Political Film: Blood Diamond

“Blood Diamond” was the title of the political film mentioned about the trade of conflict diamonds, the human’s abuses, and the corrupt government in South Africa. The title refers to blood diamonds that mined in war zones and sold to finance conflicts. It also portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to discourage them from voting in upcoming elections. The movie's background sets in the time during the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1991–2002 that shows the struggle between government loyalists and insurgent forces. In the movie, there are two African men having troubled in the past, but united by a single mission of adventure and danger to get the blood diamond. These diamonds were primarily

Liberia was the government in South Africa that was engaged in the Civil War. In the movie, the government of Liberia was exchanging weapons with Sierra Leone for the blood diamonds that was illegal for the government to do so. In addition, the people in South Africa did not have the right to vote in upcoming election. The citizens in that time were strongly threatened if they thinking of voting in the election, for example, Captain Poison is also a wild man who cuts off youth's hand by saying, “We take your hands. No more hands, no more voting.” This dialogue shows how black young children were oppressed by the captains. It seemed like everyone wanted profit and tried all means to get. Through the movie, I had a chance to perceive what soldiers or fighters think about during that time of war. Moreover, the movie shows that war is not only brings political and economic disruption, but also the civil rights of humanity has ended up in that time due to the poor organization of the

In the movie, it shows how the war affects a child’s thoughts and in turn the future of nation. For example, many children were kidnapped by the rebels of R.U.F and thrown to work into the dungeons. The adult soldiers manipulated these young minds and tortured them by giving drugs. They used all evil means to turn them into rebellious soldiers. All above actions from those officers shows the cannibalistic and barbaric attitudes to the children. As mentioned earlier, those people lost their human’s attitudes, and besides succeeded in developing a fear among these kids to scare them to death. It made me think about the child labor laws today. There are certain places in the world where children still work in order to survive. For example, in my country Vietnam, many children do not know who are their parents and they are harassed to work to gain money for the child abuse. Even the government issues many laws to protect the children; however, no one can stay up to protect the right of those poor children. In addition, the movie also mentioned about a person named Solomon. The movie opens with Mende fisherman Solomon taking his son to school. After the opening credits, we see Solomon and his son returning to their village, which is then raided by machine gun-toting rebels. Many are murdered and Solomon is captured, but his family manage to escape into the wilderness. After that, Solomon is sent to toil as a slave