[pm90]

First of all, there are many things about this article itself that make me really happy. The content is a well designed mix of short videos interspread in an article which references sources, investigates facts independently and is honest about what it could and could not find. They even mention a part where Amazon did not reply to their question and state that Amazon is owned by the same owner as their paper. Overall, I think this is an amazing journalistic piece. Very nice to see that good journalism is still out there and hope this catches on as well.

Now, the subject of the article itself: its really sad that the people of Congo, who should ideally be a part of the global supply chain that brings prosperity to those involved in it, should be exploited so thoroughly. While ensuring the source of cobalt is perhaps the first step, maybe what is needed is better leadership amongst the miners itself (I don't mean this as criticism but as a suggested solution). I can see that the mining companies and those profiting from dirt cheap prices of cobalt would be dead against this, but here again we see what happens when labor is plentiful and there is an absence of any sort of regulation. The fact is that if companies can get around laws to get minerals cheaply, they will. Because the market rewards those who give them raw materials for cheap.