Electric Car Batteries Are Turning This Country Into an Actual Hellscape:
As the demand for gadgets and electric cars grows, so too are the mining operations that dig up cobalt to use in lithium-ion batteries.
And that's become a serious problem for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, The New Yorker reports, which sits atop about 3.4 million metric tons of the stuff — half of the entire planet's supply. A massive, gold rush-like mining industry was born after residents in poverty-stricken areas discovered ore deposits under their homes. But now, many are finding that digging up the valuable mineral has failed to lift them out of poverty. And meanwhile, dangerous conditions are killing miners as exposure to the metal is poisoning both people and the environment.
A lack of regulations and enforcement over the mines has resulted in the miners, who risk their health and safety for financial security, being exploited by officials and traders who are unscrupulously lining their own pockets, according to The New Yorker. One miner told the publication that he now struggles to pay his $25 monthly rent even as the value of cobalt continues to soar — and the only alternative was to work at a major corporation's mine for considerably less money.
Meanwhile, thousands of children have been put to work as well, according to The New Yorker, some of whom say they can't remember the last time they could afford a meal. In order to keep them working, the kids are often even drugged with appetite suppressors.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Monday June 07 2021, @08:34PM (16 children)
How long will it take for people with no education and no money and no infrastructure to invent new cutting edge technologies?
It's gonna be a bit longer than 61 years....
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @10:24PM (11 children)
They never had a written language. That part of the world is PRIMITIVE. Don't expect them to ever "catch up" on their own.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @10:51PM (10 children)
Citation needed. Are you referring to Congo specifically, or to Africa in general? Wikipedia is certainly not an authoritative source, but they list several African writing systems, including Lusona for Angola, Zambia, and parts of the Congo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_systems_of_Africa [wikipedia.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @11:16PM (7 children)
I looked up Lusona. It is nothing more than pictures. It is not a writing system. As I said, very PRIMITIVE.
(Score: 2) by linuxrocks123 on Tuesday June 08 2021, @12:13AM (6 children)
The Kushites had a phonetic alphabet for Meroitic, you racist dumbass.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @01:14AM (5 children)
We are talking about Congo and sub Saharan Africa in general. You are talking about a kingdom right next to Egypt which is barely in Africa. People like you always have to reach for Egypt to show any accomplishment in Africa.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by linuxrocks123 on Tuesday June 08 2021, @02:14AM (4 children)
Nice try shifting the goalposts, but you lose, asshat. They bordered Egypt to the south, i.e., further down into the African continent than Egypt, and, unlike the Egyptians, were most definitely black racially. They weren't politically Egyptians, either; they were a rival kingdom.
Yes, they based their writing system on Egyptian hieroglyphs. So did whites. Egyptian hieroglyphs -> Proto-Sinaitic -> Phoenician -> Greek -> Roman. Didn't know that? Not surprised.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @03:10AM (3 children)
Do you know geography? Africa is a big continent, and we are talking about the black heart of it: sub Saharan Africa. PRIMITIVE.
(Score: 3, Informative) by linuxrocks123 on Tuesday June 08 2021, @04:34AM (2 children)
Sudan is considered sub-Saharan by the African Union, you perpetual dumbass.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @12:12PM (1 child)
We are taking about the Congo and the region surrounding it. You keep avoiding the issue. The heart of Africa is primitive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @05:03PM
In your desperation for a feeling of superiority you cement your position as lowest nugget on the shitpole.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday June 08 2021, @02:33AM (1 child)
And all of the non-primitive (and not imported) sub-Saharan writing systems invented in modern times, mostly in the last century. What does that tell you??
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @04:34AM
It tells me that given the time, opportunity, and motivation, most people will try to improve their lot in life. Most of Africa still has a long way to go but those are steps in the right direction. That despite the current crapfest there is hope for their future. Then I look at what is happening here in the West and despair.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @10:28PM (2 children)
Hey, I wonder what China was like in 1960?
Oh right, that was just the start of the cultural revolution, and they got to screw themselves with a heavy-duty piledriver. And yet China managed to dig itself out despite less abundant natural resources, and a positive wreck of what few institutions they had left.
At some point the "colonialist history" story has an expiry date, and Congo is past that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @04:52AM (1 child)
Ditto the middle east. What? What? We cut their 1000 year tribal boundaries into nice straight lines directly through the middle and they can't resolve it?! Fucking primitives. Look at civilized places like Europe - no wars AT ALL.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday June 08 2021, @01:40PM
Pick up a history book. Europe's history is endless warfare. No major wars in the last 75 years? Hitler kicked them all in the balls, and they haven't recovered enough to start another war. Not to mention a helluva lot of energy was expended in the Cold War. Then there is Ukraine, Kosovo, and Georgia.
So, your idyllic Europe is only 3 generations removed from it's own endless tribal warfare, but you claim some sort of superiority over African tribals? We probably should send some nukes to Africa, pass them out based on population.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 08 2021, @09:41PM
It didn't take the US long to do that. You need a better narrative.
All this whining ignores that we have a history of successful efforts to do these things, to turn almost undeveloped countries into modern powerhouses. It's time to look at what works.