Global E-Waste Management and Second-Hand Consumption in the Third World: Substandard Context and Tokunbo Phenomenon in Nigeria

Author(s):  
Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale

The world is technologically advancing, but the management of resultant waste, commonly known as e-waste, is also becoming very challenging. Of major concern is the incessant flow of this waste into the developing world where they assume secondhand value in spite of the associated environmental threats. This study adopts the qualitative approach to examine this phenomenon in Nigeria. The study reveals that aside from being cheaper than the new products, second-hand goods are usually preferred to the new products due to the substandard nature of most new electronics largely imported from Asia (especially China). The tag of Tokunbo or ‘imported from the West’ associated with second-hand goods imported from developed countries makes them more preferable to the public relative to new electronics imported from China, disparagingly termed Chinco. Yet both the second-hand electronics that are socially appreciated as Tokunbo and the substandard new electronics imported into Nigeria together render the country a huge recipient of goods that soon collapse and swell the e-waste heap in the country. This situation may be mitigated through strengthening the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, and also by sensitizing Nigerians on the dangers inherent in e-wastes.

1981 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn H. Jernudd

ABSTRACTI shall argue that adoption of linguistics at institutions of higher learning in its present international disciplinary form, and in its expression through the medium of English (because English is a major foreign or second language in much of the world and the by far dominant language for the discipline of linguistics), can be contrary to the public good in less developed countries (LDCs) and emerging speech communities. Linguistics in its current international disciplinary form serves needs different from those of emerging speech communities, where a new language treatment system ought to be created by a new cadre of caretakers of the community's language resources. (Language planning; developing countries; linguistics as an international discipline; English)


1985 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuntufye S. Mwamwenda

To examine the theoretical and empirical evidence in support of education in early childhood both in the West and in the Third World Countries a brief account is given of the present state of education during early childhood in Africa. Comparatively early childhood education in Africa leaves much to be desired. By alerting the public to the importance of early childhood education as observed in Western countries, African countries and other developing countries might be encouraged to give greater attention and allocate part or more of their scarce resources to the operation of such programs to improve preschoolers' lives.


1989 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
R N Villar ◽  
V K Solomon ◽  
J Rangam

The pattern of knee pathology seen in an Indian mission hospital following the introduction of knee clinics is described. This paper reports the results of the first 200 consecutive patients seen at these clinics, relating the findings to anticipated treatments. The occurrence of degenerative disease was high. The importance of knee flexion, in order to be able to squat, is highlighted. The necessity to adopt this position materially alters the types of treatment that can be offered to this group of people. It is concluded that treatments common to the West are not always suitable for patients in the Third World.


1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Cammack

It is doubtful as to whether the countries of the Third World are likely to move to the kind of liberal democracy that is regarded as characteristic of the West. In particular, parties are often remaining ‘parties of the State’ and not organizations truly competing with each other. This is in part a consequence of economic globalization, as the requirements of global economic liberalization do not fit with the requirements of democracy. In such a context, clientelism around the State may be inevitable and it contributes to ensuring that the main party in the country, and indeed all parties become ‘parties of the State’, as is the case in Mexico or Malaysia and perhaps in the Ukraine and South Africa. Thus, globalization does not mean the end of the State, but possibly the end of liberal democracy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-224
Author(s):  
B. Setiawan ◽  
Tri Mulyani Sunarharum

Of the many important events that occurred in the two decades of the 21st century, the process of accelerating urbanization—especially in third-world countries—became something quite phenomenal. It's never even happened before. In the early 2000s, only about 45 percent of the population in the third world lived in urban areas, by 2020 the number had reached about 55 percent. Between now and 2035 the percentage of the population living in urban areas will reach about 85 percent in developed countries. Meanwhile, in developing countries will reach about 65 percent. By 2035, it is also projected that about 80 percent of the world's urban population will live in developing countries' cities.


1980 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miles D. Wolpin

Although the analysis which follows centres upon the West African state of Mali, much of what is said applies in varying measure to other examples of military state capitalism in Africa and elsewhere. Its importance is underscored by the fact that this is an increasingly common régime variant in the Third World. Similarly, domestic militarism has been transformed from an unusual occurrence to a phenomenon which evokes little more than a déjà vu response. Today nearly half of the governments of the ‘South’ are directly or indirectly dominated by the military, whereas three decades ago little more than 15 per cent could be so classified.


1989 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 809-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Hackett

AbstractForeign news coverage on Canadian national television was content analyzed in light of Third World criticisms of Western news agencies. Using a sample of CBC and CTV national English-language newscasts in 1980 and 1985, four hypotheses were considered: (1) the geographical distribution of foreign news is highly concentrated, focussing on the West and regions of violence involving Western interests; (2) news from the industrialized West and from the Third World tends to be characterized by different formats and topics; (3) differences between networks are limited; and (4) differences between the two years studied are minor. The results support these hypotheses, with the partial exception of the fourth one, to the detriment of the image of the Third World on Canadian television.


2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-53
Author(s):  
Edmund Burke

There is something seriously flawed about models of social change that posit the dominant role of in-built civilizational motors. While “the rise of the West” makes great ideology, it is poor history. Like Jared Diamond, I believe that we need to situate the fate of nations in a long-term ecohistorical context. Unlike Diamond, I believe that the ways (and the sequences) in which things happened mattered deeply to what came next. The Mediterranean is a particularly useful case in this light. No longer a center of progress after the sixteenth century, the decline of the Mediterranean is usually ascribed to its inherent cultural deficiencies. While the specific cultural infirmity varies with the historian (amoral familism, patron/clientalism, and religion are some of the favorites) its civilizationalist presuppositions are clear. In this respect the search for “what went wrong” typifies national histories across the region and prefigures the fate of the Third World.


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