In the town of Mongbwalu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Richard is all smiles as he shows me a small flake of gold balanced on the tip of his finger.The BBC story is based on a new report from Human Rights Watch linking the gold industry in the DRC to dangerous labor, child labor, border issues, violence, corruption and even poverty. It's worth your time to at least read the BBC story, if nothing else.
He has just found it after sieving mud and sand for the whole morning. The gold, which he wraps up in the metal foil from a cigarette packet, is worth less than $10 (£5.50) but it will provide food for his family.
The curse of gold
From the BBC:
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2 comments:
Thanks, Boz. I certainly won't defend gold, but at least it's not as bad as diamonds, which are artificially made rare and have caused so much misery.
Obviously it's not the gold or diamonds but a group of companies that exploit them.
Diamonds and precious metals haven't just caused misery among the poor, they have become a great way for al Qaeda and Hezbollah to liquify their finances and transport them across borders. Obviously, this isn't the top concern of HRW, but it's another angle to look at the problem and helps bring those more concerned about security than human rights on board :)
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