from tainted milk to tainted pork and the list does not stop there.
In defense of legitimate Chinese and other Asian entrepreneurs there are many excellent Asian Buffets & Restaurants that don’t use and abuse their employees, let alone serve pre-eaten foods. I’ve explored Asian restaurants around the country and it’s been a wonderful culinary experience for the most part. Why am I so lucky? Well, I always eat where the Asians eat and if I want to explore a new kitchen I simply ask one of my friends. They know where to go and it’s a foodie’s paradise if you know what to look for. Rule of thumb; if restaurant employees appear scared and un-talkative like they have something to hide, that is not a good sign and chances are they do have plenty to hide. Beatings and torture are more common than not from the hand of Chinese handlers within the USA so there are many secrets these enslaved people must endure and recycled food is only one of them. In a nation that ‘harvests’ human organs from Falun Gong, Christian and Buddhist slaves the atrocities being committed here in the USA and Canada are relatively mild by Chinese standards.
Some employees will watch as unsuspecting people load their plates with foods they know are tainted and used. Eyes are very telling and y’all need to pay attention. I’ve seen this many times in my travels and I’ve walked out of places that filled this criterion with no hesitation in Asian and non Asian restaurants. I learned the hard way and paid the price with the squirts for not paying attention to this detail, if you get my drift. Health departments do inspections and leave a rating at the establishment. Granted some jurisdictions are more active than others so policing diners is an issue generally speaking. On a positive note; if per chance you’re in the Dallas/Fort Worth area **Hong Kong Market Place is an excellent place to begin your Asian culinary adventure, Yee Haw! It’s like taking a trip to Asia without getting felt up by TSA. Hmm, I miss the intimacy though.
Bon Appetit’
* http://buffalohair.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/sushi-behind-asian-smiles-a-river-of-tears-part-1/
http://buffalohair.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/sushi-behind-asian-smiles-a-river-of-tears-part-2/
** http://www.hkmkt.com/
Your Devil’s Advocate
Buffalohair
© 2012, Buffalohair Productions. All rights reserved.
Tags: A River of Tears Part 3, BUFFETS: Behind Asian Smiles
