I have no idea what we can and cannot eat nowadays, I only know there is less and less safe food for us to eat, I only know scores of people died of malnutrition, I only know I have stopped eating turbot, river eel, tainted toothpaste, pet food, toxic toys and defective wires.
It is real, but perhaps I am nothing more than a legend, a refrain, a scandal: coastal regions, after all, are also home to the biggest monsters, and, after all, perhaps I am nothing more than a monster.
A pirate.
I have no idea what creatures like me can and cannot eat nowadays, but I am said to organize expeditions to try to find humans, I am said to cut off their heads and consume them. Score of people died of malnutrition but all accounts agree that I killed at least 100 people, that I am treated with antibiotics to keep me alive, that I am tall, that I emit a strong, a disgusting odor, an odor of rotten eggs and pollution which act like pirates.
Like monsters.
You have no idea what a monster like me can and cannot be, you only know there is still an awful lot of room out there for a large beast to be roaming around and that you are become safe food.
cf. David Barboza (China Sends Seafood, And Risks, All Over), Joseph Kahn (In the Wake of Lapses, Revamping Regulation), Larry Rohter (A Malodorous Monster Haunts Amazon Folklore), The New York Times & Le Monde, Saturday, July 14, 2007