Blood Diamonds

The article I’m blogging about was found here, which I found when I “googled” blood diamonds in Africa. Although the website wasn’t one that was suggested in our class links, I thought it still to be reliable because it is a .org instead of a .com. The webpage is entitled “Conflict Diamonds: Sanctions and Wars.” The page explains what a blood, or conflict diamond, is and why the UN has banned buying them. According to the webpage, a conflict diamond is a diamond that originates from areas controlled by forces that oppose the official government and are used to fund militia who fight against the government forces. The UN has banned buying conflict diamonds because in some countries, conflict diamonds fund rebel groups who cause brutal wars amongst their own people. Rebel groups are also a large cause of children soldiers, which I spoke about in my last blog. Rebel groups often terrorize villages and are notorious for gang rapes of women. Although much is done to try to stop the conflict diamonds from making it out of Africa, if the conflict diamonds do make it to market, they are difficult to trace and if they are polished, impossible to be identified from another diamond.

I researched this topic because it was one that Dr. Malloy suggested for a blog topic, but also because I thought it would be interesting. There’s been a lot of talk about it in the news recently about conflict diamonds with Naomi Campbell, who is a popular supermodel accused of having a blood diamond in possession and claiming it is a gift from friend Liberian leader Charles Taylor. Also there has also been a movie made about it (which I saw and enjoyed). I think it’s a difficult topic however, because Africa is so rich in resources and many countries need as many resources and ways to make money as possible, but the diamonds have instead turned into a way to fund rebels instead of families who are in need and nor do they help the economy either. The rebels are a terrorizing group, so it's right not to help them in anyway, that would be like the U.S. buying things that we knew were helping Al-Qaeda. The rebels use the diamonds to buy guns and explosives that they use to harm their own people. I think the governments need to be stronger to stop the rebels and help their own. I know it's easier said than done, but enough with the corruptness.

This is a photo of a young boy who had both of his hands cut off by rebel soldiers.

Source

Here is a YouTube link of the trailer to the movie Blood Diamonds. For those who haven't seen the movie, maybe watching this will make you want to. I think it's probably a fairly accurate portrayal of what it's like.