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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: 1) by khallow on Monday November 11 2019, @09:19PM (1 child)
Sounds rather like your argument doesn't exist in real life.
Not even wrong. There is no such thing as a lawless executive because their very existence is predicated on a whole lot of laws. Nor is "good faith and honor" relevant to a balance of power. If you're even thinking of relying on those things to provide a balance of power, then you're doing it wrong.
Right to vote is not relevant to due process which is about what is done to people who are accused of breaking laws.
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Wednesday November 13 2019, @05:55AM
It is if the right to vote is revoked without due process.
And where did you get the idea that due process only applies in cases of law breaking? That's the least of it. Due process is required by the Constitution whenever someone is deprived of their rights.
You are still welcome on my lawn.