Blood Diamonds
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“Blood Diamonds” by Greg Campbell
When one is on the outside looking in, there is only so much information that person can obtain. This would be a great enough reason for the author, Greg Campbell, of “Blood Diamonds” to expose what all eyes are not seeing and what many are blind to in this world. Campbell went out to research the tracks and origins of a very valuable stone known as the diamond. In doing so, he urges to research the origins and life of this precious rock. He goes about researching the just exactly how the life of the diamond begins in the jungles of Sierra Leone and ends up in the London on its market. The author, one can say, was asking for a finger and ended up with a whole hand. This hand, being the alarming realities of this trade. This is what could be said to be the ultimate reason for this book “Blood Diamond” . Evidently, Campbell wanted to expose or let it be known how African were being mistreated and exploited from greed for a precious rock, a precious rock that at first was not even appearing to the human eye .
Natives in the country of Sierra Leone, Africa were constantly around these diamonds and couldnt probably care less . They were as unappealing as the rocks on the side of the road. Europeans then made their way into this country and one five-letter word took over them completely. This five-letter word is GREED. They basically “lost it” and began what was soon to be this horrible mistreatment of Africans. The diamonds were discovered in the 1930″s and the African who dug and excavated to find these rocks were basically not being paid anything but needless to say merchants and even these heartless rebels were kicking back, relaxing as the money poured in for them left, and right. (xiv) The Europeans then figured out that this stone was the perfect way of currency. The diamond is extremely valuable and can be great in exchange for things such as ammunition so that more innocent lives can be taken away by rebels in Africa. (xxiii)
Campbell takes the initiative to guide interested readers through this twisted process that was taking place in Sierra Leone. He interviewed refugees in order to get an in debt look into this cruel epidemic of greed for diamonds. Campbell wanted to shed light on this dark topic and did whatever he could to do so . This causes one to feel that his work was of great effort causing this book to be one of significance when expressing the turmoil of Africans and their culture.
One might also find this book to be a way of inspiration that no matter what may be taking place, there can be an instant where the painful story thats taking place would be told and because of this story being told, changes will be made. For instance, Campbell speaks of Ismael Dalramy who lost his hands in 1996 by way of an ax.(xiii) Amputation was one of many brutal tactics, as well as torture, mass rapes and looting done by the Revolutionary United Front of the (RUF) . This is only just a little taste of what the African had to undergo because of the sick diamond trade. But, even so this helped bring light to what was wrong and helped more right to come out of it i.e. the book “Blood Diamond” by Campbell . He also sheds light on the stories of more innocent civilians, RUF soldiers and diamond traders. ” My mother was killed here said our guide” . This was a quote from Campbells guide to the mines, telling his story of how mother was one of countless victims of the RUF . They placed a rifle to her gut and she was literally blown. (Campbell 3). This book continued shedding light on the overworked but underpaid Africans in the mines. “The pit looked more like a slave colony”. “On all sides, rib-skinny men stripped to their shorts were covered in mud and slime, the inevitable results of their jobs digging for diamonds”. “Even though it was barely 10 a.m., they all looked exhausted” (Campbell 6). This is needless to say extremely sad Because there were Africans that were worked like crazy but barely getting paid, rest, or rewards . Instead there is nothing but turmoil agony and pain and this book captured this one hundred percent .
Campbells great compassion for what was going on in Africa also shed light to how this issue affected companies . One company that was affected by this issue was De Beers . This great diamond company decided to call it quits when realizing where these diamonds that has caused so much anguish, pain and torture comes from. Campbell goes through this process in his novel and lets it be known the causes and effects of them taking this action. DeBeers is known to be the biggest mining and marketing company in the world. They decided in the month of February in the year 200 to cut buying any diamonds sourced that is from an army controlled region . Campbell expresses how DeBeers have taken steps to ensure that their diamonds were conflict free with a great demand of action. Their first step resulted in a great great blow in their earnings which in example, was a lost of about 15 million a week, ouch! There was a promise of diamonds being sold were spotless or “squeaky clean” (Campbell 128). This would be such a beautiful thing in ones opinion because of the hurt these diamonds have caused many. That would be the reason why this company has grown and developed. One can bring up the quote “What goes around comes around” Meaning this company has been doing well because they have done well.
Greg Campbell has evidently had in his mind another quote which is “out of sight, out of mind”. One might feel this way because of how he went out his way, putting his own life at risk to expose this overlooked problem in mother