Don’t Call Me.

So my mobile phone died last week, and I’ve been feeling a combination of things. Unconnected. And, liberated. Weird!

The conclusion is that I’ll have to buy a new phone, which seems like a silly idea knowing how little I’ve really used it recently. It really has become more of an ‘emergency-use-only’ type appendage anyway.

Having said all that; in the mean time on a Fair-Trade bent, have you ever thought about the ethics of your mobile phone?

Someone alerted me to the fact today, that there have been some recent issues in the news of child-labour-exploitation in regards to production of a certain chemical that is used in mobile phone production.

Now, ever since I’ve had my eyes open to Ethical Trade (clothes, coffee, chocolate etc.) I’ve known that at nearly every level of every manufacturing process of every product I buy, or use, people are affected. It may be oppressively, it may be positively – but my actions have an effect. (See also, The Story of Stuff)

Until now, it hasn’t even been in my mind that my phone is part of this chain.

So, now I’m thinking that it might not be such a bad thing that my phone is dead… even though Nokia seems to come out OK in the comparisons (as you’ll see below, OK is relative). Maybe I’ll see how long I can go before it becomes ridiculous to not have one.

(Anyway.. for anyone in the Training College community who is reading this.. call my extension or come and find me – I love visitors! SMS’s flying through the building have always seemed a little silly to me!)

Some facts:

My Nokia Phone comes with this unethical baggage (and more..);

• Lead poisoning in Thailand
• Unsustainable mining of Coltan
• Operations in 11 oppressive regimes
• Workers’ Rights abuse criticisms
• Workers’ Rights abuses at Chinese supplier factories
• Worst ECRA (Ethical Consumer Research Association) rating for supply chain policy
• Operations in 4 tax havens
• Operations in questionable Social Economic Zones, India.

Don’t even get me started on the other brands. I’ll let you see for yourself. Ethiscore.org – Mobile Phones