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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 Thexalon on Monday June 07 2021, @09:01PM (5 children)
And it's also worth noting that in former colonies (and DRC is one of the worst cases - look up the history of Belgian rule if you don't believe me), if they start making too many moves to make their economy run locally rather than by foreign multinationals, it is extremely common for either their former colonial power or the USA to come in and make sure that doesn't happen. Many many coups and even protracted wars have come from these countries trying to gain control of their own natural resources. Even in countries that are relatively decolonized and have had fairly functional democracies, like South Africa and Venezuela, it's still a major issue, and the threat of a coup or civil war or foreign invasion by a vastly superior force is always present.
About the one thing that protects countries in this position from continued foreign interference is nuclear weapons.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @10:41PM (3 children)
Venezuela is hardly a poster-child for functional democracy any time in the last decade (and arguably longer). Nationalising their oil industry was the least of it. They were actually doing OK there until they started reneging on their service and consulting deals with the multinationals, at which point the multinationals pulled out, and Venezuela discovered that if they weren't going to actually pay for services received, they could do it themselves. Until they couldn't. Oops. That's not deliberate interference, that's what our friends in the soccer-playing world call an "own goal".
As for South Africa, which functional democracy are you talking about? The pre-1994 whites-only (OK, with a few minority groups as a smokescreen) deal in which the National Party had a lock going back to when Smuts's South African Party took it in the shorts for playing ball with the allies in WWII? Or the post-1994 deal in which the ANC/Communist/Unionist alliance got a lock on power?
And which multinationals pushed SA around? Most of them lost their leverage during the period of disinvestment, and got told to suck corrupt dick by the likes of Jacob Zuma. Nelson Mandela tried to get them interested in coming back, and mostly got told to pound sand, not because they hate darkies but because they (rightly, as it turned out) didn't like the kind of governance that was in the offing, in a country with a lost generation, a culture of (aside from a few minority groups) monumental inefficiency, massive instability and crumbling infrastructure.
But sure, it's old colonial powers and their multinational exploitation lapdogs. Now tell us about the imperialist running-dogs and their petty bourgeoisie paper tigers, that's always a fun bedtime story.
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Tuesday June 08 2021, @11:35AM (2 children)
Heck, you even attempted to put a puppet in power there.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @12:10PM
Nobody can be blamed for Venezuela's situation but Venezuela. They are a classic petro-state. When the price of oil was high, they were riding high. When it went low, there were stirrings of revolution. The government doled out benefits (for example, free university), plus whatever else it subsidized, based on the gusher of money provided by oil which was a government monopoly. They never diversified their economy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 08 2021, @02:49PM
No idea who "you" is in this context, but I'm going to assume you mean the US State Department, or the CIA or somebody; the usual scapegoats.
But if sanctions constitute deliberate interference, what exactly do you propose as available measures against misbehaving counterparties? To take the lead from Yes, Minister (great show, you should watch it) the usual options are:
1) Ignore it (not historically smart)
2) Issue a statement deploring their behaviour (Nobody cares)
3) Lodge a formal protest (destined for the roundfile, possibly with some macho chest-beating thrown in)
4) Cut off aid (doesn't work on burgeoning petro-states)
5) Break off relations (Not helpful)
6) Declare war (way nastier than sanctions)
So what was your other idea?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 08 2021, @05:16PM
Sigh. Why in the world does Venezuela get all this positive mind share? They aren't such. And their policies and such should be a glaring warning sign to the rest of us that there's something deeply wrong with Venezuela rather than somehow a sign that somehow Venezuela hasn't gotten rid of all the colonialist cooties.
In other words, stealing from more powerful countries (what the euphemism "economy run locally rather than by foreign multinationals" means) has considerable blowback even when the other stole first.