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Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
The Hidden Cost of Gold: Birth Defects and Brain Damage
CIDAHU, Indonesia — Thousands of children with crippling birth defects. Half a million people poisoned. A toxic chemical found in the food supply. Accusations of a government cover-up and police officers on the take.
This is the legacy of Indonesia's mercury trade, a business intertwined with the lucrative and illegal production of gold.
More than a hundred nations have joined a global campaign to reduce the international trade in mercury, an element so toxic there is "no known safe level of exposure," according to health experts.
But that effort has backfired in Indonesia, where illicit backyard manufacturers have sprung up to supply wildcat miners and replace mercury that was previously imported from abroad. Now, Indonesia produces so much black-market mercury that it has become a major global supplier, surreptitiously shipping thousands of tons to other parts of the world.
Much of the mercury is destined for use in gold mining in Africa and Asia, passing through hubs such as Dubai and Singapore, according to court records — and the trade has deadly consequences.
"It is a public health crisis," said Yuyun Ismawati, a co-founder of an Indonesian environmental group, Nexus3 Foundation, and a recipient of the 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize. She has called for a worldwide ban on using mercury in gold mining.
Mercury can be highly dangerous as it accumulates up the food chain, causing a wide range of disorders, including birth defects, neurological problems and even death.
Today, despite the risks, small-scale miners using mercury operate in about 80 countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas. They produce up to 25 percent of all gold sold.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by BsAtHome on Monday November 11 2019, @06:27AM (14 children)
"Developed country" - a term to describe the profitability and state of organization for exploitation of others and the environment.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Captival on Monday November 11 2019, @06:52AM (13 children)
Oh and also widespread literacy, technical innovation, live-extending advances, and freedom of speech. For some reason you Commies hate all those things. Just look at the backwards hellholes you guys champion. Only in righteous Venezuela can an oil-rich nation turn into a starving wasteland.
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Monday November 11 2019, @02:16PM (11 children)
Oh, yes. I reckon you'd simply hate to live in the social-democratic hellhole that is Norway. Just think about it: 42% GDP is collected in taxes, extremely unfriendly corporate taxation - 23% of profit but going into 51%-78% in some industries [wikipedia.org], social security contributions at 53% of the total labor costs [wikipedia.org]. On the bring of collapse it must be.
No tuition fees for public education, even tertiary [wikipedia.org] and the population is really abusing it, with 32% of the population holding a tertiary degree [www.ssb.no] or better (US at 25% [voanews.com] with college or better)
Public health cost covering almost all expenses a patient would have [wikipedia.org] (what? only USD $6,647 per head per year? How can that be? The bastion of freedom, had $10,224/head in 2017) and paying nurses and midwifes to about 1.7% of population - what a waste!
Labor force participation rate of 74% [tradingeconomics.com] (US economy is "booming" at a 63% [investopedia.com]) - they must be using forced labor, right?
I mean, let's look at the incarceration rate... say, what? 3933 from a population of 5.3 mil [wikipedia.org] (< 0.07%) in 54 prisons? What the heck! The idiots must be running holiday villages, not prisons, that's surely an incentive to reoffend (the recidivism rate is actually 1 in 5 - so less than 1000 reoffenders).
Surely the bankruptcy is near, right? The government-ran pension fund has, for every of its citizens alive, about $195000 [wikipedia.org], with over $1T in assets and controls 1.4% of the entire world stocks and shares.
Fecking hellhole, I tell yea!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday November 11 2019, @08:23PM (8 children)
Captival seems to be spouting the US right-wing talking point that there are only two possibilities here:
Unfettered capitalism, with minimal government oversight and minimal corporate taxation. (preferably none at all). This will bring about maximum freedom.
Venezuela. Ignoring for the moment the sanctions that have crippled their economy, and the reasons for those. Also ignoring Cuba, Iran, Chile and any other country that has dared to reject all that freedom the US has tried to give them over the years.
I am pretty sure he is another American that has never traveled outside the US, but somehow is an expert on how other people should live their lives.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Monday November 11 2019, @09:22PM (7 children)
Doesn't seem that way to me. Have you checked to see if your straw man is plugged in?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 11 2019, @09:28PM (1 child)
Eye of beholder. Nobody as blind as the one who doesn't want to see.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday November 11 2019, @09:41PM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Monday November 11 2019, @10:20PM (1 child)
Absolutely presenting an either/or situation.
I don't think strawman means what you think it means.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:14AM
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday November 11 2019, @11:14PM (2 children)
Enlighten us, oh, khallow. How exactly does it seem to you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:14AM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @10:56PM
Oh, so you think we didn't understand captival was being sarcastic? You really do think you're the smartest cookie in the mayonnaise jar huh?
(Score: 2) by Captival on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:17AM (1 child)
And guess what Norway DOESN'T have? You get three tries.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 12 2019, @12:32AM
A president.
Poor them they don't know what they miss; like, no trillions and two years wasted in the electoral circus and ending with an orange monkey [pinimg.com] at the helm. Or a chimpanzee [wp.com].
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday November 12 2019, @03:24AM
Venezuela is an example of extreme corruption.