Week 6: Illicit? What did you think?
The movie “Illicit” really opened my eyes as far as illegal trafficking goes. With the internet, global has taken on a whole new meaning for everyone, but especially within the illegal trade business. Criminals and organizations are making millions, if not billions of dollars from producing, shipping and selling everything from fashion accessories to fake pharmaceuticals and the human beings it takes to supply their sales force. Unfortunately, the ones who suffer the most are either the end user, that got pseudo medicine, or the poverty stricken workers that are no more than slaves. The corruption has infiltrated into every part of society, including politics, with some corrupt officials actually in charge of whole countries.
What fuels the trade is no more than common greed, some for power but mostly for the money. What used to be difficult to clean has now become easy as borders are almost nonexistent in today’s world. Electronic banking has made moving money from country to country almost impossible to track dirty money. The pitiful few resources that law enforcement has to combat the crime, becomes almost invisible when trying to cross borders to catch the criminals. This is compounded by the fact that many of these officials often themselves become corrupt because the pay is so much better to look the other way than to enforce the law.
How can we ourselves be part of the solution and not the problem? At this point I am not sure but I know that my curiosity is peaked enough to want to investigate it further. As an artist and a human being, it is frightening to think that no matter what I may produce or create can be stolen, copied and dirty money and misfortune can be attached to it at some point