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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

#231

Post by selfhoster1312 »

owebmaster wrote: post #212
imtringued wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>after having their country looted for centuries (ongoing). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orania >The town was founded with the goal of creating a white ethnostate for the Afrikaner minority group, the Afrikaans language and the Afrikaner culture through the creation of an Afrikaner state known as a Volkstaat. >All jobs, from management to manual labour, are done by Afrikaners; non-Afrikaner people are not allowed to…

What your opinion about the reverse colonization - immigration?

In what way could immigration be the reverse of colonization? Colonization is a specific form of immigration, where the immigrants purposefully destroy native ways of life via different forms of warfare, segregation, etc.

I encourage you to question where you read that framing, because that's a racist stance that doesn't stand scrutiny even for a minute.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#232

Post by mystraline »

In other words, African governments are even more corrupt shitholes.

(Please note: im explicitly saying this about the governments. Not the people. The people, in most/all situations, have little to no power to remove this corruption, other than civil war.)

I really think its the mixture of the Global North, and along with the worst of the worst people is why there isnt an African Union, with African single currency.

Its also the reason im not (cant) buy African products locally. The supply chain is nearly non-existant. I couldnt buy even if I wanted to.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#233

Post by james_marks »

liotier wrote: post #150

This is not how it works. My partner is Ugandan, we live in France - I'm used to ship to various countries in Africa. Never use the "regular" post - it is just as OP described. Don't use high-end couriers (DHL, Fedex etc.) either - very expensive for scant value added. Do what every local does: use one of the innumerable grey market freight forwarders. One way or the other (for a typical "line haul" example, they ent…

It’s funny to me that this is increasingly how packages are delivered in the US, too.

Asking someone who’s going that way already to drop it on their way is inherently efficient in some circumstances.

Once there’s remuneration, it’s not a big jump to making the trip just for that. Add an app and the gig economy is born.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#234

Post by faidit »

imtringued wrote: post #208
x3ro wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, the "barbarians" couldn't possibly manage delivering a packet by themselves, after having their country looted for centuries (ongoing). There's no doubt this laptop would've been delivered frictionlessly if Uganda had never suffered under colonial rule :) And who knows what the UK would be like..

>after having their country looted for centuries (ongoing). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orania >The town was founded with the goal of creating a white ethnostate for the Afrikaner minority group, the Afrikaans language and the Afrikaner culture through the creation of an Afrikaner state known as a Volkstaat. >All jobs, from management to manual labour, are done by Afrikaners; non-Afrikaner people are not allowed to…

Some racists built a village and it's doing well, therefore centuries of colonialism across continents was good? Is that sound logic?

So if Scientologists or some other cult built a potemkin village in Wyoming and pumped it with investment, and the town's balance sheets looked better than surrounding communities that didn't get their investment, you'd endorse the cult ideology too? Or at least denounce its critics?

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#235

Post by cindyllm »

mystraline wrote: post #232

In other words, African governments are even more corrupt shitholes. (Please note: im explicitly saying this about the governments. Not the people. The people, in most/all situations, have little to no power to remove this corruption, other than civil war.) I really think its the mixture of the Global North, and along with the worst of the worst people is why there isnt an African Union, with African single currency.…

[dead]

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#238

Post by hkpack »

petertodd wrote: post #164
liotier wrote: post #150

This is not how it works. My partner is Ugandan, we live in France - I'm used to ship to various countries in Africa. Never use the "regular" post - it is just as OP described. Don't use high-end couriers (DHL, Fedex etc.) either - very expensive for scant value added. Do what every local does: use one of the innumerable grey market freight forwarders. One way or the other (for a typical "line haul" example, they ent…

I've done some military charity work in Ukraine, getting donations from people in my community and ensuring that money gets turned into vehicles and equipment reaching soldiers that I personally know in Eastern Ukraine. Just a small "hobby" really, not on a big scale; I'm certainly not a charity professional. On multiple occasions I've shipped things with the Nova Poshta service to units very close to the front line.…

Thank you for your help, I think you already know how much people in Ukraine appreciate it.

But comparing Ukraine and African countries is more like apple and oranges.

Ukraine is by large a European country which culturally is much more similar to Poland or even UK.

Because it was always portrayed in the west as corrupt or insignificant was just more caused by living under soviet or russian shadow than a reality.

Nova Poshta was already an established business well before 2022 war started, but even without it, government-owned Ukrposhta was always rock solid going decades back. Theft was happening ocasionally by workers but at a rate comparable to any other western country. DHL, FedEx was operating also for a very long time and the biggest problem with them was the need to pay the import duty tax on expensive items, which you can avoid when shipping with Ukrposhta.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#239

Post by margalabargala »

halayli wrote: post #112
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…

> 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) being a developing country or not is orthogonal to what you have described. The top developed nations have one or more of these issues.

Developed countries may have exorbitant taxes and fees, but generally not bribes.

Someone may say "a tax or fee is just a legalized bribe to the state!"

Which, sure, you could look at it that way, but it's codified and predictable and that lack of surprise is extremely valuable.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#240

Post by Muromec »

petertodd wrote: post #164
liotier wrote: post #150

This is not how it works. My partner is Ugandan, we live in France - I'm used to ship to various countries in Africa. Never use the "regular" post - it is just as OP described. Don't use high-end couriers (DHL, Fedex etc.) either - very expensive for scant value added. Do what every local does: use one of the innumerable grey market freight forwarders. One way or the other (for a typical "line haul" example, they ent…

I've done some military charity work in Ukraine, getting donations from people in my community and ensuring that money gets turned into vehicles and equipment reaching soldiers that I personally know in Eastern Ukraine. Just a small "hobby" really, not on a big scale; I'm certainly not a charity professional. On multiple occasions I've shipped things with the Nova Poshta service to units very close to the front line.…

Nova Poshta is a perfect example of free market doing what it is supposed to do and they even forced the actual state owned post company to get their shit together to compete.

Delivering to frontline towns is on brand for them as much as delivering from Amazon with a proxy address in US. They make things happen

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