TLUG and government grants

[Christopher Browne]

On 12/3/05, William Park <opengeometry-FFYn/CNdgSA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > It's not a racist statement at all. It's the reality. I recall reading
> > an article a few years ago about what happens to the electronics
> > equipment that we dispose of. It gets shipped to China for recylcing
> > for three reasons:
> >
> > 1. cheap labour to dismantle the equipment,
> >
> > 2. no labour standards to be speak of so companies are free to exploit
> > people in many ways, e.g. paying them a pittance for working long
> > hours six to seven days a week, not providing any sort of safety
> > equipment, and of course, not telling them what sorts of toxins they
> > were being exposed to,
> >
> > 3. no environment protection laws to speak of.
>
> There must be something else.  I don't understand why China has to
> import any OLD electronics, when they make all the NEW hardwares.
> Unless there is some reciprocal treaty, ie. they get access to our
> market, in return, they have to take some of our old junks.

It's JUST BUSINESS.

Remember earlier in the thread where you suggested keenness at how
people were getting money from the Trillium fund for "computer
recycling" even though the numbers didn't add up?

That happened because someone figured that they could extract money
from a government program irrespective of the ethics thereof.

What is happening in China is that people figure they can GET MONEY if
they accept shiploads of other peoples' waste.  They got paid, and so
shipped in the trash.  It wasn't anything about "reciprocity;" it's
that someone got paid, and then paid off the right people in the
government to make sure the trash went to Guiyu, evidently a place
they were willing to see poisoned.

It's not racism, it's not reciprocity, it's not any number of things
that might start with "r."  It's just business.

Nigeria apparently also does much the same, albeit with the (totally
irrelevant) difference that they don't have as many computer
manufacturers there.
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