DO NOT WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW BEFORE READING THIS INTRO
I stumbled upon the video below at ZDNet; an article by James Farrar entitled "Unwatchable: dial R for rape. How much does your handset really cost?"
The video is so graphic ZDNet only put a link to it. I couldn't upload the video I captured on Dailymotion or YouTube due to their stringent policies on "violence" and "pornography" (mark this last word, it will recur below). The only option I had was to directly upload it here.
Excerpt from the article:
"Summary: Unwatchable is a graphic new film highlighting sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a tactic in the control of minerals used for electronics manufacturing. It’s part of a campaign asking UK consumers to demand manufacturers control their supply chains and that governments introduce legislation to control the trade.
Warning: this film contains sexual violence that some viewers and mobile manufacturers may find disturbing.
[...]
The film was made with backing from Hollywood heavyweights such as film maker Michael Bonvillian whose credits include Lost and Cloverfield. It is based on the story of a DRC woman, Makisa, who was raped in front of her family while her husband was murdered & mutilated. The film is cleverly set in rural England to force UK consumers to more directly relate to the violence perpetrated daily in the DRC out of sight of the international media. Some will debate whether shock tactics such as this are effective but I’ll leave that debate to experts. Viewers of Unwatchable are asked to sign a petition to manufacturers asking them to guarantee that their supply chains are conflict free and the web provides real time analytics on the nu,ber of petitions generated for Apple, HP, Motorola, HTC and Nokia. The petition also calls for the EU and its member states to introduce legislation similar to the Dodd Franks act which requires supply chain ‘due diligence’ when sourcing from the DRC or Great Lakes and adjacent regions."
Oh, boy! As I was reading this I was thinking with trepidation of David Aronson of Congo Resources who's on a crusade against Dodd-Frank. I was anticipating the man would have already gone postal over this video. But strangely, by the time I stopped at Congo Resources, not a peep has come out of Aronson. Intrigued, I went to his blogroll where, sure enough, on top of the list, I found the post entitled "Congo Advocacy Hits New Low" by Kate Cronin-Furman of the acclaimed blog Wronging Rights.
Excerpt from Kate Cronin-Furman's post:
Sweet Jesus, people. Sometimes, you think you've seen everything in the way of badvocacy and then along comes six minutes of rape porn masquerading as informed activism.
Yeah, you read that right. The latest Congo-themed assault to my efforts at maintaining a healthy blood pressure is a short called "Unwatchable" (to which I'm omitting a link on account of intense disapproval) that reimagines the violence in the Eastern DRC as atrocities visited on wealthy British people.
Because clearly, the reason conflict persists in the region is that no one has been forced to think: "How would I feel if these were pretty blonde teenagers being gang-raped by soldiers?" (And man is PETA going to be upset that they never thought to produce a video showing Pamela Anderson being skinned and turned into a coat...)
The video is part of an independent conflict mineral campaign aimed at generating pressure on UK mobile phone manufacturers to stop using minerals sourced in the Congo. It appears to be affiliated with Save the Congo, which ought to be embarrassed to be associated with this nonsense."
And after reading the above, if you still feel like watching the 6-minute short, then, be my guest (remember, "You must be over 18 to watch this movie"--with the deep voice of a man who's spent the past 40 years smoking Marlboro cigs):
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