The mobile phone is a remarkable piece of engineering. But look inside. There’s blood in this machine. There’s blood in this device because your mobile contains tiny electronic circuits, and they couldn’t work without mineral called COLTAN. It’s mined in the eastern Congo. There is blood here, the blood of Congolese who are dying in a terrible conflict. The West’s demand for Coltan, used in mobile phones and computers, is funding the killings in Congo. Under the close watch of rebel militias, children as young as ten work the mines hunting for this black gold. ‘Blood Coltan’ exposes the web of powerful interests protecting this blood trade. Meet the powerful warlords who enslave local population and the European businessmen who continue importing Coltan, in defiance of the UN.
8.67
Rating: 8.67/10 based on 12 votes cast.
Advertisement
Join The Conversation
Coltan is used primarily for the production of tantalum capacitors, used in many electronic devices. Many sources mention coltan’s importance in the production of mobile phones, but this is an over-simplification, as tantalum capacitors are used in almost every kind of electronic device.
It is also used in high temperature alloys for air and land based turbines.
We in the West are the very reason for this problem. They are poor and black, that’s the problem? Perhaps it’s closed, ignorant minds like yours that further develop the problem with lack of understanding. For years we in the West have created these 3rd world Countries by way of major corporations and un-payable loan and interest rates given by the World Banks (yes, ran by the lovely families which run the Federal Reserve)
No different than blood diamonds – encouraged by Cecil Rhodes (Financed by Rothschild (Federal Reserve) and Alfred Beit) Whom create diamond shortage and market floods in order to gain a larger profit.
We in the West along with ignorance such as your own (Clarence LeBlanc) are the reason that these “Poor Blacks” (great choice of vocabulary I must add) are living the way they have been.
Keep buying the latest and greatest phone, more food than you could suffice to eat and driving your big ol’ redneck 4×4’s. Our very way of life is the reason for the worldwide suffering/starving.
Stopping the sale of Coltan would stop financing the rebels but it would also make the population starv. I don’t agree creating an embargo on Coltan is the way to go. These people are easy to disarm. We in the West need only to throw the resorces toawards disarmement and policing and help the people mine their resource and build their countriues infrastructure. They are poor and black….that is the problem.
The wonderful world of Capitalism.
I never knew….