Joy Li, Period 1, 11/30/2023

Joy Li, Pd 1

11/30/2023

Blog #2 - Socio-political Consciousness

Child labor is horrible. Especially when children are forced to work for little to no payment at all. Yet, as I type this, children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are mining away in cobalt mines. Not just the children, but mothers too. Mothers with their baby strapped to their back, breathing in and touching the toxicity of cobalt. Millions of trees have been cut down, the air around mines is hazy with dust and grit, and the water has been contaminated with toxic effluents from the mining process. Children are working in these mines just to make up to $2.50 USD per day to support their families and give the money to their mother for basic necessities to survive. These kids are missing out on their education just because they can’t pay for the teacher or school, so their parents resort to these mines. But, what is cobalt? Cobalt is an element that powers our rechargeable batteries in our smartphones, computers, and electric vehicles.There is more cobalt reserved in the DRC than the rest of the world combined, and they are being mined by artisanal miners.

I didn’t even know about this situation until a month ago when I came across a TikTok about this. Upon further research, I realized how this has been an issue way before December 2023 and I didn’t even know. So many people are so unaware of the atrocities happening in the world while they cozy up in their homes and I’m one of those people. Seeing and hearing about the conflict between Israel and Palestine and how Palestine is fighting a losing battle, with so many deaths that couldn't compare to the little amount Israel has. Seeing and hearing about these young children who can’t even afford to get an education and works in subhuman, grinding, degrading situations, while using pickaxes, shovels, stretches of rebar to hack and scrounge at the earth in trenches and pits and tunnels to gather cobalt and feed it up the formal supply chain just to survive. I never realized how grateful I should be for everything I have and the life I live, that I don’t live an unfortunate life of extreme poverty and suffering. How cruel this world is to the less fortunate and how the more fortunate, especially the wealthy, should be more of a help to these people.


Sources

Gross, Terry. “How ‘modern-Day Slavery’ in the Congo Powers the Rechargeable Battery Economy.” NPR, NPR, 1 Feb. 2023, www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara


Zuzia. “Families Depend on Income from Child Labour in Congo’s Cobalt Mines to Stave Off Hunger.” IMPACT, 13 July 2023, https://impacttransform.org/en/families-income-child-labour-cobalt/