Intel and HP Lead Battle Against Conflict Minerals
For the second time, the Enough Project has listed technology companies for their effort to avoid conflict minerals in their products.
The ranking is designed to highlight and reward those companies that take pro-active steps to recognize the problems of conflict minerals originating from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Just like the much more publicized conflict diamonds, conflict minerals cause in-humane working conditions, violence and exploitation.
According to the Enough Project, Intel comes out on top with a score of 60 out of a possible 100. HP follows with 54 and Philips with 48. Other companies that were recognized for auditing their supply chain, participate in industry-wide initiatives against conflict minerals and help Congo to clean up their trade environment include Sandisk (48), AMD (44), RIM (42), Acer (40), dell (40), Apple (38), Microsoft (38), Motorola (35), Nokia (35), and Panasonic (33).
Companies such as IBM, LG, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Lenovo are further behind and are in the beginning phases of considering a stronger commitment against conflict minerals. The Enough Project chastised Canon, Nikon, Sharp, HTC and especially Nintendo as the lowest ranked company for doing "next to nothing" to avoid conflict minerals. According to the project organizers, Nintendo has been unresponsive to repeated outreach efforts, did not investigate its supply chains, and does not participate in a program "to source clean minerals from Congo."

because they are knowingly and willingly turning a blind eye to the poor conditions, violence and exploitation they are indirectly supporting, that's why.
btw shame on you Nintendo.
Any company that partakes in the market place raises the price of conflict minerals. Its like the price of oil. It does not matter who you buy it from, it only matters if you don't buy it.
I am not saying there is an alternative, but to suggest they have done something is false.
btw shame on you Nintendo.
For a few people to be rich there must be a lot of poor people, this how it is and how it always have been.
Why? because they want to make profit out people like every other company in this world?
because they are knowingly and willingly turning a blind eye to the poor conditions, violence and exploitation they are indirectly supporting, that's why.
Any company that partakes in the market place raises the price of conflict minerals. Its like the price of oil. It does not matter who you buy it from, it only matters if you don't buy it.
I am not saying there is an alternative, but to suggest they have done something is false.
So what? do you want prices to go up?
It's kinda hard to tell the difference between legit and blood diamonds, no? And the authentication process will get wrenched by bribery or intimation.
In any kind of school test that would mean your brightest pupil is still a failing retard. Should we really be praising these companies at all?
Bull____, prosperity is only a zero-sum game in the minds of those with no sense of history. I'm sorry if you've been fed this stuff in school or the media, but the US and most other countries (not all, I'm looking at you, Albania) embracing capitalism have effected the largest transfer of wealth of ALL its citizenry in history, creating a "middle class" that lives fairly comfortably. Admittedly, some socialist societies have also achieved this goal, but many falter because a too strong government becomes corrupt, causing its people more harm than good.
Next time a guy forgets to buy his girlfriend/wife a gift for valentine's day he should say that he was going to buy a diamond ring, but he was on a boycott of jewelry stores. I'd like to see how that ends.
You know, the middle class is the most fucked up because it doesn't have that kind of wealth that rich people do, but it has to keep social standards as well.
The present capitalist system is severely fucked up. It makes the rich richer and poor poorer. The middle class simply has to keep working harder to make sure their kids get to go to college.
Until we move from this consumerist economy to a sustainable one we're going to be in deep shit a few years down the line.
BTW, the present capitalism is what drives conflicts and conflict minerals. Found 'em WMDs in Iraq yet? But oh, look at the oil...
you can talk about sweat shops that way, at least they over all are a good things, but the conflict diamonds and minerals, if they are handled the same way, are honestly worse than real slave labor.
well, most places even with child labor, don't kill the kid for being slow or actually work them to death
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now with all that said, i don't care where the materials come from, just because we boycott this, doesn't make it go away, it just makes it cheaper, there will always be money in the diamonds and minerals. i dont see the point in complaining that companies use them, unless we ever intervene with military against them.
and to the other persons point that 60 out of 100 is failing.
im assuming that the only way to get 100 is to own and operate all facilities in the supply chain and hand over complete records of everything.
intel ill assume probed where they get materials from in their suppliers, and only used suppliers who dont have a history of importing from them after the materials were deemed bad.
If that's all you care about...
Alternatives existed for sometime... diamonds can be produced synthetically. We've been doing it since 1950's... and since 1996, chip sized synthetic diamonds (applicable in electronics since then) was doable.
We live in an age where humanity is producing abundance in practically everything (and have been doing that for at least 100 years).
The only reason you have above conflicts is because of a monetary based system (and its in someones interest to do things like this).
Nothing more, nothing less.
Its inhumane and sickening.
I'm guessing the average Tom's reader wasn't around for those commercials, or was at least too young to remember them.
Ahh nostalgia, +1 for you sir!
That is capitalism. And it is not how it was meant to be. The idea of capitalism came from islamic economy as it says to do business with honesty and earn as much as you can but spend according to your necessity.
And it also says what you said above that people of different wealth group is needed to have a working society.
But the point missed is EQUAL RIGHTS what capitalism stripped of from that idea. In capitalism everyone does not get equally treated. Most importantly everyone doe not get a equal chance. AND Capitalism KEEPS PEOPLE POOR MAKES PEOPLE POOR so it can achieve cheap labour from it.
People do not feel bad if they are treated equally even if they are poor because in social status they are equal what if they do not have a million dollar watch or billion dollars in bank.
But in capitalism people are kept poor that is pure evil.
so it is not the poorness that we should eliminate. People tried it in socialism and failed. We need to eliminate social discrimination in respect of wealth all over the world.