fix or pitch

Our mp3 player stopped working recently and I suspected (and hoped) the problem was in the adapter, not in the player itself. If I were back home, I would probably check the warranty, contact the maker, or maybe try to get a replacement on eBay. But here the only option is try to fix it.

I went to a shop where the sign indicated that the guy fixed just about everything - above the door there was a picture of a television, a radio, a computer, among a scattering of other electronics. When I walked in, I found the shop to be a graveyard, or maybe ER waiting room, for troubled electronics (mostly TVs).

As he looked over the adapter, I asked if my problem was caused by Tajikistan's irregular electricity, with its surges and dips. He said this is what all of his business is from, and that if Tajikistan had decent electricity, he would be homeless.

As he struggled to open the case of the adapter box, he cursed American wastefulness, claiming that technology made for purchase in the US, like the adapter he was working on, is made to be thrown away when it breaks down, unlike the equipment he normally works on, which is made to be fixed.

There was no way to open the case without breaking it open with force. It took him about 20 minutes to open, during which time he employed the use of a couple of screwdrivers, a of pair pliers, and a hammer, before giving up on that and using the hot end of his soldering iron to melt the thing open. It only took him five minutes to repair the electrical part, then we taped the mangled case back together. I paid him the approximately $1.50 he asked for and went on my way.


His rant on wastefulness reminded me of something else that we get fixed in Central Asia, but throw away back home... our shoes. In our city, there are hundreds of guys whose only job is fixing shoes. Many of them line up all together with the tools of the trade around the central mosque, but many are also scattered around town, like one repair man who sits behind our apartment building.


Don't think that the decision between fixing and pitching is a based on some ethical principle. It all comes down to economics. Central Asia's low wages make buying replacement goods prohibitively expensive as compared to repair. Conversely, in America the cost of labor is such that you usually are better off buying new.