Auschwitz, Congo and Plausable Deniability
There is a saying that evil prospers while good men do nothing. History has proven this to be the case. So its disappointing to see the plausible deniability approach surfacing whenever I mention the link between 45,000 dead per month in the Congo War and our technological consumerism.
No, I have to say what really does disappoint me is that whenever we’re confronted with an issue that is too large for a single day solution by a single person we’re very likely to turn our backs. It happened during the Holocaust – good men looked away. Out of fear. Out of apathy. What can I do against the machine? And if I were asking people to throw away their stereo or mobile phone then I’d see that defence might have some force… but I’m not. People are only being asked to consider before they shop for luxury items, or to think twice before upgrading the office hardware.
What I’m asking people, particularly in the tech community, is to pass the word around – its not cool to just run out and buy up that latest gizmo using tantulum capacitors – UNLESS you know for sure that the supply chain does not include Congo minerals or the stolen minerals from surrounding countries in that part of Africa. These companies can source coltan elsewhere, but then your phone will be a little more expensive. That’s it.
However, the supply chain issue with tech products is a misty one. There are many hands and non-linear trails between the miner and the mobile phone in your hand. But we need to let our governments AND the tech companies know that we don’t agree. We need to only upgrade when we need to upgrade – not for the cool factor of having the latest greatest iPhone. Don’t for a minute think distance absolves you from your complicity in those 45,000 deaths per month in Congo. Its what we do from this point forward that will define us for future generations.
By the way, studies have shown that people in groups make worse decisions than individuals and a part of why that happens is because we feel that not only responsibility but also blame are shared between us. Therefore we share the blame in those 45,000 deaths – one mega-micro-fraction doesn’t equate to much. Right? Yeh, just keep telling yourself that. And ask yourself if you can at all see how so many good Germans turned their back on the Jews and Auschwitz in the 1940′s.
Do you really need that new piece of shiny tech you’re so intent to get your hands on? Really?
