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The movie 'Blood Diamond' helped alert the world to the horrors of the illegal diamond trade, which predominately occurs in war-torn African countries where the proceeds benefit terrorists and militias. Eve Ensler, a playwright most widely known for 'The Vagina Monologues,' is now trying to warn the world of another product produced amid conflict and strife.
Ensler contended during an interview with D7 that Congolese militias are using rape and sexual violence to subjugate residents into slave labor in order to mine for columbite-tantalite, known locally as coltan. According to Ensler, derivatives of coltan are used in power-producing capacitors that go into our cell phones, iPods, and other gadgets, which means that "we're all responsible for those (sexual) atrocities." To ensure that that they are selling "clean" products, she urges electronics manufacturers to station armed surveyors and watchmen at the mines that produce their minerals, and to then track those minerals to the point of sale. She believes that certifiably clean or "rape-free" products will benefit the sales of companies that demand their products be untainted by human rights violations.
Right now, she says there's not much that we, as consumers, can do to end the atrocities except to voice our displeasure and to let the corporations know that the purveyance of such bloody and dirty products is unacceptable. To learn more about Ensler's movement to end violence against women, you can go to her Web site here. [From: All Things Digital, via Boing Boing]
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Comments
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Subscribe to commentsAngelaJun 2nd 2009 10:15AM
First of all, I must confess I was/am not overly impressed with The Vagina Monologues, but I still want to be objective about her assertions of militias using sexual violence and rape as a means of controlling the Coltran trade in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Personally, I can see where the issues of rape and subjugation overlap, but they are two distinct atrocities.
Sexual abuse and rape against women are serious problems all across Africa, many times the attacks are by insurgent forces; many times by husbands or acquaintances. In either case, it goes largely unpunished and speaks to the cultural/social sub-human categorization of women which climbs from slave labor, all the way to the upper echelons of government (as evidenced by a lack of legislation and enforcement)
As for using rape to control the Coltran industry, I suggest the lucrative Coltran industry enables the same types of sexual aggression against women all across the continent, but it robs them of any power to retaliate or seek help because there are jobs at stake... theirs, or their husbands', or their children's. But again, if they could retaliate, they would not be supported by their husbands, communities or law enforcement. It's a helluva situation for the women of Africa, but Coltran is not produced by rape strategies, as Ms. Ensler wishes to imply. She thinks the best answer is to spread awareness, like through her upcoming stage production based on rape as a perpetuating influence of the Coltran industry.
While she claims a boycott will be useless and at best, harmful to the mine employees, I disagree. They already live in subjugation, poverty and without rights or privileges. If companies do not buy the Coltran because people refuse to buy cell phone using Coltran technology, it will hurt the proceeds of the Coltran industry, and when that happens, those at the top of the industry will be open to negotiating change.