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Apple Cracks Down Further On Cobalt Supplier in Congo as Child Labor Persists (washingtonpost.com)
Last year, a Washington Post investigation found several instances of miners -- including children -- labored in hazardous, even deadly, conditions at Congo's artisanal cobalt supply chain. Amnesty International and other human rights groups also have alleged problems. Earlier this week, British broadcaster Sky New published an investigation that alleged continued problems in the cobalt supply chain. The Washington Post now reports: Apple said it has temporarily stopped buying cobalt mined by hand in Congo while it continues to deal with problems with child labor and harsh work conditions. The Post connected this troubling trade to Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Company, a Chinese firm that is the largest buyer of artisanal cobalt in Congo and whose minerals are used in Apple products. Last year, Apple pledged to clean up its cobalt supply chain, but the tech giant said it wanted to avoid hurting the Congolese miners by cutting them off. Mining provides vital income for hundreds of thousands of people in one of the poorest countries in the world. Now, Apple says it has stopped -- for now -- buying cobalt from artisanal mines (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternate source). "We have been working with Huayou on a program that will verify individual artisanal mines, according to our standards," Apple said in a statement, "and these mines will re-enter our supply chain when we are confident that the appropriate protections are in place."
Never could stand hipsters and their fancy child-working artisanal mines.
"I was mining Cobalt before it was cool".
" I mine this thing called Cobalt, you probably haven't heard about it. It's the most important part of an iPhone".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
We pass the slavings on to you!
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Now the Congo cobalt is used for other phones and the other cobalt for iPhones. Everybody happy.
I always knew that Apple was supposedly a premium brand, but artisanal cobalt? Does that go with their artisanal chips? Can I get an artisanal cucumber and water cress sandwich with that at the genius bar now, too?
That is all.
Force them out of the factories and you will force them into child prostitution and drug dealing. These children will work one way or another or they will not eat! Wish people would understand how the world really works!
red china loving
issi friend
tim cook needs to move stuff back to usa and give fbi the ios unlock key.
I thought that was a bizarre term as well; but apparently it is a thing.
Although if, as Wikipedia indicates, these are basically a bunch of independently run operations with no central authority... I don't know how you'd get a handle on that except to cut it off completely.
#DeleteChrome
Organic Cobalt!
love is just extroverted narcissism
I read "Congo's artisanal cobalt supply chain" and thought of Princess Bride "You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means" - Inigo Montoya
Calvin:Do you believe in the devil? Hobbes:I'm not sure man needs the help.
The desert cart at my work warns that items "may have come in contact with nuts."
I keep meaning to find a picture of Ron Jeremy in a Chef's outfit, photoshop in a quote bubble that says "My Bad!" and stick it on there.
Someone had to do it.
Friggin magnets. How do they work?
Someone had to do it.
How bout they just buy the country?
I thought that was a bizarre term as well; but apparently it is a thing.
Although if, as Wikipedia indicates, these are basically a bunch of independently run operations with no central authority... I don't know how you'd get a handle on that except to cut it off completely.
"Artsanal miners" are doing what used to be done by people called "prospectors".
All of this goes back to the Belgian Prince treating the Congo as his personal slave state, literally chopping the hands off of small children and women to enforce slavery in his mines and rubber plantations.
We're just continuing the tradition.
Just like the South.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
"Artisinal mining"? O.o
Friggin magnets. How do they work?
From TFA: For those who aren’t aware, Cobalt is essential for the lithium-ion batteries found in smartphones, tablets and notebooks.
It's used in lots of different parts, but yeah, batteries over the last decade have become the primary industrial sink. See http://seekingalpha.com/articl...
Someone had to do it.
artisanal cobalt
WTF is that? Are these people really skilled artisans akin to those making my $15 scones or $20/lb CheeseIts?
I thought this stuff was coming out of Africa, obviously their advertising company is based in SF.
And have installed Suicide nets, rather than improve conditions for the workers... They rather catch them as they leap to their attempted death, and avoid paying their families anything, as they work them to death in stead... ANYONE who buys/owns apple products CONDONES THIS DESPICABLE PRACTICE! There are FEW tech companies whose track record on human rights in the workplace while using the equivalent of SLAVE LABOR, is as poor as Apples. This Story is as deceptive as MOST of the liberal Bullsh|t coming out of this site lately. Sad Really. News for Nerds getting Awfully Political and Biased these Days... Hard NOT to notice.
Unless we start making it clear that no business can be done with companies that act like this nothing will change. Will it make things worse for some people? Yes. That can't be helped. However if they're dying in mines before they have a chance to grow up I don't see leaving things as is to be much better.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Is there a charity that goes to at-risk places like these mining villages and towns then pays the family to put their children into school?
Something Like:
But where I can directly 'employ' a child to go to school and get a report on how well they are doing, a transparency report on what portion of my money is making to the child vs overhead?
If there isn't I think there should be. Can you offer a family more money, food and opportunity to put their child into a small village school than the local miners or child laborers?
If so then you can effectively buy happiness for these kids. Or at least a shot at a childhood while raising the pay of miners who's "tiny slave labor" market now has to compete with the charity.
I think there's a missed marketing opportunity here for Apple. All they are doing is pulling their money away from a toxic situation like child labor which hurts their reputation with people who buy luxury electronics in various shades of grey and white. They could be touting how some of your money for your iThing is being spent on teaching children who would have instead slaved away to build your toy.
"You cannot have a General Will unless you have shared experiences. You cannot be fair to people you don't know."
What's it for, anyway?
It's so they can offer phones with that stunning deep-blue color option.
My local grocery store has a bakery that advertises its "artisinal" bread.
Now I think that maybe I should avoid buying it, since that apparently that means they may be exploiting children (or possibly elves).
The average income in Belgian Congo is about $385 / year. I'm going to guess that these kids don't make more than $200/year, or $17/month. I'd pay the $17/month to replace a kid's wages if they went to school.
The cost of education, books, pencils, etc, is about the same, about $17/month. So for $35/month you could pay the kid to go school and provide books, etc.
Figure a few more dollars for the reports, overhead, etc, call it $50/month to take a kid out of the dangerous mine and put them in school. I might talk to my pastor about this idea of replacing the lost wages ($17/month) so they can go to school.
Would you be interested in actually doing something like this?
It should have read: 'Apple's Cracked'.
They are only WORKING in the mines and in the dangerous dumps beating out heavy metals from electronic garbage because bleeding-hearts in the Western world couldn't stand to think that their clothes were made by child labor, in relatively safe tailoring mills.
So all the kids got fired, but they still needed to feed their families ...
Basically, this is treating the symptom, not the root cause of the problem. You might as well tell someone with a broken arm to take an aspirin and it'll all be better as you can tell impoverished African nations to cease all child labor at once because it is Bad(tm).
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Everyone knows that Cobalt from kids is the best. Apple needs to recognize this.
You know damn well Apple won't let this affect their bottom line. As always: Fuck Apple.
Artisanal cobalt is like artisanal coffee, only different.
Friggin magnets. How do they work?
Magnets are a lie...
Iron just sucks!
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Why should they not return to buying the cobalt again once nobody is giving a fuck anymore because our hearts are bleeding for someone else?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Thanks for that information and analysis. Sounds like a difficult situation to improve. I started to say "fix", but probably at this point *improvement* is more realistic than "fixing" it.
On the other hand, people with less than a third-grade education are unlikely to solve the problems of violence and corruption. Ghandi was a lawyer, Martin Luther King had a PhD as well as two two bachelor's degrees.
Find or ony the cost of a cup of coffee a day, you can prevent a Oompa Loompa from falling into slavery.
You're totally right. We should just let the cycle of abuse continue with no consequences.
Sometimes I wonder why the world can be such an ugly place, then people like you show up to remind me why.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
No, we shouldn't. But we shouldn't try to make the less developed countries build Rome in a single day, either.
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