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6 verk 322 medlemmar 8 recensioner

Om författaren

Siddharth Kara is director of the Program on Human Trafficking and Modern Slaver at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a lecturer at the University of Columbia Berkeley. He is the author of Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia (2012) and Modern visa mer Slavery: A Global Perspective (2017), both from Columbia University Press. visa färre

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"Tell people in their country that a child dies every day in my country [Democratic Republic of Congo] so they can plug in their phones"

Such a difficult subject matter but such a well written book that brought awareness to such a terrible humanitarian issue that will continue to get worse as our dependence on electric things becomes more rampant.
 
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Moshepit20 | 5 andra recensioner | Feb 9, 2024 |
This book shook me. It talks about the horrors behind the mining industry that powers our life. I did a bit of the technical parts, but the rest of the book contain rich and detailed anecdotes about the brutality that the Congolese face each day. Such a difficult, heartbreaking yet important read.
 
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nadia.masood | 5 andra recensioner | Dec 10, 2023 |
What would you give up to save your child from being trafficked into slave labor? Or to save your sister from sexual assault? Or to keep your spouse safe from deadly working conditions? Your cell phone? Your laptop? Your robot vacuum? Your electric car?
70% of rechargeable batteries rely on enslaved children. There is no 'clean' pipeline for cobalt. Exploited and oppressed, sick and injured, paid less than $2 day (half that for women & kids). Kids as young as eight are expected to mine cobalt from dawn to dusk. Women miners are frequent victims of assault and rape. Men, women and children are exposed to deadly levels of radiation and toxic ores. So we can take a selfie.
American citizens still encourage and condone slavery. Lincoln may have freed the slaves in the USA but corporations now use slaves where you and I can't see the horror and disgrace for ourselves up close and personal. And that gives the end-users like us plausible deniability. We can say we didn't know as if that exempts us from culpability when we buy all the cheap goods made in 3rd world countries reliant on abused, underpaid, malnourished, slave labor.
So the DRC and its people have been exploited for centuries by greedy bastards from other countries. But we demand it. You & I. Because everyone likes a good deal. And corporate flaks mouth corporate propaganda to let each of us pretend that we each have a clean slate. We don't.
… (mer)
 
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PitcherBooks | 5 andra recensioner | Mar 27, 2023 |
3.5 stars

In the Western world, almost all our technological devices use rechargeable batteries, and with the push to move to more electronic vehicles, there are more and more rechargeables needed. A good amount of cobalt goes into each of those batteries, and the Congo is where you’ll find the majority of cobalt to be mined.

Unfortunately the bulk of the people who do that mining are “artisanal” miners – they are mining on their own, so to speak; they are not employed by any company. They are extremely poor and have no other options to make money. Their kids could go to school, but even though it’s supposed to be free, it is not funded well-enough for that to be the case and they need to pay. Most families cannot afford to pay, so their kids also have to go to work mining. There are no health or safety standards and when people die or are injured not only is no one held accountable, no one is there to help pay medical bills. What they are paid for the cobalt they mine (putting their lives at risk) is next to nothing.

The author travels to mines and through villages in the Congo, talking to the people mining. He tries to talk to some of the companies paying for the cobalt (and some of the middlemen), but there are only a few who will talk to him.

This was interesting and so very sad. I didn’t rate it higher, though, as I did lose interest occasionally. That might have been due to other things on my mind, I’m not sure.
… (mer)
½
 
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LibraryCin | 5 andra recensioner | Jan 1, 2023 |

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Verk
6
Medlemmar
322
Popularitet
#73,505
Betyg
4.2
Recensioner
8
ISBN
16
Språk
2

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