Not in the Past

Just because some countries in Africa have reached peace, like Sierra Leone, doesn’t mean that blood diamonds are no longer a major issue. This is horribly untrue and dangerous to believe. According to Amnesty USA, there is still an issue with blood diamonds being imported globally from West Africa. About $23 million worth of blood diamonds “from the Ivory Coast are being smuggled into international diamond markets” (amnestyusa.org). Obviously this is still a grave and major issue, not to be taken lightly when people are being mutilated, murdered, and tortured for each penny of that $23 million…This problem obviously has NOT gone away.

Scratching the Surface

Simply hearing that conflict diamonds are used to fuel violence and civil wars in parts of Africa doesn’t strike hard enough, deep enough into the emotional core. At least for me it didn’t. I mean sure, it was difficult to hear that. When my dad first informed me about the issue, I was moved, but not to the extent I was when I saw the film Blood Diamonds and then researched the topic more. It’s one thing to scratch the surface of an issue, to hear about it once and then let the thought slip from your mind along with all the other bad news we hear on a daily basis. Yet it puts the issue on an entirely different level and creates a whole new intensity of emotion when you see the devastating outcomes and read about the brutal and horrific facts of blood diamonds.

Some quick facts that made me open my eyes to the atrocity of this issue:
•“Deaths from diamond fueled Democratic-Republic of the Congo Civil War = 3,300,000”
(http://www.conflictfreediamonds.org/awareness/civil_war_deaths.html)

•“Deaths from diamond fueled civil wars in Angola, Liberia, and Sierra Leone alone exceed all U.S. military deaths in the last 70 years by 50%”
(http://www.conflictfreediamonds.org/awareness/civil_war_deaths.html)

•In Angola alone the death toll reached 500,000 with most deaths caused by landmines and rebel groups (the UNITA) controlled 60-70% of the production of diamonds
(http://www.conflictfreediamonds.org/awareness/civil_war_deaths.html)

Still not moved? Then look at this:
VIDEO>


“’Diamonds are forever’” is has been said. But lives are not. We must spare people the ordeal of war, mutilations, and death for the sake of conflict diamonds.” – Martin Chungong Ayafor, Chairman of the Sierra Leone Panel of Experts

Conflict Diamonds?

I’m not going to lie. I get caught up in the superficiality of California, especially southern California. I look at and subscribe to fashion magazines, save my money to buy a new pair of way too expensive shoes, and yes, I am that pathetic girl who stands and drools over the obscenely huge diamonds displayed in Cartier’s windows at South Coast Plaza. I won’t deny any of that. Still, at the same time I realize that there is a world outside of California, outside of everything superficial. And I now know that there is more to diamonds than just their exterior beauty; they can come from blood…….

My dad asked me the other day if I was going to make sure the first diamond I purchase for my self is conflict free. I had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently I was not the only one who was clueless as to what a conflict diamond was, let alone a conflict free one. My dad suggested that since I love diamonds so much, I should go see the film Blood Diamonds and that seeing the movie would drastically change how I look at the precious stone. So I did. And he was right.

It was the scene where the boy looked right at his father, pointed a gun and was ready to shoot him. His eyes were vapid, void of recognition for his father, for his life before he learned how to kill babies, mothers and his own people. That was the scene that tore my heart out almost more than any other in the movie. That is what happens. That is reality. That is what conflict diamonds fuel. This is such a major and incredibly important issue, one that needs all the attention it can get....Especially in the United States, the world’s largest diamond importing country.

So to clarify, what are conflict diamonds, also known as blood diamonds? Conflict Diamonds: “Conflict diamonds are diamonds illegally traded to fund conflict in war-torn areas, particularly in central and western Africa.” (diamondfacts.org) But that’s just the surface of the definition.

To have the means to buy diamonds in this country or anywhere, and not know where it came from or not to care, or to sell diamonds in that manner is coldly cruel and shows blatant disregard for the lives of others.