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"If we are to teach compassion for all life
in this world, and if we are to carry on a real campaign against cruelty, and against the destruction of our environment, we have to begin with reaching children." ~ Betsy Seeton |
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 Source: bloodinthemobile.org: The main part of minerals used to produce cell phones are coming from the mines in the Eastern DR Congo. The Western World is buying these so-called conflict minerals and thereby finances a civil war that, according to human rights organisations, has been the bloodiest conflict since World War II: During the last 15 years the conflict has cost the lives of more than 5 million people and 300.000 women have been raped. The war will continue as long as armed groups can finance their warfare by selling minerals. If you ask the phone companies where their suppliers get minerals from, none of them can guarantee that they aren’t buying conflict minerals from the Congo. The Documentary Blood in the Mobile shows the connection between our phones and the civil war in the Congo. Director Frank Poulsen travels to DR Congo to see the illegal mine industry with his own eyes. He gets access to Congo’s largest tin-mine, which is being controlled by different armed groups, and where children work for days in narrow mine tunnels to dig out the minerals that end up in our phones. After visiting the mine Frank Poulsen struggles to get to talk to Nokia, (1 in 3 mobile phones are made by Nokia) the Worlds largest phone company. Frank Poulsen wants them to guarantee that they are not buying conflict minerals and thereby is financing the war in the Congo. Nokia cannot give him that guarantee. Blood in Mobile is a film about our responsibility for the conflict in the Congo and about corporate social responsibility.  If you want to learn more about conflict minerals, the film can be viewed on LinkTV’s website in its entirety. U.S. legislation leading the way [source: Care2.com]
Section 1502 of the Dodd Frank Act, signed into law July 21, 2010, adds extra reporting requirements on Form 10-K, Form 20-F or Form 40-F to the U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) on the sources of “conflict minerals.” A California State Senate Bill 861, authored by Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett would ban the California Department of General Services from obtaining contracts with companies using Congo’s conflict minerals. The bill passed out of an Assembly committee a few weeks ago. “This legislation will help cut off the cash flow, and support, for lawless militias engaged in heinous human rights violations,” Corbett said. If you want to learn more about conflict minerals, the film can be viewed on LinkTV’s website in its entirety. Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/the-blood-in-our-cell-phones.html#ixzz1SkDdToAk
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Domestic Violence in Nepal Directly from: http://www.irinnews.org/photo/?id=9 Across Nepal, which has declared 2010 the year to end gender-based violence, women continue to fall victim. The village of Shipawa is one Nepalese community in which the issue is particularly apparent.  Photographer, Kate Holt, captures images of victims of domestic violence in Nepal. Click here for her slideshow on IRIN. By Diana Fernandez
Peruse newspapers and online news outlets in Nepal and you will glean pieces of a very disturbing picture: gender-based violence (GBV) is frequent and takes many forms. In August, a woman in Eastern Nepal was severely beaten by her neighbors for allegedly practicing witchcraft. In November, three siblings lodged a complaint against their own father on the charge of beating their mother to death. After making the complaint, they had to flee their village in fear of reprisal from their father and family members. READ FULL ARTICLE Diana Fernandez is a program officer in The Asia Foundation’s Nepal office. She can be reached at diana@taf.org.np. In the desperately poor rural community of Ankavandra in western Madagascar, girls of school going age are forsaking their education to earn a few dollars a week from gold panning. Click image or here for a slideshow.  4 / 12 Heavy sand and rocks are carried to a stream for panning © Guy Oliver/IRIN Madagascar:
Schoolgirls catch gold feverANKAVANDRA, 9 June 2011 (IRIN) - There is a touch of gold fever in the small western Madagascan town of Ankavandra and schoolgirls are being affected. Rural poverty coupled with record world gold prices is proving an irresistible pull for young girls in and around Ankavandra who are being lured away from class and into the foothills of the central plateau area by the promise of a few flecks of gold. Nearly every day a group of five girls, all related and aged 8-15, wake at dawn to begin a two-hour brisk walk up steep goat tracks to one of the many tributaries of the River Manambolo. As they draw closer to their destination their numbers swell to about 20 people, as parents with young children and other groups of girls, some appearing to be as young as five, join them. READ FULL ARTICLE |
By Betsy Seeton
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"If we are to teach compassion for all life in this world, and if we are to carry on a real campaign against cruelty, and against the destruction of our
environment, we have to begin with reaching children." -- Betsy Seeton  Email Betsy FOR ALL
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