I'm currently working on a website for the campaign: Congo Calling. This campaign flourished in the wake of Bandi Mbubi's speech at TEDxExeter last Friday.Many of us have seen the Leonardo Di Caprio film 'Blood Diamond,' we know how it goes, the violence, the rape and the oppression of individuals for one tiny little allotrope of carbon. Mbubi's speech opened our eyes to the damage done by mining for minerals in the Congo.
It is a little known fact that our smart phones contain metals and minerals literally mined in blood. The corruption of the government in the Democratic Republic of Congo results in a lack of structure meaning that people are freely exploited, tortured and forced to mine for this precious source. Mbubi, however, doesn't ask us to be righteous and immediately throw our phones into the bin. In fact he says that the very weapon of torture is actually the same thing that can save the people from it. The Phone. Without the technology we now have the outside world might never have discovered the violence resulting from mining for that same technology. You see?
Even if you don't see I implore you to sign this petition urging Apple CEO, Tim Cook, to create a conflict-free iPhone. That doesn't mean take all business away from the Congo, but it means that there should be some money and a structure thrown at the mining communities in the Congo to protect the individuals from human rights violations of a few evil people.
