The Tantalum War
There’s a war going on. Actually, the worst war since WWII. Up till now, it is lasting for over a decade, involves the armies of over 8 different countries, and have already costed the lives of over 50 million people.
How come you didn’t hear of it? Because, according to the U.N. report available here, the disaster on the Democratic Republic of Congo is fueled by its rare natural resource: the Tantalum mines, which give plenty of this precious element.
Tantalum is a major ingredient in electronics circuits. It is the main component of capacitors, which are present on virtually any electronics board world wide. Consequently, it involves money. Big money. Uganda, for example, exported Tantalum in 2003 at a value of over 69.5 billion dollars. Needless to say, Uganda doesn’t have a single Tantalum mine. Where did it come from? You may look for it in neighbouring DR of Congo.
The Tantalum (Coltan, at its mineral form) mining also involves a lot of other malicous factors so typical to Africa, the cursed continent. These range from child labour to tribal conflicts, from bribed politicians to environmental disasters, and on and on. The amazing thing, for me, is that no one cares - milions died, milions more will, but the only chance the world will do something is if the Tantalum flow stops, which is not likely to happen any time soon.
Africa is a wonderful example to inverted evolution. Take a continent. Then, for centuries, dry it out of its stronger classes. Anyone who is physically strong enough is sold as a slave to a different continent. Anyone who is intelligent enough is slaughtered so the locals are left with no leaders. Export the best natural resources, minerals, food, anything; don’t invest anything above the necessary minimum. Dry out an entire continent. Only the weakest survive. Do this for generation after generation, over a few centuries. What are you left with? The biggest negative proof for the theory of Evolution. It is called Africa. Just look at its situation.
Pittyfull, isn’t it? Now the rest of the world can nod in sorrow. Look at those barbarians. How come they are not able to behave like civilized people. Let them kill each other. Eventually, we’ll get our minerals. Wouldn’t we?
August 7th, 2008 at 10:59
Do you have numbers (of people sold to slavery, killed for being intelligent) to support your claim that Africa’s demise is due to these factors?
– Arik
August 11th, 2008 at 14:25
I don’t think Africa is in any way behind the rest of the world in terms of evolution (although it does make for a very interesting if not politically correct argument, that can probably be easily tested). But instead ahead of the world in terms of corruption, which appears to be a left over from the colonial period and the cold war.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:46
I think Elad is trying to claim that this (the corruption) is an effect caused by “de-evolution”. It would be interesting to apply this to rampant corruption in other locales, for example: the “palestinian” authority.