Attention PlayStation 2 responsible for killing African kids? (Read 1041 times)

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http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/playstation-2-component-incites-african-war/1231745


That's just terrible. It makes me feel pretty terrible for having a launch day PS2. Jesus.


I'm glad Sony changed away from this, but surely they had to know what was happening to procure the material in the 1st place, no?

I wonder if any other consoles have had to do this too...

It's sickening there are people who are willing to let kids do stuff like that without a second thought, too.
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Quote
"Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms," said Ex-British Parliament Member Oona King.
I like how he said that like we were supposed to know.

Now, yeah I feel fucking terrible. Everyone feels bad about the shit going on in Africa but nobody ever does anything.
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10 bucks says hideo kojima visits coltan mines for his next game.
WHY SO SERIOUS HAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA
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the playstation has truly stolen the genesis's title of "the black console"
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saying this is like saying that numerous toy companies are terrible because they use chinese sweatshops, like it or hate it, it's part of global economy for the forseeable future. [/end coldhearted money grubbing bastard]
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Some of this shit kind of pisses me off. I mean, yeah I agree it's horrible that this is happening, but no one is purposely doing this. Sony isn't saying HURR LET'S PUT THESE KIDS' LIVES AT RISKS SO WE CAN SELL OUR AWESOME CONSOLEZ. It pisses me off that they'll pin this on Sony when even though some of these executives are probably aware that this is happening, they're not the only ones. It's not just Sony that uses this shit I'm sure. You can't blame one corporation for ALL THE PROBLEMS IN AFRICA. If you're gonna solve this shit, stop distributing blame and start finding a way to fix it.
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It's just business. Nobody's saying, "We need to mine this ore so that some kids can play video games," they're saying, "We need to mine this ore because HOT DAMN IT'S BIG BUCKS!" It's pretty gay when people try to shift blame to eachother by taking stuff out of context.
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saying this is like saying that numerous toy companies are terrible because they use chinese sweatshops, like it or hate it, it's part of global economy for the forseeable future. [/end coldhearted money grubbing bastard]
hmm sweatshop or no job at all, I wonder what starving Chinese kids prefer...
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This is pretty upsetting news for sure, but this sort of thing will happen no matter what, there's always going to be an industry out there that needs a large quantity of something that is in high demand.

And it's hardly Sony's fault that the assholes in Congo put their kids to work in dangerous mines. isn't child labour in Africa pretty common though? This might be an ignorant question I don't know since I'm not overly familiar with the way Africa works, but don't child workers go into the working world at the wishes of their parents? There are some pretty poor places over there, so I'd imagine every little bit of extra income would be very welcome.
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uh that report says absolutely nothing about any kind of war or conflict aside from claiming coltan mining started one. what kind of conflict, who is killing who and how many people have died? it says military groups are forcing prisoners of war and children to work in mines. that's not a war. what's the deal here?

i don't really have any right to get sanctimonious here because there is no chance i'll ever do anything about this, but you guys seem to be apologising for sony and dismissing this because it happens a lot. if we know about this, then sony knows about it and probably has for a long time, and if they don't do anything and continue to buy coltan in the same way then they are perpetuating forced labour and that's fucked up. it doesn't matter how ingrained this is in the way business is done, it's wrong and i think at the very least we could admit that instead of being falsely cynical just so we don't have to consider we are bad people.

but christ i know nothing about this stuff, it just goes over my head i think. honestly i really find it hard to care that much because of how little i know and how unfamiliar the whole idea of forced labour is to me. i recognise the problems, but i'm a comfortable western asshole so i won't lose any sleep over it.

if i knew about it before, the most i would have done is just not buy the consoles which are fuelling this.
Last Edit: July 25, 2008, 10:34:40 am by real_jamicus