Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Solarpunk is happening in Africa

climatedrift.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

541–550 of 616 posts

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#541

Post by soperj »

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #520
red-iron-pine wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ain't just tech in the developing world. even in the Big IT Enterprise "support" is a byword that appears in all discussions. it's not enough to have, or to build, you gotta maintain, fix, replace, and eventually, remove. those discussions aren't fun or sexy, and everyone hates when you tank a blue-sky "it'll fix everything" discussion with the unpleasant realities of long-term care and feeding

> it's not enough to have, or to build, you gotta maintain, fix, replace, and eventually, remove. Indeed. I think many in the West fail to appreciate - and take for granted - the cultural dimensions (which include cultures of knowledge, skill transmission, cultivation, and development, and also worldview[0]) as well as the economic ecosystems and supply chains involved. Dropping off a tractor in Africa or a bulldozer…

> As some have argued, there are reasons why enterprises like modern science arose and flourished only in the West

Majority of inventions came from Asia... as they're currently doing.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#542

Post by carlosjobim »

carlosjobim wrote: post #494
DanielHB wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brazilian person here, when I moved to Europe I was baffled I couldn't find shops that fixed electronics. Like I wanted to get my Android phone charging port replaced, I literally couldn't find a shop in my city willing to do the repair. I eventually went back to Brazil and had it fixed there and replaced the battery. Freaking phone lasted 8 years on my very clumsly hands, still works even. The fix cost me ~30 usd pl…

Somebody who has the skills to fix electronics will be working with fixing devices which are much more expensive and critical than cell phones. Industrial dishwasher breaks down? You need to get an electrician there ASAP. Cell phone breaks down? Throw it away and buy a new one. Brazil has very low salaries for skilled workers, so it makes sense that it's cheap to find somebody to fix your phone.

Hackers are down voting my comment. My question to them: If you could get paid twice the salary per hour to repair expensive machines, would you spend your time repairing mobile phones?

Everybody wants that juicy, juicy cheap labour, but nobody wants to be the cheap worker.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#543

Post by aoeusnth1 »

carlosjobim wrote: post #494
DanielHB wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brazilian person here, when I moved to Europe I was baffled I couldn't find shops that fixed electronics. Like I wanted to get my Android phone charging port replaced, I literally couldn't find a shop in my city willing to do the repair. I eventually went back to Brazil and had it fixed there and replaced the battery. Freaking phone lasted 8 years on my very clumsly hands, still works even. The fix cost me ~30 usd pl…

Somebody who has the skills to fix electronics will be working with fixing devices which are much more expensive and critical than cell phones. Industrial dishwasher breaks down? You need to get an electrician there ASAP. Cell phone breaks down? Throw it away and buy a new one. Brazil has very low salaries for skilled workers, so it makes sense that it's cheap to find somebody to fix your phone.

No, it's extremely easy and routine to fix cell phones. You could train teenagers to do it.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#544

Post by marcosdumay »

MrsPeaches wrote: post #502
carlosjobim wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somebody who has the skills to fix electronics will be working with fixing devices which are much more expensive and critical than cell phones. Industrial dishwasher breaks down? You need to get an electrician there ASAP. Cell phone breaks down? Throw it away and buy a new one. Brazil has very low salaries for skilled workers, so it makes sense that it's cheap to find somebody to fix your phone.

Note that mobile phone repair is the no. 1 service provided by repair shops in rural areas of many countries in Africa. Like 50%+ of all repairs are mobile phone repairs

Yes, it's something extremely valuable, an expensive portable, and the new models all just keep getting worse and worse. There's no reason not to fix them.

It's also a repair that demands some amount of training. I imagine people fix a lot of things without getting them to a shop.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#545

Post by marcosdumay »

carlosjobim wrote: post #542
carlosjobim wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somebody who has the skills to fix electronics will be working with fixing devices which are much more expensive and critical than cell phones. Industrial dishwasher breaks down? You need to get an electrician there ASAP. Cell phone breaks down? Throw it away and buy a new one. Brazil has very low salaries for skilled workers, so it makes sense that it's cheap to find somebody to fix your phone.

Hackers are down voting my comment. My question to them: If you could get paid twice the salary per hour to repair expensive machines, would you spend your time repairing mobile phones? Everybody wants that juicy, juicy cheap labour, but nobody wants to be the cheap worker.

Do you think US people capable of fixing phones make more than the ~$600/hour they can add in value by fixing phones there?

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#546

Post by carlosjobim »

aoeusnth1 wrote: post #543
carlosjobim wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somebody who has the skills to fix electronics will be working with fixing devices which are much more expensive and critical than cell phones. Industrial dishwasher breaks down? You need to get an electrician there ASAP. Cell phone breaks down? Throw it away and buy a new one. Brazil has very low salaries for skilled workers, so it makes sense that it's cheap to find somebody to fix your phone.

No, it's extremely easy and routine to fix cell phones. You could train teenagers to do it.

And you can train those teenagers to do things which are much more profitable. If they have the dexterity and other skills needed to work on cell phone electronics, then they can work on other electronics.

If it was a good business, then there would be cell phone repair shops on every corner in Europe, like you have in other parts of the world where that makes sense.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#547

Post by carlosjobim »

marcosdumay wrote: post #545
carlosjobim wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hackers are down voting my comment. My question to them: If you could get paid twice the salary per hour to repair expensive machines, would you spend your time repairing mobile phones? Everybody wants that juicy, juicy cheap labour, but nobody wants to be the cheap worker.

Do you think US people capable of fixing phones make more than the ~$600/hour they can add in value by fixing phones there?

If nobody is offering cell phone repair services, that means repairing cell phones is not profitable enough compared to other things the person can do with their time. Otherwise people would offer these services.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#548

Post by prmph »

ta20240528 wrote: post #535
segmondy wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Africans have more repair skills than westerners. Due to cost of things being expensive, repair culture is really big over there and in other 3rd world countries. You would be surprised at what folks can fix over there.

"Africans have more repair skills than westerners." … which is why our roads are so much better than those in Switzerland.

There's a difference between being able to do something and being motivated to do it.

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#549

Post by advael »

MrsPeaches wrote: post #372

This revolution also has a dark side: People are paying off these devices and then once they have paid them off, they break and people in these areas don’t have the skills or resources to fix them. This has led to over 250 million of the units lying around broken in peoples homes, leading to solar being one of the fastest growing e-waste streams in the world. It’s hardly solar punk to sell people cheap crap at a 10x…

There is no sustainable future without repair and maintenance, and there are significant barriers to repair and maintenance imposed by governments in the name of "Intellectual property".

Re: Solarpunk is happening in Africa

#550

Post by testing22321 »

bave8672 wrote: post #338
testing22321 wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, which is a great thing! When you buy corn or gas or tires for your car do you really care if it’s subsidized and say something like “oh yeah it was $x, but heavily subsidized”? Of course not, you only care about how much it costs you.

On the contrary, I care because I don't buy these things at all, yet my taxes are being used to subsidise the people that do.

You don’t buy any foods with corn in them?

Or use fossil fuels?

Post reply on HN