The connection between Bangladeshi refugees and Uruguay

When we left for Argentina, I unplugged my wife’s computer backup power supply. The switch jammed, so it had to remain plugged into the wall or go beep every five seconds until the battery ran out. Out of respect for lightning, that’s what it did.

Weeks later, I got around to disassembling it, and discovered that the button got its ‘spring’ from two little plastic hooks, one of which had become displaced. I fixed it.

This morning, faced with the same problem, I took it apart once again and simply tore out the plastic switch. New rules for the UPS: take a pen or finger and push white microswitch directly.

I spare you a closeup of the bar code label indicating country of origin, because after all everything is made in China.

But as our friend Patrick in Colonia explains, the Chinese make top-quality goods for consumers in first world countries. They make second-rate, but more affordable, goods for developing countries.  Then they make crap of such low quality that Bangladeshi refugees would refuse it. And that’s what they ship to Uruguay.

If that’s a complaint, it’s not limited to expats. Uruguayans say the same, in different words: lo barato sale caro – the cheap stuff ends up being the most expensive.