Nick Kristof had a piece in the NYTimes on Saturday entitled “Death by Gadget” where he pointed out the relationship between the iPhone (and other electronic devices) and the war in Congo:

An ugly paradox of the 21st century is that some of our elegant symbols of modernity — smartphones, laptops and digital cameras — are build rom minearls that seem to be fueling mass slaughter and rape in Congo. With throngs waiting in lines in the last few days to buy the latest iPhone, I’m thinking: What if we could harness that desperation for new technologies to the desperate need to curb the killing in central Africa?

Quick Overview:

I’ve written about this relationship between the minerals (tantalum, tungsten, tin, and gold) that are used in many of our new electronic devices and are sourced from Congo — financing one of the worst civil conflicts in history. In that post, I shared an excellent mapping of the relationship between minerals and conflict in Congo developed by Appfrica:

My quick overview from that post read:

One of the major factors feeding genocide and violent crimes against humanity is that ruling regimes have established business relations with foreign companies, earning them an political ally and a source of revenue to fuel local conflict. The foreign companies often get exclusive access to local resources in exchange for their unwavering political support and usually a cut off the top. We have seen this in South Sudan with Chinese oil companies, and also in DRC with Coltan mining. This excellent report by Appfrica takes Ushahidi (conflict mapping) data and mashes it with mining data to illustrate the “conspicuous correlation” between the two. Coltan can be found in the capacitors used in your hearing aids, pacemakers, airbags, GPS units, laptops, mobile phones, video games, and the list goes on. 60% of it can be found in the DRC, where conflicts since 1998 have killed an estimated 5.4 million people.

A Few Videos:

Here are a few of my favorite videos highlighting conflict minerals from Congo:

Note: This first one is new and cited in the Kristof article:

This one is of John Prendergast — a fellow American University alumn and co-founder of Enough Project (one of the major advocacy voices behind conflict minerals in Congo):

And this video is the winning entry for the “Come Clean 4 Congo” video contest:

Questions for Discussion:

Tying this all back to the Kristof article, I’m curious how we can leverage the massive consumer demand for these new technologies to combat the atrocities that are taking place in Congo.

1. Is demanding that companies not source these minerals from Congo enough? Does that really help? Or does it further hurt the current and future prospects of the Congolese economy?
2. Is there a way that companies can take greater control of the value chain within Congo to ensure that their purchase does more good than harm?
3. What role does the government play in regulating these conflict minerals? Should the US put a trade embargo on them?

Photo Credit: Flickr User ArdailSmith