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Apocalypse Found
Coltan, cell phones and crisis in the Congo
T
he horror! The horror!” These are the famous to the eyes but always out of reach. Once purified, tanta- by Casey Bush and
last words uttered by Mr. Kurtz, a character in lum is a hard, gray metal that can easily be drawn into
Joseph Conrad’s 1902 novella Heart of Darkness. wire or deformed without breaking. Joshua Seeds
Kurtz is an ivory dealer who set himself up as a jungle Australian mines provide 41 percent of global tantalum
demigod hustling elephant tusks down the Congo River supplies, mostly from the firm Sons of Gwalia. Brazil featuring art by
to a lucrative European market. That utterance, repeated follows Australia, with 21 percent of production. World-
by Marlon Brando as Col. Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola’s wide, 4 million pounds of tantalum are consumed Kristian Olson
1979 movie, Apocalypse Now, says it all about the night- annually in the form of metal powder, wire, fabricated
mare of the white man’s burden: a dark dream that forms, compounds and alloys. The market is strained
continues today. to the limit, and tantalum extracted from the large
With nearly every use of a new cell phone or compu- mines is sold in contracts with processors before it is
ter, American consumers depend on the natural element even out of the ground. Sons of Gwalia recently opened
tantalum, which is extracted from coltan, a mineral a new mine, but predictions suggest that the global
often mined illegally in the Democratic Republic of market will absorb all extra production by 2010.
Congo, or DRC. When the 2000 price spike caused a “coltan rush” in
A tenfold spike in the price of coltan in 2000 brought eastern Congo, legions of coltan miners tore apart allu-
attention to its lawless extraction in the Congo with head- vial deposits, river beds, and soft rock with picks and
lines like, “Coltan, Gorillas and Cell Phones,” and “Coltan shovels. Coltan is heavy, so swirling stones and soil in
Boom, Gorilla Bust.” As in the past with elephants, moun- a pan works to separate out the coltan just as it does
tain gorillas and millions of innocent civilians today are with gold. In the process, river banks and streams are
being trampled in the quest for mineral wealth deep in transformed into mud, and erosion commonly leads to
the heart of Africa. landslides. The landscape is further degraded as min-
Earth Island Journal argues that the 2000 spike in ing camps chop down trees for firewood and building
coltan prices was caused by the launch of the Sony materials, devastating swaths of the lowland portion of
PlayStation 2 and a new generation of mobile phones. the Virunga World Heritage National Park.
The irony of that observation was not lost on British In addition, hunters harvest “bush meat” to feed the
Labour MP Oona King when she expounded, “Kids in workers in mining camps. In just a few years, lowland
Congo are being sent down into mines to die so that Grauer’s gorilla populations in Kahuzi-Biega National
kids in Europe and America can kill imaginary aliens Park in eastern Congo near the Rwandan border dropped
in their living rooms.” from 8,000 to less than 1,000. Some mountain gorillas
The predominant use of tantalum is for capacitors, a (with only 700 left in the world) have recently been killed
component of electronics such as cell phones, computers, and butchered for food. Ian Redmond, chief consultant for
DVD players and video-game systems. Capacitors hold an the U.N. Great Apes Survival Project, points out: “Every
electronic charge and are used for energy storage and the
filtering of electronic fields. Superalloys made of tantalum
and other metals are extremely hard and find their place
Rwandan Hutu forces called the “Interahamwe” and Congolese militias, known collectively
in turbines for jets as well as parts for missiles and nucle- as the “Mai-Mai,” occupy the most violently disputed areas of the eastern DRC.
ar reactors. The versatile mineral is also used for surgical
tools and medical implants because tantalum coatings do time we buy a high-tech gadget, we may be pushing the
not react with body tissues and fluids. great apes closer to extinction…there isn’t a global con-
Coltan itself is “columbite-tantalite,” a black mineral spiracy to wipe out the great apes. They are disappearing
found in Brazil, Australia and Canada, with the majority because of global negligence.” Similarly, conservationists
of the world’s remaining reserves in Congo. It occurs in can no longer find any forest elephants in Kahuzi-Biega,
ancient rock formations known as granitic pegmatites, a population that numbered 3,600 just a decade ago, and
where eroded rock has been deposited by water. The peg- the local hippopotamus herds have diminished from
matites crystallize slowly and retain a great deal of water 22,000 in 1998 to only 900. Chimpanzees and antelope
and are often enriched with rare elements and gemstones are nowhere to be seen.
such as topaz and tourmaline. Riverbeds and alluvial
deposits are the main source in Congo. Coltan found in
these formations is largely composed of two rare elements:
niobium and tantalum. Tantalum, discovered in 1802, was
a thousand years ago, indigenous Congo pygmies
first welcomed Bantu-speaking tribesmen from the
south searching for copper. Five hundred years ago, Arab
not purified until a century later—a difficult task because traders from the east and Portuguese merchants from the
the element has a melting point of 5,458 degrees Centigrade west entered the Congo shopping for ivory and slaves.
and can be dissolved only by acids so powerful they lique- In the 1870s, Belgium’s King Leopold II laid claim to the
fy glass. The frustration of attempting to purify tantalum is Congo as though it were his personal estate. With the
the source of its name: The pure metal was “tantalizing” assistance of Anglo–American adventurer Henry Stanley,
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of “Mr. Livingstone, I presume” fame, he negotiated Republic of the Congo.” Unfortunately, exploitation of
trade rights for a range of goods, including diamonds, resources and the war continued with horrific effects on
gold and rubber. It is believed that Joseph Conrad’s the civilian population. There have been chronic food
Kurtz was modeled on Stanley. shortages and contaminated water supplies, with chil-
The colony was maintained by Belgium until indepen- dren being at the greatest risk of starving or succumbing
dence was declared in the late-1950s, when nationalist to disease. Families are torn apart, and children are eas-
leader Patrice Lumumba came into power. In 1960, the ily recruited or kidnapped into the service of the militias.
Between 1997 and Congolese army mutinied and declared Katanga, the large Females of all ages pay the most terrible price of all, as
2007, global cell mineral-rich southeastern province, to be independent. armed men and boys kidnap and rape mothers, daugh-
phone sales rose Lumumba turned to the Soviet Union for help to reunify ters and grandmothers without consequence. Although
from approximately the country, but 30-year-old Colonel Mobutu Sese Seko Joseph Kabila, the country's erstwhile leader, is attempt-
100 million units a soon led a coup with the alleged backing of Western ing to limit the warfare, documented atrocities against
year to over 900 intelligence agencies. Mobutu renamed the Congo “Zaire” human beings, animals and the environment continue.
million by 2006. and for 30 years enriched himself in a manner similar
(Gartner Group)
143 million cell
to King Leopold.
There were more than enough riches to go around, but
Lumumba supporter Laurent Kabila helped organize a
T he math makes it easy to follow the money. Coltan
miners earn $50 per week when the average
Congolese worker can expect $10 per month. In the DRC,
phones were sold secessionist Marxist state in eastern Congo. Educated in a team of miners can extract a kilo of coltan per day.
to the U.S. market France and Tanzania, Kabila was for a short time in 1968 In 1998 the price of coltan was $40 per kilo, but then it
in 2006. (NPD group) assisted by Che Guevara, who planned a Cuban-style revo- spiked up to $400 in 2000 and has hovered around $100
lution for the Congo, but Guevara politely dismissed Kabila ever since, with demand only increasing. According to
935 million cell as “not the man of the hour.” Two years later, Kabila found IndymediaUK journalist Jason Perkinson, 80 percent of
phones were the support of the People’s Republic of China and launched Congo’s coltan arrives at the Sons of Gwalia in Australia
expected to sell himself into an era of collective agriculture and mineral for processing. Then the tantalum is sold primarily to
worldwide in smuggling. Kabila’s proto-state came to an end in 1988, Germany’s Bayer subsidiary H.C. Starck and the Ameri-
2006. (In–Stat) and he was widely believed to be dead. can company Cabot, which in turn make capacitors for
The 1994 genocide of 800,000 Rwandan Tutsi, as drama- customers such as Alcatel, Compaq, Dell, IBM, Ericson,
256.4 million tized in the film Hotel Rwanda, spilled political instability Nokia and Siemens. The yearly market in tantalum is
global cell phone across the border into Congo, and in 1997 Kabila was worth over $6 billion, half of which is used in the annual
units were sold resurrected as a national leader and marched triumphantly manufacture of nearly 1 billion cell phones.
during the first into the capital city of Kinshasa, overthrowing an ailing Western businesses profiting from resources extracted
quarter of 2007. Mobutu. Within two years, his Rwandan friends turned in politically unstable climates is nothing new. Then-
(IDC Research)
on him, and he was assassinated by one of his own Secretary General Kofi Annan said in addressing the U.N.
staff. Since then, the country has been ruled by Kabila’s in 2003: “The economic dimensions of armed conflict are
Annual cell phone son, Joseph. Trained at the National Defense University often overlooked, but they should never be underestimated.
sales are expected in Beijing, Joseph Kabila has attempted to remove foreign The role of business, in particular, can be crucial, for good
to double between troops while establishing himself as a “democratically and for ill. Private companies operate in many conflict
2006 and 2011. elected” leader of a country roughly the size of Mexico zones or conflict-prone countries…and private enterprises
(In–Stat)
with over 60 million inhabitants. Since the mid-1990s, two and individuals are involved in the exploitation of, and
massive wars have devastated Congo, leaving 4 million trade in, lucrative natural resources, such as oil, diamonds,
Global consumption dead, more than any military conflict since World War II. narcotics, timber and coltan, a crucial ingredient in many
for cell phone And all during that time, the illegal extraction of natural high-tech electronics. Governments and rebel groups
capacitors totaled resources in the country has only increased. While Kabila’s alike have financed and sustained military campaigns
$13.6 billion army has reduced the number of troops from neighboring in this way. In many situations, the chaos of conflict has
in 2004. countries such as the Sudan, Uganda, Angola and Tanza- enabled resources to be exploited illegally or with little
(Gartner Group)
nia, Rwandan Hutu forces called the “Interahamwe” and regard for equity or the environment.”
Congolese militias, known collectively as the “Mai-Mai,” In 2004, the Friends of the Earth and a U.K.–based
Almost one in occupy the most violently disputed areas of the eastern group, Rights and Accountability in Development, filed
three American DRC, concentrating their activities primarily in locations a complaint with the U.S. State Department against Cabot
adults say the where mining of gold, diamonds and coltan takes place. and other Western corporations, claiming they had violated
cell phone is the “Militias from Rwanda and Uganda may justify inva- the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Devel-
invention they sions on the grounds that they are defending their people opment’s “Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.” In a
most hate but against rebels, but they earn billions from the tantalum follow-up letter to the OECD, Adotei Akwei, senior Africa
cannot live they collect and smuggle across borders during these advocacy director for Amnesty International, wrote: “Given
without. Cell raids,” writes John Perkins in The Secret History of the the gravity of all the allegations contained in the U.N.
phones narrowly American Empire (Dutton Books, 2007). Panel report, it is unclear why governments have felt no
beat the alarm In 1999, Congo and neighboring countries signed the need to launch their own fact-finding investigations…. We
clock (25%) and United Nations-sponsored Lusaka Accord, ending the first urge you to follow the Security Council’s recommenda-
television (23%) Congo war, and formed MONUC, a French acronym for tions by launching immediate, thorough investigations
for the distinction. the United Nations Observer Mission in the Democratic into the conduct of the American companies concerned.”
(Lemelson–MIT
Republic of Congo, which brought U.N. troops into
Invention Index)
the country in an effort to stabilize the region. In 2001, the
U.N. issued a report titled “Illegal Exploitation of Natural
Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic
B orn of warfare, coltan is also used to fight wars.
Journalist Alex Shoumatoff identifies the Carlisle
Group as a large consumer of tantalum. The global
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Feet on the Ground
Portland activist runs to raise awareness and funds
for Congo women, returns from exploratory visit
featuring art by
Kristian Olson
S ome leaders are born into
greatness, while others find
it accidentally. Lisa Shannon
and holds a B.A. in environment and
development from Hampshire College.
The Bear Deluxe caught up with
of place where, if you mention it
to anyone in Bukavu, they just get
really impassioned, and jaws drop,
did neither. She literally ran her her in March 2007, shortly after her like, you went where? It’s a very,
way into prominence—one long return from a fact-finding trip to very active place where a lot of
stride after another, one lost the Democratic Republic of Congo. attacks are happening. We stopped
toenail after another. The complete, 4,000-word interview and we not only went to Kelehe,
In early 2005, upon hearing a can be read at www.orlo.org. which was dangerous in and of
report on Oprah about appalling itself, but we got out of the car and
living conditions in eastern Congo TBD What was the closest you got hiked an hour toward the militias.
(particularly the plight of women to the militia? TBD The clips on the local televi-
there), she decided to do something LS It was the second-to-last day sion report seemed very celebratory.
personal and local regarding a very that I was there and plans had LS Oh, total disconnect between
global situation—the deadliest con- fallen through, and everyone who the sort of reception I would
flict since World War II to which had been around had gone back receive and then when you actually
no one was paying much attention. to the States. I was kind of alone, started talking with the women
“I remained haunted by this just hanging out with my transla- about what they’d been through.
horror, which continues to be tor. Someone handed me a scrap But you have to put it in context.
met with stunning silence by the of paper saying there were some First of all, large portions of the
world,” Shannon writes. “What women who had recently been groups I met have been sponsored
would I have done if I lived in 1939 abducted and returned to their through Run for Congo Women.
Germany or if had been aware of village from the forest. If women The fact that someone from the
the 1994 genocide in Rwanda?” are taken to the forest, that means U.S. even cares what they’ve been
A casual runner at the time, they’re being held as sex slaves through is something to celebrate.
Shannon set the goal to run 30
miles along Wildwood Trail in
Portland, Oregon’s Forest Park—
one mile for each woman she
hoped she’d find local sponsors
for—and to funnel the support
through the nonprofit Women for
Women International. Later that
year, Shannon completed the run
in front of a large crowd of indi-
vidual run sponsors and unknown
well-wishers. Media coverage fol-
lowed. More people wanted to run.
In 2006, the Shannon-inspired
Run for Congo Women event
repeated itself, this time including
“When 4 million people die and no one cares,
we don’t feel like human beings.”
And I think it’s something that you
runs in 10 states and four coun- there. And it’s in this area that I’d find in Congolese people, which
tries. And on June 23, 2007, the heard all those attacks had hap- was very striking to me, that even
third annual run took place, con- pened. I had interviewed women though they’ve been through all
tinuing to raise money for human- from this town where neighbors of this, Congolese women will
itarian relief and education efforts had been burned alive in their huts still sing and can get down like
in the conflict-ridden region less two weeks before. It’s right next nobody’s business. I mean they
covered by the mainstream media to real Interahamwe territory. So really know how to dance, beat on
than other African crisis areas. we went up there and, long story drums or tubs, and really in some
Shannon, a 32-year-old small short, these U.N. majors took me ways have maintained their spirit.
business owner and creative pro- out to meet these girls. And we
fessional, lives in Portland, Oregon, went to one place, which is the sort
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“Rather than implement a short-term project and
equity investment firm was fronted by former president then pull out of the country, we need to evaluate if
George H.W. Bush until 2003, and Shoumatoff notes: we can support a long-term project before deciding on
“Carlisle’s biggest customer is the American military. intervening,” says Laura Miller, a Mercy Corps program
A whole lot of coltan was used in the attack on Iraq.” officer for West and Southern Africa.
The Bush administration has made no issue of the Meanwhile, all the major companies that profit from
extraction of coltan from Congo, but then again George tantalum have attempted to distance themselves from
Jr. recruited Cabot CEO Samuel Bodman to serve as his what continues to happen in the Congo. In November
secretary of energy. By far the richest member of Bush’s 2006, Nokia published a statement declaring its stance
cabinet, Bodman is no friend to the environment. In on tantalum and coltan: “Nokia is not buying tantalum
the 1990s he used his connections with then-Gov. Bush or other raw materials but processed compo-nents and
to exploit a loophole in state law that allowed Cabot to assemblies from suppliers around the world…. Nokia
release 60,000 tons of toxic emissions into the atmo- does not use any endangered species for any business
sphere each year, making it the most prolific polluter purposes and furthermore requests that its suppliers
in Texas. avoid raw materials from an origin where there are clear
Journalist Jason Leopold writes in Z Magazine: “The human- or animal-rights abuse…. Nokia has sent a
State Department is the agency in charge of deciding notification of the Congo situation to its suppliers using
whether U.S. companies tantalum asking them to follow the situation, and to
breach the OECD guide- avoid purchasing tantalum from Congo. Nokia is also
lines. Despite the alle- reducing the use of tantalum in its products.”
gations included in the “I’m not in favor of killing gorillas,” says Dick Rosen,
U.N. report and the com- CEO of AVX, a tantalum capacitor maker in Myrtle Beach,
plaint filed by the two South Carolina, and one of Nokia’s main suppliers. “[But]
actiist groups, the State we don’t have any idea where [the metal] comes from.
Department has refused There’s no way to tell. I don’t know how to control it.”
to launch an independent For its part, Intel has begun to review the source of
investigation into whether the tantalum it uses. “We’d like to be able to know the
Cabot, under Bodman’s answer,” says spokesman Chuck Mulloy.
leadership, and the other Compaq has issued a statement saying it “condemns
U.S. companies might the reported activities of illegal miners in the Kahuzi–
have contributed to the Biega National Park and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in
war in the Democratic the Democratic Republic of Congo.” But, as Compaq
Republic of Congo. Cabot spokesman Arch Currid concedes, “most of the compo-
is the world’s largest nents that we get [come] from third-party providers, so
coltan refiner….Under where they get their raw goods is hard to determine.”
Bodman’s leadership
O
an unknown amount ne bright note is that a coalition of 57 North
of the coltan Cabot was American zoos has initiated a cell-phone recycling
purchasing could have program coordinated through the company Eco-Cell.
originated from the DRC.” “It actually enables you to do a very simple action to
It is not surprising help participate in the conservation effort,” says Eric
then that the 2003 Ronay, Eco-Cell’s president. The company pays zoos
meeting between Bush and other organizations up to $15 per phone donated.
Jr. and Kabila Jr. was “Zoos represent a tremendous donor base,” Ronay
blandly reported by points out. “About 134 million people went to zoos in
White House spokesman North America last year, more than major league base-
Scott McClellan, “The ball, football and basketball combined.” In addition, he
president had a good says that “zoos have a huge volunteer force that’s will-
“We don’t have any idea where [the metal] comes from. and positive discussion ing to go out and help raise money” through programs
There’s no way to tell. I don’t know how to control it.” with President Kabila. such as cell-phone recycling. Eco-Cell is on target to
The president reaffirmed collect 40,000 to 50,000 cell phones this year, with
our commitment to continue providing humanitarian plenty of room for growth. There are 150 million cell
assistance to relieve human suffering in the Democratic phones in use in the United States today, with an esti-
Republic of Congo.” mated life of 18 months per unit.
Preoccupied with Iraq, the United States has not been While corporations are in denial and governments
willing to get involved militarily, and to date there is not a paralyzed, the humanitarian and environmental tragedy
single American serving among the 17,000 MONUC forces. of the Congo continues to be fueled by wealth extraction.
With so much finger pointing, bringing attention to As homes and offices fill up with electronic equipment,
the human suffering and environmental degradation as the world and cell phones alike become smaller, we
in the DRC has been slow. A range of nongovernmental cannot translate the weight of those pinhead tantalum
organizations has brought much- needed aid to Congo, capacitors into human and animal suffering beyond
but they are dependent on the security forces of the United Col. Kurtz’s final breath: the horror. ■
Nations. Mercy Corps, the international relief agency, has
been meeting recently with Congolese organizations and Joshua Seeds is an environmental scientist and writer.
U.N. agencies there. Needs assessment research is con- Casey Bush is a senior editor at The Bear Deluxe. He
tinuing this summer as Mercy Corps investigates gaps in reviews and writes poetry from his home. Both writers
response, security concerns and funding support. live in Portland, Oregon.
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miss you.” So this idea that no one TBD I was taken by your compas-
I was struck by the kinds of choic- would miss 4 million people dying sion for the young boys as well as
es Congolese women have on a daily or 1,200 people dying every day, the women.
basis. For mothers, when it comes half of those children, to me is the LS What you hear from the women
to food and health care for their core issue; the idea is that whatever that have gone though the Women
kids, it’s so expensive. That really it is we do, however simple it is, that for Women program is, “Thank
is a “Sophie’s choice” on a regular we make the opposite statement. you so much, now please educate
basis for these women. Beyond that, That’s our moral obligation. our husbands, particularly the
women, if they’re in an area that’s TBD In addition to women, you Congolese army about women’s
really unstable, they know if they have been interviewing former rights, rape.” There just needs to
go to their fields to farm, they’ll child soldiers. be some sort of massive education
be raped. So they have to choose
LS I spent about four or five days campaign over there. Because
whether or not they’ll be able feed
just hanging out at this child-soldier there’s this culture of impunity
their children or be safe themselves,
transition house, where there were that’s developed where rape is
and women are choosing to go to
between 80 and 100 child soldiers. spreading outside of militias, and it’s
the fields and farm, because other-
One child soldier in particular I the Congolese army, and sometimes
wise their children starve.
sat down on my
TBD How much would you say that first day there
coltan and issues around that are What do you do with an entire generation of kids who have grown up
and talked with
the driving forces of instability? him, kind of a
suffering that kind of violence or committing that kind of violence?
LS Those issues are so complex. All tough-looking
sorts of organizations are working guy, tattoos. Seventeen. He had civilians, and there are no repercus-
on extractive industries in Congo at joined—well, he had been abducted sions. They just have to get that
its core. As far as being able to solve when he was 12, and lived with the under control. It’s not them who
the problem, the way that I view militia until maybe a month before I have to get that under control. It’s
it, measuring that sort of thing you met him. So I asked about violence really the role of the U.N. to support
have to be so systematic. But what I and whether or not he had commit- that process.
heard anecdotally, looking at maps ted any violence, and he said yeah. I TBD You talked about the Congo
about where militias are located and asked for an example. He said there landscape. Did you see any type of
whether or not mining is happen- were too many to really recount, but environmental degradation?
ing—the presence of militias is very one example was that he was in a LS Well, all of eastern Congo should
linked to mining. village and he was asked to round pretty much be lush tropical forest,
I actually wish that the coalition up all the people in the village and and it’s all been converted to agri-
was focusing on coltan as their lock them in huts and pour gasoline cultural land. And where the forest
flagship mineral, because I think around the huts and burn them, has been cleared—obviously, there
there’s definitely a hook for people. and if anyone tried to escape, they are really heavy rains, so there’s
I think that what we’d like to believe would shoot them or kill them with erosion. I know that there are a lot
is, what’s happening over there in machetes. He was clear that wasn’t of people doing really wonderful
Africa has nothing to do with us. something he wanted to do but that work with preservation of parks.
But I think it has everything to do he was forced to do. I asked how I talked with a number of people
with us. I would love to see certified many people he thought he had who know park guards, because
clean tech products that come from killed. He said the number would be militias are living in the parks. So
clean coltan. really difficult to gauge, but his esti- park guards often are murdered by
TBD You seem to have a strategy on mate would be somewhere around, militias. When you think about that
how to approach this so people will either witnessing or participating in, and what environmentalism means
listen and not turn the other way. the deaths of about 3,000 people. I to us here, we barely find a way to
LS First of all, it’s about doing what asked if he had killed children, and recycle. And these people are going
you can. No individual American is he looked at me like I was completely out and risking their lives every day
going to be able to stop the war in clueless. What he talked about was to protect the park and to protect the
the Congo. All we can do is play our just this sense that he felt he would gorillas. That’s commitment. That’s
part. So we start with something never be normal, and that he wanted being an environmentalist. These are
simple and concrete and do that, to have a normal life. And the other people who are paid $20 a month.
and that is a huge step. Because thing about these child soldiers is, What heroes. It’s tempting for us to
what it’s always come down to for what are they going to do next? look at people in Congo as if they’re
me is this question of humanity. If Even if the security situation gets victims, but, boy, don’t we have so
you talk to Congolese people here better in Congo, what do you do much to learn from them. In terms
or Congolese diasporas, again and with a generation of kids who have of the women, their compassion,
again, the thing that you hear is, grown up suffering that kind of taking in orphans, or people who
“They kill us like animals.” Or, violence or committing that kind are environmentalists and have been
“When 4 million people die and no of violence. Having said that, I was doing this work for 20 years with no
one cares, we don’t feel like human really struck by what incredibly pat on the back whatsoever. ■
beings.” Women who are begging good kids these were. They were
for their lives are told, “Even if I just good kids.
killed you it wouldn’t matter because
you’re not human, no one would
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