The land of fakes: Thai police bust fake shampoo operation

Thailand is frequently referred to as the "Land of Smiles" because the people are very smiley all over the country. This seems to be the common greeting and it is a very real thing. I think that this constant smiling at strangers leads to the overall sense of peace and happiness here that doesn't really exist in other places that I have lived.

This country is also absolutely filled with knock-off merchandise to the point where if you see some brand name for sale anywhere you need to be suspicious that it is a fake. I won't buy any name brand outside of a store that also carries that brand on their sign such as buying Nike's at the Nike store. If you buy them anywhere else and especially at a market, it is almost guaranteed that it is a fake.

Thailand kind of pretends to care about copyright infringement and violation of trademarks. They will have a raid here and there to kind of prove to the world that they are fighting this problem but the reality of the situation is that they completely embrace knock off merchandise here and the police are in on it. All you have to do is go to a very large shopping mall in Bangkok called MBK in order to prove this to yourself. That place has something crazy like 5 floors and hundreds of shops the specialize in fake merchandise. The police are extremely aware that this place exists. It's not like they are hiding or anything.

It is a bit strange when the Thai authorities end up busting someone though because it is almost certainly a case of whoever was running the operation is guilty of one major thing: They didn't pay off the police.

This is what I suspect in this recent "high profile bust" that took place in Nonthaburi where a family was making counterfeit shampoos and selling them god knows where.

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I don't really know what the police are hoping to accomplish when the allow the publishing of stories like this in the news - the news is not officially state-controlled here but everyone knows that it is - because everyone and I do mean EV-ERY-ONE in this country knows that the cops here are the corruption, they are not concerned about stopping it.

So this bust that the police are so proud of themselves over, hence the posing for pictures with all of the contraband that they found, is the operation of a 58-year old woman and her nephew where they would refill name-brand shampoo bottles with a cheap concoction that they made themselves and then they would resell the bottles at local markets for $1.50.

It's funny to me that the only reason why this "bust" happened was because the companies that manufacture the genuine products got tipped off to the practice and sent their police dogs to go and get the perpetrators. These were not luxury brands they were selling at the markets, it was brands like Head & Shoulders.

Now I guess we could say that there is a chance that people making their own shampoo could be a cause of concern in the realm of public safety, but at the same time we all know what this is really about: The corporations don't want competition. The fact that the police force would be used to bust a 60 year old woman that is making around 15 cents per bottle instead of going after actual crime is something that I have to shake my head at and roll my eyes.

It was upon learning about this "bust" that I found out that Thailand actually has an "Intellectual Property Court" and what a joke. It is extremely well-known in this country that knock-off versions of just about anything are readily available and the population embraces this. Overpriced luxury brand handbags are available at every single market in the country and they are displayed right in front of your eyes. You would be very hard-pressed to find a single legitimate football kit (jersey) in this country yet they are sold in droves just about anywhere.

I guess they draw the line at chemicals and maybe that is a good thing. I know that I don't some bathtub-made shampoo done by someone in a small village to be something I put on my head, but then again, I would never buy toiletries at some shady outdoor market anyway.

Just another day in the life of Thailand!