[GracieMMABarra]

Don't know if this was posted...thought some might be interested :

Console war reaches past the couch and into the Congo, claims report.

By Ben Silverman
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Has the video game industry dug up its very own blood diamond?

According to a report by activist site Toward Freedom, for the past decade the search for a rare ****l necessary in the manufacturing of Sony's Playstation 2 game console has fueled a brutal conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At the center of the conflict is the unrefined ****llic ore, coltan. After processing, coltan turns into a powder called tantalum, which is used extensively in a wealth of western electronic devices including cell phones, computers and, of course, game consoles.

Allegedly, the demand for coltan prompted Rwandan military groups and western mining companies to plunder hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the rare ****l, often by forcing prisoners-of-war and even children to work in the country's coltan mines.

"Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms," said Ex-British Parliament Member Oona King.


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So where's the connection to Sony? According to Toward Freedom, during the 2000 launch of the PS2, the electronics giant was having trouble meeting consumer demand. To pump out more units, Sony required a significant increase in the production of electric capacitors, which are primarily made with tantalum. This helped drive the world price of the powder from $49/pound to a whopping $275/pound, resulting in the frenzied scouring of the Congolese hills known for being ripe with coltan.

Sony has since sworn off using tantalum acquired from the Congo, claiming that current builds of the PS2, PSP and PS3 consoles are sourced from a variety of mines in several different countries.

But according to researcher David Barouski, they're hardly off the hook.

"SONY's PlayStation 2 launch...was a big part of the huge increase in demand for coltan that began in early 1999," he explained. "SONY and other companies like it, have the benefit of plausible deniability, because the coltan ore trades hands so many times from when it is mined to when SONY gets a processed product, that a company often has no idea where the original coltan ore came from, and frankly don't care to know. But statistical analysis shows it to be nearly inconceivable that SONY made all its PlayStations without using Congolese coltan."

Currently, the Playstation 2 is the best-selling video game console of all-time, having sold through over 140 million units.

Playstation 2 component incites African war - Video Game Feature - Yahoo! Video Games

[cheese7668]

it doesn't exactly take a whole lot to incite an African war.

[WandyWiolentFan]

Cell phones and other electronics need the same m.e.t.a.l.

Cell Phone ****l Triggers Strife in Eastern Congo - NAM

[GracieMMABarra]

Originally Posted by WandyWiolentFan

Cell phones need the same m.e.t.a.l

Ok that was stated in the article. Whats your point?

[WandyWiolentFan]

The Cell phone boom is largely responsible for the huge increase in demand.

[GracieMMABarra]

Originally Posted by WandyWiolentFan

The Cell phone boom is largely responsible for the huge increase in demand.

Once again ok.

[Fedor#1]

I didnt even know they had ac voltage in congo!

[p0nda]

Why are they writing a story like it is breaking news when it happened 8 years ago?

[iowejf]

Originally Posted by cheese7668

it doesn't exactly take a whole lot to incite an African war.

Fitting first post. Colonialism left that place in shambles, but most countries over there have had plenty of chances to get their shit together since. The way I see this, some third-world countries had the chance to make a killing selling an in-demand commodity to the rest of the world, likely (with some foresight) creating the opportunity to develop economically and secure a place in the global economy that could raise the general standard of living. Instead, people started a civil war. While I am very saddened by the state of affairs throughout Africa, I find it very hard to blame this on western gluttony or corporate greed.

[I Am Korean]

Unfortunate.