#uswc

[swesafeworkingconditions-blog]

Corruption in Small Scale Gold Mining governments

The Small Scale Gold industry is ruining communities everywhere in many different ways that have taken a turn for the worst. In Peru and the Philippines third world regions have become wastelands creating a huge impact sending the communities to take a turn for the worst. 

In the Philipines, the government has turned their backs toward child labor and hazardous working conditions. No one is doing anything to get this unfortunate kid out of gold mining and into their classrooms. In my opinion, children are the most important investment the Philippines should be making. If the Philippines makes an effort to give their kids a good education they will be the ones to lift the country out of poverty and even solve this small scale gold mining crisis. It will take them out of their terrible child labor situation and bring them into more profitable work and much safer work when they are adults. 

In Peru the situation is a little different. Small Scale gold mining has turned the amazon rainforests into desert mercury wastelands in the region of La Pampa. This region is totally corrupted and was birthed off the money of illegal gold mining. These towns have zero-order and have sex trafficking, hired killings disappearance of people and much, more illegal activity. Since the region is right against a very important nature reserve that is very important to Peru. So the government took explicit charge. They deployed military and police officers to raid the towns and gold mines. The rescued 40 sex-trafficked women and arrested many men for illegal gold mining or illegal activities. They have also started to set up military bases to keep out this illegal gold mining from the desert wasteland so they can start rebuilding the environment. 

The problem that has occurred is that they are telling everyone to leave the town since it was birthed off illegal money. The amount of residents staying at La Pampa is 25000. This many people cause for an angry mob. What I think the government should do is provide these people with housing somewhere else. This way it is just relocation instead of eviction. The people can bring their businesses with them instead of leaving them behind. This will create a community free from the mass amounts of illegal activity and leave behind the old desert ghost towns once filled with menacing criminals. This would help promote a safe work environment all around and stop asgm.

[swesafeworkingconditions-blog]

Children Gold Mining in the Philipines

The epidemic of small scale gold mining has gone way too far. Even though it is a great source of income for people living in these third world countries it has become an extremely dangerous job that puts these people's lives at risk. The small scale gold mining workforce in the Philippines produces 70% of all the gold in the Philippines. Human Rights Watch has done the story a story about 65 children, yes children working in these gold mines. In these stories, Human Rights Watch shows children leaving school to work with their parents in these gold mines because it's the only source of real income they can find. Even though child labor is illegal in the Philippines, the Philippines government doesn’t do anything to enforce this law on small scale gold mining sites. If the Philippines wants to get out of poverty an easy fix is to educate their children so they can bring the Philippines out of their poverty. 

When these children get to the mines after sometimes a three-hour walk they may go to the underwater gold mines. They go into the bacteria-filled water that often gives them skin infections with nothing but a mask and a tiny tube at the surface that feeds them air from the compressor at the surface. The compressor is powered by a motor that gives off carbon monoxide making the air they breathe contaminated with high amounts of this deadly toxin.They usually plunge into 15-30 foot deep water. The kids get scared when it's their first time to dive into these underwater mines and that causes them to suffocate or come up too fast which gives them decompression sickness that can create air bubbles in your blood flow. Decompression sickness can lead to rashes, extreme fatigue, and joint pain. That’s not the worst of it either the actual mines at these small scale gold mines can be around 60 feet deep wich makes the air too thin to breathe. This means the mines must have a blower to provide air. Two brothers were mining in these deep caves when they suffocated to death because it was not yet ventilated by a blower. 

To extract the gold from the ore the workers use mercury. They put the toxic mercury into there pan and mix it around until the gold and mercury separate from the sand creating an amalgam. They then take this amalgam and put it into a pot burn it with an open flame. The mercury evaporates from the amalgam creating a gas that all people in the area of breath in. This is a major risk for kids and even adults in many ways. First, the gas can be breathed into children’s still developing nervous system and into their brains, causing brain damage and even death. Adults are vulnerable to this risk.

[ellenychang]

🙋🏻 #kata #uswc #gekisaisho #kyokushin #ichigeki (at Little Tokyo, Los Angeles)

[slayingxorangexjuice]

これはL.A.で行った大会についてニュースレポートです。色々な友達を見ました。僕は1:46から1:58まで後ろにいます。大会は目っちゃ面白かったと思います。押忍 Here's the Japanese news report about the tournament I participated in in L.A. A bunch of my teammates/training partners are in here and I am in the background from 1:46 to 1:58! Osu!!!