Major Electronics Firms Support Ending Use of "Conflict Minerals" 198
tburton writes "The US House of Representatives yesterday released the Conflict Minerals Trade Act (HR 4128) to try and end the international trade of tungsten, tantalum and col-tan, the mining of which is accused of fueling violent rape and murder in eastern Congo. Since the very same minerals power the most popular consumer electronics from HP, Verizon, Nokia, RIM and Intel, the Information Technology Industry Council has quickly signed a statement of support. Advocacy groups are hopeful these commitments prove to be meaningful as consumers begin to question the end result of the supply chains powering their favorite gadget."
No Surprise and years to late ! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hell on Earth (Score:3, Interesting)
>>>the entire region seems truly hell on earth, beyond any of the war zone or famished village you see on television
In Soviet Russia... ...nah that's not going to work. In Roman Empire..... the rowdy warring natives are subdued through force, and then the mines and minerals are claimed for the People and Senate of Rome. Eventually the warzone becomes a tamed province filled with beautiful villas. See Britannia circa 50 A.D.
Let's see - South Africa is close to Congo. Maybe they could annex it and bring "peace through superior firepower".
Re:Fungible Resources (Score:3, Interesting)
No.
Congress are the same people who said in 2005, "You're not going to see a housing collapse - that you see when people talk about a bubble." They think they know everything, but in reality they know little about the real world. (Please note I'm not picking on any person or group - they are ALL this clueless.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW5qKYfqALE [youtube.com]
Re:No Surprise and years to late ! (Score:2, Interesting)
According to Wikipedia: "the Democratic Republic of the Congo produces a little less than 1% of the world's tantalum (in 2006)".
Which makes this trade act look like a cover-up of where the other 99% is coming from.
I have (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically, we have China squeezing the west on one side, and dems squeezing on the other. Worse, I bet that EU will do the same. And does this help those in the middle? I seriously doubt it.
Mine the Stars (Score:1, Interesting)
Get it from asteroids, already!
Support needed development of the space tech and capability. Nobody gets killed but some very few willing volunteers. And a lot of fellow nerds get to move out of TMB (mom's basements) and into spacious mining capsules for those relaxing and edifying 2 or 3 year streches. As an added bonus, there will probably be no noticeable change in their physical condition before and after that time in space. ;p
Plus, its 'Totally' eco-friendly - unless you nudge something where it shouldn't, of course. ;)
And, while they're at it, they could fetch enough nickel / lithium / whatever to expedite a sustainable electrical civilization.
und so wieder...
Re:This will do nothing to end the "conflict". (Score:3, Interesting)
This will control or at least decrease the violence that is supported by the money they get, since the income goes to the guerillas to support the maintenance of their weapons which will kill even more innocent people.
Why? What I'm hearing (in the discussion here) is that any such minerals are already being laundered to hide the source. My bet is that there will be zero impact in Congo. No reduction in rape and murder or military conflict. Instead, the only impact will be bureaucratic overhead for anyone doing business in the States. I oppose such frivolous regulation.
Re:It's all signaling (Score:3, Interesting)
>>>The fact that it costs so much is the point. Gift exchange serves a valuable purpose in ensuring cooperation, because it serves to make declarations of intention credible.
(1) A new car or a new house is pretty damn expensive, and shows the guy is in it for the long haul. I think it would be an acceptable gift for the wife rather than the diamond.
(2) On the other hand, 50% of marriages end in divorce. Not exactly a wise investment to buy a $10,000 diamond ring when there's a 1 out of 2 chance you'll lose that investment. (The woman of course gets to keep it. Sucks for the guy.)
Re:Yeah this work like the Drug War (Score:3, Interesting)
No, actually it wasn't. As I said before, I propose arming and training the poor people, the fishers, farmers, villagers, etc., not more warlords.
The problem with US involvement in anything like this is that, instead of trying to help out the regular people who really need it, they look for whatever violent assholes happen to oppose the violent assholes currently in power. We think that by allying ourselves with a different group of tyrants, that we can get them into power (which actually does work many times), and then somehow these tyrants will feel loyalty to us (yeah right) and then stop being tyrants. It's insane.
Propping up a different group of tyrants isn't the answer. The answer is to empower the regular people, so that they aren't victims to either set of tyrants. But we don't want to do that, because then we wouldn't have any control over the situation. We'd rather have a tyrant in power (like the Shah in Iran, whom we installed after overthrowing a democratically elected government there) that we can use as a puppet, instead of just allowing the majority of people in a region to govern themselves.