Border crossing

I have always hold my ground firmly on all kind of pirate-product issues: I am NOT purchasing fake goods. I don't want no fake Rolex, no fake Gucci or fake Prada. It is not good for me, it is not good for economy generally. It is stealing, for Pete's sake. I don't want to be that person. But, lately, I have found my confidence to falter... It is not like I would ever ever ever buy a copy of the 600 euro Furla bag I've been drooling over, but two weeks ago I went and bought... pirate dvd's. Movies. Lot's of them.

They sell copied movies on streets, those are probably very inexpensive, since the place were I did business is a proper store, and that too was very reasonably priced. Eight full-height, wall-wide shelves of movies, music, TV series, documentaries and so worth. And they are not, excluding some of the newest TV series, copied from TV or filmed in the movie theater: they are real, working DVD's with a selection of subtitle languages and commentaries and all. Some even have FINNISH subtitles. Imagine that. Well, I prefer the English anyway, but still.

The existence of this and other similar shops allaround Shanghai is a small, but clear demonstration of the official pirate product policy around here is nothing more than a policy. I bought ten movies, and they robbed a whole 96 RMB's for that. Less than 12 euros. And a whole pile of some older movies (Rainman, Shawshank Redemption, Casablanca, and bunch of war-movies, I don't stand a change with the names, probably 'cause I don't care) without the proper plastic, authentic looking covers, total about 6 euros.

We went back last Sunday and bought 4 dvd's of nature documents, some China documents, the whole tv-series Weeds (which is surprisingly entertaining) and some season from this tv-series another one from that tv-series. Again, about a 100 RMB.

So, I have crossed the line. I am not sure I can return. They are too cheap. And I guess I am, too...

What's worse, now I have considered a fake Samsonite. I am so sick and tired of carrying my always heavy cabin bag when travelling. And in one of the markets they sell (copy-)Samsonite computer cases with wheels underneath. And heck, I don't even know if they are fakes, but they cost less than 20 euros, so they must be. Or stolen. I wouldn't even know they exist, if it weren't for some colleagues who bought bags like that recently. Based on the slightly slanting Samsonite-plates on the bags my guess is they are fake.

I have not yet bought one. I want one, but despite my recent dvd-purchases I think I still don't want a fake one. Maybe I will buy a real one and pay... say, at least 5 times the price. One of my non-chinese colleagues asked me the other day: are we stupid (for paying 5 times the price) or are the they (locals) stupid for selling fake goods? I don't have the answer to that. But I let you know as soon as I figure it out...

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Ps. Jos teillä siellä loskassa ja pimeydessä on kurjaa, niin ei täälläkään helppoa ole ollut. Viime päivinä ollut tällainen, kovin kurja, sää: aurinkoista ja lämmintä.

Kamalan kurjaa kun pitää kaivaa aurinkolasit esille... ja uutta talvitakkiakaan ei nyt tarvitse. Voi voivoi voi, onneksi kohta pääsee sinne synkkään Suomeen ;o)