Siddharth Kara

What would you give up to save your child from being trafficked into slave labor? Or to save your sister from sexual assault? Or to keep your spouse safe from deadly working conditions? Your cell phone? Your laptop? Your robot vacuum? Your electric car?
70% of rechargeable batteries rely on enslaved children. There is no 'clean' pipeline for cobalt. Exploited and oppressed, sick and injured, paid less than $2 day (half that for women & kids). Kids as young as eight are expected to mine cobalt from dawn to dusk. Women miners are frequent victims of assault and rape. Men, women and children are exposed to deadly levels of radiation and toxic ores. So we can take a selfie.
American citizens still encourage and condone slavery. Lincoln may have freed the slaves in the USA but corporations now use slaves where you and I can't see the horror and disgrace for ourselves up close and personal. And that gives the end-users like us plausible deniability. We can say we didn't know as if that exempts us from culpability when we buy all the cheap goods made in 3rd world countries reliant on abused, underpaid, malnourished, slave labor.
So the DRC and its people have been exploited for centuries by greedy bastards from other countries. But we demand it. You & I. Because everyone likes a good deal. And corporate flaks mouth corporate propaganda to let each of us pretend that we each have a clean slate. We don't.… (meer)