Conflict Diamonds Essay

The diamond industry impacts the people of West Africa by creating a whirlwind of corruption on a political level. In sierra Leone diamonds were a valuable part of the land and they were once legitimately sold up until Sierra Leone became independent in 1961. The following years of their independence corruption flooded the land. According to an online research paper it says “with that independence came corrupt leaders, manipulation of the people , rebel groups, rivalries and civil disputes”. The correlation implies that the diamond industry has created an environment that leaves people at risk of violence, and unfair treatment by their government. The longer the diamond industry is in effect, the longer West African people will suffer from the world market demanding diamonds. Because of globalization it doesn’t look

The controversial artist Kanye West has always attempted to make known what he thinks, no matter if he has to be disrespectful or graphic in his illustrations of said topic. So it wasn't a real surprise when he chose to focus his energy into reveling to the American public horrors happening that had a direct connection with the beloved diamond stone. West's 2005 music video “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” shows the corrupted underground diamond trade in the African country, Sierra Leone. From this groundbreaking video, West showed the devastated lives those who worked on the mining rivers live. However upon further investigation into the issue of diamond workers in Sierra Leone there emerged the true source of the situation, a violent

A brief historical account of Sierra Leone may provide only a glimmer as to why the Sierra

Sierra Leone is mainly a mining country, this caused it to be colonized and for their own native people being used as slaves in their mines. This shaped its social development by making it a far higher concentration of natives than other countries. But, because of their enslavement and American control until recently, literacy rates and per capita GDP are disturbingly low. Politically, though, it’s more stable than most countries in this case.

By definition, strife precious stones are jewels that begin from mines that are under the control of revolutionary gatherings that are battling against their nation's legislature. Sierra Leone, a little nation on the west bank of Africa, (in this paragraph you need to elaborate a little bit more) has throughout the previous ten years been under the fear of an ever display common war. This war is being battled between a radical gathering known as the Revolutionary United Front and Sierra Leone's available government. The RUF took control of some of Sierra Leones wealthiest diamond mines in the mid-nineties centuries. They now utilize the benefits they make from these precious stones to purchase weapons for their armed force, made up for the

Men, women, and children are all coerced, regularly at gunpoint, to mine coltan. Both the novel Blue Gold by Elizabeth Stewart and the CBC News article, “Coltan: A New Blood Mineral” shine light on the influence coltan mining has on people residing in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the western consumers callowness to it.

This essay will have info based off the story the article Blood Diamonds written by Greg Campbell. I will be giving a brief summary of

Sierra Leone is a small country found on the west coast of Africa. The country shares a border with the Atlantic Ocean, Liberia, and Guinea. Sierra Leone has a population of 5,525,000 people, and 27,699 square miles of land. In 1462 Freetown, Sierra Leone was founded by Pedro da Cintra, a Portuguese explorer from Lagos, Portugal. da Cintra originally named the country Sierra Lyoa , the Lion Mountains, but in 1787 the British officially adopted Sierra Lyoa changing its name to its modern day spelling- Sierra Leone. This small country has faced many horrors within its history. The Sierra Leone civil war is a major contributing factor to the country’s current state of poverty and corruption. Most problems that the country faces today all stem

Human blood is shed on almost every diamond mined in Africa, bought from Africa, or traded out of Africa. In the beginning of Aryn Baker’s article “Dirty Diamonds” in TIME magazine, Baker presents a man conflicted with his decision to buy an engagement ring, because he does not want “. . . a symbol of our union to also be associated with chaos and controversy and pain.” (Baker 64). This man in the example, Max Rodriguez, undoubtedly knew of the backbreaking work that children are subjected to, to provide for their families or to raise money to receive an education. Baker argues that the diamond industry in Africa hinders the development of children, nations, and that this problem may be too large to control as she appeals to logic, evoking

This essay supports the statement “The price of diamonds is too high”. Diamonds have always been presumed to be rare. They have been present in history as a symbol of wealth and luxury as they were so difficult to find. Nowadays diamonds are mined and are found all over the world but they are sold through a cartel. (Epstein 1982) A cartel limits the supply of a product in order to keep prices high and to limit competition. (South African Pocket Oxford Dictionary: 2002) This raises the question of whether diamonds are actually worth their price. This essay focuses on the origins and the basic theory behind the diamond cartel; the early operation of the cartel; De Beers’ strong market campaign; determining De Beers’ current

The government continued to be extremely corrupt, there were still ethnic tensions, and Liberia, the neighboring country, was in its own civil war spreading violence into Sierra Leone. Along with that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was formed. This group overran the diamond mines of Sierra Leone and caused enough trouble for the military to have to get involved launching Sierra Leone’s civil war on March 23, 1991. For further reading into causes of the civil war in Sierra Leone click this link. The civil war lasted much longer for one reason being the vast amounts of diamonds. To the right you can see an image of the illegal diamond mining in Sierra Leone. The RUF funded their rebellious cause selling the diamonds, and since they are sold to fund war they are known as blood diamonds. In order to end the civil war Britain once again had to step into Sierra Leone and send its own military to stop the brutal civil war finally ending the 11 year war on January 18, 2002. (Sierra Leone, Royal African Society). If you would like to view more on Sierra Leone’s civil war the following links are to videos documenting the events of the war: link (long video est.1 hr 30 min), link (short video est. 14

Addressing the most important factor – lack of literacy – it can be noted that the education expenditures in Sierra Leone is 2.9% of GDP (2012)1. An increase in investment in the education system, and enforcement is the most effective way to increase literacy rates. In an interview with the International Monetary Fund, the question is posed: “Oil wealth is not always a blessing. In actual fact, countries like Nigeria have struggled in managing the resource effectively. How can the CEMAC countries avoid the pitfalls that other countries have fallen into? ” The simple answer given by Sharmini Coorey, Director of the IMF's Institute for Capacity Development replies; “Another important thing is investing in people. In the book, we focus on how to achieve inclusive growth and one of the most obvious and relatively easy ways of making inclusive growth is to spend your oil money on better health and education.17” In investing in the people, a country is investing in their future. Censorship isn’t generally accepted in Sierra Leone and so with the creation of privately owned newspaper, radio, and television companies, it allows the private owners to give people the unbiased, truthful and accurate news16. In the research done, my conclusion is that Sierra Leone has a good basis for media, however it is the literacy and monetary issues which hold

Sierra Leone is a country with much history. It has many historical sites and great mines that contain so much “treasure”. Its economy is still growing and they’re trying to improve themselves. They’re a diverse country with different ethnic groups and languages but socially and culturally they can agree on the way they eat, what type of music they like, and what they do for fun. This country is unique and is growing from the past to a modern future.

Building a nation… Slavery, Independence, Constitution, Military coups to Presidential elections! Senior Enlisted leaders, it is important to know that the freedoms we all prefer comes with a cost of sacrifice, bloodshed, and for some, nation before self for democracy. This essay will discuss the background, government, strategic importance, and future direction of Sierra Leone.

Africa is one of the continents that produce an estimated $19 billion in gold per year and $6 billion in diamonds. But an unknown amount is laundered or siphoned each year for criminal purposes.