Abdull kassim

12/19/13

1A

Blood diamond by Edward Zwick

Blood diamond is a film that stars Leonardo dicaprio as Danny archer a diamond smuggler, and Djimon Hounsou as Solomon Vondy a village fisher man who has lost everything in the war for diamonds in the South African. The film takes place during the African civil war in Sierra Leone between 1992 and 2002, this was a war that created over 2 million refugees and completely destroyed much of the country's infrastructure. The film is very vague with the date so all we can do is estimate.The film is basically about how diamonds are found and smuggled from south africa. Diamonds were very crucial for he RUF,they traded them for weapons to fight against the government. The majority of the mined diamonds were smuggled out of the country through Liberia, where warlord and later president of South Africa, Charles Taylor, supported the rebels. He gave the rebels weopons in exchange for the diamonds.These diamonds also known as blood diamonds, or conflict diamonds, were diamonds mined in war zones and used to fund the rebels war against the governments, eventually found their way into the rest f the world. For the most part the RUF started out fighting for the poor in south africa and later lost its main purpose for fighting, and making itself known as the most ruthless militia in Sierra Leone.Through diplomacy, UN peacekeeping forces, and finally British reinforcements, the international community played an important role in ending the cruel and bloody civil war in Sierra Leone.This film takes the perspective of one of the situations that occur during this.

An African native, Solomon Vandy , who gets captured by the RUF and forced to pan for diamonds after his village is attacked. His wife escapes but his son is captured and made into a child soldier. Solomon Vandy finds a large pink diamond while working in the mines. He hides it in his toe and buries it. The mine is then attacked by government troops and Solomon is taken into custody but leaves the diamond buried at the mine camp. While in prison, he meets up with diamond trader and smuggler Danny Archer , who sees the diamond as his way out of Africa. Together, Danny and Solomon attempt to dig up the diamond and sell it, but Danny doesn't count on the fact that Solomon is more concerned about the fate of his family than he is about the diamond.

This movie didn't help change anything in South Africa, but instead emphasized the cruelty and destruction the south african civil war caused on its people and country itself and brought the issue of blood diamonds to a much wider audience across the world. Its kinda really sad how almost a whole country can be homeless. Most people never think about where the diamond ring or necklace there wearing came from and how big of a deal it is that its there.

I think that events like this help people like me prove the point that money can put light on peoples primitive instincts. One of man's primitive instincts is to thrive for value and power. These primitive instincts are what make people kill and destroy the lives of other. During these events we see people continue to replace the values of human life with power and wealth.In these events man fought and killed each other, practically destroying a country over stones that would guarantee them power.







Blood diamond by Edward Zwick
All images are screenshots from the actual movie*