Moral Dilemmas.

If you were to visit the Russian Market in Phnom Penh, you would observe rows of "Rolex" watches, "Dior" sunglasses, iPod's, Northface backpacks, best selling books, and vast rows of CD's and DVD's, all offering a wide selection at a very fair price (made more or less "fair" by your willingness to bargain).

And what do all of these things have in common??

They are most likely knockoffs of the real items. They might have the name sewn into them and be crafted so well that you couldn't distinguish them from the real thing, or the pages may be so poorly copied that it's hardly worth paying for, or the girl at the DVD store may tell you not to buy the copy of that new movie because it's not a "good" copy. This usually means that the person recording in the theater had a camera with poor quality, had shaky hands, or that he sat behind people who insisted on getting up and down throughout the whole movie (no respect for bootleg filmmakers these days).

Josh and I ventured into the fancy fake new Starbucks on Sunday. It is located within a plush high rise gym in Phnom Penh called "The Place" where people go to run on treadmills overlooking the lovely Independence Monument. Never before have I thought to myself while in a Starbucks "I feel a bit out of place..." but this thought crossed my mind after using the restroom and passing a man with a towel waiting to wipe the sink when I finished.

I ordered my Americano, noticing the large menu above that counter that read in tiny letters "selling" Starbucks Coffee (with the logo next to it). There was the familiar whirring of espresso machines, bags of Starbucks coffee for sale at the opposite counter, and familiar drink names written overhead. But this was very clearly not an official Starbucks :)

It got Josh and I talking about copyrights and integrity and the decisions we face on a day to day basis that are measured out according to what feels acceptable to us, or to the degree which our culture calls us into accountability. Like if a friend burns a CD of music they purchased and we upload it to our iTunes. It can't be that big of a deal...right? I'm sure the artist is doing fine.

And what if you truly can't purchase legit DVD's in Phnom Penh (believe me, we've tried) and you reason that you'll just watch the movies you purchase while you're in country, leaving them here when you go home.

Same with the books.

But maybe the sunglasses find their way into your bag packed for home accidentally...

So the question is, what do we do with these moral dilemmas?? So far they have found us purchasing the new U2 and Hillsong CD's with our iTunes gift cards from Christmas, but they have not moved us to the point of actually erasing any music we didn't purchase on our respective iTunes....

Oh, and as for the fake fancy Starbucks?? I don't think we'll be going back anytime soon. After being handed my iced Americano, I inquired about some fresh milk for it. The answer: "oh, that's one dollar extra."

I could not mask my disbelief.

Instead, in my noble (stubborn) refusal to be cheated by a fancy fake gym/cafe establishment, I told Josh I could simply drink my coffee at home and put my own milk in (who's frugal?). However, because our home is located a half hour from everywhere (it's true) he kindly offered to buy a small individual size milk at a gas station.

So we did.

And my coffee was nothing short of wonderful caffeine-laden goodness.

And when all was said and done I had saved a full $.20. Frugal is probably not the best description for this scenario..

Looks like it's back to my non-fancy Nescafe 3-in-1 packets for now.