Tale of a Phone

Warning: some disturbing and graphic stuff coming up.

A few months ago I lost my mobile phone. I had the same one for years and unfortunately I had to replace it.

The retail website, then the phone manufacturer, became slightly richer from the phone that I bought.

The phone circuit manufacturer became slightly richer from the phone manufacturer, from the retail website, from the phone that I bought.

The gold, tin, tantalum & tungsten wholesaler became slightly richer from the circuit manufacturer, from the phone manufacturer, from the retail website, from the phone that I bought.

The gold, tin, tantalum, tungsten reseller became slightly richer from the metals wholesaler, from the circuit manufacturer, from the phone manufacturer, from the retail website, from the phone that I bought.

Another gold, tin, tantalum, tungsten reseller became slightly richer from the original reseller, from the metal wholesaler, from the circuit manufacturer, from the phone manufacturer, from the retail website, from the phone that I bought.

A third gold, tin, tantalum, tungsten reseller around Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo became slightly richer from the second reseller, from the original reseller, from the metal wholesaler, from the circuit manufacturer, from the phone manufacturer, from the retail website, from the phone that I bought.

A militiaman mine administrator became slightly richer from the gold, tin, tantalum, tungsten reseller, from the second reseller, from the original reseller, from the metal wholesaler, from the circuit manufacturer, from the phone manufacturer, from the retail website, from the phone that I bought.

An FDLR warlord became slightly richer from the militiaman mine administrator from the gold, tin, tantalum, tungsten reseller, from the second reseller, from the original reseller, from the metal wholesaler, from the circuit manufacturer, from the phone manufacturer, from the retail website, from the phone that I bought.

A warlord bought weapons from money he got from the militiaman mine administrator from the gold, tin, tantalum, tungsten reseller, from the second reseller, from the original reseller, from the metal wholesaler, from the circuit manufacturer, from the phone manufacturer, from the retail website, from the phone that I bought.

A warlord’s henchman shot, stabbed, tortured to death and starved 45,000 people that month (half being children under 5). He killed almost 6 million people, more than any conflict since WWII. Then he raped 200,000 women and gave many of them the parting gift of a rectovaginal fistula. This is exactly as bad as it sounds — probably worse — and often means fecal incontinence and the associated inability to live life amongst humans, infection and a terrible death. Oh, and he cut up their faces, cut off ears and noses. He hunted down Pygmies for purposes of cannibalism. He destroyed what little infrastructure the DR Congo had. This made him hungry so he poached 20,000 hippopotamuses in a national park for meat. And for ivory.

All this he did with the machine gun and genocide-sized machete that his warlord bought, with the money he got from the militiaman mine administrator, from the gold, tin, tantalum, tungsten reseller, from the second reseller, from the original reseller, from the metal wholesaler, from the circuit manufacturer, from the phone manufacturer, from the retail website, from the phone that I bought.

And to top that off, a few days ago my ipod went missing too…

More on this later. For now, find out more here and take action here.