The Price of Gold!... is it worth it?

On Wednesday night the Channel Ten had a special broadcast on human rights violations that have been going on since early 2003 in some of the rural villages on Tanzania. These gross human rights violations due to gold mining ranged from killings of people and animals burnt by acidic water; destruction of farming land and vegetation to polution of the environment due to dumping of chemical waste from the mining operations.

Since the mining operations started in the northern regions of the country, the local communities have experienced an unending cycle of catastrophe. They were since forcefully removed from the homes by the state police, houses demolished and people burried alive in that process. Those that remained continue to suffer all sorts of destructions in favour of mining operations that benefit none of them. The government is silent!

For sometime mining dumps have been pilling up at the back of their homes; rivers being polluted living them, their animals and crops without water to survive and many of those who unknowingly used the rivers and wells were burnt to death; some suffered severe skin disorders due to the acid that also distroyed most vegetations. The cattle and dogs that drank the water lost their skins while some of the goats burnt their limbs off by stepping on the water.

Unfortunately all these cries have fallen into deaf ears. For years now there has never been satisfactory measures taken by government to respond to these issues and the mining operations have gained more power to do what they do claiming that they have not signed any agreement with the people nor their legal representative, hence won't account for anything. The corporations continue to export gold work billions of dollars while the tax they pay to the country cannot even build a single village they distroyed and most notably their staff earn salaries that could take upto 500years for an average Tanzanian to accumulate!

Now objectively looking at all these injustices....is it really worth it for this country to have these operations?? What is the benefit of investments if their presence in a community is nothing but destruction of peoples lives?? Is the price of gold more valuable than human lives?? If the nation would closely look at its suffering like this.....is it really worth it??

Tanzanians is this the price you are willing to pay? On who's cost? It really worth it??