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Gold-Digging African Children

[simpleanswertosimplequestion] Yes. [/simpleanswertosimplequestion]
 
and is there anything I as a consumer can do about it?

especially thinking about electronics and rare metals used there that is mined by children. I was thinking about something like a fairtrade label in electronics. is there anything like that?
 
Dictator Cheney said:
and is there anything I as a consumer can do about it?

especially thinking about electronics and rare metals used there that is mined by children. I was thinking about something like a fairtrade label in electronics. is there anything like that?
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Africa I do not know. But speaking from my experiences at the moment in India...

Short of getting them to abolish Hinduism and the caste system (for real), the answer is a resounding NO. Alas, I may add.
 
realpaladin said:
Africa I do not know. But speaking from my experiences at the moment in India...

Short of getting them to abolish Hinduism and the caste system (for real), the answer is a resounding NO. Alas, I may add.
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mmh ok, India and its caste system is a topic on its own.
 
Perhaps I'm late into this, but the lead video shows children breaking rocks into gravel in Guatemala. They are being helped by a new government program that pays them to go to school, even as the rock they break is no longer being bought becauise of the economic slowdown. How exactly is that a bad thing?

I promise not to buy any Guatemalan gravel.
 
realpaladin said:
Africa I do not know. But speaking from my experiences at the moment in India...

Short of getting them to abolish Hinduism and the caste system (for real), the answer is a resounding NO. Alas, I may add.
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Any changes to the caste system seem to have been cosmetic at best (from what I hear, haven't been there).

As for rare metal components in modern electronics. i don't think that you can shop ethically and boycott these practices by only buying high-end electronics. The raw materials are so far down the supply chain. I guess all manufacturers buy from roughly the same sources.
And those sources are often small mines in warlord controlled parts of Congo, and the money that is made with it is used to wage the civil war. And the civil war is mostly about control of the resources.

I'm going to stop thinking about this now an try to enjoy my Ipod without feeling guilty.
 
Eddie Dane said:
Any changes to the caste system seem to have been cosmetic at best (from what I hear, haven't been there).
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You don't know half of it. I have seen fights being stopped just because a guy said his name was <suchandso> which showed he was from a higher caste.

The caste system is not at all cosmetically removed, it is just 'hidden' for the rest of the world. Everyone still uses it.

Eddie Dane said:
As for rare metal components in modern electronics. i don't think that you can shop ethically and boycott these practices by only buying high-end electronics. The raw materials are so far down the supply chain. I guess all manufacturers buy from roughly the same sources.
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And besides... the emerging economies will want to have the cheap cheap stuff, and then the trend starts all over again.

Face it. You, can do zilch about it with your buying behaviour.

Just because companies like Apple might seem to be big to you, it does not mean they really are in the 'scale of the world'.

Companies like Tatung, a chinese ODM/OEM could not care less if the west started being all high and mighty; they not only control things economically, but also politically.

Yet almost everyone with electronics in their home has some components from them.
 
realpaladin said:
You don't know half of it. I have seen fights being stopped just because a guy said his name was <suchandso> which showed he was from a higher caste.

The caste system is not at all cosmetically removed, it is just 'hidden' for the rest of the world. Everyone still uses it.



And besides... the emerging economies will want to have the cheap cheap stuff, and then the trend starts all over again.

Face it. You, can do zilch about it with your buying behaviour.

Just because companies like Apple might seem to be big to you, it does not mean they really are in the 'scale of the world'.

Companies like Tatung, a chinese ODM/OEM could not care less if the west started being all high and mighty; they not only control things economically, but also politically.

Yet almost everyone with electronics in their home has some components from them.
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it is hiden? when did that happen? just a view months ago i saw a reportage on Arte, that showed a new Caste, woman that set up watterwells in small villages and they start earning respect for what they do in India.

i never had the impression they hide it, actually they more seemed proud about it.
 
JoeyDonuts said:
Yeah. Stop using anything that has coltan used in its manufacture.

See you in the woods.
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hey when you see no problem with it, go away from this topic, it seems not to interest you.
It is ok, most do it. But actually i do care and i hoped i could do anything. I dont want to boykot electonics, i more hoped that the people around those sources would provit from it, and it would enable them to earn good money with it so they can build schools etc, Like fairtrade labels take care of exactly that.

i dont need your stupid jokes, go tell them to an African kid after 8 hours mining.

such ignorance pisses me off.
 
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I gave you a plan of action, and then posited the logical outcome from your "advocacy."

No need to get nasty. Besides, you're going to need to have your wits and calm about you when you go off the grid.

The other thing you can do is to purchase a coltan mining operation and run it the way you see fit. Or institute stable governments and worker's rights in Western Africa.

But wait...that would be making the world do things our way, and we just can't have that, now can we?

ETA: Nice edit job. But I'm not going anywhere. I'm on-topic and within the confines of the MA - something that seems to be giving you fits.

Here's a suggestion - go to Africa and tell them to stop using children in their mines. My prediction is that you'll have your head macheted free of your shoulders and hoisted on a pike outside the mining camp within 30 minutes. All of your high-minded ideals about fair-trade and building schools for children don't amount to a blast of hot wind while the entire region is essentially lawless, and acts with no regard to Western notions of "child labor." Hell, half of their standing armed forces are little more than AK-47 toting children.

A sticker won't do anything to fix that. This is as much an African problem as it is a Western one, and more so.
 
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JoeyDonuts said:
I gave you a plan of action, and then posited the logical outcome from your "advocacy."

No need to get nasty. Besides, you're going to need to have your wits and calm about you when you go off the grid.

The other thing you can do is to purchase a coltan mining operation and run it the way you see fit. Or institute stable governments and worker's rights in Western Africa.

But wait...that would be making the world do things our way, and we just can't have that, now can we?
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but your plan isnt helping anyone, not us nor them. its just stupid.
 
strangely enough the town my Bananas come from dont do things like we do, there it is the Banana Farm that is building the school, them that hire teachers to educate the kids of their workers. something not happening around here. they do it diffrent than us.

But by ensuring they get a fair price for their Bananas the Farm is able to do this, and the Bananas cost only slightly more than Chiquita Bananas.
 
Dictator Cheney said:
but your plan isnt helping anyone, not us nor them. its just stupid.
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How so? Change has to start somewhere, and your whingeing about fair-trade won't do anything at all. These conditions will not improve unless the region as a whole becomes stable and adopts concepts such as "worker's rights" and abolishes child labor. The impetus is on them to institute the changes. You can't find another source on the planet Earth for coltan that large. If a western company were to buy the mining operation outright, and run it in accordance with western notions of child labor, they would be put out of business by market demand for cheaper components provided by rival mines who still used cheap child labor. Either that, or they'd be killed.

I'm not the one spouting ignorance of this problem, friend. That's on your shoulders.
 
Dictator Cheney said:
strangely enough the town my Bananas come from dont do things like we do, there it is the Banana Farm that is building the school, them that hire teachers to educate the kids of their workers. something not happening around here. they do it diffrent than us.

But by ensuring they get a fair price for their Bananas the Farm is able to do this, and the Bananas cost only slightly more than Chiquita Bananas.
Click to expand...

And where's this? Does it have a stable government with child protection statutes and worker's rights legislation? Somehow I don't think you're getting bananas from West Africa.
 
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