Mum
Last week Ale was needing some new clothes, so she took me with her to the country's most popular clothing industry. Things there are VERY, I repeat, VERY cheap. She was carefull enough to picture me by the prices. 1 Real = app 0.5 Dolars. *
Of course, when you read it Lacoste, it is not really Lacoste... its all fake. But behind this very cheap industry lies one dark truth: most of them are made by semi-slaves from Bolivia. People who are poor there, are told there is a better life in Brazil, but when they arrive, they have to work for years to be able to pay the trip. Well, of course not all of these clothes are made like that. Some are ilegally brought from Paraguay (here you can buy 10 dollars "nike" shoes made in paraguay), or some of them are really all legal and everything, maybe 40% are legal.
I dont want you to think that who buys there is a bad person. You must remember that this is a poor country, 50 % of the people here lives with less than 1000 dollars a month. So it is not like that time when it emerged that Nike was using children to make their shoes, and everybody stopped buying from them. Here it is not a choice, people will either buy cheap clothes or will die of hunger!
In the first picture you can see the dvd seller. You can find any movie in there, they sell 2 dvds for 2 dollars. Thats why Blockbuster bankrupted here, who would rent a movie for 12 Real,s if you can buy one for 5, with the same quality ? Here everybody buys fake dvds, its no big deal. Being illegal here is just a detail, unlike in the developed world. Here anyone, any age can buy cigarettes, birth control pills, condoms, see porn movies, as long as you have the money. And believe it or not, Ale is 22 years old and in her entire life the youngest person she has ever known having a baby was a 20 year old girl. People who sell fake dvds are not bad people, they are just poor people trying to make a living.
The next one is my favorite. Here is very common people selling things in the stops. This man was selling roses. Look at his face, isnt it sad that someone his age has to work like that?
The last pictures are on the groceries store, it seems like we are in the flowers season!!
I hope you all enjoyed!!
*so devide the price you see by 2 to have the price in dollars...
