Sanay Bahl Mrs.Gray Language Arts 16 November 2017 Blood Diamonds Blood diamonds have caused many deaths. These precious gems are based in Africa, and people sneak their mining equipment on planes, and secretly go to mining spots. Even though there are laws in place, more should be done to stop this fatal expedition. This should happen because they are illegal, they are killed over, and the system is inhumane. These are all more reasons why more should be done to stop the flow of blood diamonds. Blood diamonds should be gotten rid of because they are illegal. This is true because people take mining equipment on board transportation, which is against the rules. Then, when the miners get to Africa, they enslave people to mine the diamonds, and if they don’t, then they will die. Once these gems get mined, the people in charge of the operation will sell them over the black market, which is also illegal. According to Gale, “So they knowingly became parties to the theft of diamonds belonging to the government and people of Sierra Leone.” For these …show more content…
People are killed over these because since they are very valuable, people that have them would not want to give them up. For this reason, people like Black Market dealers might kill people to gain possession over them. These diamonds are extremely precious. This is because if you have possession over them, it could either make your reputation, or it could ruin you because other people would want the gem. According to Stanford EDU, “Within the next fifteen years, African diamond mines produced more diamonds than the India, the previous leading producer, had in the last 2,000 years.” This is significant because miners broke a 2,000 year record in merely 15 years. If they were that determined, they surely wouldn’t want to give them up so easily, so they would kill anyone trying to stop them. Because of this, people have the urge to kill over blood
Summary of Source Information: This article talks about the health conditions of many miners and diamond diggers that are affected due to substandard working conditions in sub-Saharan Africa. In these areas, where there are many unregulated mining locations, workers are prone to being exploited to hazardous working conditions. Children are especially vulnerable in these environments because they already suffer from poor health conditions due to lack of care and nutrition. Children have often been exploited in the diamond industry due to their ability to get into small spaces and dig out packs of dirt. Another health effect associated with diamond mining, in which this article talks about, is how diamond deposits have often mixed with vegetated areas, leaving it unsuitable for farming activities. Mining equipment leaves heavy minerals and chemical products that run into the rivers and contaminate vital sources of water for the mining community and people who live in these rural areas. Currently, diamond companies, as well as labor and health activists, are trying to do something to help improve health conditions of workers.
Should diamonds be seen as such highly sought-after, luxury goods, and marketed and sold at such extravagant amounts? While some individuals might be of the impression that diamonds are lavishly priced, because of limited supply, it is of my opinion that a very shrewdly-created cartel disguises the very reason for these “rare” gems seemingly being worth your “pretty penny”.
...t that their sons were child soldiers holding guns and striking down innocent civilians. The horrors and violence that occurred during this ten-year period are unthinkable. Many families are still rebuilding more than ten years later. For a resource that was supposed to bring Sierra Leone out of poverty to leave it in even worse conditions is sad to think about. Though diamonds from conflict areas are banned, some still find their way into the markets. It is up to the buyers of these products to really trace the history of each and every diamond for a stop in this conflict to happen. Consumers can also help by asking for the history of their diamond before buying one. If the world can do this, profit made from diamonds will be going to the right people and the responsibility of violence in conflict areas will no longer be on the diamond industry or the world.
When reading the book “In Cold Blood” by Capote, Truman I came across many assertions one in particular discussing how the law is hypocritical. In the assertion it talks about killing and how it is a crime, but enforces it as punishment and justice. Thus showing how the law is contradicting itself. In my paper I hope to further explain and show how killing is in fact a crime, but can be used for justice.
Since the discovery of diamonds, the precious gem has always remained an item of luxury and great beauty and one that requires a great deal of financial sacrifice in order to acquire. Prices of diamonds have remained relatively stable over the last 100 years while prices of other commodities have fluctuated heavily (Hauser, 2002). Diamonds are a relatively rare commodity which gives them a high value and with the help of De Beer’s advertising campaign, spanning the last six decades, that high value appeal has been sustained. However, the high price of diamonds cannot be solely down to its rarity as the discovery of new deposits over the past decades has led to an increase in the number of diamonds available and thus since they aren’t as rare as they once were, the prices should’ve dropped. This essay argues that the price of diamonds is too high due to the fact that although the amount of diamonds available has increased over time, prices have remained relatively stable. The essay will show that there are powerful entities influencing the price of diamonds in such a way that the current and recent prices have been much greater compared to what they were and are meant to be. The essay will achieve its objectives through outlining the role of the diamond cartel in influencing the price of diamonds and it’ll seek to highlight the powerful entities controlling the cartel and explain how the cartel managed to set and maintain high prices.
Diamonds were not bought as a store of value, they could not be traded in the same w...
Some of the highest producing diamond mines are countries in Africa. Countries that had some of the highest rate of conflict were Angola, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The ...
It’s hard to imagine that a mineral could be fueling wars and funding corrupt governments. This mineral can be smuggled undetected across countries in a coat pocket, then be sold for vast amounts of money. This mineral is used in power tools, parts of x-ray machines, and microchips but mostly jewelry. Once considered the ultimate symbol of love, the diamond has a darker story. "Blood" diamonds or "conflict" diamonds are those mined, polished, or traded in areas of the world where the rule of law does not exist. They often originate in war-torn countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, and Côte d'Ivoire were rebels use these gems to fund genocide or other questionable objectives. Even with a system known as the Kimberly process which tracks diamonds to prevent trade of these illicit gems, infractions continue as the process is seriously flawed. The continuation of the blood diamond trade is inhuman, and unethical, and in order to cease this illicit trade further action to redefine a conflict diamond, as well as reform to the diamond certification prosess is nessasary.
The slaves have to use old back breaking methods to get the diamonds they don't have technology helping them or anything besides their hands and pick axes when actually in mines. When the slaves are panning for diamonds if they try to take any of them they will be killed by the commanding person who witnesses it.
Deep within African mines, elusive diamonds lay enveloped in the Earth’s crust. Possessing much influence, beauty, and tension, nature’s hardest known substance causes parallel occurrences of unity and destruction on opposite sides of the globe. Diamonds, derived from the Greek word "adamas", meaning invincible, are formed deep within the mantle, and are composed entirely from carbon. Moreover, only under tremendous amounts of heat and pressure can diamonds form into their preliminary crystal state. In fact, diamonds are formed approximately 150km- 200km below the surface and at radical temperatures ranging from 900-1300 C°. When these extremes meet, carbon atoms are forced together creating diamond crystals. Yet how do these gems, ranking a ten on Moh’s hardness scale, impact the individual lives of millions of people besides coaxing a squeal out of brides-to-be? These colorless, yellow, brown, green, blue, reddish, pink, grey and black minerals are gorgeous in their cut state, but how are these otherwise dull gems recognized and harvested? Furthermore, how and why is bloodshed and violence caused over diamonds in Africa, the supplier of approximately 65% of the world’s diamonds? (Bertoni) The environmental, social, and economic impact of harvesting, transporting, and processing diamonds is crucial because contrary to popular belief, much blood has been spilled over first-world “bling”.
The movie "Blood Diamond" was released in 2006 and featured Leonardo Di Caprio as an arms smuggler whose main goal is to obtain a seemingly priceless diamond from a villager during the civil war in Sierra Leone. The film marker is trying to raise awareness of the illicit conflict diamond trade and reinforcing the Kimberley process and showing how it will stem the flow of conflict diamonds. Blood Diamonds explores the underground world of the diamond trade in Sierra Leone, where rare diamonds are used to fund military rebels at war. The film is based on Archer, a man with a survival instinct and a passion for collecting conflict diamonds. The film opens in Sierra Leone, 1999 when Civil war rages for control of the diamond fields. According to
In “ “Blood Diamonds” and Africa’s Armed Conflicts in the Post – Cold War Era, “ Orogun (2004) said that diamonds are referring as “clean stones”. This article explains about the black market is really happening in African. I am using this article to support how the black market of diamond trades is still not regulated, and they defined it as “licit” trade.
[5] Diamond Industry Annual Review, De Beers Signs New Angolan Agreement, [internet] Accessed on: 13th November 2005, http://www.pacweb.org/e/images/stories/documents/addendum%20angola%202005-english.pdf
Diamonds were created million years ago, when the earth was formed, the material experienced pressure of 5million times the atmosphere at sea level and temperatures between 1000~1200degreesC. These conditions caused carbon in the layers inside the planet to crystallize into diamonds. The diamonds moved up to the earth’s surface through volcano eruptions. This is why many Diamond mines are near volcanoes. Diamonds occur in two types of rock: Kimberlite and Lamprolite. Diamonds are mostly found in South Africa, India, Brazil, Russia, Australia, and Arkansas. Right now about 100million carats are mined each year. Today the largest cut Diamond in the world is the Cullian I at 530.2ct .
The value of diamonds lies on their physical properties that make them suitable for many applications. Natural diamonds are only of high value if they are scarce in nature. Realizing this, De Beers Consolidated Mines was formed to control the supply of diamonds from mines across the world. The diamond market is influenced by mine production, rough diamond distribution, preparation/cutting, and retail markets. The project will be concentrating on the retail markets for diamonds and other high end jewelry.