Coltan - Blood diamonds v2.0 :( Von kristenmartingale, 06:26
The coltan (columbite-tantalite) is a mineral widely used in the manufacture of cell phones, video games and other electronic devices. In recent years, Congo has become one of the world's top producers of this mineral, which is also known as "blue gold".Human rights groups, however, indicate that the production of coltan has funded child slave labor and civil war in the country (drawing a parallel with the exploration of the famous "blood diamonds"). This is the subject of the documentary "Blood on Mobile" ("i Mobilen Blod", Denmark, 2010), from the director Frank Piasecki Poulsen, who was in the Congo in 2008 and investigated working conditions in the illegal mines of the country.
"The first time I climbed the mountain on the edge of Bisie mine, saw a crater 800 by 500 meters, and it was like hell on earth. It is impossible to describe this nightmare scenario and suffering, "says the director in an interview with the Danish Film Institute (DFI)."About 25 000 people, mostly children and adolescents, working in the mine Bisie. Not grown there. And everything is expensive.You have to pay for protection, shelter, tools for work and, of course, for food and drink. A beer costs $ 12, a soft drink costs 7.Children and young people go there thinking they will gain a dinherio fast, but they are swallowed by a system where the cost of living is so high that they can no longer go. They are trapped, "says Poulsen.
For the director, much of the responsibility for the existence of these illegal mines of Congo belongs to companies that buy coltan produced there. The director said he had spent more than a year trying to get in touch with Nokia, for example, to know the official position of the company and never received a response. Finally, he went to the headquarters in Espoo (Finland), where he half-hour interview. "They are the makers of the phone that I use, and I wanted to make sure I'm not funding child labor, slave," Poulsen says in the film. "Unfortunately, it is impossible to know because the company does not track where the ore is used, and if Nokia, which is a manufacturer of one-third of mobile phones, do not, let alone the others in the industry."
After the film's release, Nokia issued a statement saying it would inform the origin of the coltan used in their products."Unfortunately, the statement indicates that they are trying to put the blame on his chair suppliers. For a company that claims to have social responsibility, this simply is not enough, "muses the director of" Blood on the cell phone. "
Currently, the international Nokia site does not reveal who are their suppliers of coltan, a condition regarded as crucial by NGOs that are active in trying to ban the industrial use of coltan from areas of conflict. The company says vaguely on a page titled "supply chain" (supply chain) that has an ethical commitment to the environment and humanitarian values, and "hopes" that its suppliers do the same.
