If we have become accustomed to saying that products coming from Asia or South-East Asia in particular for Africa are mostly fake or of poor quality, it is perhaps because we do not know that all the economies of the world are threatened by illicit activities orchestrated by counterfeiters and smugglers who make money at the expense of the real manufacturers. Moreover, unlike the poor workmanship or poor manufacturing quality of cheap products with a very limited duration which flood the markets of developing countries in particular, counterfeiting is a premeditated imitation of an original product which mocks intellectual property or all the rules implemented to allow true creators of artistic and literary works, holders of patents and trademarks to fully enjoy the fruits of their work.
This means that a company can create its product using quality raw materials while respecting manufacturing standards in addition to an originality which sets it apart and which it chooses to protect thanks to a means of specific protection because not only is it its brand, but all its products bear the company logo, but an individual still chooses to include the same brand on a poor quality or counterfeit product in order to profit illicitly from the celebrity of a company or from the fact that the product of a particular company is popular or have a large number of consumers.
The scale of the phenomenon has taken on considerable proportions on a global scale and all areas of activity are impacted. As long as an original house is not established in a place, nothing assures you that the leather bag, the clothing, football jersey and other luxury accessories that you have are authentic. Indeed, everything is done so that a copy which apparently does not suffer from any problem of authenticity before non-expert eyes, is sold at a low price or extremely expensive to a considerable number of individuals on the internet, in certain shops and certain streets, especially in developing countries where the phenomenon of smuggling or the clandestine introduction of goods of dubious origin favours the prosperity of the activity of counterfeiters who will stop at nothing to continue their bad activities.
The counterfeiting industry, or rather the aggravated theft industry, no longer has borders and does not focus on a particular sector of activity. Everything can be counterfeited and everyone or many people have certainly had one or more counterfeit and/or contraband products in their possession, whether they know it or not. If the great powers of the world are not spared, it is certainly not the poor countries that will not be impacted. And the scale of the problem is even greater because in these Territories, due to difficult living conditions and even the high cost of living, populations are much more tempted to obtain supplies from salespeople who contribute a consciously or not to the development of the activities of counterfeiters and smugglers while those who carry out their activities in an honest manner pay the heavy price of unfair competition which seriously affects the world economy and Cameroonian in particular because over time, the Estimated losses which were above 100 billion CFA francs in 2017 according to the Ministry of Finance, gradually today approaches to 3OO billion CFA francs per year.
Each counterfeit product purchased represents a loss of income for real companies and de facto many jobs at risk. The counterfeiting industry has established its home in Cameroon as everywhere else and continues to prosper despite the dissuasive measures implemented and which seem not to even touch on an activity which continues to progress while several small and medium-sized businesses struggle to survive in a competitive market where counterfeit products thanks to smuggling further aggravate the situation. No sector is spared: Agriculture, cosmetics, agro-food, winemaking, construction, textiles, pharmaceuticals, vehicles, hydrocarbons, perfumery, telephony, household appliances and others are all threatened by disastrous alternatives offered by counterfeiters who maintain an activity mercantile which has no concern for the health of consumers and even less for the fact that State revenues are experiencing increasing losses each year. Since someone only lives once and one day we all die they think, we might as well take advantage of it by making consumers consume anything and make money on the back of the real manufacturers with great disregard for the health of others.
We are here in a form of crime which is akin to terrorism. Indeed, when we are ready to kill an entire sector of activity, including the consumers of a country whose Gross Domestic Product depends on the production and sales of companies, these are downright terrorist threats cleverly orchestrated to earn money at all costs. When a human being who has all his mental faculties manufactures chemical compounds harmful to the health of others and, moreover, inscribed the logo of a respectable company on the bottle, it is a very serious offense which must not be hidden behind the difficult living conditions because even if we must consider the fact that Cameroonians suffer from the high cost of living, what does this represent compared to an illness contracted after consumption of adulterated products which requires treatment and/or high hospitalization costs.
When we cannot fully enjoy a good or when the fact of enjoying a good threatens the employment of other people in an illicit manner we are one of the victims of a mafia system created and maintained by criminals who do not care at all with the well-being of Cameroonians but rather with their own well-being because when you make red wine with beets in Douala by adding other substances unfit for consumption, or palm wine with cassava paste and starch in Yaoundé, this is criminality because we are not simply contributing to killing a manufacturing tradition, but also people, not to mention jobs.
If at least the genius of these counterfeiters consisted in taking responsibility for what they produce by writing their own brand or their own names on these products that they have chosen to counterfeit, we would understand that this is an assumed originality like many of our fake and dangerous whiskeys with strange names which flood our streets and which are consumed mainly by young people every day. Even if every initiative must be encouraged, not all initiatives are good. Being responsible means respecting standards and quality in everything we choose to produce.
Earn money by manufacturing products unfit for consumption, by illicitly taking advantage of the notoriety of others or of what belongs to others is an offense and even a crime since in addition to gradually altering the health of others, many people depend on these serious and seriously trivialized jobs in one of the ways the most degrading possible by individuals who have made the choice to survive and better live than those who work honestly by taking advantage not only of the notoriety of some trademarks on one hand, namely those who are generally known as real manufacturers and on the other hand, of an economic situation which does not justify the need to make the choice to kill an economy to resolve personal problems by misdirecting intellectual and practical knowledge that promotes production of poor quality works and smuggling which instead of officially contributing to the Gross Domestic Product of Cameroon, rather create a shortfall in an economy which is more in need of financial resources to improve the living conditions of Cameroonians on all levels.
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