4 ms·
I've lived in SA for about a year. I would have paid a lot of money for something like Starlink a couple of years ago. Where you have internet it does not work
by IFC_LLC 3mo ago
I've lived in SA for about a year. I would have paid a lot of money for something like Starlink a couple of years ago.
Where you have internet it does not work while the local power is out. And it was not that stable and at times we were sitting 10 hours without power a day. And that's in Joburg. And 5g was hard to come by.
So I can only imagine that locals are happy to see such a thing. Especially if you can run it from a car charger or something.
- bridgettegraham 3mo agoIn South Africa we are not allowed to make use of Starlink. The reason: our government insists that the owners of Starlink give > 50% of ownership of the contract exclusively to black people (our discriminatory BBEEE that explicitly states, openly, in any advert in public, that a company is allowed to ONLY EMPLOY black people and not white people), which Elon Musk and his company refuses to do (good for them). That is the reason we can't have Starlink.
- WhereIsTheTruth 3mo agoAnd rightfully so Remember the US backlash against Huawaie over 5G towers? African nations should have the exact same sovereignty/national security concerns regarding US tech, specially given the well documented history of the NSA and CIA leveraging their digital platforms for intelligence/spying It's actually funny how the discourse is never the same when it come to US interests vs sovereign nations
- sjducb 3mo agoThere are lots of white South Africans. I believe musk is one. Starlink is majority owned by a South African. The law isn’t about foreign/doneatic. It’s about black/white. Increasingly this state authorised racism is now extending to black people. The violent ethnic cleansing against black Milawians by black South Africans is terrifying.
- WhereIsTheTruth 3mo agoAgreed Just like the violent ethnic cleansing against Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians and Jordanians by white Israelis is terrifying
- sjducb 3mo agoAgreed. All racism is wrong. Would you like to take back your “And rightfully so” comment, where you support explicitly racist laws?
- dreambuffer 3mo agoWhy don't you guys ever acknowledge that the law is an attempt to correct the racism of the apartheid government by distributing economic opportunities to those who never had them?
- mothballed 3mo agoEconomic opportunity isnt zero sum. The 'opportunity' the ANC is 'redistributing' is neglect and mismanagement of infrastructure. Kneecapping starlink doesn't do anything for blacks.
- dreambuffer 3mo agoEconomic opportunity for black south africans is close to zero sum when all the profit goes to a foreign entity and white south africans. Separately, kneecapping starlink does a lot for our country by preventing a man who hates us from abusing our laws and spying on our citizens.
- mothballed 3mo agoI might suggest a basic course in economics. The fact someone else gets all the profit of the price paid for a service doesn't mean you dont also gain from what you received. This is the problem of looking at intent in law. Plenty of racist law had the intent to improve the country. But is in fact often economically illiterate for helping the populace.
- angry_octet 3mo agoWhen Elon's dead this problem will go away.