I'm a Mac ... and I've Got a Dirty Secret

Comment by Jibran Mushtaq on October 13, 2010 at 10:45am

This was a comment left about an article describing protesting outside the opening of an Apple Store in DC.

"This strikes me as a total waste of time.
Assuming apple startes to verify that it does not use conflict free minerals........so what? Do you think these minerals are not going to be used in some electronics, somwhere on earth? Do you think the chinese care where these minerals come from, or are going to refuse to import them from the congo? Or shady buisnessmen all over the world?
Gold, tin, coltran, etc - they WILL be used, by someone, on earth, even if apple makes sure they don't use them in your iphone. Markets for these minerals are global and liquid. Verifying that you don't use tin from the congo is like verifying that your car does not use oil from iran. It makes no difference to iran, or anyone living in iran, if you refuse to buy their oil because it will just be bought by someone else. This is espicially true in the case of the congo because the quanities of conflict minerals produced there are TINY. There will always, always, always be a buyer for congolese gold, even if apple is not the one doing the buying.
Moreover, is there any evidence to suggest that the war in the congo will end if warlords were to magically stop being able to sell their gold? No way. The drivers of the conflict there are going to stay there regardless of wether or not a warlord can afford to buy a few more AK47s. They will find other ways to buy their weapons and fight for territory, power, and scarce resources....maybe by stealing more from the people there.
More specifically, do you think this protest will accomplish anything? Are people really going to engage in a massive boycott of apple products due to the possible (though unlikley) use of conflict minerals? Fat chance. You are from CAP. Do a survey. How many people at CAP have iphones (answer: a lot). If you can't even convince people in your own liberal organization to stop using apple products, you really have no chance with the general public.
Which leads me to the more important point. Rather then wasting your time on a worthless protest that has a 0% chance of changing anything, you should be focusing your time on raising awareness of more important issues, like the what is actually causing the conflict (hint: it's not the sale of 8 million dollars worth of coltran). In the scheme of things, wether or not apple has elaborate verification methods in place to make sure the tiny quanities of coltran coming from the congo end up in their iphones really doesnt matter at all. Making people aware of the situation in the congo, and what they really CAN do to help (pressuring their leaders to focus on the Congo on a diplomatic/international level, in terms of aid, governance requirments, attempting to bring warring factions together, etc), is infinitely more effective. As it stands now, but choosing to persue a strategy that will have no effect rather then one that will actually produce results, you are complicit in the situation being as terrible as it is."

Obviously most of us don't agree with his points, but definitely good food for thought...

Source: http://www.enoughproject.org/blogs/activists-protest-apple-conflict...

Comment by Jibran Mushtaq on October 13, 2010 at 10:47am

Apple's stance on conflict minerals:
http://gizmodo.com/5574785/steve-jobs-on-conflict-minerals-its-a-ve...

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