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Sprint Moves To Eliminate 'Blood Minerals' From Cell Phones
Velcroman1 writes "So-called 'blood diamonds' or conflict diamonds are the well-publicized face of the decades-long human rights challenge in Africa. But the mining and sale of a lesser-known but more widely used group of natural resources known as 'blood minerals' has also fueled civil wars in Congo and Uganda — and they're in the latest smartphones. Congress sought to address the issue through the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which included a requirement for companies to disclose conflict minerals. In 2011 the SEC opened a public debate about this disclosure — but Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington is critical of the process. 'They are afraid of being sued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the World Gold Council,' McDermott said. Ahead of the SEC ruling, Sprint has made baby steps to come to terms with the controversy, joining the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade (PPA), and said it is working to make device manufacturers aware of the issue. But are they doing enough?"
How much iron is really in a cell phone? Oh wait...
Trolling is a art,
At least it is something for the drug kingpins to do if we finally legalize pot...
Saying "I am not going to buy this very valuable thing from you because you are bad" just gives others the opportunity to make a bit of scratch moving it around.
Well I'll be switching to sprint just for the effort. For a while now I have been purchasing ethically traded products and really trying to decrease my dependence upon slave made and harvested products. (it costs a bit but if we vote with our dollars some change may occur). I also think it is better for the economy (Global and local). Because more money goes to the workers, thus more money moves around.
I may be an idiot or a sucker but at the very least I feel better about myself!
Trying to track down where in Africa minerals are mined will require massive spending on auditors and lawyers. Bribery and corruption is rife. A much more effective approach is to support refugees, wherever they may end up. Furthermore, population growth and AIDS are larger problems than the African civil wars. Rwanda's population is already larger that what is was before the genocide there.
You see, the main problem I see here, is that the FBI could help! But they only work offshore if it's related to software piracy.
(too much?) ,no one gives a shit about the whole continent after it got dug out, only the chinese seem interested in at least putting up some sweat shops in the sand where the others just send food and weapons for the warlords now who's the hippie and who's right here ?
that's something that should be discussed at government level, as i see it,
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
If I had points, I would mod you up. I would just have a hard time choosing between Funny and Insightful.
Rather than use poor substitutes for 'conflict' minerals, let's man up and end these stupid conflicts.
Yeah, let's put the US on the hook for yet another open-ended war. That's worked so well.
I'll buy whatever performance I need and the best price available.
That's your right...but no need to act so smug about it.
The blood 'whatever' controversy is a self-inflicted political problem. The people that gin up the controversy are the same people that won't tolerate solving the actual problem.
How, pray tell, do you solve this problem? Don't say war: it just doesn't work. (See the manhunt for Kony if you doubt this). Could it be that the problem of poor leadership and exploitation in Africa is a complicated problem than can't be immediately solved by guns?
How do we know which side to be on when something is labeled a "conflict mineral"?. I ask because when you stop to consider the historical context of uprisings, the governments and corporations are not always the good guys.
Would minerals (or oil) sold to support the recent Libya uprising be considered "conflict minerals" if they didn't support Khaddifi?
Or is the criterion solely "if it wasn't mined by a corporation, it must be bad"?
For example, look at the "blood diamond" issue.
Which is more ethical? Buying diamonds mined by individuals working their own land, or buying diamonds mined by De Beers?
I really do wonder if we should call BS on the whole "conflict minerals" thing. I suspect the issue exists solely for corporate profits, and it started because diamond prices were getting undercut by sales outside of the diamond cartel. There's a reason why De Beers was banned from the United States for so many decades. You gotta be pretty bad if your corporation is too evil for the USA.
They're going to stop buying phones made in China? Wait China is okay right...
Om, nomnomnom...
Yeah, forget the protection of workers. Let's just compensate them. "Sorry you lost your home and your hand got cut off for not mining enough. But here's a tent!"
Furthermore, population growth and AIDS are larger problems than the African civil wars. Rwanda's population is already larger that what is was before the genocide there.
Population growth and AIDS are partly due to the civil wars. If an area's unsafe, volunteer educators and doctors are far more rare, so STDs spread rampantly. With uncertainty about the future and high rates of child mortality, people reproduce as much as they can, trying to ensure that their family/tribe/group will endure, and even grow large enough to eventually win whatever the current conflict is. These civil wars have grown from centuries of tribal conflict, so the battle plans are laid out on a scale of generations, with parents expecting that their children will some day fight for their tribe in glorious battle, if only those damned Westerners would get out of their way and stop saving whoever's losing the war this decade...
Supporting peaceful endeavors (including "mining companies that won't kill each other") and education is the best way I know of to solve all three problems. With education comes a better economy, sanitation, a more stable future, lower birth rate, which finally leads to better education.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Could it be that the problem of poor leadership and exploitation in Africa is a complicated problem than can't be immediately solved by guns?
Western nations, as well as now Eastern nations (read China and Taiwan) can stay the hell out of Africa. Corruption won't occur if no one is providing the dollars, yuan, euros or any other currency with which to bribe and buy influence. We can stop looking toward the third world to provide for our standard of living, and if smart phones and other electronic devices can't be made without slave labor or exploiting workers in a developing nation to keep the price down, then perhaps it's a luxury we can do without. The same goes for oil in the Niger river delta.
Not really.
There are three minerals involved - tungsten, tantalum and tin. The electronics groups have gotten together to work on the first mineral, tantalum and have done it at the smelter scale. There are 45 smelters worldwide that process coltan into tantalum, and from there it's a lot easier.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/materials/cracking-down-on-conflict-minerals
The other two are next challenges (Tin is used for displays and touchscreens, tungsten in motors. Hrm... old style lightbulbs - conflict lightbulbs?)
http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/materials/cracking-down-on-conflict-minerals
Blood diamonds are diamonds that have been mined. And up until science came up with a way to create synthetic and flawless diamonds, they were a rare and valuable natural resource. But like I said, until then. What happened after was laws were passed banning the use of synthetic diamonds in jewelry, and by 'happy' coincidence, their use in industrial process as well. Thus the distributors of diamonds in this (and other) countries could continue to command large sums of money for a rare and natural resource -- even though we now had a common and abundantly available supply via industrial process.
And so, because of the decisions of those individuals, corporations, etc., with the kind help of the majority of Congress and the authorization of the President, we helped make it possible for the exploitation of millions. We assisted in the enslavement of human beings, by trading our dollars for the fruit of those unnecessary labors. And we have allowed this to go on for as long as it has, because as long as we don't have to stare into their faces with a recognition of what they've done -- that our dollars do it for us, we can remain in ignorant or apathetic bliss.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
... when Sprint stops taking my blood once every month.
They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
let's just mine these damn things so we don't have to screw with third world countries, though kind of difficult to do right now (like everything else). If we do want to help Africans, help rebuild their water systems.
mfwright@batnet.com
Have the US join the ICJ, try the warlords in absentia, then drop a hellfire on their heads. Those guys aren't in it for the afterlife, so the supply of warlords should dry up quickly.
Congress sought to address the issue through the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which included a requirement for companies to disclose conflict minerals.
Well, right there is part of the problem. If this is something that should be dealt with in U.S. law (I can understand why it is, but I can imagine that there might be a good argument as to why it shouldn't be...and am not interested in arguing that point from either side), it should be in a law all by itself, not as an afterthought tagged on to a banking regulation bill.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
So your simple solution is to shift to a world without corruption, which will eliminate corruption. While it is true that this would work, hopefully you can spot the circular logic.
Sorry, but the Strawman response office is closed on Friday's.
My God man, Sprint was extracting its minerals from BLOOD?!? The inhuman beasts!
However, that does explain the recent drop in the homeless population in the Overland Park area.
I believe his point was that we need to give up this "White Man's Burden" garbage and think it's our job to "save" Africans from themselves. It hurts more than it helps. It makes them dependent on outside assistance to the point that they can't or won't do things for themselves, and a lot of the money and aid just fuel corrupt regimes and tribal warfare anyway. Either way, it's not really making things any better, and it arguably makes them much worse.
Check out my world simulator thingy.
Not really.
There are three minerals involved - tungsten, tantalum and tin. The electronics groups have gotten together to work on the first mineral, tantalum and have done it at the smelter scale. There are 45 smelters worldwide that process coltan into tantalum, and from there it's a lot easier.
I'm not challenging your statement because I'm ignorant on the question.
But really, when a ship, truck or train car arrive in the middle of the night, and cash passes hands - commerce in Africa is even more sketchy than China... There is every possibility that the actual source of raw materials is obfuscated to protect all the slimy business dealings...
Unless there are laboratory alalysis being done on the raw ore by independent watchers that can verify the chain of custody of the ore, in my ignorant opinion, all bets are off...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Does you wife know you got her cubic zirconium?
We should give them a good US education! They can score really high on a tests, have absolutely no working knowledge, and be hooked on Facebook! Hell, that may solve the problem with population as well. Who has time to make friends or babies when you have the interweb thing in your face all day!
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
That would be a shorter list. How about the coal mines in China where criminals and political prisoners are sent to die? How about the infamous Norilsk nickle mine in Russia?
Shouldn't we do something about the oil we import from countries that abuse their citizen's rights?
Have gnu, will travel.
There's a simple solution to US companies buying these minerals (and oil as well) from "conflict" regions and from those who are declared enemies of the US.
Mine/drill for it here in the US. The US has plenty of oil and the minerals being discussed to supply us for centuries even accounting for best growth estimates. The information is out there, do a Google search.
We've allowed the government to tie our own hands behind our backs with regulations and laws which make it extremely costly & difficult, if not impossible, to do. I guess the people who advocate for such policies & regulations are fine with getting all the benefits of electronics technology, as long as they can export the negatives to poor regions.
It's NIMBY-ism on a global scale and it's adding significantly to the domestic economic and global political mess the US is in.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
thats mighty un-capitalistic of you
Sprint's...weird. Even from their inception as a competitor of Ma Bell, they've been trying weird things, or swimming against the current in some way. Lately it's been sending their stock price toward the pink sheets, but I've admired them for this for awhile -- and I even switched over about two years ago. I don't know if they're trying to be a force of good in an evil marketplace, but they managed to at least be a lesser evil. Blue and red really need some competition anyway...
Charisma is the measure of someone's ability to lie with a straight face.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalus
So if you are going to have a conflict mineral, whose mines are rooted in human suffering, it might as well be the mineral source for the chemical element named after someone damned to an eternity of torment.
Sick coincidence.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it