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Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

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221–230 of 291 posts

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#221

I wish governments would realize that the more barriers and friction they put between their citizens and good tools, the worse their economy will probably be.

The average citizen does not have the income to even afford stuff like that. Anyone who is able buy a laptop like that is wealthy by local standards. And in particular anyone importing stuff from outside. And that wealth is being taxed. If they didn't do that then there wouldn't be may people left to tax at all. Sure, Django here is the exception, but not taxing imports would generally not benefit people like him, bu…

Yes, but it has nothing to do with tax in this case, but bribe. I guess you could say it's still a good thing because if it wasn't for the bribe you simply have no option of getting your goods. But maybe if the bribe didn't exist the network wasn't down for so long in the first place

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#222

I recommend the documentary "Empire of Dust" if you would like learn more about the difficulties of doing business in africa.

I just started watching this after seeing your comment. Great recommendation, extremely interesting.

Where did you find it?

Wikipedia only links IMDB and they have everything from plot info to production company to revenue to screenshots but not the obvious question anyone would have: how to actually watch it

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#223
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Africa is a continent. Be specific which countries and what coups and revolutions. If I look at a country like Zimbabwe, it’s in worse shape than when it became independent and the West had not interfered. If anything it supported it with development funds.

What, lol? You want me to write a comprehensive account of each country in Africa that had foreign interventions and enumerate them? What’s the character limit for comments on HN, how many full comments do you think I’d need to get to something approaching comprehensiveness? Zimbabwe, we’re talking about the one that had China, USSR and SA providing weapons and training up until the end of Rhodesia around 1980? Then…

No, but it would just be nice to be specific in your claims and not make blanket claims which clearly aren’t true.

As for Zimbabwe, nobody forced them to ally with the USSR and China. That was their decision. As was their agreement with the IMF.

It’s not great to infantalize nations like Zimbabwe and act like they have no agency. They fought for their independence, got it and made their own bed.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#224
post #138

What is appropriate compensation for someone handling a bar of gold? Some could argue corruption is an attempt to equalise on that.

Might as well ask how to equalise the cost of letting someone live instead of taking their possessions

The price should be whatever it costs you when including all cost factors¹. A competitive market is an attempt at a system (no central control) to approach that lower bound value. It's really hard to incorporate the million dependencies in a true cost price, so people are instead free to set a price and consumers are free to choose a vendor that's cheaper, and so there's competition. Markets are said to not be working well (lack of competition, usually) if the price of a good or service does not remotely approach the cost price

Bribes are usually to people in power because otherwise you'd just go with the non-corrupt option. That's not a functioning market. I wouldn't say that this type of monopoly is an attempt at determining the fair price for transporting an item of a given mass and dimensions

¹ this really includes everything: to be able to walk across the street and deliver packages, you needed to eat the night before; you needed to learn to read; you need to put money to the side for when you're of age; etc.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#225

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…

But this process, including sending smaller items first etc sounds like it would have taken longer than what the OP did? And the OP was trying to do it quickly to tie in with the beginning of the semester?

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But we don't make phone cases in EU. Neither most of the stuff actually sold by aliexpress. Our local "phone case stands" in shopping centers sell the same cheap made-in-china stuff as on aliexpress but they want 15-20euros for the same cheap case that is 1eur on aliexpress (+10-15 for the screen protector, etc). I mean sure, they have to pay rent for the space and they have to pay the worker, but they're just a middle man, they produce no real value (except to get the case faster).

So, back then, i'd pay 1eur and get the case (a bit later 1eur+vat), or 4eur (+vat) for all the items. I'd have money left over, that I could spend at a local restaurant, where other people would get paid, for cooking and serving me a meal (and farmers before that). (i won't give the "save to buy an apartment" example, because none of the EU states is actually doing anything to make that peossible for normal people, quite the opposite).

And now I either pay a lot more money to the government (and get notting more back from them), pay a lot of money to a reseller/dropshipper, and get the item a week earlier than from aliexpress. There will be no european phone case company to take over that business, the just 'stuff' will be just more expensive, and we, europeans, will be able to afford less.

And yes, I know, aliexpress will adapt, they'll build warehouses in EU, and iphone cases will be shipped from romania or hungary or somewhere, but they'll still be more expensive. And that's just phone cases... if you have an iphone, you'll find them in aliexpress warehouses locally. But what if you want custom electronics only found on aliexpress? Some niche esp32 board? Some salved controller for a retro computer? Can you count on aliexpress storing those things in EU too? Or will your other hobbies become much more expensive too?

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#227
post #36

We have a couple co-op members in Uganda and their billing addresses are always distinct. Along the lines of "Behind the Gas Station, SomeCity, Uganda." They're also extraordinarily good engineers so idk wtf is going on in Uganda. A lot of folks from there come work in Taiwan, I guess the pay and quality of life is better here.

“Every real dwelling has a distinct address” is very much something you take for granted until you come across counter cases. My Dad had a real, modern, Western house in Kathmandu with no unique address in the early 2000s.

I can think of counter-examples in Europe. The old posties used to understand local addresses, now half of these parcel delivery firms either use Google slop for inaccurate returns or refuse to deliver them.

Re: Shipping a laptop to a refugee camp in Uganda

#228
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…

Christians colonized Africa and destroyed their cultures and tribes for not converting and now you send them a Christmas gift to them. Hope Africans see these Europeans true colors

Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea were Christian before most of Europe was. The entire Maghreb was once majority Christian.
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