It is fitting that we pause today to remember the events of September 11, 2001 in New York, NY and Washington, DC. It was a day in which a small group of terrorists once again reminded us just how much ideology and religious fervor can so blind the eyes of men to right and wrong to the point that they will turn aircraft loaded with innocent people into missiles to be used to commit deliberate acts of barbaric, cold-blooded murder against thousands of other innocent civilians.
It was also a day in which firefighters, police, rescue workers and even ordinary citizens committed selfless acts that taught us the meaning of heroism. Through the coverage of 9-11 memorials and tributes, the media has done a good job of reminding us of all of this. It has also reminded us of the deep sense of loss and the threat we face. We’ve been called on to remember the soldiers who volunteered to fight against the terrorist threat and did not come home. Nearly 4500 coalition forces have been killed in Iraq, and 1800 in Afghanistan (source). The number that have been maimed or psychologically scarred is even larger.
As Americans, however, we must realize that 9-11 was a global tragedy and we were not the only ones affected…
Tag Archives: war
My Computer and War in Africa
It takes a lot of seimi-precious metal to make up the portable electronics devices we treat as throw away, and much of it comes from the more war torn corners of our planet. So this article from Time Magazine was food for thought.
When the film Blood Diamond came out in 2006, people were startled at the alleged origins of the precious stones from areas of bloody conflict and began asking whether the jewels on their fingers cost a human life. Will consumers soon find themselves asking similar questions about their cell phones and computers?
In a report released earlier this week, Global Witness claims that multinational companies are furthering a trade in minerals at the heart of the hi-tech industry that feeds the horrendous civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). (Global Witness is the same nongovernmental organization that helped expose the violence that plagues many of the sources of diamonds.) However, the accused companies, with varying degrees of hostility, deny any culpability, saying Global Witness oversimplifies a complex economic process in a chaotic geopolitial setting.
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Read more in the piece by Elizabeth Dias, on Time.com. The Global Witness report, Faced with a Gun, What Can You Do? is also available online.