Reviews with content warning for Child death - Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara

60 reviews

lizziaha's review

4.75

Crazy how so many of the world’s problems come back to capitalism. It’s a system that allows the privileged to exploit and mistreat their fellow humans while simultaneously eschewing any and all accountability for the exploitation and human rights violations that they have built their fortunes on.
I think that before reading this book, I wasn’t really sure how to engage with the human rights violations in the Congo because the way I had seen it explained made me think that the problem was farther down the chain, at a local level. But this is something that the book addresses—at every point in the supply chain, there is someone who profits from exploitation and at every point, they point the finger at someone else.
It was frankly horrifying to read about these people who risk their lives daily for a few dollars. It’s sickening to know that children die in tunnel collapses, that women grow sick from metal poisoning from tainted water, that men get shot by greedy entrepreneurs for trying to bypass the middleman. All so that I can sit here and type this on my rechargeable phone. It’s a tale as old as time and I’m so disgusted by it.
But I think that this is something that I have a moral obligation to witness. They say that history moves in circles, but that’s only possible because we don’t engage with it in a meaningful way.
This book makes this situation accessible—I felt like I got a broad view of the overarching system of exploitation and oppression, but also felt an emotional connection to the people whose individual stories were shared.

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tey_lynn's review

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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albernikolauras's review against another edition

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challenging informative sad tense medium-paced

4.5

An excellent non-fiction book following the cobalt miners (& minors) that fuel the battery revolution happening throughout the world. Kara visits different mining towns, some of the mines themselves, and the places where the cobalt that is "illegally mined" is introduced into the cobalt supply in a systematic matter. He describes the systems that trap these miners in an endless cycle of poverty and disproves the claims that companies make for "child labor free cobalt" and "funding of schools in mining areas." Kara balances fact and statistic with human story as he gives names and faces to those harmed by our desire for progress at no thought of cost.

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dragongirl271's review

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challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

4.75

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bookishmillennial's review

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

Audiobook was incredibly monotone, so I don't recommend that. However, I'm unsure reading the ebook or print copy will be better, as this book was really repetitive, and didn't particularly offer any big answer or question about this horrific issue in Congo.

My takeaway is this: Do not buy new electronics that use cobalt; try to buy refurbished if accessible and use things until you simply *cannot* anymore. Like, until they no longer function. Until they cannot operate and it is slowing down anything you do on them. You do not need a new iPhone every single year, or the newest iteration of an Apple watch, or the newest iPad every time it's released.

I will continue reading about Congo, and will write to my reps about the U.S. companies' complicity in this situation. It's not perfect, and I recognize it's not enough, but it is what I can do as a singular human. I encourage you to do what you can within your own capacity and to inform those in your own circles of influence.

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claraarianne's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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franmoldaschl's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This book isn't enjoyable, but it is well written and desperately important.

I read it as an environmentalist, and don't think any line captures the need for this book as well as one quoted by a Nun on page 244 of the hardback UK edition I read.

How can a sustainable future be built through sacrificing the very bearers of that future, through depriving children's well-being, and worse even, through depriving children the right to be.

I wish this was fiction, or history, but the enforced labour of children in the Congo is very real, and very present. Lithium ion batteries are not the answer to the climate crisis, and if they're to continue as our interim step, we need to ensure that those producing the raw materials are protected.

Unfortunately, there are no actionable ways to do that at the end of the book.

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