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That's not really my point. Jumping to the fact that corruption plagues Africa immediately is what makes the comment insensitive.
You're right, they should couch the truth in at least a paragraph of explainer text.
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> I don't disagree, but if we want to actually help, we need to work with the world the way it is ...said the people opposing abolitionism. Reality: to achieve moral progress, sometimes you need to eat an economic recession. Suck it up, buttercup.
Good example. The person who actually ended slavery in the US, Abraham Lincoln, didn't support abolition until the military advantages of emancipation became obvious enough that he could sell it to the people. For a long time he supported some slavery improvements, but specifically did not support abolition - which very much helped his political career and put him in position to emancipate.
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Wasn't bribery illegal?
So? Who is going to know or enforce it? Most bribes are not obvious. More like give money to the charity my brother in law runs. The charity even does some good, but the real purpose is to pay the brother in law a nice salary and pay for family trips to various places the charity operates. (You should be suspicious anytime the family of a politician has any association with a charity - it might be a real charity but…
I highly doubt these companies are directly hiring or managing Cobalt miners. You might as well also sue anybody who uses a computer. This is purely a publicity stunt; it will get thrown out immediately.
You're telling me with 100 billion dollars in the bank you don't fully understand your supply chain and make an informed decision?
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> I don't disagree, but if we want to actually help, we need to work with the world the way it is ...said the people opposing abolitionism. Reality: to achieve moral progress, sometimes you need to eat an economic recession. Suck it up, buttercup.
Good example. The person who actually ended slavery in the US, Abraham Lincoln, didn't support abolition until the military advantages of emancipation became obvious enough that he could sell it to the people. For a long time he supported some slavery improvements, but specifically did not support abolition - which very much helped his political career and put him in position to emancipate.
Then the law needs to change. It's unconscionable for this to be happening. You make the buyers of that cobalt start caring, you'll make the producers of that cobalt start caring.
I think you got downvoted because people like Teslas more than they care about African children.
Going on about downvotes is also against the site guidelines, not only because it's boring (as they point out), but also because it's usually wrong. The GP comment has by now been heavily upvoted. Meanwhile off-topic complaints like this one linger on as uncollected garbage in a thread. Please don't.
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>if they shut this down it will just pop up again with another company... You can't just pop up a new mine like you could a textile factory.
I’m not endorsing the original comment, but the mines that employ child labor aren’t generally big mechanized operations. They’re what are called “artisanal mines”: holes in the ground where people chip out rocks with hand tools. So you kinda can just pop one up.
Global cobalt reserves by country:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/264930/global-cobalt-res...
Then the law needs to change. It's unconscionable for this to be happening. You make the buyers of that cobalt start caring, you'll make the producers of that cobalt start caring.
I found this is very insightful thread on this lawsuit and context behind it: https://mobile.twitter.com/enn_nafnlaus/status/1206896495993... 0) lawyers suing have questionable history BUT 1) Child labor in Africa is a serious problem that needs to be addressed, and just about anything sourced from Africa will have this problem. 2) The Kamoto mine in question is a copper mine. Cobalt is a secondary product. (One coul…
It's largely just a security problem. But I'm sure the activists don't want violent military guys pushing off the pirate mines.
The other question is the pipelines that purchase from the 'artisanal' mines. Those people could be targeted and better regulated.
But as we've seen in the diamond and gold industries that's been a very hard thing to do in African countries without stable governments or strong incentives to stop them.
If the goal is to actually stop it and not some vindictive pursuit of western companies who people want to take all of the blame, then upping security and oversight of the mines with financial goals and on-sight oversight teams to measure progress. Plus some financial incentives to the various players to reports the dangerous supply lines which are using kids, so it's not putting a poor person between having something and total poverty out for some moral purpose which they will disregard.