Consumer Goods & Complicity Chains

With international trade becoming more essential daily, new ethical issues in genocide are born. There are complicity chains in which we get involved simply by buying everyday products. Two examples:

Congo Coltan

I’ve never heard of coltan until recently. It’s an essential ingredient in most modern electronic devices. Coltan’s been one of the major resources fought over in the current Congo conflict — and the situation is just as bad as conflict diamonds. More info here. To illustrate how ridiculous the situation is, Rwanda in recent years was one of the leading exporters of coltan. This despite there being very little coltan in Rwanda itself. Hmm… Basically there’s a good chance some of the money you pay for a mobile phone goes toward illegal mining in the Congo, often at the cost of civillian lives.

Darfur and China

For years now, China’s been doing everything it can to ensure that nobody meddles with Sudan’s genocide. China needs oil, badly. In its hunt for every drop, China doesn’t wish to restrict itself to governments which refrain from genocide. The Sudan is China’s fourth largest foreign oil source. Without psychoanalysing a regime’s motivations (always a dangerous thing), the Sudan’s oil and China’s blocking of pro-Darfur resolutions aren’t some magical coincidence. Products made in China that we buy are partially made using oil bought from al-Bashir. The money handed to his regime is partially used for genocide. A more direct link is super funds that invest straight into companies intimately connected with the Sudan regime.

What do to?

How far removed must we be from the atrocity? If we take into account the Nth degree of separation we’ll just be paralised. But the 2 main mass murders of our time aren’t obscure injustices. For the 1st case, it’s an easy check with the manufacturer (Nokia, Apple, Samsung & Motorolla seem to be OK). For the 2nd case, though it’s impractical (and an overreaction) to boycott all Chinese goods, divesting from funds that pay al-Bashir directly is also easy.

Until these business practices become so unpopular as to be unprofitable, there will always be companies who deal with mass murderers to make their products.