On Aug 11, 2008, at 4:57 PM, Nick Collins wrote:
> I do hope everyone attending make art will be using computers that
> they've built themselves from open source specifications, rather
> than relying on proprietary hardware.
>
tell me about it, i just burnt a tiny capacitor, and it hurts to think
it was made of (coltan) tantalum*
>
>> The catch is that this is a festival for artists using/making free
>> software, and they're being strict about the operating systems this
>> year, so you're not allowed to use mac os/windows/other closed OS.
*from wikipedia:
Coltan smuggling has also been implicated as a major source of income
for the military occupation of Congo. An activist website, Toward
Freedom, states that the search for coltan has fueled a brutal
conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo; they state that demand
for coltan has caused Rwandan military groups and western mining
companies to seek hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the rare
metal, often by forcing prisoners-of-war and even children to work in
the country's coltan mines. [9]
To many, this raises ethical questions akin to those of conflict
diamonds. Owing to the difficulty of distinguishing legitimate from
illegitimate mining operations, several electronicsmanufacturers have
decided to forgo central African coltan altogether, relying on other
sources.[citation needed] The high-tech industry's demand for tantalum
clearly has fueled an increase in coltan mining worldwide – including
in the Congo region.
Toward Freedom states that the 2000 launch of the Sony PS2 required a
large increase in production of electric capacitors, which are
primarily made with tantalum, which greatly increased the world price
of the powder from $49/pound to a $275/pound, resulting in accelerated
mining of the Congolese hills containing coltan. Sales in computers,
mobile phones, and DVD players spiked around this same time. Sony
claims it has discontinued its use of tantalum acquired from the
Congo, and sourced it from a variety of mines in several different
countries. Researcher David Barouski states “The coltan ore trades
hands so many times from when it is mined to when SONY gets a
processed product, that a company often has no idea where the original
coltan ore came from, and frankly don't care to know. But statistical
analysis shows it to be nearly inconceivable that SONY made all its
PlayStations without using Congolese coltan." [9]
All three countries named by the United Nations as smugglers of coltan
have denied being involved. Austrian journalist Klaus Werner has
documented links between multi-national companies like Bayer and the
illegal coltan traffic.[10] Likewise has Johann Hari written on the
connections between coltan resources and the genocide in Congo.[11]
[12] A United Nations committee investigating the plunder of gems and
minerals in the Congo listed in its final report[7] approximately 125
companies and individuals involved in business activities breaching
international norms. Companies accused of irresponsible corporate
behavior are for example Cabot Corporation, Eagle Wings Resources
International,[13] George Forrest Group[14] and OM Group.[15]
Received on Mon Aug 11 2008 - 23:57:29 BST