Coltan information

My article this week is on my Social Action Project (SAP) topic which is Coltan mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (commonly known as DRC) which is located in central Africa as shown in the picture below. About 64% of the world's supply of Coltan, also known as Columbite-tantalite, is in the DRC. Coltan is a vital metal in so many electronic products from HD televisions, to hearing aids, to wind turbines, to even x-ray film. Many of the surrounding countries, but Rwanda and Uganda are the two big players in the Coltan extraction game. Those two countries alone do not contain much Coltan, but they pillage the DRC for its vast resource of Coltan. The United Nations said in a 2001 report, according to friendsofthecongo.org, said "The consequences of illegal exploitation has been twofold: massive availability of financial resources for the Rwandan Patriotic Army, and the individual enrichment of top Ugandan military commanders and civilians; the emergence of illegal networks headed by either top military officers or businessmen." The UN also cites multinational corporations are also to blame for the fueling the war in the DRC and exploiting of Coltan. From the article it lists a total of seven US based companies, and five other non-US based companies. Three of the seven US based companies are actually based in Ohio. OM group, Eagle Wings Resources International (a subsidiary of Trinitech International), and Trinitech International are all based in Ohio, with OM Group based in the Cleveland. According to their website OM Group http://www.cpt.org/work/africa_great_lakes/corporate_complicity all seven listed companies profited from the conflict in the DRC, including the three from Ohio. I found the website for OM group, omgi.com/product-recycling.html , based in Westlake, Ohio, which states they have a smelting factory in Lubumbashi, DRC. Factories such as these process and prepare the raw Coltan for big corporations like Foxconn, Nokia, and Sony. I was unable to find websites for Eagle Wings Resources International, and Trinitech International.

Link to article: http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/resource-center/coltan.html

Blog post for 10/18 "A Contentious Issue"

My blog post this week is on an article from Recyclingtoday.com, and is about a proposed bill. This proposed bill is known as H.R. 2284 in the House of Representatives, and S. 1270 in the Senate respectively. This bill is more commonly known as the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (RERA). This article has debate from both positive and negatives of the RERA. There has been lobbying groups in support of RERA and also against it as well. Several electronic recyclers, industry groups, and environmental groups have publicly supported RERA. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has come out against this bill. In 2012 the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report that coincides with the view of the ISRI as well as the Basel Action Network (BAN), an activist group already discussed in class. RERA’s purpose would be to prohibit the export of some electronics that, if improperly disposed, could create environmental, health, or national security risks. RERA would accomplish this by adding a new sect to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) which is designed to protect developing countries from receiving our E-waste.  RERA lists several materials, or chemicals in particular that would make a product restricted waste and could not be legally shipped to another country, unless that country approves of the transfer. RERA also calls for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set minimum standards for the toxic substances, and clarify which materials are toxic, and which are not. These bipartisan actions are consistent with most other developed nations, and are a step in the right direction from keeping E-waste out of the wrong hands.

Source: http://www.recyclingtoday.com/rt0412-responsible-electronics-recycling-act.aspx

Blog post for Digital Story Proposal

I.                    For my Digital Story proposal I have decided to do it as an outline

A.                  Violent Video games are affecting kids attitudes and behavior in a negative way

1.                  Kids are becoming more violent because of certain video games

2.                  Kids behavior is being negatively affected by replicating actions seen in video games

a)                  Ex: Grand Theft Auto series

b)                  School shootings have become more and more common since 1997

B.                  Video games strive to achieve a “M” rating

1.                  Kids who play violent video games want a gory, violent game

a)                  Game producers are responding to the demand for a more violent game by increasing the violence, blood, and foul language used

2.                  Graphics are becoming more and more life-like which users enjoy

a)                  Kids want a more life-like game

C.                  Studies conclude that violent video games make kids more violent

1.                  Not all studies prove that video games are a link to more violent tendencies

a)                  Not all studies of any subject prove a certain point 100% of the time

"Genre and Game Studies: Toward a Critical Approach to Video Game Genres." Genre and Game Studies: Toward a Critical Approach to Video Game Genres. Sage Journals, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013. <http://sag.sagepub.com/content/37/1/6.short>.

Anderson, Craig A. "An Update on the Effects of Playing Violent Video Games." An Update on the Effects of Playing Violent Video Games. Science Direct, Feb. 2004. Web. 04 Nov. 2013. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140197103000976>.

"Violent Video Game Effects on Aggression, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Eastern and Western Countries: A Meta-analytic Review." Psycnet.org. PsycNet, Mar. 2010. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. <http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/bul/136/2/151/>.

Anderson, Craig A. "Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions." Tomorrow Counseling. Psychological Science Agenda, Oct. 2003. Web. 05 Nov. 2013. <http://www.tomorrowcounseling.com/TDE_CMS/database/userfiles/Violence%20in%20Video%20Games(1).pdf>.

Social Action Project Intro for 10/11 - Coltan in the Congo

For my Social Action Project (SAP) I would want to advocate the social justice issue of Coltan extraction from the Democratic Republic of Congo, or simply the Congo. Since its independence from Belgium in 1960 the Congo has had a lot of civil violence, corruption, and country wide instability (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cg.html). This instability and civil war has led for the mining of Coltan to keep on going. According to BBC news an US refugee agent reported the parties involved in the war are continuing it solely to mine natural resources. Coltan is one of these natural resources. Companies starting with Sony in 1999 fueled the mining of Coltan with the Play Station 2, later by LCD TV’s and smart phones. (http://citizenshift.org/node/32169&term_tid=6) Due to Coltan’s nature it must be dug up by hand, which separates it from other minerals mined in the Congo. Heavy machinery cannot be used to mine Coltan due to its heavy and bulky nature as raw ore. It is easier for the local people to mine it instead. It is very dangerous for the Congolese people to mine Coltan by hand and often they are injured on the job. Most of the labor that mines Coltan used to be run by villages, are now run by warlords to finance their military operations. There are two main military groups in the Congo; Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL) and Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD). Ethically speaking the mining of Coltan is a disaster. Large corporations negotiate with ruthless warlords to get their hands on Coltan is a frightening practice. What is more frightening is that hardly anyone who uses these products knows about what is going on in the Congo, and even fewer are doing anything about it.

For my Social Action Project I want to do something with guerrilla art, or a guerrilla campaign. Examples where this has been used in the past are everywhere. An example of guerrilla art was in one of my blog posts, Friday October 3, 2013. In that blog post I talked about the World Wildlife Fund’s guerrilla campaign to raise awareness of the decreasing number of Giant Pandas in the world by placing 1,600 pandas in a town square in France. This is an example of the type of demonstration I would like to do because it gets the intended message across without harming anyone, and is also creative. The WWf’s demonstration was peaceful, did not harm anyone, neither physically or emotionally, or damage any property. Another example of guerrilla art is from Keri Smith (http://www.kerismith.com/popular-posts/how-to-be-a-guerilla-artist-2/). Her suggested formats range from harmless and legal demonstrations such as posters or book inserts to more illegal actions such as graffiti. I would want to use the concept of guerrilla art to make posters to spread my SAP topic of Coltan. The posters would show a smartphone and a child digging by hand for Coltan to invoke the emotions of a person who is looking upon the poster. On the bottom of the poster would be link to a website or wiki that would easily explain the problem with the Coltan mining process and show other websites, foundations where people can go to help if they want to. My hope is for people to be moved, or at least intrigued by the poster and want to learn more about how Coltan affects the people of the Congo.

Discussion questions for 10/9 group six "Challenging the Chip"

1. Did you think that a chemical problem such as this could ever happen in the United States? Please explain why you feel this way.

2. Would you have thought the waste described was from chip manufacturing or a different industry? If a different industry please say which, and why you thought it would be that specific industry.

3. Based on your own experiences what do you think can be done in your local community to prevent the spilling of chemicals into the drinking water?

4. What do you think is more important to regulate, the manufacturing of computer chips or the disposal of E-waste? and why.

5. Should the US government have a say in how (US based) businesses dispose of the E-waste overseas if the E-waste is coming from the US?

World Wildlife Fund guerrilla art in France

Blog post for 10/4 based on Social Media

In 2009 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) placed 1,600 paper mache miniature Giant Pandas in the town square of Nante, France. This article is some what dated, but the message is still quite important. The point of this demonstration was to encourage the protection of this majestic creature. By showing all 1,600 pandas in one spot a person can see something must be done to help the pandas. Their message is to raise awareness for issues that surround the Giant Panda. These issues include poaching, large scale construction, bamboo harvesting, and conversion of forests for agricultural uses. The reason they selected to put specifically 1,600 paper mache pandas in Nante is because that number represents the number of remaining Giant Pandas in the world today. The digital media aspect comes from the publicity of the guerrilla campaign. When the pictures of this event went viral, all of the world saw what happened in France. The WWF has used guerrilla art style campaign in the past to raise awareness for endangered animals. This important message from the WWF shows the worsening condition of pandas with only 1,600 left in the world. Although this number is up from 1,000 in 1985, pandas are still considered endangered. 

Picture of pandas in France:

Link to article: www.trendhunter.com/trends/panda-bear-wwf-france