In July of 2010, I wrote the post with the most reads to date. Some have suggested that it was too long and buried the lead, but the people I met after writing it encouraged me to write more, and not to be afraid to write longer.Below (more:) is the bottom third of the blog "Monkeys Running the Environmental Zoo". The math has now been corroborated by USITC, by MIT, by World Bank, by the ASU Williams/Kahhat study, the Nigeria and Ghana E-Waste Assessment (studies of 279 actual containers, seized at ports in Lagos, based on reporter Cahal Milmo's and Greenpeace's "investigation" of naughty, naughty African television repairmen).
I will re-link all of those studies this week. But as a reminder, Basel Action Network knew this in 2006, when they provided guidance to Kenyan researchers Kiaka and Kamande.
PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE IMPORTED SECOND HAND COMPUTERS IN KENYA - THE CASE OF NAIROBI by Richard Kiaka and Rachel Kamande (2007) "with guidance from Puckett James, Basel Action Network"The 2010 math has been completely borne out. All you had to do was listen to the African, Latin American, and Taiwanese refurbishers, and take a pen and the back of an envelope. It has always been obvious. Toxics are a problem, pollution is serious business... but Racial profiling doesn't look good dressed in green. There are real victims of Environmental Malpractice, and the time has come to clean our "stewardship" programs of the vestiges of accidental racism and poverty porn.
Whose fingerprints are on the "e-waste" monitors at Agbogbloshie? African cities. The "80% export" figure was not just a mistake... it was mathematically impossible, and disproven by BAN's own 2007 study.
From 2010 Blog:
Q: How do bad monitors get overseas?
