[Music]
I want to talk to you today about a
difficult topic that is close to me and
closer than you might realize to you I
came to the UK 21 years ago as an asylum
seeker I was 21 I was forced to leave
the Democratic Republic of the Congo my
home where I was a student activist I
would love my children to be able to
meet my family
in the Congo but I want to tell you what
the Congo has got to do with you but
first of all I want to do to do me a
favor
can you all please reach into your
pocket and take out your mobile phone
feel that familiar wait how naturally
your finger slides towards the buttons
can you imagine your world without it it
connects us to our loved ones our family
friends and colleagues at home and
overseas it is a symbol of an
interconnected world but what you hold
in your hand leaves a bloody trail and
it's all boils down to a mineral
tantalum mined in the Congo as coltan it
is an anti corrosive heat conductor it
stores energy in our mobile phones
Playstations and laptops it is used in
aerospace and medical equipment as
alloys it is so powerful that we only
need tiny amounts it would be great if
the story ended there unfortunately what
you hold in your hand has not only
enabled incredible technological
development and industrial expansion but
it has also contributed to unimaginable
human suffering since 1996 over five
million people have died in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
countless women men and children have
been raped tortured or enslaved rape is
used as a weapon of war instilling fear
and depopulating whole areas the quest
for extracting this mineral has not only
aided but it has fuelled the ongoing war
in the Congo but don't throw away your
phones yet 30,000 children I enlisted
and are made to fight in armed groups
the Congo consistently scores dreadfully
in global health and poverty rankings
but remarkably the UN environmental
programme has estimated the wealth of
the country to be over twenty four
trillion dollars the state regulated
mining industry has collapsed and
control of the mines has splintered
coltan is easily controlled by armed
groups one well-known illicit trade
route is that across the border to ronda
where Congolese tantalum is disguised as
random but don't worry your phone's yet
because the incredible irony is that the
technology that has placed such
unsustainable devastating demands on the
Congo is the same technology that has
brought the situation to our attention
we only know so much about the situation
in the Congo and in the mines because of
the kind of communication the mobile
phone allows as with the Arab Spring
during the recent elections in the Congo
voters were able to send text messages
of local polling stations to the
headquarters in the capital Kinshasa and
in the wake of the results the diaspora
has joined with the Carter Center the
Catholic Church and other observers to
draw attention to the undemocratic
results the mobile phone has given
people around the world an important
tool towards gaining their political
freedom it has truly revolutionized the
way we communicate on the planet it has
allowed momentous political change to
take place
so we are faced with the paradox the
mobile phone is an instrument of freedom
and an instrument of oppression ted has
always celebrated what technology can do
for us technology in its finished form
it is time to be asking question about
technology where does it come from who
makes it and for what here I am speaking
directly to you the Ted community and to
all those who might be watching on the
screen on your phone across the world in
the Congo
all the technology is in place for us to
communicate and all the technology is in
place to communicate this at the moment
there is no clear Fairtrade solution but
it has been a huge amount of progress
the u.s. has recently passed legislation
to target robbery and misconduct in the
Congo recent UK legislation could be
used in the same way in February
Nokia unveiled its new policy on
sourcing minerals in the Congo and there
is a petition to Apple to make a
conflict-free iPhone there were
campaigns spreading across university
campuses to make their colleges conflict
free but we're not there yet
we need to continue mounting pressure on
phone companies to change their sourcing
processes when I first came to the UK 21
years ago I was homesick I missed my
family and the friends I left
and communication was extremely
difficult sending and receiving letters
took months if you were lucky
often they never arrived even if I could
have afforded the phone bills home like
most people in the Congo my parents did
not own a phone line today my two sons
David and Daniel can talk to my parents
and get to know them why should we allow
such a wonderful brilliant and necessary
product to be the cause of unnecessary
suffering for human beings we demand
Fairtrade food and Fairtrade clothes it
is time to demand Fairtrade phones this
is an idea worth spreading thank you
[Applause]