The Long View

Nicholas D. Kristof, writing in last Sunday’s New York Times, “Death By Gadget,” describes how “[a]n ugly paradox of the 21st century is that some of our elegant symbols of modernity — smartphones, laptops and digital cameras — are built from minerals that seem to be fueling mass slaughter and rape in Congo.” Our digital devices use several rare metals that are becoming the equivalent of “blood diamonds,” funding the barbarism in Equatorial West Africa.

Next time you’re porn surfing the Web on your iPad or iPhone or other e-device in search of material for onanistic self-pleasuring, or just texting (and, really, we are not in love with you, so we really are not interested in what’s on your mind or where you are from one moment to the next), view this video first: