Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo Ranks Last In Conflict Minerals Report
derekmead writes "A new report by the Enough Project, an arm of the Center for American Progress, shows that companies like Intel, Apple and Microsoft have been successfully scaling back their use of conflict minerals in their products. Other companies have been less helpful. Out of the 24 companies surveyed and ranked based on their use of conflict minerals, Nintendo came in dead last, having made no effort to ensure that its products weren't funding guerrilla warfare in Africa. 'Nintendo is, I believe, the only company that has basically refused to acknowledge the issue or demonstrate they are making any sort of effort on it,' said Sasha Lezhnev from the Enough Project. 'And this is despite a good two years of trying to get in contact with them.'"
If you formally score someone 0/10 points on measure X just because they don't want to talk to you about X, then your assessment is pretty much worthless.
That just means they're open-minded and sensitive to other cultures and are willing to adapt to a global economy. There's no exploitation, quite the opposite, they should be applauded for using characters that go beyond their own borders.
So they get a 0 on their survey that doesn't get answer. Same thing with the greenpeace thing. Nintendo doesn't pay them, so they come in last.
So long as it's legal to use these minerals. Why should a business give a damm about anything else?
Leave the legal/moral/political areas to the goverments/people. If they rule it illegal. Then a business has to comply.
Or if people care enough the bad PR might hurt a company. But i really don't see that happening anytime soon.
IE conflict diamonds are forever too.
Because America is a huge market for that company's products. If people were to boycott them, it could hurt their profits. Of course no one will, and their competition does shit like this too. Another market failure.
Precisely! What's to say that Nintendo didn't get it from intermediaries who provided it to them, and didn't bother to check their sources so long as it met their quality standards?
Tell that to the "ethicist" who dressed up eugenics in fancy new garb.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
It's wasted effort. Minerals are fungible commodities. Choosing not to buy minerals from a particular source doesn't affect anything, as they just end up being sold to someone else for the same price.
About the only thing efforts like this are good for is PR and raising prices. Programs like this don't have any tangible impact in the conflict areas.
paintball
I know I never encountered the term "conflict minerals" until reading this thread. To paraphrase Arlo: If they want to change the world and stuff they need to sing at least loud enough to be noticed.
It's a simple generalization of "conflict diamonds", which you should be familiar with if you're paying attention to what's going on in your world.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
It's like Mitt Romney and his refusal to release his tax records. He has no legal obligation to, but it sure creates a perception of suspicious behavior when he is so adamant about not releasing them. In the same way, Nintendo looks fairly suspect because they were the only major company who refused to participate.
To me, there is also an extra psychological multiplier at play because Nintendo is primarily selling products to kids. Products for children whose materials are sourced from "blood minerals" make people extra-uneasy.
You make some interesting points, and it comes back to the inter-connected world economy. Most people remember the "Buy American" mantra in the 70's and 80's... because Detroit was taking it in the shorts from Japanese car companies. That translated into later "Buy American" campaigns where Wal Mart and other retailers were being targeted for using cheap Chinese goods instead of more expensive American goods. Now we have "conflict minerals" and "conflict diamonds" etc.. that no matter what you buy or who you buy from, at some point there is a distinct possibility that those minerals used in the components of your electronics came from war-torn regions.
The problem exists in that people do a great deal of posturing and hand-wringing (even on /.), but it amounts to a tempest in a teapot. Most people would not give up their iPhone or 3D LCD television if it really came down to it, yet like celebrities trying to guilt people into donating to charity, it seems people have no shortage of puritanical guilt to spread around to "everybody else."
The key here is not that the minerals are going to fund conflicts in the Congo. The key is what can be done to prevent the conflicts, but more importantly, what can be done to encourage the Congo to end the senseless civil wars. My guess is there isn't any quick-fix and the boycott of "conflict minerals" will not stem the tide of bloodshed.
Should we encourage companies to avoid using these minerals when they can? Sure. But we should never look down our sanctimonious noses at those who don't "have our moral superiority" and claim how well we're doing to stop using these minerals as we type from our computers that contain mostly "conflict minerals" in some form or another.
Political correctness, as you correctly mentioned, was just the tip of the iceberg. It's nothing more than a bunch of busybodies that want to inform you and I how to say something, what words to use, and what we can and cannot "morally" use (for food or whatever cause du jour comes up on the news.) I frankly don't give a shit. I boycott hollywood, the RIAA and Microsoft. If someone wants to know why, I tell them. Otherwise I simply do my bit and move on. (Oh and Disney fucking sucks and should be imploded and its grisly parts be shot from a rocket into the sun.)
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
To me, there is also an extra psychological multiplier at play because Nintendo is primarily selling products to kids. Products for children whose materials are sourced from "blood minerals" make people extra-uneasy.
"That's a nice reputation ya got there, specially with the kids. It'd be a shame if something happened to it. You wouldn't want anything like that to happen, right?"
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables