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