Coltan, a rare metal needed for Playstation 2 incites war in the Congo
I know it will be a bitter struggle but Africans must prepare themselves to do battle for the control of their resources. Africa's resources have been in foreign hands for the last 500 years and it is time for them to retake control, however, in order to succeed they must fight this battle collectively. We are living in a world whose motto is 'every man for himself ' and unless African people come to their senses and truly understand this they unfortunately, will continue to suffer and die. Hort
http://videogames. yahoo.com/ feature/playstat ion-2-component- incites-african- war/1231745
Console war reaches past the couch and into the Congo, claims report.
By Ben Silverman
Has the video game industry dug up its very own blood diamond?
According to a report by activist site Toward Freedom, for the past decade the search for a rare metal necessary in the manufacturing of Sony's Playstation 2 game console has fueled a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
At the center of the conflict is the unrefined metallic ore, coltan. After processing, coltan turns into a powder called tantalum, which is used extensively in a wealth of western electronic devices including cell phones, computers and, of course, game consoles. Allegedly, the demand for coltan prompted Rwandan military groups and western mining companies to plunder hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the rare metal, often by forcing prisoners-of- war and even children to work in the country's coltan mines.
"Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms," said Ex-British Parliament Member Oona King. So where's the connection to Sony? According to Toward Freedom, during the 2000 launch of the PS2, the electronics giant was having trouble meeting consumer demand. To pump out more units, Sony required a significant increase in the production of electric capacitors, which are primarily made with tantalum. This helped drive the world price of the powder from $49/pound to a whopping $275/pound, resulting in the frenzied scouring of the Congolese hills known for being ripe with coltan.
Sony has since sworn off using tantalum acquired from the Congo, claiming that current builds of the PS2, PSP and PS3 consoles are sourced from a variety of mines in several different countries. But according to researcher David Barouski, they're hardly off the hook. "SONY's PlayStation 2 launch...was a big part of the huge increase in demand for coltan that began in early 1999," he explained. "SONY and other companies like it, have the benefit of plausible deniability, because the coltan ore trades hands so many times from when it is mined to when SONY gets a processed product, that a company often has no idea where the original coltan ore came from, and frankly don't care to know. But statistical analysis shows it to be nearly inconceivable that SONY made all its PlayStations without using Congolese coltan."
Currently, the Playstation 2 is the best-selling video game console of all-time, having sold through over 140 million units.
Why the Congo?
1.The Congo is a central storehouse of strategic minerals for the functioning of modern society, particularly as it relates to the mining and technology sectors. We must demand that foreign countries and corporations implement humane policies toward the Congo.
2. The Congo sits in the heart of Africa and is bordered by NINE other countries, therefore as the Congo goes so does the rest of Africa.We must work with the Congolese and other Africans to make sure that the Congolese and NOT external forces determine the future and direction of their country.
3. The Congo has a history of being pillaged and the people being used as fodder in a rush for natural resources. The Belgian king, Leopold II, ruled over a death chamber from 1885 - 1908, when conservative estimates put the number of Congolese dying as a result of Leopold's personal rule at 10 million. During Leopold's era the resources at the root of the suffering of the Congolese was ivory and rubber, today its coltan, diamonds, gold and copper to name a few. We must put a stop to mass murders in the quest for riches. To profit at the expense of the people is destructive to the human spirit.
4. Western nations under the auspices of the cold war assassinated an elected nationalist leader (Patrice Lumumba) and put in place a brutal dictator (Mobutu Sese Soko) and propped him up for 37 years while he brutalized the Congolese people and systematically stole the riches of the country. Surely, these nations have an obligation to make sure that international networks and actors refrain from undermining genuine Congolese leadership aiming to create a decent way of life for the average Congolese.
5. The rapes, slaughter and savagery being committed in the Congo are affronts to the human conscience. Every individual and leader in the global community should be ashamed and outraged that we have allowed almost 6 million Congolese to die since 1998 as a result of a resource war. As human beings in a so-called civilized world, we can and must do better.
Further Reading
Role of Coltan and the Congo War
http://www.american.edu/TED/ice/congo-coltan.htm
The Congo Challenge
http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article219
Video
Congo’s Bloody Coltan
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3OWj1ZGn4uM