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Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

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Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#81

Post by virgildotcodes »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #52
nradov wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unfortunately also one of the biggest problems with donating to NGOs that operate in many foreign countries. Much of the aid money gets stolen by corrupt officials and local criminals. Donors have to check carefully that NGOs are legitimately benefiting the intended recipients.

If the implication is true… Shouldn’t people stop helping further entrench these shady practices? If Ugandan decision makers know the people will effectively always be underwritten to receive some bread and water… no matter what happens… Then what exactly is stopping them from piling on more and more nonsense?

Better 20% of your money reaches a starving child than 0%.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#82

Post by noduerme »

iririririr wrote: post #78
gaius_baltar wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Never underestimate developing countries' governments' willingness to absolutely bend their people over to extract tax revenue (and then their corrupt representatives extract bribes on top of it) As a Brazilian with a love for electronics and DIY, I feel this pain every day.

the 80% tax on electronics since the 80s was because brazil had a few chip foundries. two of them started cloning cpus designs (8080 and 68k iirc). they sold well all over the (1st and 2nd) world (still no local market). until one company did a publicity stunt lying they had a full mac clone (it was an actual mac, but they did have something else). then apple and others pressured the US state department, which pressu…

I was going to snidely ask what Argentina's excuse was for its import tax on electronics, but it's been a decade since I lived there, and it appears they dropped the tariff to zero at the start of this year (2026). Really, talk about holding your economy back for the wrong reasons: Making it wildly expensive for people to get the tools they need to bring money into the local economy. Besides, all it did was open a black market.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#83

Post by virgildotcodes »

ksdfjaafs wrote: post #79
komali2 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Are you under the impression that western activity in Africa ceased with the end of colonialism? No fomented coups, conflicts, revolutions, arms and funding for rebel groups, continuous bribes and support to corrupt government officials to secure the flow of oil, minerals, etc. out of those countries into western hands? No proxy wars between the west and the USSR?

Read more about the history of the continent.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#84

Post by iririririr »

noduerme wrote: post #82
iririririr wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the 80% tax on electronics since the 80s was because brazil had a few chip foundries. two of them started cloning cpus designs (8080 and 68k iirc). they sold well all over the (1st and 2nd) world (still no local market). until one company did a publicity stunt lying they had a full mac clone (it was an actual mac, but they did have something else). then apple and others pressured the US state department, which pressu…

I was going to snidely ask what Argentina's excuse was for its import tax on electronics, but it's been a decade since I lived there, and it appears they dropped the tariff to zero at the start of this year (2026). Really, talk about holding your economy back for the wrong reasons: Making it wildly expensive for people to get the tools they need to bring money into the local economy. Besides, all it did was open a bl…

Did you guys got your eletronics from Paraguay too?

I wish we replace this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Duke_of_Caxias with a statue of a smuggler bringing computers from paraguay (they where sold two streets down this statue). It is much more heroic and positive outcome symbol to the country than some old military nobody on a horse.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#85

Post by iririririr »

While spending a year in southern african countries (Uganda included), and befriend few locals and lots of people from UN and pieces of EU bureaucracy (and EU bank GMs), I learned two interesting things:

- even the UN (which pays 1/4 of what the EU pays) cannot ship work laptops to these countries. The either vanish or have to be shipped to very central DHL offices.

- Informal remittance from family members to their communities is exactly the same amount of all the money the country gets from external sources as Aid. e.g. Angola had USD$2bi given by EU and UN. Remitances where the same 2Bi. I don't know if there are mechanisms to keep that this way, but that was the case for all the countries i could get the number that year and the year before.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#86

Post by signatoremo »

elmomle wrote: post #56
nradov wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the solution?

Arguably, just to leave them alone, neither exploiting nor trying to "help". It sucks and it hurts, but outside interference does not seem to help a society heal itself. This has been argued by more informed people than myself-- https://www.uvm.edu/~jashman/CDAE195_ESCI375/To%20Hell%20wit...

Have you seen how active China and to some degree Russia have been in Africa? When there is vacuum someone will fill it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47978386

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#87

Post by nothercastle »

overfeed wrote: post #55
nradov wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unfortunately also one of the biggest problems with donating to NGOs that operate in many foreign countries. Much of the aid money gets stolen by corrupt officials and local criminals. Donors have to check carefully that NGOs are legitimately benefiting the intended recipients.

Which is why, naturally, the American Red Cross is the gold standard for NGO donation efficiency.

They can’t even operate efficiently in the USA was that intended as sarcasm

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#88

Post by throw2837363 »

xp84 wrote: post #9

Two main takeaways: 1. Never underestimate developing countries' governments' willingness to absolutely bend their people over to extract tax revenue (and then their corrupt representatives extract bribes on top of it) 2. Django's gratitude and positivity in the face of all of it is an inspiration. I suspect I and most everyone I know would be in tears and would have given up in exasperation halfway through his quest…

> We are so spoiled in the West.

This can happen in the West too.

I volunteered at a homeless shelter, and we helped those who had lost everything get important documents like their Social Security card and s state ID, and the bureaucracy was atrocious. Sometimes we literally had to beg a senator's office to help.

At least they didn't ask for bribes, but I wonder if that would've made things easier.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#89

Post by oefrha »

lexandstuff wrote: post #47
wildzzz wrote: post #22

My question, does Uganda not have used laptops available for sale? At the point where you're about to spend $200 on shipping, why not consider just doing a money order so the guy can find one locally. Shipping things overseas is such a convoluted process. My wife wanted to send a company Christmas gift bundle (literally just company merch and some candy) to two Filipino employees. One of the workers says that only DH…

~$200 doesn't go as far as you'd expect for good used laptop, even in Uganda. We did look into our options. However, there's definitely a sunk cost aspect to the operation. After the first failure to send it through Australia Post, I became determined that Django was going to have that MacBook.

Wait, how the hell can Australia Post charge you the full AUD 111.60 for a failed shipment when it seems to be the fault of the clerk who approved the shipment against their own rules? And sounds like the package didn’t even leave Australia so even if you should pay for the full mileage it would be 20% at most?

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#90

Post by ithkuil »

codeforafrica wrote: post #70
elmomle wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably, just to leave them alone, neither exploiting nor trying to "help". It sucks and it hurts, but outside interference does not seem to help a society heal itself. This has been argued by more informed people than myself-- https://www.uvm.edu/~jashman/CDAE195_ESCI375/To%20Hell%20wit...

What would help is to buy their products and resources for a fair price.

How do you determine what's a fair price?
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