Gigaherz Forum

Gestern zeigte SF2 eine interessante Sendung unter anderem mit dem Umgang von Handys in China.
Die Sendung wird am Samstag 23.12. wiederholt

http://www.sf.tv/tvprogramm/index.php?t ... &channel=3

http://www-x.nzz.ch/format/broadcasts/broad_553.html

Hallo Peter Brill und alle Interessierten,

es wird wohl auch darum gehen, das was der Tages-Anzeiger vor etwa zwei Wochen berichtete:

Dass in China schlecht gehaltene und schlecht bezahlte Arbeiterinnen wie Arbeitsbienen Tag und Nacht die Weihnachts-Lieferungen an die Hersteller unbedingt einhalten müssen.

Schon allein deshalb ist es nicht zu verantworten, Handys und solches Zeugs an einem besinnlichen Fest wie Weihnachten zu verschenken. Abgesehen davon ist es auch nicht zu verantworten, überhaupt solches Gerät wann auch immer zu verschenken.

Der Beschenkte selber und alle Antennanlagen-AnwohnerInnen werden auf Jahre (meistens das ganze restliche Leben) zusätlich gesundheitlich belastet.

Zurück zu der Herstellung: Vor einem Jahr etwa war in einer Zeitschrift zu lesen, dass die Handys ein bestimmtes Metall benötigten, das in Afrika (am Rand der Sahara) abgebaut wird. Der Kampf um das Metall sowie der Abbau selber forderten viele Todesopfer.

Ich werde mal recherchieren und wenn möglich genaueres darüber berichten.


Liebe Grüsse
open mind

Hallo dazu habe ich dies gefunden, leider in Englisch ! :
Sibylle

Wednesday, 1 August, 2001, 16:37 GMT 17:37 UK
Congo's coltan rush


DRC is home to 80% of the world's coltan reserves

By Helen Vesperini in Goma, DRC
In the yard of the Shenimed sorting house, young men are busy sorting and cleaning colombo-tantalite ore, or coltan, as it is known in this part of the world.

Regional analysts say the international demand for coltan is one of the driving forces behind the war in the DRC, and the presence of rival militias in the country.

First the young men toss it up into the air as if they were winnowing rice.

Then they sort it with magnetic tweezers to eliminate any particles of iron ore.



Coltan is used to make pinhead capacitors - an essential component in mobile phones

It is then washed, crushed manually in a big pestle and mortar and tested again for iron ore before being fed into a photospectrometer to test its tantalum content.

The men concentrate calmly on their work or joke among themselves.

Blood tantalum

It is a far cry from the drama of the "No blood on my cell phone" campaign that a group of NGOs and religious communities have launched in Europe to lobby for an embargo on so called "blood tantalum", the colombo-tantalite ore that comes from the war zones in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tantalum is essential in the manufacture of electrical components known as pinhead capacitors.

These regulate voltage and store energy in mobile phones, tens of millions of which have been sold in the past few years.

The European lobby groups, like the regional analysts, say that coltan production is fuelling the war in Congo.

Coltan
Jan. 2000: Coltan fetches $40/lb
Dec. 2000: Coltan fetches $380/lb
July 2001: Coltan fetches $100/lb
80% of production in Australia
80% of reserves in DRC

Such allegations infuriate both the rebels who control this part of Congo and their Rwandan backers.

They baffle the men on the ground in the coltan business, too preoccupied with making a living.

"It's our only way of making a living," said Blanchard, an intermediary who travels upcountry to kein Ersatz coltan from the small-scale miners and brings it back to Goma to sell. "There's nothing else to do here."

Most of the men now in the coltan trade used to be farmers.

Bandits

Local human rights' groups say that coltan production does lead to security problems.

They say it is not uncommon for a miner who has just sold, say, $200 worth of coltan to be visited by bandits in military uniform who know exactly how much money he has in his house.

Foreign criticism of child labour in the coltan mines must be put into the context of Congo.



Coltan miners are worried by the recent fluctuation in its price

It is a country where the preoccupation of the average peasant is finding enough cassava to eat for the day.

If children were not helping mine coltan they would be working in the fields.

What would be cause for concern in the long term is if coltan were to be such big business for so long that the peasants forgot their farming skills in the way that some Central African villagers have forsaken logging for oil jobs.

When the coltan or the oil reserves run out they no longer have any means of livelihood.

Given the recent slump in coltan prices on the world market that scenario no longer seems so likely.

Local people say the price drop has had a disastrous effect on the region's economy.

"It's been a catastrophe," said Antoine, a local businessman. "I would estimate that 80% of all business here is either in coltan or dependent on the coltan trade and there's just a lot less money in circulation now."

WATCH/LISTEN

ON THIS STORY

The BBC's Ishbel Matheson
"Along the edge of Lake Kivu, luxury villas are being built"

an open mind
Bitte immer zuerst bei Gigaherz.ch recherchieren.
Ueber den Tantal- resp Coltanskandal haben wir bereits am 8.1.04, also schon vor 3 Jahren berichtet. Und dies erst noch in deutscher Sprache und mit Bild. (gilt auch für Sybille Gabriel)
Dazu gibt es bei uns sogar eine interne Suchmaschine wo man nur "Tantal" eingeben müsste.
Siehe http://www.gigaherz.ch/714
Titel: Kids töten Kinder
Hans-U. Jakob

Herr Jakob,

danke für den Hinweis! Ihren Bericht könnten unsere Wirtschaftsgeographie-LehrerInnen 1:1 verwenden um die Auswirkungen der globalisierten Wirtschaft eindrücklich zu illustrieren*.

...und den von Sibylle im Englisch-Unterricht


*) ...dann würden wohl Microsoft und Swisscom drohen, ihren so tollen Software- und WLAN-Support an den Schulen zurückzufahren.


open mind