“Welcome To Sodom “-World Biggest Dump For Electronic Scrap.
In case you’ve ever wondered where your cell phone ends up…probably in Ghana, on the world’s largest electric garbage dump in Agbobloshie a district of the metropolis of Accra. Around 6000 women, men and children live and work here in the middle of poisonous garbage. They simply call it “sodom…the hell on earth.
The Austrian documentation “Welcome to Sodom” by Florian Weigensamer and Christian Krönes puts the fate of the people in the foreground, especially young people with unbelievable life energy and creativity in the midst of highly toxic vapours, our garbage. It’s a movie that makes us think about our own behaviour and the consequences of globalization.
“Welcome to Sodom”
“Sodom” is a part of the Ghanaian capital Accra, which only those who absolutely have to enter go there. The landfill of Agbobloshie is the terminus for computers, monitors and other electronic waste from Europe and around the world. Around 250,000 tons of discarded computers, smartphones, printers and other devices from a distant, electrified and digitized world come here year after year. Demand for the latest electronic accessories in the First World explodes.
Manufacturers regularly report turnover records. But these lifestyle products are often already after
short time again “out” and thus scrap. Hundreds of thousands of them land in Ghana, where children and adolescents crush electronic junk under the open sky. The melting of old cables in pitch-black clouds of smoke leads to new raw materials. For some a “clean” business, for the other toxic everyday.
The documentary…”welcome to sodom, your smartphone is already here.” Allow viewers peek behind the scenes of Europe’s largest garbage dump in the middle of Africa and portrays the losers of the digital revolution. The focus is not on the mechanisms of the illegal electronic waste trade, but on the living conditions and destinies of people who are at the bottom of the global value chain.
The garbage dump of Agbobloshie will probably be the last destination for the tablets, smartphones and computers we buy tomorrow!
“Welcome to Sodom”, Agbobloshie-Ghana, a new documentary film in German cinemas since 2 August 2018.
