I got an e-mail the other day, some random stuff from someone I'm not sure I remember meeting, something I would normally scan and delete. Then I saw a tag at the bottom urging me to help protest 'conflict metals.' Intrigued, I spared the message from File 13.
Now, I'm familiar with the idea of 'blood diamonds' - mining diamonds in order to fund civil wars in Africa - which has recently been re-named 'conflict diamonds' in a particularly PC attempt to appease the perceived squeamishness of the audience. The idea is a noble one: don't buy diamonds that you suspect have come from a strife-ridden area of the world. This is ultimately unworkable because diamonds are as fungible as cash or crude oil. Once they go into a pile in Amsterdam, there's no telling where each diamond originated. Pledging not to buy blood diamonds is like pledging not to buy beef from brown cows, by the time the decision comes to you, there's no way to tell.
But this 'conflict metals' business... some wide- and moist-eyed compassionate souls have found out that Africa doesn't only have diamonds, it also has metals, which bad people also use to fund their activities. So we're not supposed to buy things with tin, tungsten, or tantalum mined in those areas.
Seriously, how the hell am I supposed to know what bits of electronics have what kinds of metals in them? As far as I'm concerned tantalum is just a fun word to say over and over to yourself. Go on, try it. Tantalum, tantalum, tantalum, tantalum, tantalum, tantalum... I feel like I'm in a buddhist ashram, chanting my mantra.
I don't know about you, but it's been quite a while since I've purchased a large block of tungsten, so I wouldn't have the first clue how to get any now. But there's a dude I see down on Ventura, he looks like he could be a tungsten connection...
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