What is love?
What is liberty?
And what are conflict minerals?
Well, I will get back to the first three, but conflict minerals are minerals from Africa (in this case, the Congo) that are being mined and sold and the revenue is being used to fund the armies (rebel and government) that are around the area fighting for control. Well, the revenue isn't exactly, well, it partly is, but mostly it is the high taxes that the armies impose on the people that live and work in the mines.
So these minerals are then used to make our phones, or computers, or etc. etc. You know, stuff that us first world countries have and, literally, cannot make a decent living without anymore.
Why does this pertain to you and I? Because we are the consumers of these products that are being made to finance wars, basically. And to support slavery, because that is what happens in these mines. Slavery.
So yeah, this is a little scrambled, but here is my main point.
Pressuring these big corporations (like Nokia) to use conflict-free resources is a good thing, and and important thing, and I think that it needs to be done. But realistically, that will just be an endless cycle. I don't know for sure, I haven't done research on it, but I feel like there aren't enough conflict-free resources around for companies to not use conflict-minerals without prices going extremely high and everybody complaining. Yeah, the companies may stop buying from suppliers that they know use conflict-minerals, but once they start using another supplier and this huge demand comes onto this supplier and the new supplier realizes that it needs to reach out somewhere else to fulfill this demand, where will it look? Well, inevitably it will most likely look back to conflict-resources, because they are most readily available and they produce a lot. So yes, stopping the use of conflict-resources by means of pressuring companies is a good thing, but isn't a long-term solution in the eyes of myself ("myself" being junior in college who hasn't done any first-hand research but goes off of what I hear other people (seemingly reputable sources) saying and intuition).
So where do I find the means to end this horrible thing?
Education.
Not just education for us, or education to be abundant in our country or other first world countries, but in third world countries. And not done solely by us, but teaching those in third world countries how to become teachers, so that they can provide more jobs other than working in the mines. More jobs need to be available in the country (I have no solution for that myself, except by providing teaching jobs) and people need to be educated to know that working in the mines is funding the very wars that they are trying to escape. Of course, this leads to needing more job opportunities in the countries, which again, I have no solution for. But people need an alternative to doing the jobs that are funding the wars which are killing their people.
So yeah, this was a very conjumbled blogpost thinger. I apologize. It was hastily contrived after viewing the film "Blood in the Mobile" and learning about this topic and before going to sleep.
I will leave you with one last thought on this subject, think about it. Think about what can be done about it. Whether this means pressuring the corporations or doing the dirty work going into the countries and educating people, or something else, what is it that you see needs to be done about it? Just think about it. If you want to go further than thinking to doing, then great, if not, oh well. But at least think about humankind.
I cooked today. Like, a ferreal dish of food. For the first time, by myself, in this suite. It was very good, but my beans were squeaky. Here is picture.
No comments:
Post a Comment