My cell phone is almost dead. I need to get a new one. I’m having a very difficult time finding one that satisfies by stringent demands. I feel that my demands are reasonable. I want a cell phone that doesn’t use conflict minerals, doesn’t use sweat shop workers, and is environmentally friendly…and guess what? There is no suck fucking thing right now.
It’s really pissing me off. It all started when I started following and researching Congo and how the US uses precious minerals from their mines. The stuff that happens in Congo is beyond devestating …over 5 million deaths, 300,000 rapes in a very short period of time. They force children to work in these mines…force children to eat their parents, watch their mothers get raped and killed and just unspeakable unfathomable things that go on.
The more I researched, the more disgusted I became…thinking about smug asshole Americans walking around with their iphones and other electronics while the people of Congo are experiencing unspeakable acts and tragedy at our expense.
I can’t with a clear conscience have a cell phone that was manufactured from the mines which fuel such acts of human violation. It sickens me to think about even owning a cell phone and what these poor people are forced to endure so we can have fucking electronics.
One good thing though…is cell phone companies are now going to be forced to disclose where they buy their minerals from…which will make things better for the consumer who wants to be aware of the origin of materials that make their communications devices possible..
The downside is..that companies won’t be punished or fined for using conflict minerals. They just want to raise awareness so people will hopefully start to take notice and stop buying those products. The other sad part is…a lot of people won’t take the time to research or find out where their cell phones materials come from.
I’ve been researching for a while to find a cell phone made without conflict minerals and it’s really fucking hard. Motorola says they no longer use them and have a testing device to find out where the minerals come from so I guess that is a start…Iphone is allegedly working on a “conflict mineral free phone”…then I get excited and then I read about the sweatshops that these companies run with poor working conditions…then I get mad again.
In Denmark…there is a freedom phone (I think that’s what it’s called) but you can only get it in Denmark…I would like to go phoneless but I’m afraid I would have trouble getting work and talking to clients and whatnot. (even though a lot of my work correspondence is through email)…
Anyways, I’ll continue my search or maybe just go cell phone less until the conflict mineral free iphone comes out…Anyways, I urge anyone and everyone to read up on the Congo tragedy. It’s very disturbing and might cause you to rethink your whole cell phone agenda.
I also urge people to demand to know where the minerals come from in your phone. It’s a very small thing we can do to battle the horrible living conditions in Congo.
