I'd gone to "Melbourne" for my afternoon snooze and, having missed Phillip Adams' "Late Night Live" last night, I switched on the radio for the three o'clock replay. What I heard kept me wide awake!
It was an unflinching investigation about the human rights abuses behind the Congo's cobalt mining operation — and the moral implications that affect us all. It's the searing, first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt.
Siddharth Kara's book "Cobalt Red" should be given to every buyer of a smartphone, laptop and electric vehicle at the time of purchase.
Here's one of several YouTube clips. When will the world take notice?
It seems nothing has changed since King Leopold's times! Remember Kurtz's last words in "Heart of Darkness"? "The horror, the horror."
