Saw Blood Diamond yesterday and I would personally recommend it being one of the best movies of the year till now.
I'm glad some of the more recent movies coming out of Hollywood put a face to the crisis faced by some of the more unfortunate sections of the world. Blood diamond, shows a lot of truth wrapped up in an immensely intense and fast paced film. The film is losely based on De Beers which controls the supply and demand of diamonds in the market thus artificially maintaining the high prices and allure of diamonds. I wouldn't go so far as accussing De Beers of knowingly participating in the trade of Conflict or blood diamonds without proof (to my knowledge), but it does raise the question of how the west with its insatiable demand for precious stones is costing the lives of so many.
Blood diamonds are diamonds mined from conflict zones in Africa whose trade fuels the raging civil war through a lot of these nations. In recent times, across Iraq through Africa, I have come across arguments about why the west should be concerned about barbarians hell bent on killing each other. Unfortunately through the history of recent civilizations, it has been the western countries and companies which prop up friendly dictators, pump in huge amount of money to fuel insurgents against unfriendly governments, actively engage in trade of blood diamonds and other natural resources for profit. Its a fact that almost all weapons used in conflicts and war come from the western hemisphere. So who really are the barbarians?
