When Formal Market is Criminal, is Informal more Moral?

Quick thanks for a tip from a pal via Tweet, here's a thought-provoking article on Informal Trade in East Africa.  Kate Douglas writes in HowWeMadeItInAfrica.com

Wheelbarrows of dollars: Understanding informal trade in East Africa 

I'll leave you to read it, it's about the underestimation of the power and importance of "informal" markets in Africa, and how "off the books" trade makes African commerce look smaller than it really is.  That's not a huge surprise - how much of the growth in China's economy came from record-keeping of trade previously off the record?

The thoughts provoked here are based on my sadness and disgust at the levels of corruption I witnessed while living in Africa in the mid-80s.  I remember going through checkpoints in East Zaire (Dem Republic of Congo) which were set up by soldiers on dirt roads in the jungle.  Using a fallen tree to block the road, the soldiers would stop taxivans and demand bribes, while waving machine guns.

When "formal" is run by criminals, the moral market may be the informal.

Blunt Apology: E-Waste's Zimmerman, Jonathan Green @MailOnline

Before my Earth Day Apology goes to print, I have to be clear about what started this war between export bans of "e-waste" and fair trade recycling of used electronics.  "Criminals corner e-Scrap market" was the headline which describes the witch-hunt triggered by BAN's fake statistics.  BAN accuses, photographers find poster kids, and police are called in... to ruin reputations and lives of the best damn thing the developing nations have going.


We are still waiting for the outrage over this despicable racist Interpol report, and the horrific reporting (based on BAN.org press releases) that led up to it.   The Basel Secretariat had already released its detailed, thorough reports showing 85% reuse of electronics imported to Africa, and that the junk being burned in the fields, for the most part, had been discarded after years of use... there was no excuse for this story, this headline, this assumption...  All this racial profiling was completely discredited in a merciless report published a year ago, blogged about here a year ago today.

Recall the 2008 "Blunt Instruments" Blog about the UK Mail Online story by Johnathan Green, which got the most detailed response back from Jim Puckett and the reporter Mr. Green himself.  Read what is said about me ("Robin") by name.   Read Jim's comments (which I did not edit or censor).  Green discloses his connection with BAN... he gets numbers from BAN, and then corresponds with Interpol about enforcing and arresting the African "e-waste" importers.

Now read the Basel Funded Reports from 2011, saying the AFRICAN GEEKS ARE INNOCENT.

SVP:  Don't go "Zimmerman" on black geeks

The "people with ethnic links to the destination countries" described by Interpol below are AFRICANS who "fly and buy", who test the equipment prior to export, and who communicate with the geeks in their home country.

• People like Wahab.
• People like Hamdy.
• People like Miguel.
• People like Souleymane.
• People like Mariano.
• People like Fung.
• People like Jinex.
• People like Vicki.

An apology does not mean I don't intend to hire an attorney, perhaps Frederic Fahiri Somda of Burkina Faso, to file a defamation lawsuit.  The accusation of "waste tourist" is based on the ASSUMPTION that they are burning 80% of what they buy, IE the ASSUMPTION that they are too stupid and too primitive to know what they are spending $10,000 for shipping and customs alone... IE the exotic primitives described by Jonathan Green.. who did more than Mike Daisey to stir the pot of white guilt and black insult.

The Interpol story, as covered in Jerry Powell's E-Scrap News is below, followed by Jonathan Green's comments about me personally, in defending his rant against the geeks we disagree about.