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thesideshow
930 Posts
On Oct 23 2011 20:05<span style='color:#d20000'> (13 min)</span> Rockztar wrote: I asked myself that before and after watching. Pardon me for asking OP, but how are the victims of rape(for example the ones in the movie) related to blood minerals? Check this out http://www.unwatchable.cc/the-true-story/faq/ | ||
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Deadeight
United Kingdom1629 Posts
On October 23 2011 01:20 Probe1 wrote: Is 230 times a day not enough for you ZessiM? 230 people aren't raped a day in the UK as a result of trying to sell mobile phones, and people don't turn a blind eye to it. Yes it's a big problem everywhere, but this is something different. | ||
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Excludos
Norway8281 Posts
On October 23 2011 23:51 Krehlmar wrote: Great way to deny any part of a system that is built on the slavery of a third of the worlds population so that we can buy cheap shoes and phones. Did I deny it? I even spesifically said "No one in this thread has said this doesn't happen"..is that denial to you?! What you want me to do? go down there and play Rambo? Think before you post. | ||
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Probe1
United States17920 Posts
The entire globe is rife with atrocities and while we certainly should focus a lot more on the Congo where we've never quite turned a blind eye but certainly never helped enough to matter.. The entire human race is fucked. We're just shitting all over each other with the most horrible things we can and without being conspiracy theorist level of doom and gloom.. We really don't have much time left to live the way we have been. If we don't stop hurting each other soon we'll drown. | ||
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Deadeight
United Kingdom1629 Posts
On October 24 2011 05:25 Excludos wrote: Did I deny it? I even spesifically said "No one in this thread has said this doesn't happen"..is that denial to you?! What you want me to do? go down there and play Rambo? Think before you post. Not quite, but you are the end user of those minerals, and your money finds it's way to congo and funds these things. One of the things about capitalism is that companies will act to keep the populations favour, it's competition. So when people pressure companies to ensure their money doesn't make into the hands of a warlord in congo, it can happen. No one expects you to solve it yourself. But you can help  | ||
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InvalidID
United States1050 Posts
On October 24 2011 04:05 Rockztar wrote: I asked myself that before and after watching. Pardon me for asking OP, but how are the victims of rape(for example the ones in the movie) related to blood minerals? Well basically the Coltan in the Congo is pretty easy to mine: basically a dude with a shovel can do it. So the warlords enslave a bunch of people to mine Coltan for them and then smuggle the minerals across the border to finance their "military" operations. Without any money to buy guns and food, or minerals to fight over, the rebel groups will presumably disintegrate. | ||
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Deadeight
United Kingdom1629 Posts
On October 24 2011 05:28 Probe1 wrote: My only point was rape is an epidemic (to use the term loosely). The entire globe is rife with atrocities and while we certainly should focus a lot more on the Congo where we've never quite turned a blind eye but certainly never helped enough to matter.. The entire human race is fucked. We're just shitting all over each other with the most horrible things we can and without being conspiracy theorist level of doom and gloom.. We really don't have much time left to live the way we have been. If we don't stop hurting each other soon we'll drown. I'd argue things have been getting progressively better since the times of the plague. If you think it's bad now, imagine what it was 200 years ago. We progress kind of slowly I guess, a lot of attitudes disappear only after waiting for those people to die off, but I truly believe we're progressing, however slowly. And everyone can do their little bit to help push it forward | ||
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InvalidID
United States1050 Posts
On October 24 2011 05:29 Deadeight wrote: Not quite, but you are the end user of those minerals, and your money finds it's way to congo and funds these things. One of the things about capitalism is that companies will act to keep the populations favour, it's competition. So when people pressure companies to ensure their money doesn't make into the hands of a warlord in congo, it can happen. No one expects you to solve it yourself. But you can help The problem is that it is fricking difficult to do this. We have laws in the US to try and stop conflict minerals from being used, but they are ineffectual because of the laundering. Pretty-much every country with significant remaining coltan reserves is a developing country. Even Australia which is a developed country was used as a center of coltan laundering. A lot of the coltan mining is done by local artisanal miners not big industrial operations. The smugglers just go across the border to Rwanda and sell the coltan cheap to the local Rwandan mining outfit, who then resell it as non conflict tantalum. So either you screw over what is a successful example of positive development in Africa(small locally owned mining businesses), or you solve the problem some other way. I am not saying there isn't a good solution, I just don't know what it is, and I haven't heard of anyone claiming to. The majority of tantalum is not conflict tantalum, but it is basically impossible to determine what is and what is not conflict tantalum. | ||
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Probe1
United States17920 Posts
(Unrelated but the fact that it is over cell phones and not diamonds or foodstuffs is irrelevant. It will and has been happening anyway) | ||
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InvalidID
United States1050 Posts
On October 24 2011 05:40 Probe1 wrote: I'd like to see everyone actually do their little bit but that mean more than signing another uneventful internet petition. They feel good and you can say you helped accomplish something but unless there is an organized and concerted effort to change the political and human reality of the Congo or any other central African country.. these things will go on. (Unrelated but the fact that it is over cell phones and not diamonds or foodstuffs is irrelevant. It will and has been happening anyway) The "over cell phones" is a bet of a misconception. Tantalum is used in pretty-much anything with a power supply, and inside pretty-much any microchip as a thin film resistor, among other things. Even if every cell phone manufacturer were to strengthen their auditing procedures the demand for conflict coltan would hardly be budged. | ||
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Probe1
United States17920 Posts
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Shraft
Sweden701 Posts
This film was inspired by the true story of Masika, who lives in the Congo. But we set it in England because we want to ask the question: “Would we accept it, if it was happening here?” Masika and her family were raped. Her husband murdered, and fed to her. Although deeply traumatised by this atrocity, she returned to search for other victims of rape and give them shelter. To date she has aided over 5,000 people. There are hundreds of thousands of people being raped every year in a conflict that is fuelled by the trade in minerals used to make our mobile phones. This film is harrowing, but it is nothing compared to the nightmare going on in the Congo every day. Your phone manufacturer must act to stop using minerals from this region. I hate when people try to push this viewpoint on me. Like it is the company's fault that they are killing each other over minerals. In fact, the companies help to provide work for the people of Congo by buying their minerals. It's not the company that should be held responsible for those atrocities, but the government of Congo. | ||
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Danglars
United States12133 Posts
For those saying that this doesn't make a difference: You are fucking ridiculous. Sorry, but your opinion is wrong and unaccerptable. When we as a society is enabling this by our indifference and we outselves are customers. It is completely ridiculous to say that we don't have any power over where the mobile phone companies conduct their buisness. This is the prime example of a marketing nightmare for those companies. If word gets out that they are in the forefront of sustaining these militias they are done. To email your phone company and tell them this aswell as spread this message DOES change things. A few months ago there was a law going to be passed in Uganda that would give death sentences for gay people. The internet blew up and the bill was put on hold. If western netizen can affect a nations policy directly like that (through their own government ofc) then affecting companies within their own society is nothing. + Show Spoiler [Oops!] + The problem is that it is next to impossible to determine what is conflict tantalum and what is not in your supply chain. I remember reading an article a few years ago about how a lot of companies were importing tantalum into Australia from the Congo, then re-exporting it as Australian mined tantalum to get around the assorted embargos. + Show Spoiler [So] + Of course we do. We could boycott any cell phones manufactured with African materials. That wouldn't change shit though. Come on guys. Be alerted to such an appalling situation and don't prattle off with a boycott as the solution to the world's ailments. Let's plant little tracking chips on the atoms of the African exports to make sure not one gram goes into my next cell phone! This is capitalism, this is the global economy. You get the cheaper raw materials not from Shady Businessman Dude but some trader of a kind, who gets his from another and on down the line (reread to find that cell phones are not even over 50% conflict-material-derived). Oh god that my industry isn't targeted by a campaign to prevent slave miners of raw materials a world away. All the good intentions in the world aren't gonna lessen the poverty inflicted on those least connected to the thing. Say, struggling third world economies with decent governance and rule of law that supply of 51% of cell phone materials, nah include them all and make that percentage higher. These things always more directly impoverish the fair players than the unfair. Middlemen that didn't know exactly where the products come from or go but are not out of jobs, Shippers in the same likeness. Recognize the problem and propose a more effective route, for the love of all things holy. Feel-good boycotts indeed. | ||
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