Event Title
How Our Way of Life is Killing Africans
Description
Every time your cell-phone rings or you reach for those cheap items on the shelves at the food store, a child dies or goes hungry in Africa. Why? Because the coltan that is an essential heat-resistant component in cell-phones, computers, play stations and all the new electronic gadgets that clutter and consume our hours is being mined by starving children working barefoot in unsupported mines shafts that often collapse. Our low food prices are achieved through government subsidies that make it impossible for Africans to sell their agricultural products on the world market. And many of our pension funds are invested in mining companies that care nothing for human rights or the environment. These are just a few of the issues that emerge in Gary Geddes's new non-fiction book Drink the Bitter Root: A search for justice and healing in Africa (Counterpoint Press), the story of his human rights interviews with women raped and infected with HIV, victims mutilated by the Lord's Resistance Army, former child soldiers, refugees, displaced persons and poets turned freedom fighters.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
22-2-2012 12:00 PM
End Date
22-2-2012 1:00 PM
Location
Fairhaven College Auditorium
Resource Type
Moving image
Title of Series
World Issues Forum
Genre/Form
lectures
Contributing Repository
Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Social justice--Africa; Human rights--Africa; Child labor--Africa; Tantalum industry; Coal mines and mining--Africa; International business enterprises--Moral and ethical aspects--Africa
Geographic Coverage
Africa, Sub-Saharan
Type
Moving image
Keywords
Coltan mining, Human rights, Exploitation of Africa
Rights
This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws.
Language
English
Format
video/mp4
How Our Way of Life is Killing Africans
Fairhaven College Auditorium
Every time your cell-phone rings or you reach for those cheap items on the shelves at the food store, a child dies or goes hungry in Africa. Why? Because the coltan that is an essential heat-resistant component in cell-phones, computers, play stations and all the new electronic gadgets that clutter and consume our hours is being mined by starving children working barefoot in unsupported mines shafts that often collapse. Our low food prices are achieved through government subsidies that make it impossible for Africans to sell their agricultural products on the world market. And many of our pension funds are invested in mining companies that care nothing for human rights or the environment. These are just a few of the issues that emerge in Gary Geddes's new non-fiction book Drink the Bitter Root: A search for justice and healing in Africa (Counterpoint Press), the story of his human rights interviews with women raped and infected with HIV, victims mutilated by the Lord's Resistance Army, former child soldiers, refugees, displaced persons and poets turned freedom fighters.
