The Land where fridges, computers and ships come to die

My land is an e-graveyard. The whole 238,540 square kilometres of it is a potential e-graveyard; waiting. My land is one of those countries nicknamed “Third World” where refrigerators, freezers, computers, car engines, anything electronics and even ships come to die. It’s only in graveyards that things not needed, things that have expired and all life in them has run out, are dumped and forgotten. Human beings, when dead, end up in graveyards. All other things have graveyards too. But we don’t have proper graveyards for the e-waste we welcome onto our land.

Apart from Kumasi and Tamale, we don’t have proper landfills. We still use the ‘bola’ of old, dumping sites where we heap and dump whatever. We could have continued safely on that path if our bola had continued to consist of left over food. But we are developing; so is our bola – sadly. Our garbage has moved into an un-chartered territory. We are in an e-world, a world in which electronics reign supreme. And non-biodegradable plastics too! The bola of an e-world is e-waste and it’s tough. E-waste does not decompose. And, it’s toxic.

I have heard it said that the poor person’s garbage is really ‘refuse’ because it consists of end-of-life-cycle stuff which have been refused and abandoned. No wonder other words for refuse are garbage, trash, waste and filth. To find much that is of any further use in a poor person’s garbage, you must search through, hard – and in filth. On the contrary, the rich person’s ‘refuse’ consists of things discarded out of a privileged place of abundance.

Poverty stinks! In some ways, it makes sense to buy used things. When you don’t have a whole lot of money, used things make so much sense. But sadly, used things do not last; cheap things are expensive. Used things are not meant to last because they are other people’s rejects, with shortened life-spans.

The word ‘bola’ originated from the colonial era when garbage was incinerated. When e-waste is burnt, it lets out toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. E-waste is not your grandmother’s ‘bola.’ It is heavy duty and serious stuff. It is a killer. It is toxic for the land, toxic for the air, toxic for water bodies, toxic across the board.

A news headline in the Vancouver Sun of Canada on December 22, 2006 reads: “Dangerous waste bound for China is intercepted.” This story details the outcome of investigations into illegal shipment of e-waste from Canada to China. Read the next few paragraphs from the news story to get the full picture.

“A joint investigation by federal agencies has exposed Canada's dirty role as a major illegal exporter of hazardous waste to developing countries. Fifty containers loaded with about 500,000 kg of metal and plastic scrap destined for China and Hong Kong were seized at the Port of Vancouver.
Environment Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency report that the electronic waste seized from 27 Canadian companies since November 2005 came from across Canada, but mainly Quebec and Ontario.
The waste included thousands of computer monitors containing products such as lead, along with lead-acid batteries, and fluorescent lamp ballasts containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), proven to be toxic to both the environment and humans. "This is the tip of the iceberg," Emmanuel Mendoza, enforcement engineer for Environment Canada, said in an interview. "We're dealing with a very large, relatively unknown industry."

Since I read this story online, I’ve become more awakened to electronic garbage scattering our road-sides, for sale. Why are we allowing our beloved country to become a graveyard to rich and mighty nations?

Poverty stinks! Oh, you don’t believe me? Then come, let me take you on an imaginary journey through three scenarios in our 51 year-old Ghana.

Scenario Number 1: Kojo Mensah lives in Germany. During a visit to Ghana, his cousin Michael Oppong assures him that they can both thrive if they go into the importation of used electronics. So Mensah begins to ship a few used TVs which he located from disposal points in Hamburg. In no time, the business grew. He began to ship increasing quantities of used TV, refrigerators, deep freezers, computers, radios and even cooking utensils. The collection comprised of items in varied conditions: old models, some in good condition but with limited shelf-life remaining, some broken down but are deemed repairable once ingenious Ghanaians lay hands on them.

Case Number 2: Three old computer gifts are presented to an elementary school in Tuobodom. The Chiefs and people gather, decorated in this election season by the DCE who is eager to topple the Parliamentarian. At a little ceremony, the computers are presented amidst media spectacle to provide the needed cheap publicity to embellish an equally cheap gift.

(Specifics mentioned in Cases 1 and 2 are made up, but plausible).

Case Number 3: This scenario is real. Standing at the Tema New Town beach, looking over the ocean from the fish sellers, you see a bizarre collection of ships. Then, it strikes you that the colour of the ocean is abnormal. It’s dirty brownish, not gorgeous ocean blue. You take a moment to process the odd colour. Then it strikes you again: the ships are abandoned; and they are rusting. The ocean, without a choice, has taken on the colour of the rusting ships. The ocean has been turned into a graveyard. End of story. You want to scream but somehow, you maintain your sanity.

Why are we allowing our beloved country to become a potential graveyard to the rich and mighty nations? The size of Ghana is a finite patch of land. The mighty Atlantic Ocean is rudely stealing some pieces away and we can’t do much to stop it. So why not protect what we have?

Considering the speed at which technology is advancing, this problem is truly alarming. New models of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and other electronics are rolled out at break-neck speed. By the time new models arrive on the global market-place, they have already been rendered old because newer, faster, slicker and better models are developed in rapid succession. That increases our vulnerability of becoming the dumping grounds of new and yet not so new technologies.

And, those abandoned ships: whose responsibility is it to guard and protect our ocean from being turned into graveyards?

We were colonized once, painfully. We, the locals as well as our slave-offspring African Diasporan citizens of the world are yet to fully recover from the trauma of the dehumanizing experiences. We could probably glean some wisdom from ancient Greek mythology in the expression, "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." The cunning Odysseus devised the idea of the ‘Trojan Horse’ as a gift; a gift that turned out to be packed with soldiers who conquered the city of Troy at night.

We are becoming a mule to carry the e-waste of the developed world. If they can’t figure out how to deal with the ‘remains’ of their technology, the least they can do is to leave us in our low-tech world.

Where are the elders of this town? Political parties and presidential candidates who are eager to take over the mantle of leadership of Ghana – what say thou you?

dorisdartey@yahoo.com