For 3 years I lived in Uganda, bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo. Uganda was/is peaceful, as peaceful as any African country can be. When I arrived in Africa the DRC rebels were the worst rebel outfit any country could imagine. Few years earlier they picked up women and girls to satisfy their sexual needs. When they were in need of recruits, they picked up anyone old enough to carry a gun. Thankfully the situation seemed to have reduced by the time I left Africa.
While there is a lot of hue and cry over child labor in the cobalt mines of DRC, would we rather that those children became child soldiers?
Ask the children, would they play like children and die of hunger or rather work now, play later?
Some years back when there was an international uproar over exploitative wages in the garment industry of a developing nation, one worker told a reporter that his aunt was happy working for the wage she was getting because it helped her lead a life with dignity. Before she got the job, she was a prostitute, forced to service up to 10 men a day to earn what she now earned at the factory.
Every comparison is personal, subjective.
I am seeing with my own eyes how “the lot” of the poor is improving in India. From getting Rs40 (AUD 0.80 cents) a day, a decade ago, a daily wage earner now receives anywhere between $6 to $12 a day. I know that’s pittance compared to $19 an hour for unskilled workers in Oz (or has it gone up?). But whenever I buy vegetables in Oz, I pay for example, $10 for a few green chilies and a reedy bunch of coriander. In India, when I shop for the same mount of veggies that costs $80 in Oz, I pay $6 and get a fistful of chilies and a bushy bunch of coriander along with the veggies for free!
Whenever a better product or technology tries to replace an inferior product currently widespread in the market, the manufacturers of the existing product always attempt to block the new entrant, often by spreading rumors.
I grew up in Assam in the North East of India. During my youth, a rebel group tried to destabilize the country by demanding independence from India. Their movement targeted the political establishment of the state. General people were not so affected and we could lead a normal life. However the national media portrayed Assam as a warzone.
Media reports across the world these days are seldom free of hidden agendas. Because the fossil fuel industry cannot directly hit at the EV revolution, are they finding a scapegoat in the form of DRC? New cobalt from Namibia or any other country will only boost the EV boom, extra supply will not dampen it. Without DRC’s supply of cobalt, the fossil fuel industry can hope to prolong their profitability by a few more years.
DRC has its share of misfortune. But should this one sure shot means of livelihood for many ordinary citizens be taken away from them? Is all the bad news true? Or could the cobalt boom turn misfortune into good?
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