Blood Diamonds Research Paper

Unlike the slave traders who came before him, King Leopold managed to take possession of and exploit the indigenous people of Congo, their land, and their resources on an unprecedented scale. He obtained a network of valuable raw materials and millions free laborers to extract them. At the hands of King Leopold II’s workers, the people of Congo suffered horrific travesties. Not only did they suffer the loss of their land, the people of Congo were the victims of a hostile militant take over, who’s main purpose was to become a profitable service to the King’s ever-growing greed. His beloved pet project would later prove to be an efficient murder machine. In order to gather resources and labor for the King’s projects, workers acted mercilessly. They swindled land from local Congo tribes, held women hostage, and forced children into work.(109)(111)”(119). George Washington Williams best penned King Leopold II’s cruelty in his detailed documentation. His account contrasted the lies that King Leopold fed the public while simultaneously addressing the barbaric methods employed such as chain gangs, capturing women, forced laborers, and shooting for sport. (Pages 110-111) The result of this barbaric approach to harvest raw materials was the loss of people estimating to be half of the total population of Congo(page 233 )

reality of the most brutal 20th century civil war in Sierra Leone. Mariatu tells a very

All of us would find this topic in a way of inspirational because no matter what may be taking place, there can be an instant where the painful story that's taking place would be told and because of this story being told, changes will be made. For instance, Campbell speaks of Ismail Dalramy who lost his hands in 1996 by way of an ax. Amputation was one of many brutal tactics, as well as torture, mass rapes and looting done by the Revolutionary United Front or the (RUF). This is only just a little taste of what the African had to undergo because of the sick diamond trade. But, even so this helped bring light to what was wrong and helped more right to come out of. This book continued shedding light on the overworked but underpaid Africans in the mines. A tourist once mentioned, "The pit looked more like a slave colony". "On all sides, rib-skinny men stripped to their shorts were covered in mud and slime, the inevitable results of their jobs digging for diamonds". "Even though it was barely 10 a.m., they all looked exhausted”. This is needless to say extremely sad because there were Africans that were worked like crazy but barely getting paid, rest, or rewards. Instead there is nothing but turmoil agony and pain.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and the recent 2006 film Blood Diamond both depict how it was living in Sierra Leone, Africa during the Civil War in the ‘90’s. While A Long Way Gone focuses on child soldiers and what they had to live and go through for many years, Blood Diamond focuses mainly on how the country is torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces. The film portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections. Both the movie and the book try to tackle major issues by asking the questions: how

Therefore, to give up one’s luxuries so that less fortunate human beings can actually acquire necessities is a fair and simple request. Humans don’t need luxuries such as frivolous electronics and excessive clothes and accessories. However, humans do need food, shelter and other basic amenities. The fact that so many people have both necessities and luxuries while others have neither is a shocking reality that needs to be changed.

Social impacts of violence are detrimental to individuals, communities, and entire nations. Beah’s harrowing ordeal in Sierra Leone’s civil war exposes him to all of these impacts. A sense of community is quickly lost

The doors open slowly when a semi-delirious man uses his back to push them open. Makeshift bandages are nearly bled-through despite the string tourniquets a kind passerby had made for the now-destitute man after he had collapsed on the road to the hospital. He numbly rambles out his story, it’s not one the hospital staff is unfamiliar with but the macabre details are still worthy of nightmares. The man, Ismael, relives a more coherent version once the antibiotics have started to fight off the infections around his amputated hands: “The first victim was dragged forward and forced to kneel before a stump. As the man screamed, he severed one limb first, then the next” (Campbell, Ch. 1, para. 6). Ismael described the way that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) attacked his village of Koidu, Sierra Leone – an area that is rich in diamonds, the catalyst that led not only to the RUF, but the civil wars that plagued the region. Even though Ismael’s story is likely a dramatized conglomerate of similar tales from the region, it does serve to illustrate the plight for which Sierra Leone was renown. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, and certain other African nations had been in a state of near constant conflict since the 1980s, or earlier.

In America, most of our parents at a very early age that we should be grateful for what we have. Even with these teachings Americans are finding it hard to do just that. American Capitalism is built off of the concept that anybody can buy property, open a practice/start a business, and profit off of it. One thing that both “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck teach us is that the system of American capitalism isn’t perfect. Both of these books show both sides of capitalism, those who make it and those who don’t. In both books the rich are ignoring the bad things they inflict on the poor because it makes them richer and more powerful. As Rick Danko said, “As time goes on we get closer to that

Have they ever posed the question; where is all of this coming from? It begins in the Republic of Congo, where the mineral coltan is quarried. Coltan, used commonly in smart phones and computers, is in high demand, demand so high, it can lead to the death of hundreds of citizens that are being forced to mine it. As the CBC news article “Coltan; A New Blood Mineral” apprises its reader, numerous more community’s lives will be permanently altered by the mining of coltan. “Potential mines are also being explored in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greenland, Mozambique, the United States, Finland, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Colombia.” (CBC) it is claimed. This can only mean countless more residents may be forced out of their homes, or to work in atrocious, inhumane conditions mining for the North American obsession. Though Sylvie, from Blue Gold, is a fictional character, the conflicts that she faces on an unvarying basis are a reality for innumerable African people at any given moment. However, with the nickname ‘blood mineral’, it is insinuated that coltan is the culprit, though this is not the case. As Sylvie bluntly puts it, “‘Coltan is just a rock. [...] It’s the fighters who hurt people” (Stewart 163), something the people in the Congo may forget. It is the simple truth that coltan mining is inevitable. The

Whilst raising money for African charities at school I developed an interest in global inequality and alternative policies that can help low-income nations escape the poverty trap. Reading ’23 Things’ by Ha-Joon Chang, I was intrigued by his view on blaming free-market policies like SAPs that exposed sub-Saharan Africa to international competition, slowing economic growth. Hence, this extended my research to the other side of the

In “Rich and Poor,” Peter Singer argues that the existence of absolute affluence, allows the suffering and death of others who are in absolute poverty, and this is morally equivalent to murder. In this paper I plan to argue that although absolute affluence is an issue that should be addressed through spending money on luxury items such as technology, we are able to advance our education, which can ultimately lead to bringing the affluent and the impoverished together to create a world where poverty does not have to exist at all. Singer argues we are responsible for the consequences of our actions, which means that frivolous spending on luxury items instead of using that money to benefit the people in absolute poverty has the consequence of someone in absolute poverty suffering or dying. This results in the frivolous spender being responsible for their death. Although the people in absolute affluence do not set out with the intent to murder, or even have the malice behind it, they still are considered morally responsible.

Within this nine-chapter, two-part book, author Paul Farmer single handedly both analyzed, and harshly critiqued the central and deeply rooted ideas of poverty throughout the world. In his book, Pathologies of Power, he tackles the daunting and largely misunderstood topic of poverty “to reveal the ways in which the most basic right-the right to survive- is trampled in an age of great affluence... (pg.6). Farmer, is both a professor of medical anthropology at Harvard, a doctor, and a founding director of Partners in Health, which is a global health organization that is concentrated in the most poverty-stricken areas to bring proper health care to those in need. These positions have allowed him to travel to some of the most underdeveloped areas in the world, with the largest portion of his time spent in Haiti. The experiences and observations that Farmer made in these locations provided him with a foundation of first-hand knowledge to come to the conclusion that the inequality toward the poor in terms of their basic human rights creates social violence, which is a

Hunger for luxury items and people’s strife for the brands and items they associate with being beyond reach is paramount for this system. It is this drive for items one can’t have that the author feels is one of the benefits of consumerism. He declares, “…the aspiration of the poor to

Ishmael Beah, author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, stated in a conference, “I was one of those children forced into fighting at the age of 13, in my country Sierra Leone, a war that claimed the lives of my mother, father and two brothers. I know too well the emotional, psychological and physical burden that comes with being exposed to violence as a child or at any age for that matter,” (Brainy Quotes). He grew up during the civil war in 1991, when the Revolutionary United Front (R.U.F.) attempted to overthrow the government. The R.U.F. took control of eastern and southern Sierra Leone territories that were rich in diamonds. In order to purchase weapons and ammunitions, the R.U.F. would enslave villages and use the citizens

Not only does this issue involve the politics of the diamond trade and the involvement of outside parties, but it is also a devastatingly serious human rights violation to the civilians of Angola. “There is an average of 52 land mine incidents per month and approximately 1 out of every 356 Angolans is an amputee as a result of these bloody conquests”[4]. It was determined in a United Nations Security Council meeting that “there are clear and major weaknesses in systems for controlling diamond trading, which no single country can address effectively because of the many alternative routes available to illicit diamond traders”[5]. Therefore, in order to combat the civil fighting between UNITA and the MPLA, we must educate ourselves about UNITA’s diamond trade, prohibit the sale of blood diamonds, and achieve a commitment from diamond dealers that their diamonds originate from conflict-free mines.