Demand a fair trade cell phone

Your mobile phone, computer and game console have a bloody past — tied to tantalum mining, which funds the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Drawing on his personal story, activist and refugee Bandi Mbubi gives a stirring call to action. (Filmed at TEDxExeter.)

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 you to do me a favor.

Can you all please reach into your pockets
and take out your mobile phone?

Feel that familiar weight ...

how naturally your finger
slides towards the buttons.

(Laughter)

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 all boils down to a mineral:

tantalum, mined in the Congo as coltan.

It is an anticorrosive heat conductor.

It stores energy in our mobile phones,
PlayStations and laptops.

It is used in aerospace
and medical equipment as an alloy.

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 fueled

the ongoing war in the Congo.

But don't throw away your phones yet.

Thirty thousand children are 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 24 trillion dollars.

The state-regulated mining
industry has collapsed,

and control over mines has splintered.

Coltan is easily controlled
by armed groups.

One well-known illicit trade route
is that across the border to Rwanda,

where Congolese tantalum
is disguised as Rwandan.

But don't throw away your phones 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
this 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 result,

the diaspora has joined
with the Carter Center,

the Catholic Church and other observers,

to draw attention
to the undemocratic result.

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 a 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 questions
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 a 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 fair-trade solution.

But there has been
a huge amount of progress.

The US has recently passed legislation

to target bribery
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 are 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 behind.

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 fair-trade food
and fair-trade clothes.

It is time to demand fair-trade phones.

This is an idea worth spreading.

Thank you.

(Applause)