USD 100 for a piece of junk
on Clarifel Rodrigo (Tanzania), 18/Sep/2011 11:23, 34 days ago
When I moved to my 3rdhouse (posted about this last June I think), the Program Office agreed that I can purchase a second hand (or used or not brand new) fridge which the amount has to be deducted from the monthly rentals that my organization (employer) have to pay.After some delays and postponements, I was able to buy one with the help of Joven (the full-time Admin. Staff from my organization). The budget that I can spend is TSH 150,000 (around USD 100.00).We went to the areas where most of the shops sell used electronic appliances. According to the shop owner where we bought my fridge, his items are from UK and Hong Kong. During our brief chat, he mentioned that he travels to Hong Kong to buy used electronic items. When I asked him if he is making a profit, he said that it is a good business (after I’ve heard him telling Joven that he earns so little that’s why he can’t give the price we were asking). With USD 100, I’ve got a fridge that literally looks like a junk but it’s still working. Though, I have no idea, how long it will last.this piece of junk is USD 100The LDCs (Less Developed Countries) are the junk yards or dumping sites of industrialized countries. It is an abusive practice of“free trade”. They (industrialized countries) are concealing the fact that they are dumping their waste or unmanageable accumulation of possible hazardous materials to the poor countries by claiming it as a“donation” to poor people who has no capacity to buy new electronic equipment.Aside from the burdens of the poor countries financially, politically, socially and ecologically, they also suffer from the adverse effects of this“free trade”. The electronic waste would lead to contamination of the environment specifically the water and land which putting the poorest population of the world at great risk.  How pathetic  it is to be poor? :-(E-waste (Electronic Waste) is routinely exported by developed countries to developing ones, often in violation of the international law. Inspections of 18 European seaports in 2005 found as much as 47 percent of waste destined for export, including e-waste, was illegal. In the UK alone, at least 23,000 metric tonnes of undeclared or 'grey' market electronic waste was illegally shipped in 2003 to the Far East, India, Africa and China. In the US, it is estimated that 50-80 percent of the waste collected for recycling is being exported in this way. This practice is legal because the US has not ratified the Basel Convention(www.greenpeace.org).TheBasel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, usually known simply as theBasel Convention (Basel, Switzerland), is an internationaltreatythat was designed to reduce the movements ofhazardous wastebetween nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste fromdevelopedto LDC). It does not, however, address the movement of radioactive waste. The Convention is also intended to minimize the amount andtoxicityof wastes generated, to ensure their environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the source of generation, and to assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate (source: Wikipedia; please seewww.basel.intfor more information).