How Africa Subsidises your iPhone
on Duncan in the Gambia (The Gambia), 17/Aug/2011 17:59, 34 days ago
I was just sitting in a taxi coming back from work this afternoon as it occurred to me that in Banjul (and the Gambia in general) everything is second-hand - the phone being used by the guy sitting next to me, the shirt worn by the driver, even the car we’re all sitting in. When products reach the end of their life in the developed world they don’t disappear and a lot of stuff seems to end up here. They’re not all donated - perhaps some of the clothes come from charity shops / appeals but not the mobile phones, digital cameras, iPods, cars and microwaves that I see everywhere in Banjul. This made me think - every time a second hand product gets passed on the owner can make some money by selling it. It seems a great system, it means that if you paid£300 for your iPhone but sold it for £200 you really only had to pay £100. In the same way everyone who owns the iPhone (or car or whatever) gets to recover some of the value when they sell it on. Everyone until it gets to the Gambia that is. When cars or iPhones reach the end of their life hereits not because they are out of fashion or there’s a newer model available, it’s because they really have reach the end of their useful life. When a car has been run into the ground in the Gambia there’s not much chance of selling it on. So whether its a car, camera or and iPhone, it’s always the last owner in the chain that pays the full cost while everyone else has their ownership subsidised.