Chinese refrigerators invade Cuba

[jpak]

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/world/09/03/3cubafridge.html

HAVANA — With President Fidel Castro ailing, his still-healthy propaganda apparatus has been trying to convince the country that the United States is about to invade Cuba.

But while the elderly women assigned to watch the horizon from beach lookouts have reported no sign of Marines, there's been a foreign invasion of the island nation all right — the invasion of the Chinese refrigerators.

A truck loaded with old refrigerators passes through the Cuban countryside. About 300,000 homes have had to pay to replace their fridges with Chinese models under a deal between the two nations.

Eighteen-wheelers stacked with hundreds of Chinese-made Haier fridges stopping door-to-door in the countryside and on city streets have been as common a sight as Cuban military transports. An estimated 300,000 households, in a country of 11 million people, are replacing their aging appliances — all in the name of an effort to lower Cuba's total energy use.

And this being Cuba, not only are the replacements mandatory, but many people have had to take out loans from government banks to pay for the new appliances.

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[Solo_in_MD]

1. Anyone know what refrigerant the Chinese units use

I've read other places China wad s ignoring the Freon ban.

[jpak]

3. Haier was first Chinese appliance manufacturer to convert from CFCs

to HCFCs

Cuba is a signatory to the Montreal Protocol and has phased (or is phasing out) CFCs.

So is China (but they have a long way to go)...

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/CHINAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:20585170~pagePK:1497618~piPK:217854~theSitePK:318950,00.html

...but that doesn't mean that there not any "cheaters" around.

[Gregorian]

2. The new world order does not include the USA.

While we were busy manufacturing cluster bombs, the chinese were busy preparing for their future. They spent what we spent in Iraq, on their infrastructure.

I've always said, instead of bombs, we should be dropping appliances on countries. After all, once the bombing stops, the rebuilding commences. So why not skip the killing part, and just go straight to the rebuilding.

All of our aggression is going to come full circle and bite us. We have spent our wad. That is my opinion.

The Chinese are still improving their manufacturing and design quality.

Despite how hard the US has tried, the rest of the world is going to improve their standard of living. AND ours is going to fall. There's your new world order for you.

[Poppyseedman]

4. I see the Cuban government has mastered capitalism

"Don't think that because we're in a socialist regime that the fridges are free," said a religious leader in a coastal city who asked to remain anonymous. "Actually, they're quite expensive. I'm paying the equivalent of $286. My wife and I make about $25 a month. So, like most people, we're financing it over a 10-year period at 10 percent interest."

I see all is well in the socialist paradise

"I'm 42, and this is the first time I see a brand new fridge," said a woman waiting for the truck to pull up to her home in San Francisco de Paola, 30 minutes southeast of Havana. From the doorsteps of her two-room wooden shack, she asked that her name not be used. Inside, in a home nearly empty of furniture and dark even at high noon,

[skids]

5. Frankly, we should do this here.

Replacing fridges that are past a certain age will more than pay for the loan here. Were it not for the rights issues, which I do hold tantamount, we should be doing this here.

As it is a less mandatory campaign would probably work -- low interest guaranteed loans combined with an advertising blitz would be the best way to make the American consumer excercise some good sense.

The best of both worlds would be a purchase program organized through the power company itself, with the fridge just given with no money down and the power bill savings applied towards paying for it.

[jpak]

6. Or a $0.005 per kWh tax on electricity generated from fossil fuels

to fund (serious) rebates and low-interest microloans for Energy Star appliances.

on edit: it would generate ~$14 billion per year...

[LeftyMom]

7. Haier makes exceedingly shitty refrigerators

My Dad bought one and it was DOA and would cost more to repair than replace in 18 months. I feel bad for the families mandated to buy one, I'm guessing they'll be on the hook for a replacement when the POS is toes up.

Too bad the embargo means they can't buy one of the few American produced brands that actually last, in a country where there isn't a lot of money to spend it makes more sense to invest in a quality product that will last and have replacement parts available when they're needed, neither of which is true for pretty much any shit made in China.