Week 6: The Black market

In week 6, we watched a documentary on the world of illicit trade and the black market. We were then asked to give a description of what we saw and how we felt on the subject matter.

My thoughts on this are all over the place. It is quite astonishing how this market can generate 5 trillion dollars in revenue every year. From everything between the counterfeit of Prada merchandise and money, to the trade of people, weapons, illegal drugs and even pharmaceutical drugs.

This trade has its ups and downs. The ups, for one, it creates millions of jobs for people, like in China. It is rumored that 25 million people are employed in the recreation process of fashion merchandise. However, the downs of this market are when it comes into the trade and transport of dangerous material, like drugs and weapons. Everyone knows that the trade of drugs and weapons are especially bad, but how about the trade of these “knock-of” pharmaceutical drugs? People are buying cheaper pharmaceutical drugs online because of the save of embarrassment or price, only later to become serious ill or even die. It was said in the documentary that some of these drugs contain extremely piousness substances like led from the paint that they use to get the color of the drug right and in some cases even rat poison.