Fake Chinese goods flood Freetown
Take a good look around the streets of Freetown; you would agree that Chinese products have married the street businesses and shops of Freetown. At times, it appears as if we don’t deserve durable goods that are worth our money. Goods ranging from clothes, footwear, electric stoves, heaters, and many more produced by Chinese companies both in Sierra Leone and China are just trademark and fake stuffs. They don’t deserve to be marketed to the citizens of this country.
Some business tycoons who are accomplices to this Chinese fake goods market might tend to argue that it is because we are poor that is why Chinese goods must be our only choice and we must cope with these fake items; as if we don’t deserve quality and long lasting goods. It is sad anyway to put forward such kind of an argument. Just imagine you are going down to Abacha Street and you buy one pair of Chinese shoes, within the space of two days they get worn out with out you imagining it. The same thing also applies to electrical appliances and other cooking utensils, they are just not guaranteed. Once you have bought them, only a few days later you will regret putting your money into them.
In the old good days of there were manufacturing companies in Freetown that produced original items like shoes, clothes and other basic necessities. Some wealthy families who had the opportunity even went to shop in London and Paris. We as Sierra Leoneans must not cheapen ourselves in patronizing Chinese goods all in the name of poverty.
Inferior goods and fake drugs saturate the market
What is more worrying now, amidst these fake goods, fake drugs have also appeared on the line in killing poor Sierra Leoneans who could not afford better medical advice from a private hospital. The magnitude of fake drugs in the street of Freetown is something that should draw the attention of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to look into it. The Pharmacy Board may be doing its best but much is needed from the sides of the higher authorities to fight the menace of fake drugs in the country.
Down at Dove Cot market one could hardly pass his/her eyes without seeing women selling drugs which they have little or no medical knowledge about. Thus, the killing continues. Patriotic Sierra Leoneans must not sit by and fold their arms and see things going wrong all in the name of poverty.
Imported food like pig feet and fowl feet/legs are other health menaces in this country and probably what is responsible for many unidentified illnesses blighting our people. Sierra Leonean is consuming things that are unfit for human consumption. See the type of eggs and chicken they sell around as if such cannot be produced in Sierra Leone. Who knows, typhoid illness was an imported sickness that was introduced into this country in the early 2000.
“We Sierra Leoneans are used to illnesses like malaria and yellow fever but not typhoid,” complained one mother of eighteen child. With such a negative development one wonders whether the Quarantine Service at the Queen Elizabeth Quay is actually doing its job of protecting the people of this vulnerable land. Is it functioning? The Quarantine Service Department of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation should be directly responsible to look into imported food and drinks to confirm whether they are good for human consumption.
Concerned citizens of this nation are craving on the indulgence of both the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the Ministry of Trade and Industry to come the aid of vulnerable Sierra Leoneans before fake goods, drugs and many other things render blight their health before long.
As for the Chinese, they should not be allowed to produce or import consumable items and other basic wares if they can not improve the quality; this is in the interest of the nation.
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