Mining is big business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it is at the forefront of the global debate over how to end the violence in this war-torn country. Congo's riches, including enormous deposits of gold, diamonds, copper, and cobalt, may not have initially instigated that country's decades of war, but they definitely are keeping the battle raging, 8 years after the war was officially declared over.
Above, a worker stands on a mound of dirt at an abandoned industrial mine on March 28, 2006, in Mongbwalu, in Congo's volatile northeast corner.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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BATEAUMAURICE
3:46 AM ET
May 26, 2011
Life must be hard
Must be special to be working with such expensive material and touch gold but at the end of the month, having a ridiculous salary.
Life in those country must be really hard, should we never forget boat france how lucky we are.
JERUSALEM
4:36 PM ET
May 27, 2011
Wealth and Greed
Envision if you will owning all the gold and diamonds in the world and being told at age 50 by your doctor that you've got a few weeks to live but you can't take any of it with you. Would your scheming and hording and greed bring any solace.
Imagine if you will, that an extraterrestrial mega force suddenly appears on the horizon and lay claim to the earth, claiming that they are the ones who seeded it with all its wealth and life forms many generations ago and they are back to claim whats theirs. then what?????? Greed is futile. what if they further state all who are powerful and rich, mean spirited and selfish will be last in the new society and serve all who were last in the old. HA!HA!HA!HA!
YOU ARE YOUR BROTHERS KEEPER, SHARE THE WEALTH, ITS NOT SO HARD. YOU PERISHABLE MORTALS.
MELMCGUIRE
10:47 PM ET
June 9, 2011
Blood Diamonds
At a bend in a tributary of the mighty Congo River, dirt-poor villagers feverishly pan for the shiny stones that have proved as elusive as they are rare -- diamonds.
Hundreds stake their claims here hoping to strike it rich in this, the fourth-largest diamond-producing country in the world. Officials say that last year, diamond exports from the Congo grew to $2 billion, nearly one-fifth of the country's gross domestic product.
But what these villagers don't know -- or hardly care about -- is the fact these are Watch Green Lantern Online some of the precious stones that have, according to experts, indirectly fueled some of Africa's dirtiest wars from Sierra Leone to Liberia and from Angola to Congo. They're known as conflict diamonds or, more bluntly, blood diamonds. And in this corner of the Congo, men and boys constantly mine, hoping to find a way out of poverty.
RENATA207
2:06 AM ET
June 11, 2011
Blood and Gold
Welcome to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the warzone that helps make your iPhone. At a bend in a tributary of the mighty Congo River, dirt-poor villagers feverishly pan for the shiny stones that have proved as elusive as they are rare -- diamonds. Hundreds stake their claims here hoping to strike it rich in this, the fourth-largest diamond-producing country in the world. Officials say that last year, diamond exports from the Congo grew to $2 billion, nearly one-fifth of the cou home alarms Envision if you will owning all the gold and diamonds in the world and being told at age 50 by your doctor that you've got a few weeks to live but you can't take any of it with you. Would your scheming and hording and greed bring any solace. Imagine if you will, that an extraterrestrial mega force suddenly appears on the horizon and lay claim to the earth, claiming that they are the ones who seede.