Thursday, November 19, 2015

This next blog is about War and Conflict; Conflicted: The fight over Congo's Minerals

This caught my eye because this seems to be a big issue in Africa. It seems that Congo is actually being hurt due to the minerals conflict. This site is actually stating what is being done.  This is a quote from the site:

"We are working now at 20 percent of normal capacity. We've lost a lot of money..... Those who did that feeling that they helped Congo, they didn’t help Congo at all. It harmed thousands and thousands of Congolese."

This quote caught my eye because it seems to me that people say they are helping; when it seems all that they are doing is hurting. Congo is not very developed. However, they do have tons of mineral reserves that have not be touched. However, the eastern part of the country has tantalum, tungsten, and tin, which are handled by hand and which then are shipped worldwide for manufacturing electronic devices.


Advocacy groups in both the US and Europe has been going to companies; more specific technology companies to source where the minerals come from to use in their products. This led to the passing of section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. This requires companies to track where the minerals they use come from. One long term consequence of this is that the Congolese people are not being paid for the work that they have done, and this act did not help the people of the Congo.

Image result for congo minerals

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