blood diamond

"In America, it's bling-bling, but out here, it's bling-bang, huh?"

A great film with a big message.  And not preachy at all.

It was heartwrenching when Archer, injured, took out the diamond from his pocket and looked at it before giving it back to Solomon.  It was just a stone.  It was so small.  He laughs as he realizes what it had cost him.  I felt sorry that he had to give up when he was so close - he had gone through so much; the wear was evident in his lines - but at the same time, I thought it was kind of absurd that a mere stone could even be a ticket out of Africa.  It was absurd how obssessed people were.  But who exactly is obssessed?  For them, it was just the money (or weapons) the stone brought to them.  Who pays so much for the "bling bling"?

Of course not all diamonds are blood-drenched; they say conflict stones account for only 15% of the market, but how do we know the diamonds we buy are conflict-free? Maybe there is a way to know for sure.

Relating to exploitation, a friend at school was wondering why black people had historically been exploited by white people and not the other way around.  Genetically speaking, black people are apparently better than white people.  The answer I came up with was that maybe white people worked harder, or more precisely, was forced to do so.  The Africans just laid back in the sun and grabbed a fruit that was just there waiting to be eaten while the Europeans thought of ways not to starve during winter.  They went out on expeditions to find better land.  "Then why do you think the Indians are smart?  What was their motivation?"

I'm going to have to look this up!