Agbogbloshie.
Does the name mean anything to you? Probably not. But it should.
Agbogbloshie is hardly a household word. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue with familiarity. But it should be as familiar to us as the names of some of the storied (and reviled) places where our high-tech toys are designed and manufactured. If there were any fairness left in the world, Agbogbloshie would be designated as a sister city to Cupertino (headquarters of Apple), Palo Alto (headquarters of Hewlett-Packard), Tucheng, Taiwan (headquarters of Foxcom), and Seoul, South Korea (headquarters of Samsung).
After all, Agbogbloshie is a vital link in the chain of electronic-waste (e-waste) disposal that stretches from those first-world cities and the high-tech industries that thrive in them to the poverty-stricken African nation of Ghana.
Isn’t it time to be reminded that when we’re seduced by the latest digital device with its fifty cool features we’ll never use and dump last year’s shiny new thing with the forty cool features we never used that the old stuff’s got to go somewhere? That somewhere often is Agbogbloshie, a ruined city that’s been called the “dirty secret of the hi-tech industry.” If it’s easier for you to pronounce, just call it Sodom and Gomorrah, the nickname residents have given the city in acknowledgment of the sordid living conditions and rampant crime that plague the lives of those who call the place “home.” Full story...
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Does the name mean anything to you? Probably not. But it should.
Agbogbloshie is hardly a household word. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue with familiarity. But it should be as familiar to us as the names of some of the storied (and reviled) places where our high-tech toys are designed and manufactured. If there were any fairness left in the world, Agbogbloshie would be designated as a sister city to Cupertino (headquarters of Apple), Palo Alto (headquarters of Hewlett-Packard), Tucheng, Taiwan (headquarters of Foxcom), and Seoul, South Korea (headquarters of Samsung).
After all, Agbogbloshie is a vital link in the chain of electronic-waste (e-waste) disposal that stretches from those first-world cities and the high-tech industries that thrive in them to the poverty-stricken African nation of Ghana.
Isn’t it time to be reminded that when we’re seduced by the latest digital device with its fifty cool features we’ll never use and dump last year’s shiny new thing with the forty cool features we never used that the old stuff’s got to go somewhere? That somewhere often is Agbogbloshie, a ruined city that’s been called the “dirty secret of the hi-tech industry.” If it’s easier for you to pronounce, just call it Sodom and Gomorrah, the nickname residents have given the city in acknowledgment of the sordid living conditions and rampant crime that plague the lives of those who call the place “home.” Full story...
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