Unfortunately the situation is only getting worse, Denise announced with a tweet that she was released, a bit like what happened for Agnes Chow, but the arrest also involved the staff of Stand News, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy website accused of “seditious publication.”
Any act of rebellion, hostility, excitement to subvert institutions that is concretely capable of producing an event that is dangerous to public order is considered seditious.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise that its freedoms, including freedom of the press, would be protected.
Amnesty International asked for the immediate release of all intelligence workers arrested only for having carried out their legitimate work journalistic.
In June, the director of the Apple Daily newspaper: Jimmy Lai announced the closure, again following a series of arrests.
In this tweet there is a letter written in his hand after the sentencing for the commemoration of Tiananmen.
“Systemic erasing of history.”
So Denise Ho’s speech and voices like hers are extremely important
Denise was born in Hong Kong but raised in Montreal Quebec. However, she decided to return to launch her career in Cantopop.
Did you know Cantopop?
Not me, and I found an interesting explanation for it here
Among other things, I also discovered Caffeine Tears by Dear Jane! Now I absolutely have to understand the origin of the name of this band which is called Chinese acoustic rock.
Becoming the song is instead the docufilm that describes Denise’s journey from pop star to human rights activist.
Treccani tells us that Coltan is a term which, by contraction, identifies columbo-tantalite, a black metallic mineral composed of columbite and tantalite. It is one of the combinations in which it is possible to trace tantalum, the metal with which small but very efficient capacitors are made (therefore essential in portable devices such as mobile phones and computers, as well as in automotive electronics), which is why coltan has become a highly sought-after material.
In Congo, and in particular in the border area with Rwanda and Uganda, there are the Luwow mines notorious for the exploitation of workers and the horrendous scourge of child labor.
Amnesty International reports a UNICEF estimate of 2014 but we can assume that the number is underestimated, given the continuous exponential increase of electronic devices in circulation.
We all still have the name of the Belgian Congo imprinted in our minds, which brings us directly back to the control of the territories which has ceased in recent times, as this video from the Istituto Luce dated 1960 also testifies:
A memory that for me is placed on the desks of elementary schools is: Zaire, the new name since 1971. The decision is made by Mobutu who, in a sort of political whirlwind between the alternations of Republics and de facto dictatorship, remained an ambiguous figure until 1997 in contrast between: the role of father of the homeland he intended to cover, and an authoritarian and corrupt profile.
The newly formed Democratic Republic of Congo, however, does not see peace looming, and the rush to grab coltan aggravates both the already severe internal conflict on ethnic grounds, as well as that with neighboring Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
By the statement of its President of 2 June 2000, the Security Council requested the Secretary-General to establish an expert panel on the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for a period of six months, with the following mandate:
To follow up on reports and collect information on all activities of illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including in violation of the sovereignty of that country;
To research and analyse the links between the exploitation of the natural resources and other forms of wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the continuation of the conflict;
To revert to the Council with recommendations.
With this letterdated April 2001 Kofi Annan presents his Report of the Expert Group on Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A 2003 UN Security Council report denounces that the proceeds from the exploitation of coltan by the opposing states have served to finance their armies against the Congo itself. In addition to the fact that the search for and extraction of coltan by rebel forces has caused serious environmental damage in Congo within reserves and national parks.
The main multinationals basically declare that they are not connected to exploitation, but basically it would be enough to go up the stream from company to company to get to the source.
Afrewatch mentions a cause: Last December, a US lawyer filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of 13 Congolese families in a Washington court. In particular, he criticizes Apple, Alphabet, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla for using cobalt despite knowing that it was forcibly mined by children. This lawsuit could push commodity miners and tech companies in need of cobalt to forgo sourcing it from artisanal miners. Glencore, which dominates the market, is following this strategy to no longer be associated with child labor.
Glencore website in fact, speaks only of Australia or Canada presenting in the home sustainability, international day of women and girls, international day of education and human rights. The same goes for Trasfigura that comes with a responsible program and supply chain.
But then, where does Congolese coltan end up, which is estimated to represent the largest percentage of total production?
Similarly, Reuters details the profiles of some Chinese companies: China Molybdenum Luoyang Co Ltd and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co Ltd and also in this case the wording appears at the bottom “China’s Huayou Cobalt will not buy artisanal cobalt from two mines in Democratic Republic of Congo until it is sure the material they produce is free of human rights abuses according to standards to be decided by the industry.”
Who knows if we can hope that theory will follow practice.
I have already mentioned organizations, associations, safety councils, companies and so on, yet in the Luwow mines people, and even children, continue to be exploited beyond all limits, for all to see. Or maybe I should say under everyone’s screens, including mine, from which I’m writing to you.
On the cobalt DRC case International rights Advocates writes: on behalf of the child miners, the lawsuit demands that the companies pay reparations and fund rehabilitation and education programs for the families of child miners killed or maimed by the horrific conditions in the cobalt mines. Apple, Alphabet (Google), Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla are among the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the world.
These companies purport to be green and futuristic, but their products are Powered by Blood Cobalt. Consumers buying these products should demand that the companies fix their supply chain rather than spend years fighting in court to avoid responsibility for the Blood Cobalt their products currently use to operate.
We are the consumers.
I conclude with the quote that Massimo sent me The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don’t mind happiness not always being so very much fun if you don’t mind a touch of hell now and then just when everything is fine because even in heaven they don’t sing all the time
The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don’t mind some people dying all the time or maybe only starving some of the time which isn’t half bad if it isn’t you
Oh the world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don’t much mind a few dead minds in the higher places or a bomb or two now and then in your upturned faces or such other improprieties as our Name Brand society is prey to with its men of distinction and its men of extinction and its priests and other patrolmen
and its various segregations and congressional investigations and other constipations that our fool flesh is heir to
Yes the world is the best place of all for a lot of such things as making the fun scene and making the love scene and making the sad scene and singing low songs and having inspirations and walking around looking at everything and smelling flowers and goosing statues and even thinking and kissing people and making babies and wearing pants and waving hats and dancing and going swimming in rivers on picnics in the middle of the summer and just generally ‘living it up’ Yes but then right in the middle of it comes the smiling mortician.
The news given on the official website of The New York Times, was reported by all the press, and in particular also by Tom Grundy: blogger and founder of Hong Wrong closed in 2015 for the new job of editor in chief by HONG KONG FREE PRESS (HKFP)
The reason for the transfer of part of the NYT editorial staff from Hong Kong to Seoul lies in the new Chinese national security law in Hong Kong launched on July 1st: the twenty-third anniversary of the change of flag in Hong Kong.
Carrie Lam, chief executive of Hong Kong said that the new law is not doom and gloom , but rather mild, compared to the laws in China.
Meanwhile, this law will be based on the same principle of vagueness as Chinese law and has been announced as a real Sword of Damocles on the heads of those who threaten national security.
For this reason, the group of young pro-democracy activists originally part of Scholarism within the Umbrella Revolution, merged into Demosisto, name chosen by joining
the Greek word Demos = people
and the Latin word Sixtus understood as standing a little to say those whom resist
decided to dissolve “under the circumstances.”
The announcement was published with a tweet on behalf of the most famous and representative faces: Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, Jeffrey Ngo and Agnes Chow.
About a year ago an arrest with scare tactits had already started for them.
Amnesty International called their arrest an “outrageous assault on freedom of expression”.
I have already mentioned Evelyn Beatrice Hall, on the other hand Benjamin Franklin teaches us that “Anyone who wants to take away the freedom of a nation must start prohibiting freedom of speech.”
We should NEVER underestimate the importance of free expression, and let’s not forget these guys.
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