Blood Diamonds

Growing up I never really thought about the diamonds, not in romantic context, not in any context. I have never imagined receiving a diamond, but I must admit I have imagined giving a diamond, at some point I almost bought one even. After reading all the material on the conflict diamonds, I will think twice before buying one. The popular texts like “Blood Diamond” and “A Long Way Gone” were good enough to convince me not to contribute to the “blood diamond” business; however my point of view was neutral to start with. I would imagine it would be much harder to convince someone who is “addicted” to diamonds and will try to get as many as they can and as cheap as they can. I think practice of counter-story telling like the remake of “Diamonds Forever” from James Bond movie into “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” by Kanye West is somewhat effective. It will not affect people who are “a long way gone”, I do not think. In the modern world however I do not think it is possible to avoid diamonds completely. If I were to give or own a diamond though I would definitely want to know if it was a conflict diamond or not.

Child Soldiers

After watching the movie "Blood Diamond" and reading "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah I have formed some rather strong feelings to the people who use children as soldiers. In particular feelings of hate and disgust to any man or woman on this planet who would dare to do such a terrible thing to a child. Turning a child into a soldier, especially in such a barbarian way, ruins his/her mind and future. The consequences go even further. This terrible wrong doing would eventually hurt the country. Most of those children will be mentally handicapped for the rest of their lives and will never be able to live in a civilized society again, thus eliminating any possibility for a good demographic situation in the country after the war. I think that a person, as an individual is mature enough to make a decision to fight in a war when he/she is at least seventeen years of age. Anybody younger than seventeen simply cannot make a rational decision based on the current situation in my opinion. Also, I believe that forcing people to fight in a war is wrong. It should be a choice an individual makes. A logical decision to protect his/her home and country, if it is worth protecting.