Do you know, or even care, about where your gold (and other minerals like those in your cell phones and laptops) come from? I hope you're at least a little more curious after watching..
"Five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a war fueled primarily from gold mined in the country by warlords and smuggled out to be sold on the open market."
Some quotes I thought were interesting from the video and worthy of further exploration/research (perhaps for a future post!):
- "Uganda produced $500 worth of gold, but exported $75 Million (almost all from the war zone!)"
- "How would a consumer know where their gold comes from?"
- "The source of origin is not yet a part of the council's framework"
(Council being the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) which the "Jewelers of America" (JA) cofounded. The JA link takes you to their 'Responsible Gold Position Statement for retail jewelers' which addresses gold from the DRC, by saying that they and their members are "...doing what they can, within their spheres of influence, to ensure that none of the gold jewelry products they sell has contributed—in any way—to the funding of any current conflicts or wars.").
- "Why can't the industry cut off the Congo?"
- "Violence is localized and comes in spikes. These spikes have something to do with the contestation of resources."
- "Only Tiffany's traces all their gold back to its source: 1 mine in Utah"
(I knew there was another reason I liked Tiffany's!)
Would love to hear your thoughts/comments/questions about the video and/or the reality of this situation...
