How Your Diamond Can Kill
Article Tools
-
10
Liked it 
Subscribe to RSS
Rapper Kanye West and Hollywood expose horrific incidents in Sierra Leone that occur every day caused by the diamonds we buy. Sierra Leone’s rebel forces use diamonds to fund their civil war making these “blood diamonds.” They do not account for only a few in the market; you might be wearing such a diamond today.
Sierra Leone
When you go to the video store and see the movie “Blood Diamond,” you just think of it as another average movie. It is not. This movie is about a problem that many people are not aware about. This issue would be considered genocide if it were not for the fact that what is targeted is not a race, but money. People are becoming a casualty in the race for a source of financing for the war. Diamonds that many Americans buy today are potentially funding weapons purchase by Sierra Leonean rebel forces. To further the claim of bordering genocide, many child soldiers are recruited, about one million people have been displaced from their homes, 50,000 people have been killed, and countless others have been raped or abused in other ways.
Rapper Kanye West Helps Expose Problem
This story of the diamond conflict has not been untouched however. There are two main protests about the diamond conflict within the media. The first is a song by rapper Kanye West, who uses the following lyrics: “Though it is thousands of miles away, Sierra Leone
connects to what we go through today. Over here, it is the drug trade, we die from drugs. Over there, they die from what we buy from drugs; the diamonds, the chains, the bracelets the charms’. I thought my Jesus piece was so harmless; ’till I saw a picture of a shorty armless.” Most people do not see this picture; just the (as Kanye West puts it) “ice.” These lyrics come from the remix song. The initial song has a scene, which depicts the average diamond buyer where the woman places the diamond on her finger and blood rushes everywhere from the diamond. While this is not realistic, it is a truth. It is not that people do not care; many people who buy diamonds today are not aware of what really goes on.
Movie “Blood Diamond” Brings Truth to a Theatre near You
The movie “Blood Diamond” goes further in exploration of this issue. The movie brings out a realistic cast of characters including a native fisherman whose son is going to school and planning to become a doctor, a news reporter and aid worker, and a diamond smuggler. The problem begins as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) raids the village where the fisherman lives. He is separated from his family and taken to work in the diamond mines where the diamonds go to fund the war. He finds a large diamond worth an exceptional amount of money and hides it. A rebel sees it but cannot take it because government forces raid the area. The fisherman is then taken to a prison where the diamond smuggler hears about the diamond and plans to use the fisherman to attain it. The news reporter then tries to get the smuggler to tell her the facts about smuggling so she can publish them and bring justice.
At the end of the day, this movie shows the violence and struggle that goes on as an everyday occurrence in Sierra Leone. At the end of the movie, when the diamond that caused much bloodshed is on display, this proves to people, as Kanye West says, “How it connects to the diamonds we own.”
7 Comments
that sucks. im not guilty…I can’t afford diamonds…
i saw that movie. it ws sad…had a good ending though.
ice: just because u r not guilty don’t mean u can’t do anything about it. This is important. This is, like the article say, bordering genocide.
that movie ws tite.
I agree that this is something most don’t know about – I sure didn’t!
I didn’t either. The movie had a short synopsis stating that it reflected true events. I was horrified.
I think what you are doing with this article is a good thing, and I commend you for it. Simply raising awareness about the issue is more than most of us will do.
I didn’t know about that too. It’s nice to know it, thanks!