the_shadowwolf
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Total Posts
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675
- Joined: Jan 04, 2007
- Location: The Caribbean
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Playstation 2 component incites African war
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Jul 25, 2008 16:03
I'm not sure how many of you heard of this but i just read this article from yahoo. According to a report by activist site Toward Freedom,for the past decade the search for a rare metal necessary in themanufacturing of Sony's Playstation 2 game console has fueled a brutalconflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the center ofthe conflict is the unrefined metallic ore, coltan. After processing,coltan turns into a powder called tantalum, which is used extensivelyin a wealth of western electronic devices including cell phones,computers and, of course, game consoles. Allegedly, the demandfor coltan prompted Rwandan military groups and western miningcompanies to plunder hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the raremetal, often by forcing prisoners-of-war and even children to work inthe country's coltan mines. "Kids in Congo were being sent downmines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginaryaliens in their living rooms," said Ex-British Parliament Member OonaKing. So where's the connection to Sony? According to Toward Freedom,during the 2000 launch of the PS2, the electronics giant was havingtrouble meeting consumer demand. To pump out more units, Sony requireda significant increase in the production of electric capacitors, whichare primarily made with tantalum. This helped drive the world price ofthe powder from $49/pound to a whopping $275/pound, resulting in thefrenzied scouring of the Congolese hills known for being ripe withcoltan. Sony has since sworn off using tantalum acquired from theCongo, claiming that current builds of the PS2, PSP and PS3 consolesare sourced from a variety of mines in several different countries.
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