Heparin is a disgusting life-saving drug for millions of people. Originally derived from dog liver, it is a powerful anti-coagulant that enables open-heart surgery and organ transplants. Its bloodclot-busting properties are integral to the survival of people afflicted with thrombosis, and those who undergo kidney dialysis. Now harvested from pig intestines, or chitlins, Chinese citizens have been slaving over hot funky stoves in their homes to deliver the life-saving chitlin in the form of heparin, to the so-called ‘developed world’. Anyone who has ever survived in the environment of the cooking of chitlins, can attest to its everlasting horror.
David Barboza wrote in the NY Times:
Much of China’s production of raw heparin begins in homes and tiny factories, where teams of three to five people transform pig intestines into a dry substance that is eventually sold to major pharmaceutical companies.
Is it really revelatory that someone, anyone, might stand up at one point and say, you know what? I am so fucking tired of drying out chitlins for those privileged fucks. And then they’d slip a little oversulfated chondroitin sulfate into the bag instead, and there you go. Counterfeit heparin is so not a surprise, is it?
I think that as long as globalization continues, we should become adjusted to these kinks in the chain. Even shiny you, can’t really appeal to the compassion in others, by demanding that they slave over a chitlin drying thing all day, and then climb underneath it to sleep at night. When you factor in the compensation for this effort, which is pennies… you need a strategy. Solution?
Let them know how we really roll. Hey, Chinese produer of raw materials for life-saving drugs? I’m losing my home to a mortgage foreclosure. Save me. Hey, Ms Chitlin drier and your miniature ‘team’ of ‘helpers’ (a.k.a. children)? I’m laid off from my job, with no money in the bank. Save me. Hey guys! I’m sick as hell with no insurance. Can I owe-ski for the magic chitskis? And finally, the reddest of red flags waves from lovely Santa Barbara, California, where 67 year old white women are allowed to sleep in their cars in gender-specific lots, in lieu of sleeping in homes. Hey Chitlin skinner. Wanna save a decent human being from a life devoid of– uh, never mind.
It probably won’t work, but it is undeniably informative.
0 Responses to “Chinese Chitlins”