Of late we have seen more stories about modern slavery in the news, often called “human trafficking”. This is a problem all around the world, even in the US. Then there is the more traditional forms of slavery that can include child labor as well. The case in point for this story is the slave children that work in the Democratic Republic of Congo mining and/or processing ore for the cobalt needed to produce lithium batteries.
I saw this story on the subject fairly recently and the story has not changed much since the outlet Vice did a documentary film on the subject six years ago. Kids as young as 7 or 8 are still working to process the ore. The same list of big tech stars are still the biggest customers that are supplied by these laborers. In the headlines all the tech giants claim no responsibility or involvement with these shoddy practices but on the ground the same beat goes on day after day, year after year.
Of course the individuals at the mines and those that buy the ore will do what profits themselves the most because that is human nature. In lawless areas the most ruthless get rich. Companies will do whatever it takes to keep their manufacturing costs down while at the same time keeping their US divisions all squeaky clean by first world standards.
The other contributing factor that people do not usually talk about is basic apathy among the consumers in the marketplace in first world countries. We have such a history of living within artificially created borders and being nationalist with all the fervor of supporting our favorite sporting team that we lose sight of the basic truths like we are all human beings and all lives do matter.
If this story was about kids in the US mining ore there would be a public outcry (at least by a reasonable percentage of people). Since it is in Africa though not enough people care to make it a real issue for manufacturers. That apathy is something that has bothered me for a while because even though I understand it I can not see how a thinking person lives with that viewpoint.
I was thinking that maybe the reason that we can so easily dismiss things that happen outside our borders, no matter how horrendous, is kind of like “out of sight out of mind”. Of course photographers and video crews have been bringing us on the spot news for years but those are usually a kind of sanitized view that shows reality at a distance and from only specific viewpoints.
By doing these things it is possible to show the American people the horrors of war without actually showing the horrors of war. Some of it has to do with a kind of nationalistic propaganda too I think. Whether intentional or inadvertent the result it the same. We tend to think that we do no wrong.
As an example, the last time that Syria used chemical weapons and killed a few hundred innocent civilians including kids, American bombs in Iraq killed several hundred civilians including children. While the Syria incident is still talked about the American bombing is not. Yes the accusation is that Syria intended to kill women and children and America did not but the end result is the same for those involved.
What if we could have a more reliable window into the darkest parts of the world? One that is not clouded by viewpoint or politics? Today we do have that opportunity in more and more places all the time. During the Syrian war there have been people who emerged on the web who tried to document what was going on. @PartisanGirl was all about supporting the Assad regime and at the same time an 8 year old girl, @AlabedBana, was tweeting videos from her perspective much closer to the front lines of the war.
Those kinds of perspectives being available from inside a country helps us all see a bit more clearly than hat is offered on major media channels and at the same time may still be clouded somewhat by personal opinion or political affiliation. Maybe you can never get rid of that entirely but the closer you get to live action video at the scene of events the less chance there is for the events ro become obfuscated or glossed over.
Yesterday I did a quick search for live videos from Syria on Periscope, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube and found a nice variety of video from various places and people. That is a resource to gain insight into the area that most people probably do not even know is there. If it is presented to people I think they will use it. That was why I started embedding live video searches at the end of stories on my s0ciali5t.com news site.
Back to the child slaves in Congo. I wondered how to keep their plight in the day to day awareness of more people. How about a webcam, I thought. one that streams to the world 24–7? That is certainly possible. You can search for webcams all over the world and watch surf on a beach of eagles incubating their eggs. Why not set one up to watch the slave children work? It wouldn’t cost much and could stream to youtube, twitch and Periscope as a few top destinations among many available.
If you want to get really fancy you could stream in 360 degree VR and it would be just like viewers were tight there on the scene in real time watching the slave children break rocks. Would that matter or would it just become another form of entertainment? Would we sit around eating pizza and flipping channels on the web until we found the slave kids and then the family could watch it like a reality show.
If I had the money I would try it. There may be some problem getting cell service out in the mining area of DRC but you could rig something up like satellite feeds or whatever. Or you could give the slave kids their own smartphones and let them tell their own stories. Kids are smart and if you showed them how to use them I’m sure they would be streaming game play in no time just like any other kid. That is the point of this story after all, these kids are the same as first world kids and deserve the same chance at life.
Originally published on Medium: https://medium.com/@mikesjohnston/lets-hang-out-and-watch-the-slave-children-work-ef36057198ad