"Come Clean 4 Congo" YouTube Contest Winner
Rap Video on Connection between "Conflict Minerals" and Cell Phones
Oct 2, 2009
Matthew Smith of Bend, Oregon has won the "Come Clean 4 Congo" video contest. His winning entry "Life Should be Free" is a powerful rap monologue spoken by Micah Bournes, 21. Compelling rhymes set to stunning graphics and photos from the Eastern Congo war zones convinced viewers around the world.
"Come Clean 4 Congo" Winning Video Excerpts
The winning video is featured on Enough's RAISE Hope for Congo website and YouTube page and will be screened at the Hollywood Film Festival's human rights symposium on October 24, 2009.
Excerpts:
"With a child in a cave,
serving as a slave (...)
it is time to stop supporting
the unethical exporting of
tungsten, tantalum and tin (...)
it is time for death to lose and life to win".
Judges for the contest — actress Sonya Walger, Oscar-nominated actor Ryan Gosling, and film director Wim Wenders — narrowed the entries to three. Then the public viewed the finalists to vote for the winner. YouTube's Video for Change program was created to offer a global stage and audience for the most pressing social causes.
“This contest really raised the profile of one of the world’s worst human rights catastrophes,” said Candice Knezevic, manager of Enough’s RAISE Hope for Congo campaign.
Enough's Consumer Education Campaign
Enough, the anti-genocide project at the Center for American Progress, launched a public campaign to bring attention to the link between consumer goods and human suffering. Over five million people have died in the Congo civil war. Hundreds of thousands of women are gang-raped and tortured by rebel soldiers who control the mineral trade.
The campaign does not ask people to give up their cell phones, but to use them to call electronics companies to subject their supply chains to transparent audits.
Campaign advocates have been active on many levels:
- Contacting the White House: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Congo in August and asked high level officials to follow up on the conflict minerals issue
- Congress has introduced the "Conflict Minerals Act of 2009", which now has ten co-sponsors
- Enough is talking to 17 of the 21 leading electronics companies, who all report a spike in calls, e-mails and letters from consumers about "conflict minerals"
- Media and Blogosphere: Congo activist Lisa Shannon, Founder of Run for Congo Women, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show; Fortune Magazine, CNN International and CNBC reported on the Congo crisis
Congo Conflict Minerals Fuel Brutal Civil War
 |
 |
 |
