I've been working all week on a formal apology - or rather, a "Separate Peace" letter for Basel Action Network. I'll never try anything like the California Compromise with them again. Whether the "outing" of the Indonesian SKD factory was the direct result of my sharing the information about them with BAN, or not, they were callous at best and continued to not lift a finger to help my friends...
But I learned last week that the Indonesians are shrugging it off. They appreciate my attention to righting the infamy. It hurt, the stupid anti-reuse policy cost them tens of thousands of dollars and forced shutdown of a recycling operation for Indonesia-generated e-waste.
But they are getting over it. Seeing them calm and laughing and making do reminds me of what I loved about my years in Africa. People didn't hold grudges so much, didn't take themselves all that way too seriously.
And so the point has come that I need to move on. If USA wants to keep thinking Egyptians are burning the computers they bought for $30 in a landfill and that Egyptian authorities in 2008 were concerned about the environment, well, we think plenty of stupid things and that's number umpteen on some list.
The trick writing-and-rewriting an apology is that it has to be done well. If you are not really ready to apologize and are going to work in some blame-deflection, then don't do it yet.
This was my family's hostess, a really beautiful young South American woman. She used to import used USA electronics, and built a business with 6 employees. Then she bought used Chinese TVs as Chinese cities all moved to flat screens. Then she bought cheap Chinese-factory refurbished flat screens. She'd like to start a factory making new product in Peru... but for now she's helping her brother open a restaurant in the shop they used to sell CRT monitors in.
Sssssssssssssssssss.........
But I learned last week that the Indonesians are shrugging it off. They appreciate my attention to righting the infamy. It hurt, the stupid anti-reuse policy cost them tens of thousands of dollars and forced shutdown of a recycling operation for Indonesia-generated e-waste.
But they are getting over it. Seeing them calm and laughing and making do reminds me of what I loved about my years in Africa. People didn't hold grudges so much, didn't take themselves all that way too seriously.
And so the point has come that I need to move on. If USA wants to keep thinking Egyptians are burning the computers they bought for $30 in a landfill and that Egyptian authorities in 2008 were concerned about the environment, well, we think plenty of stupid things and that's number umpteen on some list.
The trick writing-and-rewriting an apology is that it has to be done well. If you are not really ready to apologize and are going to work in some blame-deflection, then don't do it yet.
This was my family's hostess, a really beautiful young South American woman. She used to import used USA electronics, and built a business with 6 employees. Then she bought used Chinese TVs as Chinese cities all moved to flat screens. Then she bought cheap Chinese-factory refurbished flat screens. She'd like to start a factory making new product in Peru... but for now she's helping her brother open a restaurant in the shop they used to sell CRT monitors in.
Sssssssssssssssssss.........
