MB Civic

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“Remember when we learned the periodic table of elements? Three of the minerals – tantalite, tungsten and tin – are indispensable to the proper functioning of much of our electronics industry, and Congo has a good percentage of the world’s supply of all three. The upshot is that feuding militias and a failed government have led to one of the highest death rates in the world, where an estimated 1,500 people die per day of war-related causes… Because of our demand for PlayStations, iPods, and BlackBerrys, we will have to use our considerable market muscle to demand from companies like Apple, Nokia, Hewlett-Packard and Nintendo that their products do not contain “conflict minerals.” This will require them to change their procurement practices and ask far more questions about where their components are from” – Wright Penn in the San Francisco Chronicle