Basel Action Network's Relentless Racism Against Africa's Tech Sector May Succeed

For years, Basel Action Network has insisted on fake statistics about e-waste "loopholes" in the Basel Convention.  The original Basel Convention, in Annex IX, explicitly exempts reuse and repair of electronics from "waste" definitions (list B1110).

BAN's Jim Puckett was a film major, and when he advised someone I was taking with me to see reuse factories in China, Jim told him to "take pictures of children on the scrap".  His other tactic was to make up statistics that were so alarming that they made people accept that it must be terrible. If 80% of X results in something bad, there must be something wrong with X.

- homosexuality, atheism, swimming.... if 80% of it is bad, make it illegal?

https://resource.co/article/basel-convention-require-informed-consent-e-waste-exports

Depressingly, Ghana (which never signed or ratified the Bamako Convention, and consequently benefited by massive mass communications investments, leapfrogging Mali) has its name on a Ghana-Swiss proposal to finally change the Basel Convention to make import of used electronics de facto defined as "waste".  See my comments to Resource Magazine, (Amelia Kelly) which made the mistake of interviewing Basel Action Netwwork but not the Tech Sector importers who are capable of speaking on their own behalf.

"There are 170,000+ mobile phone towers on the African continent today, thanks to the "critical mass of users" of flip phones which BAN tried to stop the export of a decade ago. The privileged wealthy white guy gets to define what is "waste", and the African tech sector experts who made the mobile phone tower investments possible are profiled as "Primitives" or at best "Informal Sector" (as if not knowing how smart they are is a reason to prosecute them). Free Hurricane Joe Benson." - Robin Ingenthron

 This guy loses his job, and the displays get ground up for raw materials... and doesn't get to reply to Jim Puckett's quote (below the fold)

#FALSECLAIMS

Jim claims "typically" the mobile phones Africans buy result in "environmental harm", but doesn't explain how else the 170,000+ mobile phone towers were successful investments.  New phone sales to Africa certainly cannot explain them.

Jim claims "deadly emissions" and "primitive acid stripping" operations, though we saw none of that, even at Agbogbloshie Ghana, and certainly not at the point of import (Tema).

Perhaps there is on silver lining here... If the export for reuse will "finally" be illegal, then it was legal for all those years when "The Ayatollah of E-Waste" was falsely claiming it wasn't.

Jim Puckett, Executive Director of Basel Action Network (BAN), said: “E-waste exports, particularly to developing countries, typically result in environmental harm even when the material is deemed non-hazardous.

"Due to the deadly emissions created when e-waste is processed thermally or in primitive acid stripping operations, the new agreement will go a long way towards protecting the environment and human health worldwide.

“While everyone realises that repair plays an important role, it cannot be used as a free ticket to export all manner of wastes which might never be repaired or might leave hazardous discarded parts. This would leave open the barn door to exploitive waste traders with no possibility for enforcement.

"BAN, along with developing countries, aim to close that final loophole to prevent this kind of abuse in the name of reuse."

Now for some reason, @Resource_media flagged my comment above as "Spam" and did not allow it in the comments section on the article. Perhaps that's because the article is from last June? Or because I included a link to a documentary about the Basel Convention Ewaste #WEEE enforcement during "Project Eden" #freejoebenson? I've asked for an explanation on Twitter, we'll see what they say.