Over the past year our country has experienced tough economic situations, however, many other countries around the world have been experiencing the same. This is especially evident through the turmoil that has arisen in Zimbabwe and most of southern Africa. Heavily controlled by military personnel and dictator-like political officials of the ZANU-PF party, diamond mining has recently been a solution to all the economic problems they face (Jacobson np). However, the natural human need and the hunger to always want more has proved to cause an immense amount of distress among civilians, as soldiers beat and force them to dig for diamonds as a source of financial income for their war-driven countries.
However, the economic struggle has really hit Zimbabwe hard. At the start of the recession mining and quarrying fell about 1.7% ("South" np). It has been predicted that once the global economy becomes stronger again, Zimbabwe and must of southern Africa will be the first to thrive ("South" np). The diamonds are estimated to be worth $200 million a month (Jacobson np). Also during this time, diamond production also fell which opened the doors for blood diamonds and many human rights abuses along with it. Most of them which continue to be a disturbing factor of Zimbabwe’s society.
The Human Rights Watch has reported that nearly two hundred civilians of southern Africa, many woman and children, have been tortured and forced to work in the diamond fields (Harvey np). A women victim claimed “Each day we worked for eleven hours without a break. The children worked the same hours” (Kasambala np) On September 17, a soldier killed a nineteen year old boy who refused to hand over a raw diamond ("Suspend” np). However, even worse, s...
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