Cotroversial/Blood Diamonds

Research paper

Author: Apostol Radev

ID: 067358

Instructor: Larry Johnson

Course: BC 306

Date: 25.05.2006

Blood diamond

“Call me old fashioned but nothing says I love you more than a big rock” Catherine Zeta Jones says after her engagement to Michael Douglas which resulted in a 2 million pound dazzler. It has always been like this. Zeta Jones is not the first and surely not the last women to believe that diamond jewelry is the ultimate way to show someone’s your love. But actually this is the easiest way to do it. When we are talking about diamond wedding ring with a cost of 1.5 million dollars, we are not talking exactly about love. We are talking about glamorous, power, money and obsession. Does what Zeta Jones says mean that only people who can afford a diamond ring are the only ones capable to express love? Actually this seems to be a kind of clichÐ"©. Wealthy and famous people have always been in pursuit to show the world how rich they are, or how much their spouse loves them. And after the public is preoccupied by all this things that celebrities do, we also do our best to compare our life with theirs. And this result in following every word or act they do. In the past fifteen years diamonds have become the most desirable and attractive rock not only for wedding rings, but for all kinds of accessories. There are some important questions that every one should ask when shopping a diamond.

Only minorities of people are aware how and where diamonds are mining, sorting and manufacturing. In the years, the history of human kind has faced with very big political and economic problems about exploring and exporting valuable rocks, metals and petrol. This was true about oil, ivory and gold. And now is true about diamonds: conflict diamonds. “Many conflict diamonds are also known as “blood diamonds,” because they have been responsible for civil wars and human rights abuses. Recent conflicts in Africa have been a result of these diamonds. Warlords and rebels use the profits from the illegal trade in diamonds to buy weapons. Some diamonds have even been used by al-Quaeda groups to finance their terrorist activities and launder money. Right now there is up to $23 million of conflict diamonds entering the legitimate diamond trade each year from the Ivory Coast in West Africa.” (cited from theweddingwizards.com)

United Nations definition of conflict diamonds or “blood” diamonds is “Diamonds that originated from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council.” (cited from un.org)

In 1999, four percent of the diamonds in circulations were from conflict zones, mainly in Africa. Some might say that this percent is acceptable and that the economy is not suffering. But we should take under consideration that the direct or indirect import of all conflict diamonds has much more devastating impact than economical. These four percents of the diamond market are equal to hundreds of millions of dollars obtainable to purchase weapons and finance civil wars. In the late 90’s civil wars had ranged for control of the diamond fields in Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo. Thousands had died and millions had become refugees. None of whom had ever seen a diamond. The paradox is that by that time these countries had reported zero export of diamonds, while their neighbors witch have no diamond to speak of, but can legally export them, had reported more that 2 billions of dollars of diamonds imported. There are a lot of people involve in this “blood” industry. They are not only locals but also, Americans, Europeans and buyers from all around the globe. People with a lot of authority are making big efforts to put their hands on the conflict diamonds after they have been exported. It is an interesting fact that when these stones reach their “owner” they are not immediately released to market - supply and demand. They are leave for a while in vault. Owners are taking in mind not to flow the market, because diamonds might lose their real market value. In the film “Blood Diamond” starring Djmon Hounsou plays an African peasant whose family has been taken by the rebels. He says that he understand why Americans are killing them. But he will never understand why his people are killing each others, because of the diamonds. The main character in the move, Leonardo DiCaprio, is a smuggler who says that in Africa because of ivory, oil, diamonds and gold “People have kill each other as a way of life, so you can just watch it and go about your day”. Other very scary things that the “Blood Diamond” move shows as how kidnapped children from the refuges are forced to become a “baby killers”. And then they are sending to kill people in their own villages. During these times locals die in a great depression and in a huge numbers. "In many diamond-rich countries, people are extremely poor and are not benefiting from the wealth in their soil …To date, there are a million diamond diggers working for less than a dollar a day in dirty, dangerous conditions around the globe," says Corinna Gilfillan of Global Witness - an NGO that works to expose the links between natural resources, conflict and corruption “Many of these communities have been displaced, while others remain at great cost to their traditional cultures, livelihoods and health. “ (Andrea Thompson, 2006)

A lot of ethical questions occurred while thinking about blood diamonds. “Utilitarianism maintains that everyone should perform that act or follow that moral rule which will bring the greatest good for everyone concern “(P. Thiroux) There is no doubt that in “blood” diamond industry there are a lot people concern, but only few of them benefits. These are the diamond houses, which earns huge amounts