Tài liệu Geopolitical Considerations behind the IT Consumerism Michele La Neve pot

As written above, Coltan cannot be recycled and it is a non renewable resource like all minerals, so this lead towards an incredible increase in its prices, from 65 USD in 2000 to 600 US

Geopolitical Considerations behind the IT Consumerism

Michele La Neve

Smashwords EditionCopyright 2012 Michele La NeveLicense Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT INTERNATIONAL TRADE, WHAT

IS COLTAN?

1.1 THE IT MARKET WORLDWIDE

2 THE EXTRACTION OF COLTAN

3 THE CANONICAL PROSPECTIVE OF THE WAR IN THE DRC

4 POLITICAL AND HUMANITARIAN ISSUES

5 STOP CONSUMING IS THE RIGHT WAY TO PURSUE?

6 THE POLITICAL SCENARIO IN THE REGION

7 LINKS BETWEEN THE EXPLOITATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND THE CONFLICT IN THE DRC

7.1 OTHER INITIATIVES TO STOP THE PHENOMENON

8 IS “FAIR TRADE “AN OXYMORON?

9 CONCLUSIONS

10 APPENDIX

11 REFERENCES

I would like to take the opportunity to thank those who helped me in making this text proof readable for their time and their patience; Jackie Gallegos, Folakemi Alli Balogun and David De Fazio, for their friendly help and support

I am very happy for the “social experience”, as Aristotle would say, I have been able to experiment during my studies for all those students I met, the real radix sapientiae of any University

This work starts from an academic project for the “Policy and Sustainability” class at the International University of Monaco, although the topic is the same, the aim is completely different; here I tried to point out a completely different way to deal with business, which should be headed towards human dignity firstly and, as a consequence, towards profit.During these difficult years, in fact, we have been experimenting the importance of having moral values The financial crisis of 2008 is probably the best example of what the utilitarian, short-term approach is; earning money for the sake of doing it does not pay back if there is no development for everybody This is the lesson we should learn

This is what we should aim for, exactly like Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant wrote centuries ago and Amartya Sen and E.F Schumacher only a few decades ago

To support my conclusions, especially the need to switch towards a moral attitude,

eventually, I used the “Theory of Moral Sentiments” and the “Critique to Practical

Reason” written by the aforementioned philosophers, and, in general, material provided

by moral philosophy

Hopefully, I will be able to going further with my research through further studies

1 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT INTERNATIONAL

TRADE, WHAT IS COLTAN?

Homo homini lupus, by Thomas Hobbes, is probably the sentence that best fits and describes what the international trade actually is Literally, it means “the Man is a wolf to Man”, where “Man” has to be understood as human gender and the sentence above describes the basic principles of the “natural state” This status claims that the human activity is mainly driven by the personal best interest, by the “particulare” as Guicciardini would say[1]

According to this theory, in fact, the human behaviour is not that different from the animal world; recognizing as priorities the survival and the oppression of other men.During history, several are the examples of this principle, such as the “zero-sum” game as epitomized by the realist theory in International Relations theory

During the Roman empire the motto “mors tua vita mea” “your death means my life” was coined to underline how bad human nature could be and it could not be different for a culture that used to enjoy watching gladiators at the Coliseum

Although I strongly believe these are still the core values for most of us, related to the animal world more than the human one, we should keep in mind that, since then, the human gender has hopefully evolve Even though the aforementioned examples are just history for the civilized world, we should not underestimate what has been happening in the poorest part of the planet, in Africa, for instance

In order to understand what coltan is, we should start from its usages and origins; coltan, tantalum its chemical name, has been recently refined by Werner Von Bolton in 1903 for the first time (Chemicool), It is a shiny, gray, dense metal, highly ductile and it can be drawn into technical wires (Chemicool)

The reasons why it is so well known and used in the IT field are mainly due to its

physical characteristics; coltan is very resistant to corrosion and high temperatures and it

is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity (Chemicool)

We all know that industrial technology has had a huge development during the last

decade, nevertheless, scientists are still fighting against heat in order to preserve the quality and the integrity of their technological products

In fact, all electronic devices share a common issue, which needs to be fixed in order to preserve their own performance and safety, that is, heat production

For instance, personal computers have become faster and more and more sophisticated thanks to a significant increase in microprocessors’ capacity; whereas the other side of the coin is the massive production of heat, near 100° Celsius in a few cases (Apple Inc., 2012)

Consequently, it is very difficult to preserve the integrity of the system, especially when markets require smaller and smaller mobile phones and laptops

It is not difficult, especially for the ones who have been using personal computers for several years, to remember the difference, both in dimensions and in performance,

between the devices used until a few years ago and the new ones If we have had this extraordinary evolution, the credit should go, besides to engineers and researchers, to the large use of coltan in all those devices

The core of every computer, as written before, is the CPU; the microprocessor, when its speed in mathematical calculations increases, this is what happens; it needs more energy and consequently, it gets extremely hot That is how it looks like one of the newest on the market

Nowadays, coltan is used in almost all technical fields; due to the large use of electronic devices in our daily life, such as car and aerospace industry, telecommunications and medical sector, among the others

The aforementioned list is just an example of all coltan’s uses In general, we can affirm that it is used whenever there is an electronic microchip

Moreover, along with all the other relevant characteristics, it does not cause any immune response by the human body; that is why coltan is used for surgical and dental implants

Another way to reach similar results can be represented by ceramics but studies to make

it work on small devices are still ongoing However, we are not going to use ceramics on our IT devices for other 5 years, at least (Università di Bologna, 2011)

Moreover, once a coltan-field is discovered, such as in the Katanga province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is relatively easy to extract

As already pointed out, “Tantalum (coltan) is almost completely immune to chemical attack at temperatures below 150°C, and is attacked only by hydrofluoric acid, acidic solutions containing the fluoride ion, and free sulphur trioxide.” (Webelements)[2]

The goal of this research is to demonstrate the connection between the consumption and the exploitation of the DRC natural resources and to propose some ideas such as technical research for suitable alternatives to coltan Even more importantly, this research is aimed

to propose a shift from an utilitarian, short term way to do business towards a more social and, by the human point of view, more acceptable one

It obviously does not mean that corporations should not aim to increase their profits, which allow them to increase their workforce, amongst other things They should

doubtless preserve their shareholders’ interests, but, they should do it bearing in mind an holistic approach This “new way” (new for the business world, since, as we are going to see very soon, philosophers claimed it centuries ago), should, on one hand, not just earn

as much profits as possible in the shortest timeframe, but, on the other hand, it should be headed towards positive externalities, latu sensu, the ones that create a virtuous circle.The same at political level, we are going to see, in fact, that the civil war that is affecting

the Democratic Republic of Congo is driven by the economic interests of firms located in some western countries, that are using local political powers to reach their goals.

Also in the political sector, politicians should not act in order to reach their personal objectives; either elections or coups d’état By doing so, they just achieve their own particulare, in most of the cases, ignoring the general well being (Guicciardini, 2008) This attitude, on the other hand, does not create any development or any new possibility

of growth whatsoever

On the contrary, this unwise, and, in some cases, criminal, behaviour must be stopped since it is strictly linked to the elite’s interests rather than general ones and usually it comes along with other unpleasant phenomena such as corruption, nepotism etcetera.What is more, one should admit that, ideally speaking, elected, authorities are the most important and best example of democracy, since they are supposed, as Plato in his

“Republic” pointed out, “to make prisoners free” (Plato, La Repubblica, 2007)

1.1 THE IT MARKET WORLDWIDE

Before elaborating the essential point of this thesis, I truly believe an analysis of the IT market is crucial, since the companies operating in this field are the most important coltan’s consumers The increase of sales of electronic devices has been significant in the last few years, therefore, IT companies are more and more concerned about finding appropriate resources of Coltan Being without it would mean that the production has to

be stopped; a too high price for the companies, that they are absolutely not willing to pay

In order to better understand the importance of the high tech market, it is important to know some figures concerning the sales of IT devices Apple, for instance, has sold more then 170 million “Iphone” devices since 2007 (Il Giornale, 2012)

In addition we should mention other competitors such as Research in Motion; the

BlackBerry producer, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, HTC, just to mention the best known ones world wide.[3]

We are talking about billions of USD, if we only think that 234 million US residents above 13 years old have a smartphone, we can easily understand how important the above mentioned figures and their impact on the economy are (ComScore, 2011).[4]Furthermore, we need to consider computers, either desktops or laptops, just to study home consumption and, if we take into account how important it has become having the last technological gadget to show an appropriate status symbol The rituality of changing devices from time to time has been considered by many people compulsory

As written above, Coltan cannot be recycled and it is a non renewable resource like all minerals, so this lead towards an incredible increase in its prices, from 65 USD in 2000 to

600 USD per kg, which is its current price (Reschia, 2012)[5]

To corroborate this statement we should think about what happened a few years ago, in

2001, when, at a certain point, Sony had to stop the production of the “PlayStation 2” because coltan’s extraction had become impossible because of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Rai News 24)[6]

Besides, if we think about how many cell phones, videogames and computers are sold every year, we can figure out how important it is having appropriate resources of this mineral.

Moreover, we need to point out the growing position of the emerging countries such as India (the second world market for mobile phones with more than 260 million users) (mobiThinking, 2012) and China, whose huge population make this market extremely relevant for IT producers

Always concerning mobile phones, according to the aforementioned figures, we can see how China has the largest quota of subscribers followed by India and the USA

(mobiThinking, 2012)

The table above, on the other hand, shows the number of subscribers in relation to the three main Chinese operators

Moreover, there is another aspect that should be acknowledged; the growing importance

of Chinese producers Huawei, ZTE, Arcos, were just unknown brands until one or two

years ago.

However, thanks to the Chinese labour law, which does not provide many rights to employees[7], these producers can sustain incredible production paces, in order to satisfy the demand, creating, consequently, revenues

Very recently, the market share of these new producers has become a geopolitical issue due to the fact that smartphone’s usage has become wider

Most people, nowadays, use their smartphone also to surf the Internet and to exchange emails or even to buy goods or services through their credit card; consequently, this means that a lot of sensitive information is stored on Chinese devices

Whether this should be considered or not a security issue, is something police authorities are supposed to deal with and now it is probably too early to have an opinion based upon relevant facts rather then economic interests

At this moment, we can just say that American security agencies strongly recommend to their officers and entrepreneurs not to use any devices made by Chinese producers (Garroni, 2012)

In the meantime, the following tables show some figures concerning the growing

importance of these new producers:

Source: (Huawei, 2012)Using the table above just as an example, we can immediately see how much revenues have grown since 2007; from 92,1 to 204 USD Million

Arcos, another Chinese brand, does not have different figures:

Source: (Archos, 2012)Although, this time, figures are expressed in Euro, the results achieved in just one year are simply extraordinary.

This should demonstrate that China, unlike India, besides being the most important market, has also become an important producer of IT products and this fact is extremely interesting according to the growing international power China is gaining, also from the political point of view

To corroborate what just stated, the following graph shows the China’s imports of coltan:

.

Figure 1.1 China’s imports of Coltan from African countries

Retrieved from (Raimund Bleischwitz, 2012)

As suggested above, the situation is not going to improve since, apparently, India is going

to surpass China reaching, alone, more than 260 million units of mobile phones by 2014 (BBC News, 2012) Therefore, having appropriate and adequate sources of imports to satisfy coltan’s demand will become more and more important for producers to sustain the demand

Concerning China, moreover, we need to point out a shift in the coltan trade; during the last decade, western countries were the most important buyers of this mineral from the DRC Afterwards, Asian countries, China in primis, started increasing their imports (Raimund Bleischwitz, 2012)

Retrieved from (Raimund Bleischwitz, 2012)

2 THE EXTRACTION OF COLTAN

Coltan is a mineral mainly found in the DRC mines, although it is also available in other countries such as Australia, Canada, Brazil and Mozambique Nevertheless the

Democratic Republic of Congo has itself more than 80% of world wide reserves of this mineral Furthermore, it can be extracted more easily from the DRC, since, apparently, it

is the only place where it is not stored in the rocks but in the ground[8] (Università di Bologna, 2011)

Moreover, China, which seems to have this mineral on its territory, has stopped partially its exports; this decision is probably due to the fact the Country is not only deeply involved in the IT components production, (in fact, most of the worldwide production takes place in China), but also it is heavily investing in the military field[9] (Rai News 24)

Figure 3: the world production of coltan

Retrieved from (Raimund Bleischwitz, 2012)

Consequently, it is definitely easier and profitable to extract Coltan in the DRC than in any other place in the world, although, as we are going to realise what price the local population is paying, especially in terms of health

It now becomes clearer why multinational companies are keen to pay coltan workforce involved in this business much more than the normal average in DRC: 200 USD against

10 per month (which is the common wage) (Calianno, 2011).

Since being paid 20 times more is, therefore, an incredible opportunity for many of those interested in improving their living conditions, western companies do not have to worry about finding workforce Unfortunately for those involved, the situation is much more complicated and unsafe for them

Coltan is, in fact, radioactive, due to a small percentage of uranium which is naturally stored in it and, Congolese people are used to extract it without any protection

Consequently, the possibility to get cancer or some other health issues related to the exposure of this mineral is extremely high, especially because people work in the coltan-fields on a daily basis[10] (Calianno, 2011)[11]

We need also to underline that the local workforce, sometimes, is obliged to work in poor conditions because of the situation within the country For instance, rebels supported by foreign countries like Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi continuously threaten them These rebels are supported to fight the regular Congolese government and its regular army to reach the control of Congo’s natural resources[12]

According to the Panel of U.N experts sent to the Country, the illegal exploitation of natural resources is, in fact, facilitated by the administrative structures established within the Democratic Republic of Congo by Uganda and Rwanda, mainly

Those countries appointed, by means of their leaders, directly or indirectly, regional governors or local authorities or, more commonly, appointed or confirmed Congolese people in these positions In 1999, Uganda appointed as Governor of one of the DRC richest provinces in terms of natural resources, Adele Lotsove, a Congolese who had already been employed by the Mobutu and Kabila administrations[13]

The UN Panel clearly indicates that she was the fulcrum in the collection and transfer of funds from her assigned administrative region to the Ugandan authorities in 1999[14]

On the Rwandan side, Rwandan authorities have helped secure the appointment of

Gertrude Kitembo as Governor of Maniema[15]

3 THE CANONICAL PROSPECTIVE OF THE WAR IN THE DRC

According to the official versions of the war, the conflict in the DRC is known as “the African world war” (Percorsi di Pace, 2012) This phrase is particularly interesting since,

as mentioned before, it clearly shows the weight of foreign countries within a conflict that is formally known as a civil conflict

Political problems rose in 1994, further to the Rwandan genocide made by the Hutu faction, which, eventually, was defeated by the Tutsi one

This last faction gained the power in Rwanda and, pursuing the aim to keep fighting against the Hutus, sent its troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Raimund

Retrieved from (The Economist , 2012)

As a consequence, the control of its resources is the key point to understand what stands behind the “coltan affair” and, as a whole, the political situation in Africa

To corroborate this hypothesis we can just take a look to all the factions actually involved

in the conflict:

The DRC army, Mai-Mai militia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Chad, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tutsi militia, Rassemblement Congolaise Démocratie

As we can see, the number of armies and countries involved is quite impressive,

definitely too much for a simple “tribal conflict”

Somebody must be interested in keeping this area a conflictual one We are going to see

in this study how western companies, or, rather, western countries are the ones behind this situation; the same ones that pretend to stop the conflict through a inadequate U.N mission, the MONUSCO - United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the

Democratic Republic of Congo.

It must be underlined that the appointment, in 1996, of an Hutu leader as refugees’ representative gave to the Hutus the means to keep fighting against Rwanda

Starting from that moment, the Rwandan’s involvement became inevitable and headed to war

4 POLITICAL AND HUMANITARIAN ISSUES

Like most African countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo still does not have a defined and safe political situation

Its natural resources, in particular, attract interests by any kind of groups, either from inside or outside the Country

The aforementioned natural resources are; diamonds, gold and coltan (Rai News 24)

As correctly pointed out by the U.N Panel “Exploitation of the natural resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by foreign armies has become systematic and

systemic” (The United Nations, 2001)

Besides, there is a relevant security issue concerning those groups that actually occupy the caves; this problem should not be underestimated because of the “ramifications and connections worldwide” (The United Nations, 2001)

Besides, there are some relevant interests regarding the commercialization of those resources since most of them are sold abroad using unofficial, and, perhaps, illegal

methods

Since the colonization of African countries, the European ones have always had a role in their internal affairs and this is exactly the case of Congo nowadays; diamonds, gold, computer, oil are obviously sold to foreign countries where the demand for this kind of products is higher and better paid

Consequently, many people and foreign countries are interested in controlling this huge asset destabilizing the democratic political environment of Congo

It is very well known, in fact, that civil wars which afflicted Congo, were mainly driven

by economic interests (like most wars) between Congolese Government and irregular troops coming from Rwanda and Uganda (Rai News 24) This situation lead towards a civil war, whose official reason has been claimed to be a “tribal conflict”

Concerning this point, the Panel is very clear identifying “western” responsibilities in keeping the conflict going: “A number of companies have been involved and have fuelled the war directly, trading arms for natural resources Others have facilitated access to financial resources, which are used to purchase weapons Companies trading minerals, which the Panel considered to be the engine of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have prepared the field for illegal mining activities in the country”[16] (The United Nations, 2001)

The panel, moreover, gives its interpretation of the conflict, which is definitely an

unusual one, due to the low level of fighting against already mentioned belligerents

“The conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, because of its lucrative nature, has created a “win-win” situation for all belligerents Adversaries and enemies are at times partners in busines, prisoners of Hutu origin are mine workers of RPA, enemies get weapons from the same dealers and use the same intermediaries The only loser in this huge business venture is the Congolese people” (The United Nations, 2001)

As matter of fact, I strongly believe this conflictual situation has been put in place to protect foreign interests in the region by means of DRC’s natural resources exploitation.Regarding these political aspects, we need to mention the role of the United Nations, which in 2001, had a role declaring clearly that “an exploitation of Congo’s natural resources was taking place” (United Nations Security Council, 2001) and “the revenues were used by Uganda’s, Burundi and Rwandese armies to finance the war”.

Besides, “it has been estimated that Rwandese army made more than 250 USD million selling coltan” (The United Nations, 2001)

The aforesaid sentence, expresses definitely a paradox situation; Rwanda does have very limited resources of coltan, consequently, the international community did not wonder how come they were able to sell it in a much higher amount

Concerning the way this business is managed, most of coltan illegal traffic has been in a woman’s hands, Aziza Gulamali Kulsum, who owns a cigarettes plant near the Rwandese border (United Nations Security Council, 2001)

According to the Panel, she would have sent abroad minerals such as coltan, gold and diamonds using corporations built ad hoc such as “SOMIGL”; “Société minière des Grands Lacs” which, in monopoly regime, exports coltan via Rwanda paying just 10% of its revenues to the Congolese Government as taxes

She has been accused of having paid rebels that fight Congolese regular army who are part of Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie (RCD) (The United Nations, 2001)However, since we are talking about illegal traffics, precise estimations are, obviously, impossible to assume, due to the lack of precise figures[17]

Under the light of this scenario, it needs to be acknowledged that the United Nations have not imposed their voice within the region so far, fixing the issue for good; the most important achievement reached has been a resolution, as a result of the MONUSCO report (United Nations Security Council, 2001)

In particular, according to the aforementioned statement, the exploitation of Congolese natural resources happens for the following reasons; (The United Nations, 2001)

“The behaviour of some countries like Angola to finance the civil war[…] The

exploitation of Congolese resources to finance the war like Rwanda,

The intervention of countries like Zimbabwe or Rwanda to keep the war in Congo going

to increase their incomes,

Private interests of politicians like Victor Mpoyo, Gaetan Kakudji, Mwenze Konkolo within the RDC,

The behavior of one of the part in conflict which usually distributes profits or other utility

to soldiers and/or rebels of the RCD”[18]

When reading the above mentioned report it becomes perfectly clear how those countries are actually involved in the “coltan affair” and how they send the mineral abroad

What is more, the point 74 of the report, in fact, explains perfectly that, “ On the

Ugandan side, three main private companies are involved:

* “Air Alexander, whose owner is Jovia Akandwanaho, the wife of Salim Saleh and sister-in-law of President Museveni According to some sources, the company continues

to operate in the territory held by Ugandan troops”

* “Air Navette has dealings with General Salim Saleh and Jean-Pierre Bemba”

* “Uganda Air Cargo, which mainly deals with the Ugandan Ministry of Defence.”[19] (The United Nations, 2001)

The point 75, likewise, explains how Rwanda did the same:

“New Gomair According to some sources, the wife of the current Minister of Finances of Rwanda is a shareholder, Air Navette flies to Goma, Bukavu, Kisangani and Kigali According reliable sources, one of the major shareholders, Modeste Makabuza, also owner of Jambo Safari, is a known figure in the entourage of President Kagame

Air Boyoma is a shuttle between Goma and Lodja; according to some sources Mr

Ondekane, former first Vice- President of RCD-Goma, is a shareholder”[20] (The United Nations, 2001)

On the other side, the report clearly shows the financial network behind the coltan trade and, similarly, the ways used by the above mentioned countries; while the point 76 keeps explaining which are the banks actually involved:

“Union des banques congolaises Although the headquarters remains in Kinshasa, it has ongoing operations in areas controlled by Rwanda,

Banque commerciale du Congo The headquarters is in Kinshasa and it has branches in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo The Director was transferred to Kigali in order to oversee operations in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo This bank

is linked to the Belgolaise, a Belgian bank consortium,

Banque commerciale du Rwanda The headquarters is in Kigali, but it has operations in Kisangani, Bukavu and Goma The Government of Rwanda is said to be one of the

shareholders,

Banque à la confiance d’or (BANCOR) One of the newest banks in Kigali which started its activities in 1995 It was family owned until 1999 but early in 2000 a businessman, Tibere Rujigiro, purchased the bank at a very low price according to various sources”[21] (The United Nations, 2001)

As we can see, there are extremely important interests, which concern Uganda’s and Rwandese political leadership in the exploitation of the DRC’s natural resources, along with western firms

Retrieved from (The United Nations, 2001)

“The Ugandan authorities, in their response to the Panel’s questionnaire, stated that there was no record of transit of mineral products.” (The United Nations, 2001)

The table shows clearly that Uganda has, exactly like Rwanda, very limited resources of coltan, however, concerning years 1998 and 1999, it is strange how Uganda has been able

to export respectively 18,5 and 69,5 tons of that mineral

Likewise for Rwanda, whose authorities declared there is “no production of diamond, cobalt, zinc, manganese, and uranium”[22]

Retrieved from (The United Nations, 2001)

According to the U.N Panel (art.104) “Production figures display some irregular patterns for gold and coltan starting from 1997 […] It is revealing that the increase in production

of these two minerals appeared to happen while rebels, backed by Rwandan troops, was taking over power in Kinshasa.” (The United Nations, 2001)

This “strange” behaviour in the natural resources international trade also affects, although less significantly, Burundi:

“Burundi does not produce gold, diamonds, columbo- tantalite, copper, cobalt, or basic metals” Burundi, however, has been exporting minerals it does not produce As in the case of Uganda and Rwanda, Burundi’s export of diamonds dates from 1998, coinciding with the occupation of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.”[23] (The United Nations, 2001)

Once again, the vicious circle between the conflict and exploitation must be underlined and I strongly believe that personal or limited interests of African leadership have been certainly playing a role but not as significant as the one played by the global firms, that are the real buyers of the DRC natural resources

This feeling is corroborated by the fact that the Panel has been threatened during its activity in the DRC (Rai News 24)

As we saw in the introduction, the IT market is worth billions and we cannot deny the huge interests of those companies: most of those US based, in keeping Kinshasa’s

government unable to control the situation within its borders