Group items tagged

Many of the smartphones, laptops, cameras and other gizmos Americans rely on every day contain metals from the Congo, where profits from these "blood" minerals pay for guns, bullets and other weapons.

Western consumers have no clue about the true costs of their gadget addition, but the people behind the Enough campaign hope to change that and push electronics companies, with help from a new web video, to do more to fight against conflict minerals

n a video spoofing Apple's famous "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ads, Enough explains some of the problems caused by the minerals tantalum, tungsten and tin. The spot's sad punchline claims that Macs and PCs have at least one thing in common -- they both contain those "three T" conflict metals.

conflict minerals are helping fuel the deadliest war in the world since World War II, the conflict in eastern Congo in which 1,100 women are raped every month, and 1,500 people die every day. The main armed groups that orchestrate the violence make hundreds of millions of dollars by trading in four minerals - the 3 Ts of tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold. These minerals are then bought by electronics and jewelry companies and are used in our cell phones, laptops, and gold necklaces.