Can't justify Straw Market's counterfeit trade
tribune242 editorial
MANY Tribune readers were shocked at the attitude of straw vendors Tuesday on learning that nine of their own were arrested in New York and charged with allegedly purchasing counterfeit designer goods for resale in the Bay Street market.
The cry of the locals seemed a plea to the Bahamas government to question the authority of US law enforcement to snatch their life's bread from their tables.
Although many vendors are aware that they are trading in counterfeit goods, they seem to think they have a right to do so. There is no apparent awareness -- despite many warnings -- that such a trade is against the law and that there are serious penalties for law breakers.
The president of the Straw Business Persons Society, a reverend no less, went so far as to tell our reporter that unless someone can provide a means for Bahamian vendors to get the counterfeit designer bags without risking getting caught by US authorities "things are going to get rough" for vendors and their families.
Let us suppose that someone did find a means to get these illegal goods onto their shelves, don't they know that they could be arrested by local police for doing so? It is only because our police have not been as aggressive as they should have been about enforcing the law that the incident in New York took place this week.
The US government has accused Bahamian police officers of being "complicit" in the straw market's counterfeit trade. The Bahamas' enforcement laws, it said, are "lax" when it comes to protecting intellectual property rights. Tired of dealing with a country of "lax" laws, US authorities decided to enforce the law themselves -- especially when it is broken on their own territory.
"I would feel sorry for the Bahamas if we have to stop selling these bags," the Society's president told our reporter. "It will affect the vendors and it will affect The Bahamas. These bags are generating a lot of funds. The whole economy will feel it. The tourists come and they have to go to the ATM to purchase these bags. I guarantee you they wouldn't go to the ATM to buy a straw bag.
"If you look at the straw bags, you would be surprised to know how long they were hanging there. The knock off move quickly. So if you are looking to put food on the table that's what you do."
Does this argument justify breaking the law? If so then why arrest the little thief in the night who breaks into your home because he too has to put food on his table?
True it is stealing of a different kind of property, but it is still stealing.
It is probably the same argument used by the pirates when Woodes Rodgers - on pain of the noose -- tried to restore legitimate commerce to these islands.
Our reporter walked through the "world famous straw market" on Tuesday to find that "virtually every stall sells at least some fake designer goods, and many of them are heavily-draped in knock-off designer handbags of all shapes, colours and sizes."
The vendors made no attempt to hide them.
Although many vendors have acknowledged that their goods are counterfeit -- from such designer brands as Gucci, Prada, Dolce, Gabana and others-- their attitude is that theirs is the right to sell. The pushing of these "hot" items was so obvious that if the police were in fact intent on applying the law, the market could have been cleaned out in a matter of days. But, of course, the political fall-out also has to be reckoned with. Straw vendors have always expected rules to be bent in their favour, so the squeals would have been loud and furious had there been a hard local crack down.
The "world famous straw market" disappeared from our shores many years ago -- ever since the days when it was removed from its Rawson Square location - a colourful scene of Bahamian basket women, plaiting their bags, hats, toys and mats, while their children learned the trade by their sides. It was a scene that inspired poets and artists. But no more.
Today we have a cheap flea market, which as Mr Charles Klonaris, chairman of the Nassau Tourism and Development Board, pointed out last year is of no benefit to the Bahamas.
We hope that taxpayers' money, now being spent to create a new straw market, will be one that displays local arts and crafts of which Bahamians can be proud -- and visitors will want to purchase as souvenirs. "But what they are producing now," said Mr Klonaris, "is just not acceptable."
September 22, 2010
tribune242
An International Caribbean Online Log about the news and opinions in the Americas and World. This Caribbean Blog of global reach and appeal is maintained by Bahamian Blogger - Dennis Dames with all readers and subscribers in mind.
