'He' is Peter Certo, a young guy who has been an Apple devotee but no longer. Certo has stopped buying Apple largely for humanitarian reasons. I'm not a MAC guy so it was a surprise to me to get more than 25,000,000 hits on my Google query of 'Apple+Congo'.
Certo argues that Apple could buy a component (an ore known as columbite-tantalite) of its products from Australia but opts to buy it from the Congo as it is cheaper there. The problem is where Apple's money goes. Certo (and a lot of others) says it goes to rebel groups backed by Rwanda and Uganda. The miners see nothing of this revenue, which, essentially, goes towards killing people.
It gets worse. The products are assembled in China. However, the company doing the assembly, Foxconn, is not exactly a beacon of worker progress. New employees actually have to sign an agreement that they will not commit suicide; suicide has been a problem previously. Even with the agreements the company has placed suicide nets around the plant. Furthermore, the workers do not get paid overtime despite working 12 - 16 hours a day. Some of the workers are still kids.
And, of course, Apple, being a 21st century company, feels that it should not have to pay U.S. taxes on the $4 billion it has stashed overseas.
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