Blood in our hands

It may be a Dell but should it say: Made in Africa?

Ok so we've all heard of Blood Diamond the film with Leonardo Di Caprio. Blood diamonds have also popped up in Lord of War and 24. I imagine most of us don't have many diamond products nor do we buy consider buying diamond products every year or so. 

The reason for this is simple diamonds tend to go in engagement rings (expensive and most people don't get married every other year) or extremely expensive pieces of bling (minimum wage =£6.10 verses the keywords: extremely expensive). Apparently my wife's ring does not have any conflict diamonds in it which is good. Also my coffee is fair trade and we even have a bar of fair trade chocolate lying around. 

However, just about everyone I know including my mum, has a mobile phone. How many of us think about where they come from? If it's a Nokia then it's Swedish or an i-phone is American but these companies and every other producer I can think of doesn't have a supply of  the necessary ingredients for circuitry in their country. Most of these primary ingredients come from Africa. Now there is a problem here.

The Congo's natural beauty masks the hideous war for her riches

There is a huge potential for blood minerals to end up in our phones, digital cameras, computers and hundreds of other electronic products we use every single day. When I found out about this I was shocked and embarrassed that something that I had bought could have cost me so little yet cost someone else their life and the lives of others.

The DRC* is particularly rich in minerals (for example coltan) needed for mobile phones yet it has hosted one of the most bloody wars after World War Two! The conflict has a long history and has been described as Africa's world war. It's not just another African war or tribal chaos. Cold war politics, colonialism and consumerism have all played a part in this "bath of blood" and it's the latter that concerns us. If you're reading this then you are most likely a consumer. I've e-mailed a few of the big tech companies like Sony and asked them about where they got the minerals for their products from and whether they were conflict minerals. Those who replied said that they were working hard to ensure that no blood minerals were in their products. However, another source said it was impossible to be 100% sure of where a mineral was coming from and whether is was funding war lords who fight over the control of the mines, as certificates can be faked and illegal minerals are be mixed in with legitimate supplies.  

This war has involved such brutalities as mass rape, child soldiers and it is funded by minerals that we all want either on a ring or in our hand as we text and talk about last nights TV shows... ironically the news on my HD TV missed most of Africa's world war.


*According to a official American estimate the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the richest countries in the world according to its natural resources. Pity no one told the locals who on average earn 23 cents per day.

A school in DRC the crack you can see on the right of the side wall is big enough to put your arm through.
For a standard bag of cement, that will be $52 (US ). No idea how many bags you would need to fix it though.

2 be or not to be...(a virgin)

Hey I was looking at a Christian magazine and one of the articles (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationship/features/27856-qbut-he-or-she-isnt-a-virginq#disqus_thread ) was dealing with marrying the right person anyway there was a long list of posts talking about marrying people who had premarital sex. This is what I posted.

There are a couple of issues that haven't been dealt with here. If someone wants to marry a virgin then that's up to them. There's no point saying if a guy meets his dream girl would he refuse to marry her because she's not a virgin. Quite clearly she wouldn't be his dream girl if it was such a big hang up for him. Likewise dealing with non-virgins when married is hard and for both people I imagine. I've a non-Christian friend who had sex before he was married and he said to me after he was married he wished he had waited.
Sin even after you're a Christian is a problem and it can still be a problem dealing with the sin that God has forgiven you. Say you murdered someone before you became a Christian there will still be ramifications after you have become a Christian, most sin is like that. Sin has consequences.
Sexual sins are unique in that they have a special role in a person's life. Someone has already mentioned the verse where it talks about the way it's a sin with body and soul (1 Corinthians? Sorry but I don't have a Bible to hand) but there's often more to it. Most sexual sin takes place in the context of a relationship. Ending a relationship because it's wrong is hard, very hard especially if it's been long term and you're living together. There's an old phrase that was a euphemism for unwed people living together and that was "living in sin". I've ended a relationship because it was wrong, although not for the reasons we're talking about here, but in following God's plan I could take some solace in knowing that I was doing the right thing even though it was emotionally torturous at the time. I can say looking back that it was the right thing to do. I'm married to my "dream girl" and I've remained really good friends with my ex-girlfriend. I'm not sure I could of had I not been obedient to God and continued the relationship.
Finally there is grace. If a person doesn't marry you because of your past don't hold it against them. Even though the punishment for all sin is death, grace forgives every kind of sin. Let's show love to other posters and deal with them gracefully even if we disagree with their point of view.