just a "glitch"

I had a somewhat comic experience the other night as I was waiting for a commute on my way home. Ever experienced standing on one of the busy streets of  New-Cogon-Market (http://cagayandeorodev.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/cogon-market-improvements-to-continue/) at night where  a number of rolling fruit cart vendors lined up the street? They are teeming with them and they have somewhat evolved from the simple makeshift table or crates where they can lay their goods and would look like this:

Now there's nothing wrong with that, if one  has the  necessary valid permits and in the designated proper area and paying the required taxes (and then some). The police will not badger, harass or irk you in any way. But for most street vendors, those  "requirements" are inconceivable and not to mention an "extra expense" for a day's meager and unstable income. Then try using those makeshift tables/crates when the raiding policemen come pounding, kicking and snatching at your vending paraphernalia and everything on it and hands down, you will always end up on the losing end.  


So came the evolution of  the vending paraphernalia, from the makeshift tables to these

A vendor with his rolling fruit cart

Those "rolling'' (because they are suppose to keep rolling) fruit carts vary a lot actually. Ranging from a simple sheet of wood mounted on a bicycle to a much more elaborate and, with some twists and turns and a few uncomplicated modifications of the simple fruit cart, the ingenious pinoy creates something that looks like this

Now, let me go back to that comic night that I was on that particular street. All them, fifteen maybe twenty, lined up perfectly on one side of the street, when, from about 10 meters, a "lookout" suddenly yelled out "coooppppsss!" And then, whammm!! every rolling cart in sight, scrammed from every direction possible, creating a traffic jam in an odd hours of the night when there's not supposed to be one. It was just plain chaos! The man I bought my fruits from just smile when he saw me amused by what had suddenly transpired. Few minutes later, cop's gone and business was again back to normal, just a daily "glitch" in the business system. 

Those street vendors on rolling fruit carts are only allowed to stay at a certain place in a given short period of time or else the authorities will confiscate it and, depending on the number of times they've been caught, will pay respective penalties. So, oftentimes, its a cat and mouse chase. And, oftentimes too, the victor (or victim) depends on whose side your on...