The Real Mobile Phone Wars - Democratic Republic of Congo & Rare Earth Coltan

I don't expect you to boycott buying or using a mobile phone because of the Coltan that is mined in the DRC Democratic Republic of Congo formerly known as Zaire. I do expect you to know that over 5 million died in a civil war that is largely framed around the mining of this material. I'm just posting the better produced and more informative videos I'm coming across to save you the time of working through lesser quality ones.

In this video a story is narrated of a twelve year old girl kept in a pit for six weeks and raped daily by unspeakable men while a friend was eventually killed and left to rot beside her in the same pit for some four week after. During this time the surviving girl became pregnant and realised this as she continued to be raped and returned to the pit with her decomposing friend.

All of this for Coltan. A material that contains Tantaulum that makes tantalum capacitors which are unique because of the amount of energy they can store despite their size. That's the price we pay for convenience isn't it? Pregnant raped twelve year old girls in pits with decomposing friends. Day after day after day.

It was also explained to me for the first time why rape is used as a weapon of division in the Congo. It's like a hard core version of the fake left right politics that divide us in the West. Divide us and keep us distracted from what is really going on. Watch this documentary if you get time.

Rap News - Big Brother is WWWatching You

Lots of very clever in-jokes such as George Torwell and Apples Iris, I mean Siri.

Tom Selleck - First TV Commercial

I was doing some research on Reagan and Iran Contra. One thing led to another and, well, you know how it is. The video uploader writes:

I directed this spot with Tom, Patti Deutsch, Teri Garr and Penny Marshall. This was Tom's first and he was so terrific, I gave him the wardrobe. He told me many years later that it was his only suit and he wore it for every casting interview. 

Patti, Teri and Penny had done very little work at this early point in their careers. It was a pleasure directing all of them. This commercial was written by Jackie End, a creative force at Wells, Rich, Greene in NY. She was a favorite client then and happily for me, she is still a dear friend today.