Tuesday 24 November 2009

Blood In The Mobile & Blood Coltan: Looking At The Rape of Congo

The Danish director Frank Piasecki Poulsen is working on a documentary, Blood in the Mobile, which takes a look at the illegal mining of minerals in eastern Congo, minerals that are useful to the mobile phone industry. This is the blood in the mobile, for the minerals are extracted under the brutal gaze of militias, the miners are treated brutally, including children who have to stay in these mine tunnels for 72 hours and Western businessmen strike questionable trade deals. The film-makers are trying to sensitise the mobile phone industry and campaigning for them to own up to their responsibilities. The other Poulsen documentary that attracted international attention was Guerrilla Girl which charts a middle class girl Isabel joining the Colombian FARC rebels.




An earlier documentary on this subject is Blood Coltan, directed by Patrick Forestier of Java Films. Blood Coltan investigates the conditions in which coltan, vital to manufacturing microprocessors for mobiles, is mined, the militias who control the mining, the traders who deal in it and the European firms who ship it all over the world.

3 comments:

  1. That`s a really shame. The World should be ashamed of this. Especially the neo-colonialists and their families. They deserve the severe judgement.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amanda iliadis1 May 2010 at 21:04

    This is so ridiculous i dont believe that this should be going on after so long i agree with phones bit not when so
    much hard work is being put into it and workers are being treated poorly!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am so hurt for what is going on in Congo I'm 21 year old I can't imagine being rape leaking urine from the front and back somebody really do need to do something aout the horrible situation that is going on in Congo I really wish there was something I can do!!!!!
    God bless all the women and young girls in Congo ! My heart goes out to them

    ReplyDelete