Bridging the Digital Divide In Uganda, By Freight 146
jtrust27 writes "Slow or non-existent Internet connections have meant that the people of Uganda have not been able to harness the many advantages of the online economy. This social and economic exclusion of the poorest of the poor was further accentuated by the impossibility for a Ugandan to obtain a credit card or make PayPal payments — a simple requirement to be able to pay for goods and services online. Most merchants and payment gateway providers automatically block all credit cards from Africa, and it is not possible to get a verified PayPal account in many African nations."
Now, a Ugandan company called EasyPayUganda is helping people sidestep these restrictions, by allowing customers to make online payments by proxy in order to pay for services and goods. EasyPayUganda is also providing a logistics solution, forwarding customers' shipments to Uganda, as most online merchants will not ship to Africa.
can't honestly discuss the place (Score:4, Insightful)
People in the USA have the weird experience of public schools going on about Africa having wonderful culture and natural resources, then as adults slowly realizing that the place is totally fucked up.
Re:That's how it used to work (Score:4, Insightful)
> and sold the item to you with a markup. That's how it worked back in the days of sailing ships.
It is the same with Paypal and credit cards with the difference that the merchant pays the markup.
In the end, merchants adjust their prices to compensate for the paid markup. The consumer always end up paying in any business model.
As I stated in another post, I hope those people are reliable and that they won't abuse anybody because of their positioning. Given the fact that some people complain about the way Paypal behaves, it seems like a reasonable wish to make.
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1630376&cid=31971982 [slashdot.org]
Re:Africa (Score:5, Insightful)
It's interesting that people complain how Africa is a third world country and how we should help them, but interestingly everyone sets artificial restrictions on them and restricts them from the other world.
It's not that interesting, because you are talking about two different sets of people. The people upset about poverty in Africa are not the same people who run financial institutions that block Africa from global participation.
Re:Credit cards blocked in Africa? (Score:1, Insightful)
It is not true; I think a few countries are blocked, but not the whole continent (I've been living in "Africa" for most of my life and my "African" credit card has never been blocked because me in "Africa" or my credit card belonging to an "African" bank). I think part of the problem is when people talk of Africa as this one state (it's not; it consists of many countries and cultures, from arabs in the North East to whites @ Cape Point). Have look at Western news - They tend to talk about something happening in Africa and not the specific country in question. One example is a famous cricketer (British) that went on holiday - the press put it like this: "Peterson went on holiday in France, Italy and Africa". See the problem? Until journalists educate themselves about Africa and realise that it is not this single country with a single culture, people reading the news will still think of Africa where lions walk in the streets throughout the whole continent.
(I know that (some) countries in Africa have problems, but this is not the point of my post).
Ob (Score:2, Insightful)
Some of us are better informed. We know that it's a continent containing a large number of third world countries.
Re:Credit cards blocked in Africa? (Score:2, Insightful)
Most merchants and payment gateway providers automatically block all credit cards from Africa
This is a silly phrase.
Africa is a continent, not a country. Nobody can block cards "from Africa", since cards are issued "per country".
Now, let me tell you something: cards from South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco are not blocked. Cards from Nigeria, Uganda are blocked. It's about the fraud rate originating from a specific country, not about some continent-wide blockade.
Africa is fungible and unpleasant (Score:1, Insightful)
To promote aid in most regions of Africa, you have to be prepared to deliver that aid against armed resistance, or accept that that aid might be coopted to feed the army that oppresses people who need aid. That's not really helping.
I really do want to help these folk, and I can think of no better way to do that than to repeat the message of the great (and missed) Sam Kinnison: Move to where the food is. You're in a freaking desert where things don't grow. MOVE.
Re:Africa (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Last 3 decades? (Score:3, Insightful)
Take it from an African (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm an African, a white one that is. My progenitor arrived in the Cape of Good hope in 1697, the latest family register counts the member of white descendent of my family close to 6k, the number of brown/black descendants are unknown, those that kept the original family name and are classified "coloured*" are a 1000 or so, but I digress. Africa is indeed fucked up, this is primarily due to Africans, not Europeans or "Colonialists" but africans themselves. Africans are not simply less fortunate white people with black skin. They have fundamentally different world views and cognitive abilities. I cannot compete with a black African digging a ditch, he can keep at it for hours and hours, the last 30 years has seen most of the Olympic track and field go to black Africans. The average black African cannot plan or appreciate cause and effect to the degree that another member of the species would find to be "common sense". I believe this to be a wetware problem, not simply due to culture or lack of education or opportunities. This, of course makes me a racist, or at best, or a white supremacists. I have grown comfortable with that label. I'd rather be that than delusional.
I've also realised that most non african whites simply have no clue or opinions worth considering when it comes to race related matters. You have no clue, have no real experience dealing with people significantly more different than yourselves. Come to South Africa for the Soccer World Cup, you will gain what you lack. You might not like what you may become.
* Americans note: Your president is "coloured", not black, regardless of what he claims to be. If Africa had 10% of the calibre of Obama's the continent would be a unstoppable superpower. But be not alarmed, barring a mind-enhancing super virile pandemic mind-enhancing air-borne virus, infecting every african, your position is save.
Re:Africa (Score:3, Insightful)
What blocks Africa from global participation are the tariffs, subsidies and other trade barriers in the 'developed' world; specially theinsane farm subsidies in Europe and the US [cat-v.org].
Financial institutions on the other hand have little if any incentive to block Africa from global participation as Africa does not represent a threat to their business and actually represents an opportunity to expand.
Re:Africa (Score:3, Insightful)
the basic problem seems to be that we have a habit of talking about africa as a single place, rather then multiple nations.
Re:Last 3 decades? (Score:3, Insightful)
I never recognized that convention. But then, I've been a computer sciency geek as long as I can remember, so I started counting at year zero. It's still 2009 to me.
Seriously, though, although you're technically right, practically speaking, I accept that most people think of 2010 as the first year of the '10s, just as most people thought of 2000 as the first year of the new millennium. Yeah, pedantically speaking they're wrong, but it doesn't really make a difference and people tend to hate "that guy" who feels the compulsive need to correct everyone.
If you're programming software that has to calculate time differentials across the BC/AD boundary, then by gummy, have at it. But otherwise, my advice is to not make an issue of it. Choose more worthwhile battles to fight, lest people not pay attention to you when you are arguing about something important because you make all skirmishes into full-scale battles.