State of the World 2002
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Mar. 14th, 2002 | 01:16 am
mood: Angry
I've been reading the State of the World 2002 by the Worldwatch institute. Chapter 7 has pissed me off.
It's on "Breaking the link between resources and repression".
There's a good number of wars going on right now that are more about exploiting resources than trying to become a government. In some places the various factions actually end up selling weapons to each other, while grabbing the local population and forcing the boys to commit atrocities against their own relatives, and raping the girls.
Some of the top resources paying for these conflicts include oil, diamonds, gold, copper, coltan (an ore rich in tantalite, an material crucial for current state-of-the art capacitors), timber, and ivory.
So I knew that as far as I can tell pretty much every oil company in existence has been linked to human right abuses by supporting local military forces' repression of anyone protesting the companies behavior. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of the high-tech connection to these practices (other than exploiting women labor to assemble the circuit boards).
I wonder how much progress the team trying to print micro-circuitry with nanotube ink and an ink-jet printer have been making.
It'd be nice to have an sustainable alternatives for the bits of high-tech society I like, so I can get back to picking on U.S. oil dependence.
It's on "Breaking the link between resources and repression".
There's a good number of wars going on right now that are more about exploiting resources than trying to become a government. In some places the various factions actually end up selling weapons to each other, while grabbing the local population and forcing the boys to commit atrocities against their own relatives, and raping the girls.
Some of the top resources paying for these conflicts include oil, diamonds, gold, copper, coltan (an ore rich in tantalite, an material crucial for current state-of-the art capacitors), timber, and ivory.
So I knew that as far as I can tell pretty much every oil company in existence has been linked to human right abuses by supporting local military forces' repression of anyone protesting the companies behavior. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of the high-tech connection to these practices (other than exploiting women labor to assemble the circuit boards).
I wonder how much progress the team trying to print micro-circuitry with nanotube ink and an ink-jet printer have been making.
It'd be nice to have an sustainable alternatives for the bits of high-tech society I like, so I can get back to picking on U.S. oil dependence.
from:
rampling
date: Mar. 14th, 2002 02:38 am (UTC)
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At least, according to this website, There has been much media attention and lobbying on the Hill over the past few weeks about child slaves in the cocoa fields in Ivory Coast, Africa. I hope this attention will begin to bring about useful reform.
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from:
solri
date: Mar. 14th, 2002 05:07 am (UTC)
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from:
alienghic
date: Mar. 14th, 2002 11:19 am (UTC)
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I've know about quite a few of these abuses for some time, it's one reason I get so twitchy and willing to boycott close to any corporation bigger than about 100 employees who've got the slightest whiff of wrong doing. There's a good chance that they probably are guility of something, since the current economic system seems set up to reward those who engage in exploitive practices.
Though as an alternative to boycotting, chocolate might be another good resource for the fair trade certification program that's been making progress for coffee growers.
Also action by political groups might be a bit more effective with chocolate than say oil, since I doubt the chocolate manufacturers have lobbies anywhere near as strong as the oil industry.
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from:
artemii
date: Mar. 14th, 2002 09:06 am (UTC)
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from:
artemii
date: Mar. 14th, 2002 10:58 am (UTC)
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from:
alienghic
date: Mar. 14th, 2002 11:10 am (UTC)
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Diamonds and African Civil Wars
from:
artemii
date: Mar. 14th, 2002 09:07 am (UTC)
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Re: Diamonds and African Civil Wars
from:
alienghic
date: Mar. 14th, 2002 11:21 am (UTC)
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