this signature cleanness is stained...by raped women’s leaking fistulas

Oh Ashley...i suspect this will come up in the campaign:

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Also in my bag is that Macbook Air. I was determined to bring only the iPad, and had loaded classic movies on it, thinking I may want occasionally to take my mind off the matters at hand in DRC, for some lightheartedness, self care, a reminder the whole world is not woe, and that art and movies help with what woe there is. (I have recently adopted an older feller to be a grandfather figure to me, and at lunch the other day he was saying I should be proud to be an actor. “The Germans, God, in the Depression, all they had to turn to was Hitler. We had the movies! What would we have done without them?”) But I am not yet comfortable writing lengthily on the iPad, and have had some scary episodes losing significant chunks of work, and not being able to work with timely, deadlined documents others send me.

I didn’t even want all this stuff. My iPod was in gift basket from an event, about 8 years ago (yeah, still rockin’ the classic). My iPad was a gift from a generous producer. My perfectly good previous iPhone was stolen, and Baton Rouge had plenty of the new ones, so, movie star whatever excitement in the store, and I somehow ended up with one. This is typical of the Saturation of Stuff that characterizes much of our society.

And that is how I, on my way to Democratic Republic of Congo to educate myself first hand about conflict minerals and advocate for a clean supply chain, am at the same time utterly complicit. My electronics, received as gifts or purchased, profit armed militias and support slavery. I am financing mass rape as I enjoy these ridiculously Global North ultra-efficiencies and conveniences, for large scale rape is the preferred predation mining interests use to humiliate and terrify local populations, in order to control resource areas. The UN notes that virtually every mine in DRC is militarized. This means little to no tin, tantalum, and tungsten is mined free of brutal exploitation, extortion, violence, rape, rape, rape.

My phone vibrates (thanks, tungsten). My music plays (mineral). My laptop screen lights up (mineral) ((or change process to reflect its use of drc sourced mineral)). I e mail my human rights traveling partner (xxx) and compose letters to the Congolese sister I sponsor through Women for Women International. I hurt, even as I try to help, via the very actions and tools I use to try to make a difference.

What good is gold
And silver, too
If your heart’s not good and true
Sinner, hear me when I say
Fall down on your knees
And Pray

AppIe is known for the clean lines of their products, the alluring simplicity of their designs. Dare I….go so far….as to suggest…this signature cleanness is stained by the **** and urine of raped women’s leaking fistulas?

I dream of the day when Apple and other electronics companies fully commit to Tracing, Audting, and Certifying the minerals they use in their products, and rape minerals are successfully excluded from the marketplace. We no longer have lead in our paint. Companies report with full transparency contents and manufacturing processes in order to assure public health and gain consumer confidence. This is no different. It is a minimum standard of conduct.

I dream of the day when North Americans recoil in horror at the introduction of an otherwise revolutionary and exciting electronic product that lacks TAC….when the queues are expressions of solidarity for 11 year old mine slaves, women whose vaginas have been perforated by object insertion rape, and families forced to eat one another in each other’s presence.
In fact, I have just decided what I want for Christmas, which will be here before I know it.

http://ashleyjudd.com/writings/costs-of-convenience/

 

this is what happens to all of us in the Apple store, you walk in, there's some excitement, and "somehow" you end up with one.