Boycott Conflict Minerals: I hereby take full responsibility for my own supply chain.
I’ve spent months asking tech companies to take full responsibility for their supply chains and stop funding the humanitarian crisis in Congo. We agree conflict minerals from Congo- like tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold- are in all of our consumer electronics products and other goods. We agree they are funding millions of deaths at a rate of 45,000 per month. We agree its unacceptable, and most tech companies agree it needs to change.
We asked for one thing: Guarantee Conflict Free.
I’ve brought them love offerings of pennies. I’ve logged countless hours on facebook. I’ve walked, run, driven and flown thousands of miles trying to visit companies like Intel, HP, and Apple, urging them to emerge industry leaders. I’ve sat down with corporate representatives in behind closed doors. I’ve sweated out the DC heat while hand delivering books and notes to urge the US Congress to vote for the strongest possible conflict minerals language. I’ve written to Steve Jobs multiple times. I’ve begged, yelled, argued, flattered. I’ve even used the word “rape” in front of tech guys, despite protests it made them “uncomfortable”.
But I have failed to do one thing: Take full responsibility for my own supply chain.
Based on the leadership and vision of my sisters Monica, Richa, Pamela, and Mom (aka Mrs. Claws), I see what I considered impossible is possible.
Pamela: I don’t really see adults getting the latest and greatest tech device as essential.
Richa: My kids enjoy swimming , bicycling , running around, singing and dancing . I don’t care for Nintendo products but just want them to stand up and be on our side of humanity .That’s all I care about .
Mrs. Claws: Boycott not feasible? I say it is imminently feasible and practical to make US buyers think twice and to hold back from the EASE with which they purchase upgrades to their sexy new tech products. And that will hurt the giants big time…if we institute a don’t buy unless you absolutely have to … and then, buy used on EBAY.
Thanks, sisters. I have made a decision. If tech co’s are too shy to go first, I will.
I hearby pledge I will not purchase another new tech product, piece of jewelry, or any item that may contain conflict minerals until the provider offers a guarantee it is conflict free. Until such products are available, if I need such a product, I will only buy second hand. From this moment on, I guarantee myself conflict free.
I encourage other to join me in this pledge. BOYCOTT CONFLICT MINERALS.
PS- And Steve Jobs, please fix this fast! I really want a new iPhone! XO- Lisa
Lisa, I’m with you all the way. Can we set up a page for Boycott Conflict Minerals that connects to A Thousand Sisters? The average person would be asking, “What are conflict minerals?” Let’s educate them.
This is a poem I wrote a couple of years ago, after seeing the riveting film “Blood Diamond”. The film effected me so much, I had to write this poem, so here it is. Enjoy and feel free to share it, as long as I am listed as its author. Thank you.
Diamonds Dripping
By Therresa Kennedy
“This poem is dedicated to the more than 200,000 child soldiers still serving and suffering in Africa. May they be blessed and released from bondage one day.”
Diamonds Dripping:
It carries with it,
Soaked sand, iridescent
And thick with darkening moisture.
It carries with it,
The sheen of a silver colored
Metal careening above sunlit Earth.
It carries with it,
A certain contamination that refuses
To leave the transparent gloss offered up.
It carries with it,
The option to decline
To choose something else in its stead.
It carries with it,
A putrid wandering scent, that comes
With flesh that is torn, laying pierced
And unclaimed, dissolving within red sand.
It carries with it,
The agonies of Earth as she allows
Her children back in, as faintly
Radiating heat from those bodies cools
To a dim gray, celestial in its hue
And forever fragile in its constitution.
It carries with it…
It carries with it…
It carries with it…
This is another poem I wrote, about the Night commuters of Uganda, an issue that I found particularly heart breaking. I hope you enjoy both poems. Feel free to circulate them, listing me as their author. Thank you.
The Night Commuters of Uganda Fear:
The Night Commuters of Uganda Fear…
Their burgeoning growth from children to something not human nor recognizable.
Horizons that imperceptibly transform the brightness of morn to the haze of evening-
Evening, crawling with darkness and shadows–full of brilliant empty faces
You cannot see amidst the blackened huts and rounded eyes of the damned.
The Night Commuters of Uganda Fear…
Frail lengthening femurs that spell manhood to men who were never children.
Enraged soldiers who mourn the loss of the innocence they possessed for a day
And lost it when they severed the lips from a girl who refused to be prostituted–
Realizing too late, that for them, there is no sleep, no comfort and no absolution.
The Night Commuters of Uganda Fear…
The curling lip of a lunatic, his name issuing from the mouth like comfort,
His mind lost to the labyrinthine maze of the battered child’s denial and projection–
Earnestly attempting to master the past of his time, to the future of their time–
Yet blind to the wisdom of the sworn oath of ages, that “to harm my little ones…”…
Demands the harshest of penalties, of destroyed hope and ravaged souls lost-
Into the nightmare fog of faces that continually accuse, that never cease to be.
Engaged in a constant marathon of fear, these children run alone, shuffling below God.
Being sacrificed to the inferno, they are many thousands-
They are children
Without Protection
Ignored
Alone.
Count me in…I’ve been buying used cell phones on EBAY for years, and saving a bundle in the process. But we need an email that goes viral and a you-tube video calling for the boycott on upgrades to sell the public on the idea. Dan? Anyone else with the talent and skills to come up with a video? We need a video of kids marketing the idea to kids about video games, cell phones, and upgrading their Wi games.
My Congo sister’s face and heart is my constant reminder of the actions I take and not put her life at risk.I can choose to be indifferent and go my own way but I make a conscious choice not to do so. Imani, by beautiful Congo sister, I take this pledge with Lisa to not get any products that have conflict minerals in them as it will be a mockery of what I really want for you.I want to come some day to Congo and give you a hug so I will act in such a manner to protect your life .
Love you tons, Imani.
Your loving sister,
Richa
I’m in. For Generose, for my three Congo sisters, for the children, mothers, grandmothers, wives, sisters, fathers, brothers and grandfathers that have died and those that will continue to die until this senseless killing stops. It is the least I can do to create a small economic disincentive.
Count me in! Just last night my son and I were researching phones. Our contract is up and we were trying to decide what new gizmo to get. I will either keep my phone or buy a used one on Ebay.
I’m so inspired by this, but I don’t think I (and a lot of people) are aware of all the conflict minerals, and what companies use them? More info please! I want to spread this to my entire college campus!
I’m from Brazil and I’m reading your book and watched HBO’s documentary.
I’ll do it. I’ll do it for all the thousands and much more sisters. I’ll do it for the suffering of children without parents. It’s the least I can do for them. They certainly need us a lot more than we need new phones. And I’ll spread the word!