Bloody Stones, Bloody Bodies
A blood diamond, or otherwise known as a conflict diamond, is a rough diamond mined in an area controlled by insurgent forces whose sale is used to finance anti-government military action. These rare stones were used to fund the civil war in Angola in 1998 and have continued to create an incredible amount of destruction throughout various areas in Africa today. It won’t be long until these violent conflicts begin to affect the rest of the world as well. Blood diamonds are becoming increasingly detrimental to Africa by creating civil unrest and slavery.
The civil rest in particular is what’s spurring violence in the past decade. Rebels, angered by the African government due to President François Bozizé’s failure to maintain his peace arrangements, are currently using these diamonds as a way of supplying themselves with weapons and food. Not only are the rebels using them, but even the al-Qaeda and political leaders have abused this power as well. One member of the Kimberley Process released a report of “President Mugabe and his party of stealing more than $2 billion in diamonds from the country's Marange fields,” showing the sheer amount of corruption created as a result of this conflict ("Blood"). The Kimberley Process, an organization dedicated to eradicating this issue, has greatly struggled for the past decade because they simply haven’t been able to convince the corrupt government members to stop the international trade (Briggs). As more of these conflicts arise, Africa delves deeper and deeper into complete civil unrest, ultimately bringing destruction to the people living there.
In addition to this civil unrest, however, blood diamonds are even becoming a cause of slavery. As stated in a CNN article, “Apart from the innocent people caught up in the conflicts that the trade fuels, thousands of men, women and children in countries such as Sierra Leone are used as slaves to extract diamonds” (Armstrong). Families are ripped apart by rebel soldiers and sent to the various diamond mines scattered in the Central African Republic. There, they are forced to dig into mud and gravel with their bare hands in order to find diamonds. Innocent lives are taken due to the primitive method of extraction, only to increase the rebels’ demands for slavery.
Blood diamonds have been continuously detrimental for Africa because of the violence and damage they can fund. The Kimberley Process is currently doing what it can to halt this international trade, yet organizations such as the Global Witness refuse to cooperate with them because of conflicting perspectives. If left ignored, however, the trade of blood diamonds may cause more destruction than we could ever imagine.
Works Cited
Armstrong, Paul. "How Diamonds Fuel Africa's Conflicts - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 16 May 2012. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.
"Blood Diamonds." Global Issues in Context. Cengage Learning, 6 Jan. 2015. Web. 8 Mar. 2015.
Briggs, Nicholas S. "Reasons to Stop the Trade of Conflict Diamonds." Conflict Diamonds in West Africa. EDGE, 5 Dec. 2003. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Your article is very interesting and has a topic that is not often talked about. This is an issue that is not really like any issues we have in the US. Your title and the picture you included also add another aspect that draws you into the article. Are the blood diamonds the only fund for all these things going on in Africa?
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting topic that I had never heard about before. The idea of blood diamonds does not apply to the United States, as we don't have any real civil conflict. However, we do have civil unrest from economic barriers and resources. What makes a diamond a blood diamond, specifically if a company is mining in a country that has conflict, are the mined diamonds counted as blood diamonds? Also who is responsible for collecting blood diamonds and what organizations do they fund? Is there any connection to terrorist groups?
ReplyDeleteI really like the picture you used to illustrate your article because it is something that could be hard to imagine and the photo you used is a way to put an image to the words. I really like the structure of this article and the precise overview you used. The interesting details you added also contribute to the quality of your information. I wonder how Africa is going to move forward with this issue and what will happen exactly if the government fails to fix it.
ReplyDeleteThis article is very well written and I really like how you focused on two main harms of the blood diamond trade. It made it very easy to follow and was well organized and concise. I learned that the revenue generated by these blood diamonds is used to fund rebel groups. Do you think that this problem can be solved just by the actions of Africa, or do you think this is an issue that requires the aid of several nations?
ReplyDeleteNice article Derek! I like the way you narrowed in on the ways the blood diamond trade is harmful. It is very well written, which made the information very easy to understand. I also think that you title is pretty interesting, it made me want to read the article to understand it. P.S. there is a movie called Blood Diamond starring Leonardo Dicaprio and it is pretty good :D
ReplyDeleteAwesome job Derek! I really liked your topic on how these blood diamonds connected to civil unrest and the corruption of power, connects with the issues present within Cry, the Beloved Country! This relates to how many individuals can become corrupted when they are in possession of money/profit in our society today. Do you think that this corruption will continue to have such a negative affect on society in the future?
ReplyDelete