[Rockhounds] The Bakken Formation - An Interesting Read

[Axel Emmermann]

> Nonsense. Me buying the latest cell phone isn't going to make 
> a bit of difference to your goatherd. In fact, if it 
> contributes to the global economy, it might conceivably benefit him.

No Al, he won't see a cent of it and if he's unlucky enough to have built
his hut on land that has something that's worth anything he's likely to
become another casualty of progress.
Global economy is us, the West and Japan and half of Korea... We like to
think... If the Arabs were to withdraw 0.1 percent of their investments in
Europe and the US there would be no more "global economy" and unemployment
and famine would be the result.
Not that we need them for that... Looking at the disaster of mortgage loans
I'd say we're pretty much capable of destroying our own economy by mere
greed.

Nigeria should be one of the richest countries of the world. It is among the
poorest.
Myanmar has oil, gold, rubies, sapphires, spices. People live there in
slavery.
Shell oil company rules Nigeria and Total exploits oil in Myanmar...

Coltan (the colmubium-tantalium ore needs to make cell phones, computers and
such) is quite expensive.
All of the major coltan-producing counties are under the thumb of dictators
that are fought by rebels that need guns, which we supply. We, the good
guys, take coltan or diamonds as payment for the guns and support the rebels
until they win. Then we look for new rebels to support. (We did the same
with communism in South America. Think about Sandina)
If coltan was bought at the price that the market dictates, a cell-phone
would cost 8 times as much as it does now.

We cannot afford to let third world countries grow up. The math behind it is
unforgiving.
There is not enough steel to build a car for all Indians and Chinese. There
is not enough coltan for all the world to have a cell phone.
It is very cynical that a country that is outgrowing communism like China is
capable of bringing a capitalistic world to a grinding halt just by doing
what we did. Exactly the same thing: strive for economic expansion without
applying morals.
Google is currently building server parks in Iceland in order to get rid of
some of the costs of cooling. If 1 billion Chinese and 1 billion Indians
start logging on to the internet the heat production of that alone may be an
"interesting renewable energy source". That will happen... Undeniably. 

Things are as they are because we, the common man, cannot see what is going
on in far off places because we have to "engage" in wanting to see. We have
to actively look for answers and constantly wonder "Why and what if".
Those who do that have a tendency of enraging those who don't want to know.

About 100 years ago, Belgium had a thriving colony, Congo. Rubber, copper,
gold, uranium, diamonds... Why is Congo still a poor country? Because
tyrants like Mobutu and Kabila sell of these resources to finance a military
force to keep rebels at bay that are trading "blood-diamonds" for weapons.
Do you feel the extraordinary cunning "win-win" that's in there?
Just recently there was a book published in which there were photos of "lazy
black workers" of whom a hand was hacked off. A practice that lead back to
the entourage of the king Leopold II who looked upon the colony as private
property. 
See the movie Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death (2004) or read the
book Red Rubber.
The maker of the film was denied access to the archives and the government
actively tried to boycott the film.
It was broadcasted on both national TV-stations... That IS a positive note
;-)))
These things are still happening but on a less personal level... A machine
gun is much less cruel and socially acceptable than a machete ;-)))

My favorite conspiracy theory: cell-phone manufacturers make deliberately
complicated manuals so that you're too busy trying to figure out your latest
buy to think about why it's so cheap.

Cheers
Axel