Speaking of blood that is shed, I'm almost finished with a book titled Cobalt Red, How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives, by Siddharth Kara. Fifty percent of the Earth's Cobalt is found in a relatively small part of Congo, and a good amount is mined under horrendous conditions, often with child labor. Resulting tunnel collapses, pit walls falling down, breathing of the dust which contains other heavy metals including lead, arsenic, and uranium, plus the twelve hour days of hard labor, literally causes the blood of men, women, and children to taint the soil, all the while allowing the rest of the world to buy phones and cars with batteries made of lithium and cobalt. We purchase these "environment protecting" goods for thousands of dollars while the poorest people at the bottom of the ladder, figuratively and literally, work for one to two dollars a day so we may have the batteries to run our phones and cars. The blood of our brothers and sisters is still being shed by companies and governments whose quest is financial gain, with no care for the poor people caught up in modern day slavery. God cannot be pleased! Paul Brubaker
