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    Blue Gold
    Blue Gold
    Blue Gold
    Ebook289 pages3 hours

    Blue Gold

    By Elizabeth Stewart

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Coltan, or “blue gold,” is a rare mineral used in making cell phones and computers. Across continents, the lives of three teen girls are affected by the “blue gold” trade.

    Sylvie’s family had to lee the Democratic Republic of the Congo after her father was killed by a rogue militia gang in the conlict for control of coltan. The refugee camp where she now lives is deplorable, and Sylvie yearns for a way out—to save not only herself, but her remaining family.

    Laiping labors in a Chinese factory, soldering components for cell phones. She had left her small village to make her fortune, but the factory conditions are crushing, and the constant pressure to send money home adds to her misery. Yet when Laiping tries to improve her situation, she sees what happens to those who dare question the electronics company’s policies.

    Fiona is a North American girl who, in one thoughtless moment, takes a picture on her cell phone she comes to regret. In the aftermath, she learns not only about trust and being true to oneself, but the importance of ighting for what is right.

    All three teens are unexpectedly linked by these events.

    Elizabeth Stewart conducted extensive research to authentically capture the experiences of all three girls. The result is an intense and powerful story about their struggles to create better lives for themselves in the face of the world’s increasing appetite for coltan.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAnnick Press
    Release dateFeb 18, 2014
    ISBN9781554516360
    Blue Gold
    Author

    Elizabeth Stewart

    Elizabeth Stewart (1939-2022) was an outstanding practitioner of the traditional arts. An internationally recognized singer, storyteller, composer, and songwriter of remarkable ability, she performed all over the United Kingdom and made several tours of America. She and her family have been visited by musicians, singers, folklorists, and journalists for over fifty years.

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    Reviews for Blue Gold

    4/5

    19 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The human price of digital technology is explored from the perspectives of three teen girls in this novel set in the present. Fiona, a middle-class Canadian makes an impulsive decision that haunts her virtually, and she learns a big lesson in digital responsibility. Sylvie is a Congolese refugee living in Tanzania. Her father was killed and she raped and disfigured by soldiers fighting over Coltan, a mineral used in technology that powers cell phones and computers. Laiping works in a factory assembling cell phones, enduring slave-like conditions that cause her fellow employees to develop serious medical problems and some to commit suicide. Though the problems of the three girls are resolved too neatly, Stewart offers readers a character-driven, absorbing narrative artfully blending insights into global politics and business ethics, and reveals the interconnectedness of the global economy.
    • 5/5
      I just finished reading Blue Gold, and it's the first time since becoming a book reviewer that a book has left me speechless and made a deep and lasting impression on me.

      The book is very well written, and explores the different lives of 3 girls: Fiona in Canada, living some high school drama and cyber bullying, Laiping in China, working (being exploited) in an electronics manufacturing factory, and Sylvie, living in the middle of the war torn DRC, directly affected by rape, murder and corruption.

      The writing is so vivid that you can picture what each of these girls faces on a daily basis. It's shocking, eye-opening and deeply disturbing. Even though this book is fictional, everything could, and does, happen every day.

      I found the afterword very important, and am glad the author added it.

      The first thing I did after reading the last page was to download the buycott.com app, and then write this review.
    • 2/5
      2-1/2

      Warning. This book addresses topics that are heavy and graphic, including violence, rape and sweatshops, and is not appropriate for younger readers.

      While I read this book in a fairly short period of time, I still had some problems with this one.

      To be honest, some of my issues with it may not matter to anyone else. I struggled with the different point of views, and felt that the stories came together entirely too briefly, especially since the summary mentioned about the stories coming together. Yet, in the text of the book, this happened in the last dozen pages or so. When it is mentioned as prominent enough to be part of the summary, you would think it would play a larger role in the story.

      Laiping, Fiona, and Sylvie all have interesting stories on their own, but when you put the stories side by side you see how one thing can have an effect on many, many people. Even when things go horribly in your life, those horrible things spread out like ripples in a pond.

      The difficult topics were handled fairly tastefully, although the incident with Fiona, I think, was handled a little too casually for me to be comfortable.

      These were heavy topics that really needed to be out there, I just wish that the way the three story lines came together would have been handled a little better.
    • 4/5
      Three girls on three different continents are connected ultimately through cell phone production. This tale tells of their lives and struggles.A crisp, factual narrative guides the reader through each girl's tale; however, the tales are interwoven which aids in showing how their lives are connected.Characters are flawed, authentic, emotional, and passionate.Overall, a enjoyable read.
    • 3/5
      This book about three separate storylines that all converge on a singular plotline is midline, at best, although I found it rather boring. I just think for such sensitive subjects (such as child rape) there are better books out there who present the subject matter in a manner more fitting for a young adult audience. Stewart is rather cold about it.
    • 5/5
      I highly recommend this book! Not only are the main characters girls around my age, which truly helps me connect to the book, it also helped me acknowledge my privilege and what I'm capable of. Each of the main characters is struggling in their life, and all of it is related. One character, Fiona, helped me realize that what I am going through as a white teen in America, is nothing compared to what millions are going through all around the world. This doesn't mean my problems should be invalidated, but I have more privilege and opportunity than I could dream of, and this book helped me fully realize that.
    • 4/5
      Coincidentally, I read this book the same week that people across North America were lining up for the release of the latest smartphone. In Blue Gold, the lives of three teens are inextricably linked to the manufacture and production of these phones. Fiona is the daughter of a mining executive in Vancouver, Sylvie is a Congolese girl living in a Tanzanian refugee camp, and Laiping is a girl from rural China who has come to the city to work in an electronics factory. Stewart has skillfully taken real-world situations and used fictional characters to illuminate the true human costs of the production and use of smartphones. For Sylvie the mining of Coltan in the Congo has cost her her Country and part of her family, and has exposed her to horrendous violence. For Laiping, assembly line work has cost her her right to self-determination as she feels trapped by inhuman employment practices. Back in Canada, Fiona’s family loyalty is tested when she pays the cost of using her smartphone to sext her boyfriend. Hopefully teens will not find Blue Gold to be too didactic, but instead will be inspired to become conscientious consumers who think about the materials that go into the electronics they covet, and the lives of the people who make them.

    Book preview

    Blue Gold - Elizabeth Stewart

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