Apple Cracks Down Further On Cobalt Supplier in Congo as Child Labor Persists (washingtonpost.com) 86
Last year, a Washington Post investigation found several instances of miners -- including children -- labored in hazardous, even deadly, conditions at Congo's artisanal cobalt supply chain. Amnesty International and other human rights groups also have alleged problems. Earlier this week, British broadcaster Sky New published an investigation that alleged continued problems in the cobalt supply chain. The Washington Post now reports: Apple said it has temporarily stopped buying cobalt mined by hand in Congo while it continues to deal with problems with child labor and harsh work conditions. The Post connected this troubling trade to Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Company, a Chinese firm that is the largest buyer of artisanal cobalt in Congo and whose minerals are used in Apple products. Last year, Apple pledged to clean up its cobalt supply chain, but the tech giant said it wanted to avoid hurting the Congolese miners by cutting them off. Mining provides vital income for hundreds of thousands of people in one of the poorest countries in the world. Now, Apple says it has stopped -- for now -- buying cobalt from artisanal mines (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; alternate source). "We have been working with Huayou on a program that will verify individual artisanal mines, according to our standards," Apple said in a statement, "and these mines will re-enter our supply chain when we are confident that the appropriate protections are in place."
Damn Hipsters (Score:5, Funny)
Never could stand hipsters and their fancy child-working artisanal mines.
"I was mining Cobalt before it was cool".
" I mine this thing called Cobalt, you probably haven't heard about it. It's the most important part of an iPhone".
Child labor (Score:5, Funny)
We pass the slavings on to you!
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I thought that was a bizarre term as well; but apparently it is a thing [wikipedia.org].
Although if, as Wikipedia indicates, these are basically a bunch of independently run operations with no central authority... I don't know how you'd get a handle on that except to cut it off completely.
Re:"artisinal" cobalt mine? (Score:4, Insightful)
I thought that was a bizarre term as well; but apparently it is a thing [wikipedia.org].
Although if, as Wikipedia indicates, these are basically a bunch of independently run operations with no central authority... I don't know how you'd get a handle on that except to cut it off completely.
"Artsanal miners" are doing what used to be done by people called "prospectors".
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Artisanal cobalt is like artisanal coffee, only different.
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My local grocery store has a bakery that advertises its "artisinal" bread.
Now I think that maybe I should avoid buying it, since that apparently that means they may be exploiting children (or possibly elves).
Oompa Loompa (Score:1)
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They are only WORKING in the mines and in the dangerous dumps beating out heavy metals from electronic garbage because bleeding-hearts in the Western world couldn't stand to think that their clothes were made by child labor, in relatively safe tailoring mills.
So all the kids got fired, but they still needed to feed their families ...
Basically, this is treating the symptom, not the root cause of the problem. You might as well tell someone with a broken arm to take an aspirin and it'll all be better as you ca
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Sometimes I wonder why the world can be such an ugly place, then people like you show up to remind me why.
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No, we shouldn't. But we shouldn't try to make the less developed countries build Rome in a single day, either.
Makes no difference (Score:5, Funny)
Now the Congo cobalt is used for other phones and the other cobalt for iPhones. Everybody happy.
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This. I remember when an oil company started importing palm oil as a tax free alternative to fuel which they mixed in with their cracking feed. They insisted that it was all "certified sustainable" palm oil. It may have been, but there wasn't a massive increase in production of this sustainable stuff so either this wasn't sustainable, or other people who had been buying sustainable had to go elsewhere.
These problems can't be fixed on the demand side.
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That sounds like the biodiesel tax loophole:
http://www.npr.org/templates/s... [npr.org]
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Not quite. This isn't a loophole as much as it is completely avoiding paying a certain tax.
When you buy a boatload of crude oil you pay a tax on petroleum products.
If you buy a boat load of palm oil you pay a completely insignificant tax on food products.
Many hydrotreaters will happily take 10% feed of some other form of oil producing what is still perfect quality diesel at the other side. Hydrocrackers can do even higher percentages. Heck I know a place which used to feed their crackers tallow. It was quit
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As an aside, which Congo are we talking about here? French Congo or Belgian Congo (the bigger country that was formerly known as Zaire)?
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French Congo or Belgian Congo
Wake up dude, it is the larger Democratic Republic of the Congo to the southeast (capital: Kinshasa, formerly Zaire) or the smaller Republic of the Congo to the northwest (capital: Brazzaville).
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The desert cart at my work warns that items "may have come in contact with nuts."
I keep meaning to find a picture of Ron Jeremy in a Chef's outfit, photoshop in a quote bubble that says "My Bad!" and stick it on there.
No wonder Apple charges so much... (Score:2)
I always knew that Apple was supposedly a premium brand, but artisanal cobalt? Does that go with their artisanal chips? Can I get an artisanal cucumber and water cress sandwich with that at the genius bar now, too?
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Friggin magnets. How do they work?
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Friggin magnets. How do they work?
From TFA: For those who aren’t aware, Cobalt is essential for the lithium-ion batteries found in smartphones, tablets and notebooks.
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It's used in lots of different parts, but yeah, batteries over the last decade have become the primary industrial sink. See http://seekingalpha.com/articl... [seekingalpha.com]
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Friggin magnets. How do they work?
Magnets are a lie...
Iron just sucks!
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What's it for, anyway?
It's so they can offer phones with that stunning deep-blue color option.
So you want Child Prostitution Instead? (Score:1)
Force them out of the factories and you will force them into child prostitution and drug dealing. These children will work one way or another or they will not eat! Wish people would understand how the world really works!
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Probably not, but Apple cares whether that dollar goes towards cost or profit.
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It's not like there aren't other customers in the meantime. By having a certification program Apple is providing a path by which these operations can be rewarded for improving working conditions, accessing a wider customer base than competitors who don't. That's how things like this get done... with small carrots and small sticks to encourage incremental improvements without chaos. Not that Apple's a paragon of corporate responsibility, but it appears they are aware of the pros and cons in this situation
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This is like some sort of 19th century industrialist's argument for child labor. "You see, I pay them next to nothing and keep them in horrible conditions for their own good!"
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Force them out of the factories and you will force them into child prostitution and drug dealing. These children will work one way or another or they will not eat! Wish people would understand how the world really works!
Child prostitution is for lamos living in tourist-trap towns. Todays' children forced out of work sign up with Al Shabaab.
Get out of my country tim comi cook (Score:2)
red china loving
issi friend
tim cook needs to move stuff back to usa and give fbi the ios unlock key.
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a typo
What we should be demanding (Score:2)
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You Keep Using That Word (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah (Score:2)
Amnesty International gets used a lot. (Score:1)
Ostensibly, this uproar will cause Apple to force the mining companies to treat their child employees a little better.
In reality Apple just wants a paper/certificate/assurance that its policies are being enforced. So one more middle man will come in, sign the document Apple desires, and buy from the same mining companies. Now with one more middleman taking the cut, those children will be squeez
This originates in Belgian Royal depravity (Score:1)
All of this goes back to the Belgian Prince treating the Congo as his personal slave state, literally chopping the hands off of small children and women to enforce slavery in his mines and rubber plantations.
We're just continuing the tradition.
Just like the South.
Way too much hipster for me (Score:1)
Say What? (Score:2)
artisanal cobalt
WTF is that? Are these people really skilled artisans akin to those making my $15 scones or $20/lb CheeseIts?
I thought this stuff was coming out of Africa, obviously their advertising company is based in SF.
Yet They Still use Foxconn... (Score:1)
Temporarily? (Score:1)
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Why should they not return to buying the cobalt again once nobody is giving a fuck anymore because our hearts are bleeding for someone else?
Money problems; money solutions (Score:2)
Is there a charity that goes to at-risk places like these mining villages and towns then pays the family to put their children into school?
Something Like:
But where I can directly 'employ' a child to go to school and get a report on how well they are doing, a transparency report on what portion of my money is making to the child vs overhead?
If there isn't I think there should be. Can you offer a family more money, food and opportunity to put their child into a small village school
Great idea! Average wage $385/year (Score:2)
The average income in Belgian Congo is about $385 / year. I'm going to guess that these kids don't make more than $200/year, or $17/month. I'd pay the $17/month to replace a kid's wages if they went to school.
The cost of education, books, pencils, etc, is about the same, about $17/month. So for $35/month you could pay the kid to go school and provide books, etc.
Figure a few more dollars for the reports, overhead, etc, call it $50/month to take a kid out of the dangerous mine and put them in school. I migh
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Talk to Apple. They have a $178 billion dollar pile of cash in the bank [theguardian.com] that is gathering dust. I think that is enough to build a whole school for every kid in Congo. And maybe get some modern mining equipment and mining engineers as well.
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I'd pay the $17/month to replace a kid's wages if they went to school.
How would you get the funds to them without them being stolen?
So for $35/month you could pay the kid to go school and provide books
Then they'd be educated and without a job, because the economy is so screwed up there.
You may remember that communist Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union compared favorably with Western Europe and the United States in years of schooling attained, yet per capita incomes in those countries were substantia
Thanks for the information and analysis (Score:2)
Thanks for that information and analysis. Sounds like a difficult situation to improve. I started to say "fix", but probably at this point *improvement* is more realistic than "fixing" it.
On the other hand, people with less than a third-grade education are unlikely to solve the problems of violence and corruption. Ghandi was a lawyer, Martin Luther King had a PhD as well as two two bachelor's degrees.
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If you teach them modern mining techniques, tool fabrication, and suchlike, they could vastly overhaul their mining operations. Make them safer, more environmentally-friendly (hah whatever), and more profitable.
Why do you think that the techniques of modern mining, tool fabrication, etc. are unavailable to people in Congo? There is little barrier to the movement of information today, and one can purchase advanced mining equipment.
The problem is that a kleptocratic, socialist government combined with warfar
The title is mixed up (Score:1)
Translation (Score:1)
Child Labor Cobalt? (Score:1)
Lip service only! (Score:2)