Connecting Sony Playstations and the violence in the Congo

Categories: Blogs, How Stuff Is Made Blog

The article linked below describes the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and suggests that this is driven by the demand for Coltan– the metal that conducts heat in Sony Playstation. It begins with the assertion:
“This war has been dismissed as an internal African implosion. In reality it is a battle for coltan, diamonds, cassiterite and gold, destined for sale in London, New York and Paris. It is a battle for the metals that make our technological society vibrate and ring and bling, and it has already claimed 4 million lives in five years and broken a population the size of Britain's.”

Congo: The War the World Ignores
by Johann Hari, UK Independent
http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3245293

War-Devastated Congo, Your Remote Control, Playstation and Cell Phone.
AUDIO - Amy Goodman interviewing Johann Hari
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/07/1436229

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