These multicolored plastic buckets were everywhere we went in West Africa. You can buy them in France in the same stores that sell African masks, which has to be counted as sympathetic magic of some kind. The markup on African masks in the shops of Paris is severe, and the markup on the plastic buckets is the same. Only, why would you pay a lot for a mask, and what part of this argument applies to a striped plastic bucket made in China? The souvenir industry is a paradox.