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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

#151

Post by takipsizad »

dbgrman wrote: post #73

I tried to do the same from USA to Turkey. Can't ship lithium. So my brother took the laptop to Germany, and then shipped it to Ankara. The laptop was never released from the customs. The Turkish reps were rude and expected bribe and pretended they don't understand english. After few months it was returned back to Germany. My cousins' laptop had a keyboard issue and local shops would not replace it and the HP agents…

I've once had the displeasure of having to interact Turkish customs because I got a merch kit from Intel, since it was under 30 Euros (nowadays simplified customs declaration isn't even a thing you have to go the same way as a commercial importer does,which you appear to have gone through, bribery seems to be expected) I didn't deal with Turkish customs directly but the fact that that I had to pay 60% of its value still annoys me to this day. I've also had to decline a second merch kit later because they removed the entire simplified customs declaration thing. I'm also currently trying to obtain SDR which it's market seems to be practically nuked, because of this customs shenanigans

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#152

Post by jarek83 »

We tried to ship company-provided laptop from Poland to somewhere in India. After long time the parcel was just simply labelled "gone". And we paid very similar amounts for all the shipping/taxes/clearances. Nice to hear that such stories end well sometimes.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#153

Post by lexandstuff »

madradavid wrote: post #126

I am Ugandan. I've shipped electronics and Laptops for Work quite a bit, and OP is right, the system is broken, it stays this way because a lot of corrupt individuals benefit from this mess. However, OP showed a degree of Hubris here, a mistake lots of us make when dealing with foreign countries, just because it works this way here, so it should work that way in XYZ. OP would have saved themselves lots of time and mo…

I take your point - no doubt I approached this in a very naive way.

That said, we did collaborate on it - at the very least I needed to learn his address before sending.

Neither of us have ever sent or received a package in Uganda. It was a learning experience for both of us.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#154

Post by defrost »

sammy2255 wrote: post #137
madradavid wrote: post #126

I am Ugandan. I've shipped electronics and Laptops for Work quite a bit, and OP is right, the system is broken, it stays this way because a lot of corrupt individuals benefit from this mess. However, OP showed a degree of Hubris here, a mistake lots of us make when dealing with foreign countries, just because it works this way here, so it should work that way in XYZ. OP would have saved themselves lots of time and mo…

[flagged]

Bold claim given the mail never reached "the wrong kind of native" during either the Mau Mau rebellion / Mau Mau uprising / Kenya Emergency (1952–1960) or the Malayan Emergency / Anti–British National Liberation War (1948–1960).

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#155

Post by RobotToaster »

defrost wrote: post #154
sammy2255 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Bold claim given the mail never reached "the wrong kind of native" during either the Mau Mau rebellion / Mau Mau uprising / Kenya Emergency (1952–1960) or the Malayan Emergency / Anti–British National Liberation War (1948–1960).

To be fair war does tend to disrupt the postal service a little.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#156

Post by defrost »

RobotToaster wrote: post #155
defrost wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bold claim given the mail never reached "the wrong kind of native" during either the Mau Mau rebellion / Mau Mau uprising / Kenya Emergency (1952–1960) or the Malayan Emergency / Anti–British National Liberation War (1948–1960).

To be fair war does tend to disrupt the postal service a little.

To be honest, mail rarely reached the natives, right or wrong, outside of the hot times that saw thousands killed.

Just a general note that things didn't generally run well in the colonies for natives under British rule.

I'll concede they ran well enough for a privileged few who were closely aligned with the British .. but that was not a representative slice of the whole.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#157

Post by l23k4 »

trhway wrote: post #140
goobatrooba wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"much" is an unqualified and unjustified word here. It definitely happens but this would at most affect a tiny fraction of donor money. Many of the NGOs have strict no-bribery policies, else they would not receive support from bodies like the EU (which is the biggest humanitarian donor on the planet). In some cases the choice may be between "letting people starve" and "feeding people but the local warlord extracts so…

>a tiny fraction of donor money. that is not what happened for example in Gaza. UNRWA sent billions to Gaza where that aid was hijacked by HAMAS, and even when the aid was distributed to people outside of HAMAS, HAMAS directly controlled the distribution of that aid. And i don't see UN operating any different at the other places too. Or like Rubio said: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/10/24/unrwa-is-subsidiary-...…

UNRWA sustains life in Gaza.

HAMAS mostly exists in Gaza.

Therefore UNRWA perhaps sustains HAMAS by delaying the indiscriminate mass murder of Gazans through manmade famine.

I don't really see how this would make UNRWA a subsidiary of HAMAS even if it happened to be true that the existence of HAMAS was predicated on the existence of UNRWA.

In practice, the only way to prevent this aid from reaching HAMAS is to prevent it from reaching anyone in Gaza.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#159

Post by trhway »

l23k4 wrote: post #157
trhway wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>a tiny fraction of donor money. that is not what happened for example in Gaza. UNRWA sent billions to Gaza where that aid was hijacked by HAMAS, and even when the aid was distributed to people outside of HAMAS, HAMAS directly controlled the distribution of that aid. And i don't see UN operating any different at the other places too. Or like Rubio said: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/10/24/unrwa-is-subsidiary-...…

UNRWA sustains life in Gaza. HAMAS mostly exists in Gaza. Therefore UNRWA perhaps sustains HAMAS by delaying the indiscriminate mass murder of Gazans through manmade famine. I don't really see how this would make UNRWA a subsidiary of HAMAS even if it happened to be true that the existence of HAMAS was predicated on the existence of UNRWA. In practice, the only way to prevent this aid from reaching HAMAS is to preven…

Even if we go with your logic, what you described is HAMAS using Gazans as hostage - HAMAS threatening "the indiscriminate mass murder of Gazans through manmade famine" until the aid is given to and through HAMAS (and by using civilian population that way HAMAS does commit a crime against humanity). In such a case UNRWA at least should have publicly stated the issue and let the UN as a whole to decide. Quietly sending the aid to HAMAS makes UNRWA at minimum an accomplice. Financing a terrorist organization in response to its blackmail is pretty much a crime almost everywhere. And given the number of UNRWA employees being HAMAS members, some even openly participated in Oct 7 attack, it is definitely more than just an accomplice.

>UNRWA sustains life in Gaza.

and that doesn't seem true to me. Looking at pre-war Gaza - it seems that the regular Gazans have existed on their own, not much affected by UNRWA. There were businesses, trade, construction, some worked in Israel. Look at pre-war satellite photos - how much solar panels were on roofs there. I remember some Gazans even started to appear here on HN. And there was HAMAS fed by UNRWA. Removing HAMAS from the equation, there pretty much wouldn't be a need for UNRWA.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#160

Post by oncallthrow »

user_7832 wrote: post #130
madradavid wrote: post #126

I am Ugandan. I've shipped electronics and Laptops for Work quite a bit, and OP is right, the system is broken, it stays this way because a lot of corrupt individuals benefit from this mess. However, OP showed a degree of Hubris here, a mistake lots of us make when dealing with foreign countries, just because it works this way here, so it should work that way in XYZ. OP would have saved themselves lots of time and mo…

For better or worse, "person from 1st world country does what they think helps, based on their worldview - but never asks 3rd world recipient" is unfortunately a very common troupe. (I'm from a 3rd world country and have seen it over and over again.)

It’s “trope”, not “troupe”
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