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.