SuperPowers and Silicon Valley ‘Rocking the Congo’ for Critical Minerals

Let’s “Rock the Congo!” SuperPowers and Silicon Valley for Africa?  Oxymoron when they’re the cause of exploitation in Congo. Yes, it’s a far cry from the UK SuperGroup “Band Aid” in the mid-80s followed by “USA for Africa” to address famine.

“Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time
The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life

Where nothing ever grows
No rain nor rivers flow…

Here’s to them
Underneath that burning sun…

“We Are the World”

We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives

Yep, that’s for damn sure –Your own lives!

Today, bastards are seeking Bloody “Diamond in the Ruff” ↓ Mining Congo’s “Strategic Minerals” under the veil of pursuing “green” initiatives.

Profits by Electronics and Big Tech Companies come at the expense of exploitation of people, land and environment. Right, but to get your smartphone, computer and other gadgets someone’s gotta break some rocks. And it ain’t the “men from mars.” As Blondie‘s song “Rapture” notes:

“Just have your party on TV
‘Cause the man from Mars won’t eat up bars when the TV’s on
And now he’s gone back up to space
Where he won’t have a hassle with the human race”

SpaceX appears unable to haul rocks from the moon. Recall first US air plane also had issue of cargo space and weight. Former NASA Astronaut Colonel Frank Borman sees three ingredients when pursuing missions: “Goal, $, and support of the country.” Otherwise, you’re just there to “collect rocks.”

Colonel Borman’s response as to making successive missions to the Moon. Why? “Mission Accomplished.” Exactly. Why return when you can collect the rocks on earth.

Care to know about those actually digging and carrying the rocks? Projects like those of John Prendergast, Founding Director of The Sentry and Contributor Ryan Gosling describe how “Armed groups are fighting over the lucrative minerals that power our cell phones and laptops, leaving a trail of human destruction that has no equal globally since World War II.”

In “Congo’s Conflict Minerals: The Next Blood Diamonds”  Prendergast and Gosling alert us that “The war in Congo is a war which most people know nothing about, despite the fact that we’re all directly connected to it.”

Silicon Valley for Africa?

Social Media and Tech founders like to say disruption is good. See how easy and fun it is to connect! Well, not so for those forced to make your connections possible.

Disrupt and make money. Then Build? Once Silicon Valley makes a profit selling you electronic goods, some turn to building. Building what exactly? 

Apple’s Anthony Michael Fadell proposes we “change our energy systems.” And what of our energy sources? More importantly the disruption in Africa and South America? Land rich with Technology-Critical Elements (TCEs) Big Tech and Nuclear Power companies as well as “Black Markets” depend so much on.

Does your book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making speak of these? Are children digging and climbing lifting loads of rocks for hours in the sun worth making thermostats? 

Funny, some may say. Kids collect rocks, gadgets collect data. Fadell recall my paper on Alphabet, company you worked at besides Apple? Google’s reported acquisition of Nest included the product Nest Thermostat OS.   

Fadell, mothers and their children are literally mining for your business! Let’s be honest. This idea of doing away with the dull, dirty and dangerous (DDD), was this really in the interest of the planet or your company, your country? If so, do DDDs include TCEs?

Softmen, do the world a favor, just take your money and run. But mark my words, no amount of power or philanthropy will reward you immortality, as Paul with the Soft micro company and Steve with his “big apple” discovered.

Silicon Valley ‘greentech’ supporters? Sure, when “road to hell [and profits] is paved with good intentions” they’re all for green dollars. But one doesn’t “fix climate change.” Bell has rung ! ! !

In the words of Hemingway, will you be For Whom the Bell Tolls next?

“No man is an Island, intire of it selfe; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.” – John Donne

Cry Babies of the Tech & Green Generation

West has a saying, “What’s worse than not getting what you want? Getting it and someone taking it.” Tried separating millennials from their gadgets? You’re in for some crying.

And yet, it’s this same generation that screams for green! Sure, they’ll protest big oil and gas conveniently ignoring where their electronic toys come from. Paradox is it not. What is the lesser evil?

In the end, no matter how many hydrogen and solar panels are in operation, the companies you pay to juice up your phone and electronics are importing these “conflict minerals.”

Next time you’re having a “conflicting day” while still living at home commuting from your bed to your sofa, consider the day from a rock miner’s view. He’s getting ready to break the rocks that make your day possible.

Imagine, up at dawn to walk hours to your job on a hot or cold day, spending an average of 15 hours digging your way through rocks in two dozen feet holes just to earn on average $9 a day. Oh and don’t forget that two hour walk back to your home to sleep and start it all over again the next day.

My green friends, little in this world comes free and easy; Except you living at home with mommy and daddy. Seems you’re in a conundrum: you want what you shouldn’t have. Well, I guess it’s better to be in a conundrum than in a hole covered in mineral dust and rocks.

What can you do? A green start is by “directly contacting the 21 biggest electronics companies and demanding conflict-free products here.” As Gosling and Prendergast point out,“Now that you know, what will you do?”

Africa, Our Beloved Country Cries Again

It seems every country has a story to tell of their beloved country. The story of “Cry, the Beloved Country” is not a story of a coal mining town in the West or oil-sacked desserts in the East by the West.

It is of a remote agricultural village in South Africa. It is about family, community division, facing deep loss, looking to faith and their beloved land and country, all while held by the slashing ropes of Apartheid.

History appears to run in circular motion like the rings of a tree. And like a tree, people in a community are subject to the elements. Man ultimately inherits the land, environment he creates, and the people he affects.

Today, that land, that part of Africa being affected is its Congo. Here, here, I say!  It’s bloody time the West stop seeing itself as the center of “the world.”

In the current social and economic unrest around the world, if one truly listens, one can hear the land crying for the next generation.

“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.”

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UK supergroup “Band Aid”

Source: Musixmatch

“USA for Africa”

 Source: LyricFind