15
Fifteen year old Samnang was playing soccer with friends when a man leapt from a passing truck and nabbed him. His friends got away. Samnang was drugged. When he regained conscientiousness he discovered he was being held captive in the dank, cramped hull of a shrimp trawler. From others around him who were in the hull Samnang learned that he was miles out at sea and would most likely never see the mainland again. He was warned that if he offered any resistance to the captain’s demands he would be harshly beaten, locked in chains, and denied the daily bowl of rice. If he continued to resist he would be shot and tossed overboard.
Samnang couldn’t help but notice the open sores and scars on the hands of the other captives. Since no gloves were provided, wounds were inevitable when rapidly removing fish with sharp spines and rough scales from the trawling nets. Constant exposure to salt water prevented the wounds from healing.
No antibiotics were on board to prevent infections in the wounds, but plenty of amphetamines were available so longer working hours could be maintained.
Couldn’t we escape when docked? Samnang wanted to know.
First off, he was told, the boat almost never went to shore. Instead their catch was offloaded on to larger refrigerated ‘motherships’, and any new supplies needed were exchanged at that time. When dry-docking was required, the enslaved crew members were marooned on a remote island while the ship was aport. Sometimes they were left in cages.
Sept. 30, 2024 CBS Moneywatch
A new investigation focused on three of the world's largest producers of shrimp released on Monday claims that as big Western supermarkets make windfall profits, their aggressive pursuit of ever-lower wholesale prices is causing misery for people at the bottom end of the supply chain.
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In many places this has meant unpaid and underpaid work through longer hours, wage insecurity as rates fluctuate, and many workers not even making low minimum wages.
Supermarkets linked to facilities where exploited labor was reported by workers include Target, Walmart and Costco in the United States, Britain's Sainsbury's and Tesco, and Aldi and Co-op in Europe.
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The NGO's report stresses that using middlemen to buy the shrimp obfuscates the true sources of shrimp that appear in western supermarkets, so many retailers may not be following ethical commitments they've made about procuring shrimp.
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In July, the European Union adopted a new directive requiring companies to "identify and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts of their actions inside and outside Europe."
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"Labor exploitation in shrimp aquaculture industries is not company, sector, or country-specific," the report concludes. "Instead, it is the result of a hidden business model that exploits people for profit.”
I remember 15. The year 1960. My world then so totally different than Samnang’s existence now. So different it’s hard to reference both in the same sentence, or same paragraph or even the same page. Samnang, a slave who is chained in the dark hull of a trawler whenever the captain spies a suspicious vessel nearby. Samnang, dying a little more each day in a universe spinning somewhere far beyond my Milky Way.
It’s obvious as we celebrate the New Year with endless shrimp that our universes don’t coexist. Otherwise we would never be able to even look at a shrimp, let along ingest one. For our hearts would totally break in two for Samnang and the thousands of Samnangs whose poverty and misery delivered the crustacean to our plate.
What was the real cost in human suffering? Is it so important that Costco, Walmart, Red Lobster executives and stockholders make an extra dime? And who really, if anybody, is seriously being held accountable that slavery still thrives in 2025?
Obviously Wall Street is happy with the status quo. Equally obvious, the GOP couldn’t be more smug and satisfied than it is circa 2025. The Dems should give a damn about human and worker rights but are too busy arguing over transvestite restrooms. Meanwhile the glib TV evangelist in his multimillion dollar crystal cathedral preaches a gospel that totally omits every truth Jesus espoused.
There has to be multiple universes. Somehow my 1960 freshman year high school universe, like an amoeba, split itself in two. My ho-hum privileged middle class universe continued its own trajectory, while the 2025 universe that purposely ignores human rights took another. Since the two are now galaxies apart, enjoying my Red Lobster endless shrimp dinner is possible. Samnang’s plight exists in one universe. My endless shrimp meal in another. Never the twain shall meet.
. . . and the band played on . . .