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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

#101

Post by econ »

virgildotcodes wrote: post #83
ksdfjaafs wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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.

Like you should stop blaming someone half way beating you up.

Running away seems a valid option. Europe seems a good place to run to. Who would have thought.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#102

Post by [deleted] »

virgildotcodes wrote: post #81
MichaelZuo wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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%.

[deleted]

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#104

Post by komali2 »

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

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Woah, nobody was talking about race here, why are you suddenly bringing it up?

Oh, interesting, because you're treating time and ethnicity, as the only factors in economic development. If you take a country full of Ugandans, and a country full of Singaporeans (the countries in your theory are the same of course), and terminate "colonization" (which is the same thing everywhere) at roughly the same time, if the Singaporeans do better, that means the Ugandans are... stupider? Less good at capitalism? What's your full, stated theory here? Can you please say it outright?

Anyway, you're ignoring a lot of other relevant factors. The two countries decolonized at roughly the same time, however Singapore is a tiny maritime city-state, whereas Uganda is a large, landlocked, agrarian country, and its agrarian economy completely taken over by cash crops.

Btw it's also a bit bizarre that you're just saying, "Africans." Africa is a huge continent with wildly different ecologies and economies across it. Regardless, Ugandans do indeed have agency, and that agency is the same as anyone's agency: operating within the constraints into which they were born.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#108

Post by kuerbel »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #34
oceanhaiyang wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does this reddit-esque whataboutism add..?

EU just implemented a new customs tax law that will be coming to member states on july 1st. Until now, items below 150eur (bought by private citizens) were not a subject to customs, and some time ago not even for VAT if below 22eur. From july 1st, it's becoming painful, in slovenia for example, 3eur per TARIC code + customs fee + vat. So, for example you go on alixpress, you buy a silicone phone case for 1eur, a scre…

Local sellers absolutely get shafted by cheap subsidised stuff from China. It creates a fairer environment. It also discourages ultra-cheap overconsumption, reduces counterfeit and unsafe products entering the market. You might not like it but there are good reasons for it.

I'm not saying it's perfect, it's not how I would have done it if I was a benevolent dictator, but there are good reasons for it.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#109

Post by ktpsns »

Long-distance shipping is even a pain in the (so-called) developed world, for instance from Europe to the US. As soon as your shipping value exceeds a treshold (IIRC about 1000€), you have to electronically declare the customs. There are agencies specialized to do this for sth like 20€ per shipping just because it is not reasonable to get all the accounts if you do it only once in a while.

However, in my experience, "ordinary" parcel shipping (like DHL) won't do this shipping either any more: You have to switch to the express ones (like DHL express, UPS, FedEx) even if you don't intend to do any express. The difference is easily 40€ vs 400€ for shipping a shoe box!

If you ship anything slightly larger then a shoe box and slightly more expensive then a notebook, think twice whether you don't want to accompany the freight with a seat in the commodity class in some airplane. It can easily be cheaper.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#110

Post by throwaway2037 »

What a wild story. I hope they can meet one day! This is one of many reasons why these countries stay poor -- it is so hard to follow the byzantine set of rules to do business.

Years ago, during the COVID-19 crisis, I wanted to send a laptop to my domestic helper's son who lived in the countryside of Mindanao (island), the Philippines. It was very difficult. It tooks weeks to find a willing shipper (denied by many!) and find/fill the correct paperwork (many shippers didn't know the correct process and Philippines customs agency was zero help). I still have no idea how he paid the customs fees and received the laptop, as he lived hours away from the only FedEx office on the whole island. I just heard from his mother: "Oh, he got the laptop." As a point of comparison, Mindanao is roughly the twice the size of the Netherlands. At the time, FedEx (the only carrier willing to attempt the delivery) only had a single internal postal code for the whole island. Incredible.

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