Lit Review

The significance of the social action project is to help a war torn and impoverished country. The article by Alisha Mims hits many high notes on the controversy in the Congo. Mims starts the article talking about how rich the Congo is due to its resources. She also talks about how crucial these minerals are to the electronic companies in the U.S. She explains what importance coltan has for these companies by explaining it’s a combination of tantalum and columbite and that these are integral parts of electronics. By starting with these statements she sets up the importance of her next topic; the Congo wars.  Alisha starts with the history of the second war in Congo where the Rwandese and Ugandan governments teamed up and went to war against the Congo dictator. The Dictator of the Congo had been performing genocidal attacks on the Rwandese people; also known as the Tutsis. After time, other countries began invading and destroying the infrastructure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With a country high in resources, and lack of infrastructure it led to the takeover by rebel groups. These rebel groups exploited the minerals and began outsourcing them for profit. They then used this profit for weaponry. It is half way through the article when the author shows a quote of the UN showing their lack of interest. The quote is “Part of that new production involved rebel groups and unscrupulous business people forcing farmers and their families to leave their agricultural land, or chasing people off land where coltan was found and forcing them to work in artisanal mines. As a result, the widespread destruction of agriculture and devastating social effects occurred, which in a number of instances were akin to slavery”. This quote was released sometime in the year 2000. It took ten years before legislation was written about the controversial mining. In the year 2010, president Obama cleared the Dodd-Frank Act which required corporations to disclose any information regarding conflict mining. The author begins talking about the successful impact of this act by saying “Armed groups that were trading in tin, tantalum, and tungsten saw their profits drop by 65 percent” (Mims). She also talks about the increase in “green mines” that began popping up. These mines are conflict free and are used by some big name companies like Apple, Intel, and HP.  Some companies have actually begun programs and foundations to help stop the use of conflict minerals. Alisha has also pointed out some companies that are using conflict minerals and have no plan to stop. Of these companies is Nintendo which is “the world’s largest video game company by revenue” (Mims).  This author has an all-inclusive look at every major topic of this project. She has the history, the problems, the supporting data, foundations and programs to stop it, a list of companies and their progress towards conflict free mining, as well as photos of what is going on in the Congo. A website like this may be something our group could aim towards, It’s got an all-inclusive feel that doesn’t drag on.

Mims, Alisha. "Conflict Minerals: How Our Demand for Electronics Fuels Child Labor and Suffering." Ring Of Fire Radio: Robert Kennedy Jr, Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.