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The Effects of Exporting Used PCs To Africa
retroworks writes "According to this UK MailOnline story, computers donated to Africa are causing quite a few problems. The BBC does a similar story on the junk computers from rich countries found on the ground in Africa. But all of the footage is of the junk PCs; there is no film of any repaired or good computers. There have been a dozen stories now about the bad apples. It seems like there have to be good ones, too, to cover the costs of shipping. Some of the ones in the Mail story actually look decent. Is there more balanced coverage of used computer exports, many of which provide affordable technology to poor people? Organizations like Greenpeace and Basel Action Network are promoting electronics recyclers with zero-export policies. One organization, the World Reuse Repair and Recycling Association, is promoting a 'Fair Trade Coffee' approach to moderate the number of bad computers exported, and has a video showing both sides of the story. A ban on exports leaves Africa with a choice of spending a year's income on a new PC, buying mixed loads of computers from undercapitalized recyclers, or remaining without this level of technology. And our choice seems to be to donate a decent computer mixed with other people's junk, or to grind it up in a perverse tribute to Vance Packard, as 'obsolescence in hindsight.'"
In deed. People don't recognize that Third World nations need something more sustainable than a band-aid. By giving these people food and clothing, all that is accomplished is a temporary fix and a few feel good points for those who donated. Really Third World nations need to be taught how to fish so-to-speak.
I gladly buy from companies who have sweatshops in Central America. Is it because I'm a bad person? Hell no. I'm rewarding those who are trying to provide a living for their families in those poor regions without giving them a hand-out. Really the standard of life provided by the sweatshops in countries with them is much higher than the alternatives.
The game.
That's the humanitarian point of view. There's no guarantee that short-term aid doesn't result in long-term harm to developing societies, though. Let's face it, no-one seems to actually know how you should go about lifting a society out of desperate poverty, but many are willing to use 3rd world countries as testing grounds for their ideas. With private and governmental entities engaging in aid operations for a wide variety of reasons with insufficient coordination, expect chaos.
Your point is backed by African economist James Shikwati in the article "Stop the Aid!"
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,363663,00.html
I mean second hand computers that actually work. But many times, the computers that are "dumped" in Africa do not work. They are what the folks in the west call junk!
You then find those especially from former Compaq, now HP, that require Compaq specific software in order to work optimally. When software cannot be found especially for the display, poor Africans settle for mediocre resolutions.
I know because I have used several of them at different occasions.
I can say that these computers, with the magic of solar energy, can transform lives. I know a family in a very remote area that uses one of these as a TV, getting free-to-air satellite feeds and earning an income from internet services on the side...all powered by solar energy and the computer.
There are a number of isses with this. One of the first is that most exports are pure junk. They typically burn a LOT of energy. The best thing would be to encourage the new low energy computers. But another issue is that there are a LOT of resources in our electronics. The best thing is for western countries to create a "junk pile" of these to hold them and work on developing the recycling tech. Keep in mind that you paid for it. Why send the gold, copper, silver, etc elsewhere (typically china).
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
At least I know of the Linux4Africa project from a very positive news report on a fairly popular computer show on TV here in Germany. The project has already shipped several containers of fully functional donated computers to schools and institutions in Africa. http://www.linux4afrika.de/ I can't help with any international footage. Those who do speak German can check out the rather old video online: http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/content/Linux_fuer_Afrika/219376 Or anyone dare to run this site through an online translator: http://www.3sat.de/neues/sendungen/magazin/112048/index.html I think one of the main reasons why there is such a ruckus about sending free computers to Africa is that the major nations are afraid of even more dirt cheap labor. Right now China and India are sucking huge amounts of resources into their boom and we can hardly keep up with our tiny countries. If someone started that Genesis device of economy in Africa with a kick of free technology this global system would surely collapse. At least what we know of it's power distribution right now.
Well until that day comes, everyone can feel free to ship these systems to me instead of spending a small fortune to ship them to Africa. I'll find something constructive to do with them. :)
Joe Kovar
1447 Gulf to Bay blvd #8
Clearwater, FL 33755
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Watched the YouTube link in the summary, for those of you who are too lazy or don't want to click video links:
Doesn't exactly sound like 'dumping crap'. But the 'no recycling system in place' caught my attention. If you think of it, is it weird? No, perhaps in really poor countries, the IT industry is a relatively new and immature business. Compare that when computers where a new thing for people in western countries. You'd want one (like we still do today). The purchase price of a new one would be prohibitive. So for many folks, their first computer would be a 2nd hand one. When you'd get a better one, you'd give/sell the old one to a friend or family member. And when the time came that it was finally dead, what would you do? Right: no plan for that, no recycling system in place. I can imagine that a lot of broken computers from the PC XT era have found their way into landfills, before western countries came to the conclusion that's not wise, and an unsustainable way to get rid of e-waste (and thus, before regulations were put in place).
So my point: perhaps a lot of these African nations simply haven't gotten to that point yet. Besides, a lot of these issues will differ from case to case. Some organizations could be doing really well, even from an environmental perspective. Or shady businesses may indeed just be in it for the money, dumping crap, fully aware they're screwing their African partners long-term. Let's try to separate the bad from the good, shall we?
I actually I agree with what you're saying.
Control the cause not the effect.
Cause: overpopulation
Effect: starvation
EDUCATION WOULD BE THE BEST GIFT - contraception, etc
It's sad that you got modded troll, since you're one of the few that seem to "get it". I'd only disagree with you on one thing:
They weren't doing "just fine" - they were miserable, poor, and died at an extremely early age from all sorts of easily curable diseases. The myth of the "noble savage" is a popular one, but it IS a myth.
Even if it were possible for us to just "leave them alone", it wouldn't be a solution. They'd only continue to stagnate. Some (ok, most) of our current efforts might be misguided and even counterproductive, but we ARE helping them to improve their situation, even if just slightly, over a long period of time. What we should be doing is funding micro-lending ventures, and funneling as much money as possible into educating the residents of relatively stable areas. Help them to help themselves, instead of just dropping "aid" on them and leaving them to fight over our scraps.
Yes, Steve Pinker gave an awesome talk about that at the TED conference. I highly recommend it to everyone, regardless of whether you're familiar with the statistics.
By any reasonable metric violence has decreased dramatically over time, yet people continue to believe in this myth that our world is more violent today than ever in human history. It must be part of our "golden age" complex.
There's nothing phony about large scale industrialized farming. That's the natural way for an intelligent species to sustain a high population density. This does require a certain amount of societal stability, and when that stability falters millions will die. Billions of deaths at once in food production and distribution glitches is a bit high for the current population - food is grown too locally for that to happen.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
These computers aren't causing poverty. These people were poor without the computers and they are poor with them. At least they have an opportunity to make some money to eat rather then begging, looting. Sure its disgusting, but in poor countries people live in the rubbish tips because 1 mans trash is another mans treasure.
Colonialism has caused things like rape to become the number one violent crime in Africa. They have children under 8 in the Congo that respond sexually to strangers because they have been sexualized at infancy. Yet the Congo is allowed to do this by the AU, the US and the EU. Chap cobalt, copper and diamonds are bartered for these governments to institutionalize rape. We are fully responsible even now for what happens in Africa get your head out of your ass good sir and learn about post and neo colonialism or we may it at fisticuffs. Your ignorance and others like it, is sickly and deadly, know that.
They really need to stop having so many kids, smaller families will put far less of a strain on the available resources.
We need to make sure the capital they get from us for their resources does not go to purchasing defense goods from us. Its all a fucking trick, The US, EU or IMF go in promising civilian aid and industrial development (resource extraction industries) to any country that will hold up a certain set of economic laws that are to the advantage of the international companies doing business in said country. Shortly after this begins the national treasury of the country enjoys record revenue as the companies deliver on their promise of paying them some taxes, kick backs and the like and everyone in charge of the national government or the resource industries has almost absolute economic power and often unifies into a cartel. Because we insisted on economic reforms and not political reforms that would do things like guarantee universal human rights the rest of the people in the country become the participants of a game fueled by the worst aspects of plutocracy and exist in fear of becoming human targets, rape victims and live with dreams of far more bloody things.
We than tell them they can buy weapons from us. For us to continue to sell to some of these countries armor personal carriers that they use as mobile rape rooms, tanks which they use to shell refuge camps and guns, oh god guns; those things that kill 20% of some males in Central Africa is to encourage it at this point, and China should be ashamed to be doing it right now with Sudan. It seems some people like you, who are so self-righteously ignorant should bone up on the situation before letting loose the blind aims of your prejudices.
Go see this movie The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo and than tell me they have any choice but to hope for international armed intervention. We need a fucking UN with balls that goes after genocide, rape and other truly terrible things with a technologically advanced force.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Care to tell me how you'd deal with the epidemic of obesity in the west?
If you would like to know how to combat obesity in the West, I have some keyphrases for you to Google.
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saccharin thyroid
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Pay special attention to High Fructose Corn Syrup. AFAIK it is the quickest way in the world to fuck up your metabolism.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, but I do like to read and almost never watch television.
Howzabout we let the Africans decide for themselves what they want and don't want to import? Westerners in the grip of green mania are imposing their prejudices on the poor and powerless in other countries. It's not King Leopold in the Belgian Congo, but it's a form of imperialism nonetheless.
Too much Law; not enough Order.
Informative? Give me a break. Just as much spam comes from European and American sources. Honestly if some guy in a developing country can outwit someone in a developed country who had top educational resources and economic opportunities, more power to them. Europe and America has been scamming developing countries for ages.
"Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." --Eric Blair