makeITfair

Ok, so I'm wandering off the musical theme of this blog once more, but hey, it's all relevant in the grand scheme of things isn't it?!

Do you know where your mobile phone came from?

Ok, where were the minerals for your new mp3 player sourced?

How about who was paid to make your new games console, or how the company they work for recycles its components?

The fact of the matter is that many of us (including myself), do not know the answers to many of these questions. Not many people know about the problems involved in the production of these products - for example the environmental impact of the mining of metals used in mobile phones, or the bad working conditions in the Chinese laptop factories.

makeITfair is a European project focusing on the electronics industry, especially on consumer electronics.

The NGO wants to let young people across Europe know about the labour abuses and environmental problems that are going on right now around the world – just to satisfy our demand for all the latest electronic gadgets.

makeITfair want young people to get active to improve the situation. With the help of European young people, makeITfair can hold big brand electronics companies to account – asking them to take responsibility for the labour abuses and environmental damage at the bottom of their supply chain.

In mid-march, I, along side two other UK Young Ambassadors will be attending makeITfair's annual young people's conference. The conference, although largely an information operation, will allow for some roundtable discussion with the youth of Europe and a number of computing giants on the misguidings of our world's electronic industry.

As YOUR representative (if you're 16 -25), I would like to know if you have any opinions or ideas related to making the electronic industry fairer through improvements on a multitude of fronts.

The inequalities in the electronics industry are vast, from gender to environmental issues, it covers them all!

So if you have any opinions or ideas on any of these issues, please feel free to discuss them here.

Tom Spragg

p.s. If you would like any further information on makeITfair please visit:

http://makeitfair.org/