Trade fair or flea market?

THE EDITOR: Please allow me some space in your newspaper to express my experience and anguish over fly-by-night foreign trade fairs organised to make some quick money. I am a true Trini (Trini to the bone) of East Indian descent. I am proud of my roots and have a great respect for India — the land of my forefathers. I have visited India twice. Let me admit, I am still in awe of it — the technological development, metropolitan cities and of course the beautiful temples and all. (No, let us not talk about poverty as this is in all the countries). From that great country came a few traders last year who put on more like a flea market in cramped indoors at Divali Nagar. In some newspaper last week the Indian High Commission was proudly marketing that as a successful trade fair. This is my experience.

I bought three items —

(1) A carved corner table claimed to be of cured mahogany, which turned out to be some cheap wood that got infested with wood lice in two months.

(2) A ‘Rudraksh Mala’ which my Pundit confirmed as fake.

(3) Some Rasagolla of ‘Bikaji’ Brand that were claimed to be packed in an ISO 9000 company. Now I am not a health freak and can’t resist sweets, but to my utter surprise and horror there was no nutritional facts mentioned on the pack. As a matter of fact almost all of the cans were dented and I had made quite some effort to find a good one for myself. Ask health specialists about dented cans and they will tell you the potential health hazards caused by these dents in food cans.

And to talk of garments — we get much more beautiful ones here. Now I may be the unlucky one but two issues arise:

(1) How can our inspection agencies (Bureau of Standards, Food and Drugs etc) allow such products  to be sold without proper labelling and ensuring established standards? We feel we are at risk.

(2) How come the Indian High Commission can boast on such attempts, which eventually bring bad name to their country? It hurt us all who still get lot of moral assertion and strength from the land of our forefathers. Indian manufacturing and software industry has so much to offer. Why then are such  flea markets being organised and showcased as improving trade links? Let us talk about software, automobile spares, flexible packaging and machinery or oil exploration. The horror is getting back on me again as I heard that the alleged trade fair is coming back in the month of June. Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Health, Bureau of Standards — awake!

STEVE RAMDIAL
Penal