Latest Pics of Kids at Dumps - #TakingTuesday #FloggingAgbogbloshie

Pics of Kids at Dumps - The Gift that Keeps on Taking.

See today's solicitation from our friends at Basel Action Network, photo of scrapper at Agbogbloshie. It implies your donation for #GivingTuesday will benefit "Children aged 11-18" scavenging at dumps to earn $1-3 per day.  Another waste NGO flogging Agbogbloshie.

Ages 11-18??  B******t.  See Journal of Health, Exploratory Health Assessment of Chemical Exposures at E-Waste Recycling and Scrapyard Facility in Ghana (Jack CaravanosDrPH, CIHEdith E. ClarkeDrPH, MPHCarl S. OseiMD, MPHYaw Amoyaw-Osei)
Demographic Characteristics:  "The ages of the 87 e-waste exposed subjects from Agbogbloshie ranged from 15 to 73 years. The mean age was 32 years with a standard deviation of 5.6..."
Mean age 32.  Median age of 25.5 years.  That's not "child labor". The mean age of women giving childbirth in Ghana is 22.2 years, for crying out loud.  The employment data at the recycling yard shows far less child labor than agriculture sector, in fact it's above average for workforce in Accra.


Remember, this is from the organization that "never, ever stated" 80% of used electronics were dumped.  They are shameless in their "data" when it's used to solicit donations. They have a view of math, as something that your wishes and intentions give you mysterious powers over.  And it's full of accidental racism, bigotry, povertyporn, and profiling.   Yuck.

The art of making up very specific, scientificky sounding stats and numbers is bad for environmentalism and development.  But you know what's REALLY offensive to the workers in Agbogbloshie (who I'm still in touch with every week)?  That they are raising money with POSTER CHILDREN and they do not share one penny with anyone whose photos they use.

NONE.  I think this qualifies for worst non-profit EVER.  They can't even do #PovertyPorn right. 

Welcome to #TakingTuesday
Shame on you, Basel Action Network.


On #GivingTuesday I'm glad to give this NGO a piece of my mind.

If you are going to use pictures of kids in wheelchairs to raise money, dammit, you've got to spend at least SOME of the money on people in wheelchairs.

This whole "wire burning" crime thing is just so stupid.  Look at the TV on the kid's head, I've previously pointed out that's a 1970s Magnavox like the one on the album cover of Prince Nico Mbarga (see Halloween Images of Scary Black People e-waste blog).

Fair Trade Recycling doesn't beg for funds with pics of kids at dumps.

WR3A builds around the Geeks, the tech sector, repair and refurbishing. Those were the "valedictorians" in the African classes I taught.   The scrappers are the opposite, tend to have little schooling, often drop outs). It's hard to build an economic infrastructure around the most needy. Our plan is to have the scrapping overseen by the Geeks. Wire burning incidentally has been studied worldwide... a study comparing copper wire burning in Europe and USA found it was mostly associated with "teenage boys" who were mostly doing it out of boredom. Correlates to lack of opportunity. Unburned wire is worth about 70 cents per kilo, burned is worth about a dollar per kilo, and burning the wire reduces weight to about .8 of a kilo. Pretty useless, which is why they tend to be looking for other jobs and leave at the first opportunity.



Agbogbloshie exploited by NGO pics of young people, understates ages, misrepresents junk as "imported" $ZERO shared pic.twitter.com/6MOLvJhn3a
— Robin Ingenthron (@WR3A) November 23, 2015

TV on young man's head appears to be a Magnavox, seen here on the 1977 Prince Nico Mbarga album.

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