Report Claims PS2’s Need for a Certain Metal Helped Fuel a War
By Chris on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 6:35 PM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Sony, Sony
Website Toward Freedom (via GamePolitics) has dubbed it the “PlayStation War,” but this is hardly a laughing matter like that name might imply. This has less to do with fanboys and more about people dying.
The conflict known as Africa’s World War wages on. Many nations and militias have been involved in the battle that has taken place over the past decade. While much of the fighting ceased in 2003, the situation remains far from ideal.
A report on Toward Freedom alleges that Sony’s — and other electronics companies’ — need for a material known as coltan has helped encourage Rwandan troops to use prisoners-of-war and children to mine for the rare ore. If you think this sounds like Blood Diamond, you’re not alone.
“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 British politician Oona King.
Just what is coltan?
“After it is refined, coltan becomes a bluish-gray powder called tantalum, which is defined as a transition metal. For the most part, tantalum has one significant use: to satisfy the West’s insatiable appetite for personal technology. Tantalum is used to make cell phones, laptops and other electronics made, for example, by Sony, a multi-billion dollar multinational based in Japan that manufactures the iconic PlayStation, a video game console.”
As for Sony’s involvement in all this:
David Barouski, a researcher and journalist from Wisconsin, says it is certain that the coltan from this conflict is also in Sony video game consoles across the world. “Sony’s PlayStation 2 launch (spring of 2000) was a big part of the huge increase in demand for coltan that began in early 1999,” said Barouski, who has witnessed the chaos of eastern DRC firsthand.
“Sony and other companies like it, have the benefit of plausible deniability,” he said, “because the coltan ore trades hands so many times from when it is mined to when Sony gets a processed product, that a company often has no idea where the original coltan ore came from, and frankly don’t care to know.” He adds, “But statistical analysis shows it to be nearly inconceivable that Sony made all its PlayStations without using Congolese coltan.”
Sony spokesperson Satoshi Fukuoka gave precisely that sort of answer in an email to Toward Freedom. “The material suppliers source their original material from multiple mines in various countries. It is therefore hard for us to know what the supply chain mix is,” he said. “I am happy to state to you that to the best of our knowledge, [Sony] is not using the material about which you have expressed concern.”
*Looks at old, dusty PS2 under TV*
I feel dirty now.
Hmmm… the west is exploiting the third world… and this is NEWs? Besides, since when has Japan been considered the West?
The same goes for mobile phones, god knows why they picked on playstation, mobile phones contain coltan, militias force farmers to mine it in the rainforest which leads to lack of food, destruction of wild life and a collapse in economy,
it is not just Playstation responsible for this war but this article seems to pin it on them.
Anyway i didnt read the whole thing but this conflict mainly takes place in the democratic republic of congo and is fueled by the need for coltan which is trying to be stopped or moderated but militias continue to fight over it etc.
Theres plenty of electronics that use Coltan, yet this article only mentions playstation… I think someone hates Sony
i feel, wrong
terribly terribly wrong
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the PlayStation 2, for it is a human number.
It’s number is SCPH-30000R.
@Grundy:
LMAO! Best thing I’ve heard all day!
Ghost – Who doesn’t hate Sony? Overpriced and useless electronics that break once the warranty is out.
“# Sad says:
You don’t have a cellphone??? Dude, we’re in the 21st century here….
He might be one of those poor people from Africa.
@ SIcko112
She picked on PlayStation because it would get press coverage. If she had just mentioned capacitors (which is what coltan is used to make) it would have received zero coverage.
I’m a bit torn about this because while I think its a bit dumb to single out one product when the whole of the consumer electronics world is using the stuff its for a good reason, which is raising awareness of the problem.
The solution is not to feel guilty for using electronics. That is a symptom. The root cause is the ore needs to be extracted in more humane conditions.
People all over the world cut down trees to meet the world’s demand for paper. They aren’t forced into slave like conditions to do it though. . .
Work on solving THAT problem instead of trying to make people feel guilty for playing Final Fantasy or whatever.
As much as I loate the evil corporation of fat cats known as Sony, that article is blatant slander against the Playstation branding. There’s no reason to isolate it among the myriad of other electronic devices that use Tantalum obtained from Africa.
To simply say “Playstation fueled a war” is idiotic journalism. That’s like saying cotton was the cause of slavery in the south.
wow a 200 dollar ps2 just costs someones life in Africa,,,,that is crazy ,,, i feel bad to even use my ps2
I’ve read several different stories about this, and so far the majority of the reactions I’ve seen are appalling. People want to blame ‘global capitalism’, ‘western exploitation of the third world’, ‘consumerism’, and of course Sony for causing this travesty to happen. Very few people have been willing to lay the blame where it belongs: with the Rwandan troops. THEY are the ones enslaving children. THEY are the ones driving this war. Don’t blame capitalism just because you’re afraid to acknowledge who’s holding the gun.