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citizens, national and international government organisations have sought to introduce regulations that require commercial corporations to ensure that an ethical and moral code of conduct is attached to all their operations, and particularly in relation to the people that work for them and their suppliers, which in this case would be the mining organisations in the Congo. Under Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) regulations, auditing processes are supposed to be in place to ensure that contracting companies operate the same ethical and moral standards. However, it is apparent from Mvemba Phezo Dizolele's article and other studies that, in the case of the Congo, this monitoring is not happening. CSR is seen by many corporations to only be relevant when applied to developed countries. Whilst poverty divisions and exploitation of citizens in developed countries is regarded as unacceptable, it seems that this does not extend to divisions of poverty between nations.

Companies like Microsoft, Apple, Dell, Samsung, Nintendo and many others are making $billions out of their products, as are those like Intel who supply component parts. Yet it appears that the living standards of the poor in Africa who make all this possible, is an extremely low priority to many, if any consideration is given to it at all. Similarly we, as individual citizens in the west, whilst being extremely vocal about corporate CSR issues that affect us, our families and those within our own nations, raise hardly a whisper when it comes to concerns over our poor child relations, working in the damp and dark mines of the Congo, risking their health and physical well being for a pittance so that their family can eat today.

Perhaps, as we watch our child peacefully sleeping, we should also bring to mind the image of a small child in the mines of Congo, sweat and grime mixing with his or her tears as they dig in the dirt to help provide those goods that we have come to take for granted.

In conclusion therefore, it is we as individuals who should take a stand. We are the ones who should be saying to the governments and commercial organisations that child slavery and labour abuse is not acceptable. We cannot sit back and say it is the responsibility of the corporate or political machinery or that our voice makes no difference, because these institutions have no soul unless we, the citizen, put it into them.

Sources
Mvemba Phezo Dizolele | 08 Aug 2007 http://www.pulitzercenter.org/ showproject.cfm?id=17

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