What are blood diamonds?
They are by far the most-valued piece of jewelry today. Many admire and covet diamonds throughout their entire lifetime. It is a symbol of value and love. If you are planning on getting married, a diamond-ring is essential. Diamonds can be mined all around the world. Finding diamonds takes hours of tireless work under very harsh conditions. When we buy diamonds for a loved one or for ourselves, we seem to not even care where they have come from, as long it is not fake. For many years, blood diamonds continuously find a way to entire the market, due to the greed of many.
Blood diamonds, aka conflict diamonds, are diamonds that are mined in a war zone and sold to support a war or fight. This usually occurs in Africa, where countries support their wars through the sale of diamonds mined. The 2006 film, Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is a depiction of these situations in Africa. There has been tremendous progress over the years in trying to limit the sale of conflict diamonds, but we are still finding out that all these efforts aren’t 100% effective.
Liberia was engaged in a civil war between 1988-2003. The United Nations accused Liberian president Charles G. Taylor in 2000, of supporting the RUF insurgency in Sierra Leone with weapons and training in exchange for diamonds. Other countries like Côte d’Ivoire, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Republic of Congo, and Zimbabwe are other countries that have been accused of dealing with blood diamonds.
Many nations, including the United States, have come together and have all strategically planned and agreed to help eliminate the flow of blood diamonds. Much blood has been shed because of these breath-taking pieces of jewelry. Maybe, one day we can all realize that a human life is more valuable.
