Text is a Verb (Mickey Z.)

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Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

March 7, 2009 -- Would you give up the ability to text "ttyl" (Talk to you later) to your BFF (Best Friends Forever) in order to save a species from going extinct? In 2009, it’s not an insane question.

The next time your cell phone rings, try focusing on these six simple words: The Democratic Republic of the Congo.

I ask you to do this because one of the primary components of cell phone circuitry is a metallic ore called Columbite-Tantalite -- or "coltan."

Eighty percent of the world’s known coltan can be found in African nation of The Democratic Republic of the Congo (or DRC), which just so happens to be embroiled in a brutal (even by current standards) civil war since the pre-cell phone days of 1994. Over time, all sides in the unrelenting struggles adroitly began using the mining and sale of coltan not only to nourish the West’s seemingly insatiable cell phone addiction, but also to fund their inexorable mayhem.

Civilian deaths in the DRC during this time -- mostly from war-related disease and malnutrition --are estimated not in the hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands, but rather in the millions… making it the world's deadliest military conflict since the Second World War.

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