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Poverty in africa
Essay on poverty in Africa
Essay on poverty in Africa
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Were all aware of the poverty that the continent of Africa faces, and that the people of the countries that make up the continent rely on gold and diamonds to keep them alive?
Are we also aware that we funded genocide every time we bought Diamonds?
Before I stated that Africa relies on gold and diamonds, but a serious matter needs to be brought up for the people who are not dying for these diamonds we buy.
We call this the “Blood diamond” Issue because in countries like Angola, Sierra Lenone and ,Liberia a civil war was acted out and was being funded by diamonds people in outside countries were buying, being sold for 3.72 billon dollars at a time for a substantial amount of the clear colored rocks. People were urged to stop gluttonously spending money on diamonds and various protesters held signs saying things like “Boycott all diamonds”, “Diamonds are forever; on your conscious” and “ Think about the life that ended just for a tiny stone.” Diamonds are supossed to be symbols of love, joy and new beggings but for the children having their hands cut off to find your ring or necklaces...
To conclude, the video “Caravans of Gold” by Basil Davidson, the aim of the video was to give the viewers a better understanding of how Africa and its empires used their supply of gold as an advantage to their success. It embodied critical points to vindicate why Africa was such an intricate nation because how they use gold and the various empires that used gold to their benefit. By discovering the complexity of Africa, people are able to have a better clarification of this continent and how it flourished because of its
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 conflict between the government and rebel leaders. Due to this conflict the entire country was thrown on a downward spiral. This downward spiral eventually resulted in the people longing for the conflict to stop and for the country to come together as one again. The people of Sierra Leone want to forget about the events that transpired during their civil war, however the more we look and attempt to learn from what happened, the better we set ourselves up for the future. West's video only depicts one side of a multifaceted struggle of the diamonds in Sierra Leone, however from this one side the public is encouraged to research more into the conflict themselves and uncover the truth behind the diamonds that we so desperately love.
Priscilla. “The World Economy and Africa.” JSpivey – Home – Wikispaces. 2010. 29 January 2010. .
Women buying diamonds for themselves, for the joy of wearing them invested in jewelry in case of emergency.
A beautiful precious diamond can last forever, but what most people do not know is that a majority of our diamonds come from Africa. The civil wars in Africa over diamonds began around 1961 and ended in 2003. Conflict diamonds were rampant and it would be difficult to say if any jewelry sold prior to 2003 was conflict free. Conflict diamonds are diamonds that have been mined and were controlled by African rebels. The rebels would use the profits from selling conflict diamonds to fund illegal activity and to purchase more weapons for their armies. While rebels had control of the diamond mines they killed approximately 4 million people and countless families were displaced.
It is thought-provoking, in the sense that Africa’s need for foreign created a race to the bottom, much like what Pietra Rivoli described in The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy. Due to some African states’ reliance on foreign aid in order to mine and profit on their resources, they allow business standards to be lowered and for Chinese firms to tip the contracts moresoever in the favor of Chinese firms. This lowers the potential earnings of African states by lowering royalty rates, for example. Additionally, Burgis’ research was thorough and transparent. When he did not receive a response or if his questions were dodged, he made it obvious to the readers. Sure, some could view this book as too anecdotal to be used as a credible source of Africa’s situation. However, this is due to the nature of the system Burgis is writing about; after all, they are shadow states for a reason. Some readers will be saddened by this text, others angry, most curious to learn more, but above all, everyone will be intellectually stimulated and
Firstly, when the Europeans arrived in Africa mainly the Portuguese, they had a good motive of trade. At that time Africans were the main producers of gold and when the Portuguese arrived they had to establish trading relationships. That trade was of a great significance to the African community because they were able to profit from it by exchanging their gold, ivory and other minerals with the European goods, such as copper, brass, cowrie shells and cloths (Shillington, 1995, p. 169). But still Africa lost its vast minerals and raw materials at that time.
The movie shows different villages in different scenarios, with rich natural colors like brown, green, red etc. The cities are portrayed as hectic and intimidating, dirty and poor. After watching the movie “Blood Diamond” Directed by Edward Zwick I realized that the main issue or problem in the movie was the blood diamonds. There are much more issues and problems in the movie but I believe this is the most important because the whole movie revolves around the blood diamonds. Blood diamonds were used in this movie and were the main focus of the movie. The reason for blood diamonds being the main economic issue or problem is because of the blood diamonds people were forced to work as slaves to find diamonds in the water so they can be used to buy guns. Blood diamonds were the cause of all of these terrible acts, people dying to search for these diamonds so they can be sold. Also the other issues of blood diamonds were that a big company was buying a lot of these conflict diamonds from Africa for really cheap, the company was Van Da Kaap. It would buy an abundance of these diamonds and store them so the diamonds they acquire seem rare and so they can stay at a high price. The economic issue with this was that the company Van Da Kaap would not tell anyone of these abundance of diamonds because than if they did tell anyone, the prices of the diamonds would fall and this is called supply and
Fought over for centuries and claimed by many, the owner of this diamond only yields it to another at the cost of an empire. Believed to have originated from the depths of an ancient Indian mine, the Kohinoor Diamond is a missing link to an illustrious past of a fledgling modern nation. Since its independence, Indians, both in the Republic of India and those who reside throughout the Commonwealth, have demanded the return of the sacred jewel. A demand the British government has continually refused. For the British, the diamond is also a reminder of their renowned past when the sun never set upon their domain. Forever covered in the blood of its past owners, men and nations will continually fight one another, rather with words or war, just for the opportunity to hold the cursed gemstone.
Santarossa, B. (2004, January 13). Diamonds: Adding lustre to the Canadian economy. Retrieved November 06, 2017, from https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-621-m/11-621-m2004008-eng.htm
The unbalanced relationship between Africa’s resources and European and American financial interest can first be analyzed from 1600 to 1860 leading up to the emancipation proclamation. This era was characterized by Africans giving up their human capital, or human resources in the form of slaves to European’s to trade over to the Americas to support the plantation economy. This was the largest loss of humans for Africa as they sent millions through the slave trade. Many Europeans, such as the Dutch West Indian Company and the Royal African Company, made an enormous amount of money running the slave trade while African’s got little to nothing in return. American’s profited by having free labor for a one time fixed payment to acquire the slaves. This fueled the plantation economy in which Americans deepened their pockets leading up to the civil war. Overall, this relationship heavily favored the westerners and caused Africa to lose a great deal of human resources.
...l the flow of conflict diamonds. Both assure consumers that more than 99% of rough stones today come from conflict-free sources which are regulated by the Kimberley process. According to the people who profited from diamonds, the blood diamonds problem is passé5. Further research tells us that it is not. According to Father Rocco Puopolo of the Africa Faith and Justice Network, he says “It’s not passé,” “the diamond industry can claim what they want and the film will always serve as a template for what is going on in Africa today.” This point out that labour exploitation and conflict (for control of precious resources such as gold) may still be going on in Africa.
Many unsolved problems in many African countries, but the issue of the rise of corruption are disturbing, and the amends it has done to the polity are vast. The fear of fraud leads to restrict movement of documents in offices, slow traffic on the highways, port congestion, ghost workers syndrome, queues at passport offices, police extortion tollgates and gas stations, vote irregularities among others. Even the nutty people on the road remember the devastation caused by bribery - the funds allocated for their success disappear into some people pockets. Thus, some people believe corruption is the bane of many African countries. Corruption is the main obstacle to slow down, and knock African economy growing. The problem keeps happening in Africa, and the issue will hardly be solved.
Throughout the centuries Africa has been a continent of agricultural achievement and plenty. Agrarian practices and technologies developed in Africa were emulated by the world’s great civilizations and radiated to every corner of the world. It’s speculated by many naturalist (most notably Charles R. Darwin) that modern agriculture originated in Africa. Ancient cave paintings discovered by archeologist in Africa are certainly some of the earliest evidences of plant and animal domestication. Arabic and European historical accounts agree that African diets were varied and abundant from the beginning of recorded history up until the middle ages. The African continent is rich with natural and intellectual resources. Northern Africa has rich oil deposits that, once discovered, have made billions of dollars. Sub-Sahara Africa is rich with deposits of precious minerals such as gold and diamonds. Throughout much of history Africa has been thought of as a rich land. But the Africa we know today as being plagued by famine, poverty and war came about at a much later date. These tragic circumstances could have been partly caused by the massive economic dislocation caused by the slave trade and colonization of the 19th and 20th century (Hopkins 13). Colonial powers representing outside interest setup “extractive institutions” across Africa. These “Extractive Institutions” refer to those entities that exist for the sole purpose of pull resources out of a country. Now that many of the colonialist powers have left, these “European-style institutions” still exist well into the turn of the century.
...t cooked up a scarcity in the mineral richness of Africa. This was a disadvantage for the countries of Africa of its raw materials. There was no chance for Africa to develop and be in competition with the world since they were in rivalry with Europe.