How many people read the article?
I am not sure but only three had voted on it. A simple question, was favorable or unfavorable? I was the fourth person to rank it as favorable. BUT why did my fellow geeky friends not voted on it?
The tech community are the very people who should give a damn.
A bloody connection to the Congo in every pocket . . . | Tom Foremski: IMHO | ZDNet.com.
We live in a global community where there is little happening in the world that we aren’t all connected with in some way. The current global financial crisis underlies that point but also, the bloody conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The “civil war” that has killed millions and displaced millions of people is largely financed by the Congo’s massive resources of mineral wealth. This includes gold and diamonds but also coltan, a mineral from which tantalum is derived–an essential component in capacitors…which are an essential component in cell phones and any other digital device.
About 80 per cent of coltan comes from the Congo and although there are sanctions against supplies from the Congo, those supplies that are easily laundered through a multitude of traders. Everyone along the supply chain makes a profit as the money goes back into the armies fighting to control the richest mineral regions in the Congo.
And it is not just coltan, the electronics industry also creates huge demand for cassiterite, from which tin is derived, and used to replace lead in electronic boards.
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