An amazing piece on the illicit trade (
promo here) - from its beginnings to its far-reaching consequences. I had no idea how insidious the networks of counterfeit goods were. But according to the National Geographic special, the trade involves human trafficking, government corruption, and organised crime! It makes me queasy thinking of all the pirated software and VCDs I had bought as a little kid; never made a link between the illegality of my actions and the possible crimes it may have spawned. Even worse is the abundance of counterfeit medicine, and not just the ones for erectile dysfunction.
Remember the case of tainted toothpaste last year? Using poisonous ingredients to doctor goods and sell it at lower costs leads to the loss of many lives. The scary thing is that very few of the perpetrators are ever prosecuted. The factories implicated in the supply chain and their shipping companies are hardly held accountable for their goods. It's only time, some believe, before the components of a dirty bomb are easily traded as that of counterfeit handbags.
The programme is based on Dr. Moisés Naím's book
Illicit, and effectively illustrates the global reaches of the black market. According to Naim, what makes this situation so conducive for the black traders is the technology and the reduced barriers between countries. For the tainted medicine, the raw materials are often from China and shipped to Portugal, where it is sold to brokers in South America. Counterfeit goods such as DVDs can lose a step and be directly sent to buyers who will then arrange to have street vendors make the sales. In Naples, the street vendors are trafficked migrants from Senegal who have paid huge sums to the smugglers and sacrificed their lives to make the journey.
Additionally, governments are wary of working together against the traders for whatever reason. This lack of cooperation hinders whatever progress can be made against traffickers, who skip through checkpoints and borders with ease. Money laundering, for instance, can be traced but is held up by laws in certain countries. A global organisation like Interpol for illicit trade might turn the tide.
But in the end, this is a black market depending on the buyers and sellers. We as consumers need to make the decision not to support the illegal trade in any way. Lives are depending on it.
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the_dark_cat.
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scans_daily, it's not the team per se -- it's the team members that will guest-star. Who's a definite: Wildcat. One of Batman's mentors. And if not already obvious, one of my fave characters. *squees like there will be no tomorrow*![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
parlance). She describes a sort of 'moral inversion' where the women raped are ashamed, but the men who commit these rapes are not. When Jackson sought out the rapists, one told her they were 'inducted' into rape -- it's the 'just following orders' rationale applied to intentional sexual assault. I've yet to see the programme myself, and want to hear the interviews and try to understand why the rapes are so brutal (victims as young as four years old), why so widespread, and why so ignored by the world. Given things the way it is right now, I shouldn't be surprised if there are no clear answers. Jackson, despite having her personal case highly publicized, never found her rapists prosecuted.
