If you have not seen the movie BLOOD DIAMOND, you MUST. This move gave me a new perspective on my life, my world and my jewelry. This is one of those movies that are so important for everyone to see. After watching this movie I was able to see the value of mass media again. People in North America need to be made aware of what is happening on a global scale and portraying it in a 2 hour movie seems to reach more of the population than a few minutes of news coverage.
They said it in the movie, “we see it between the sports and weather broadcast” but not enough to do something about it. Now I am not saying that if everyone in North America saw this movie we would band together and stop the atrocities on the continent of Africa, but public awareness is the first step towards a better future.
I think mass media in the form of “Hollywood movies” and some documentaries are more effectively generating awareness than TV news broadcasts or a tiny column in a newspaper.
I know I would think twice about that sparkling rock on my finger after seeing this movie and I hope it does the same for you.
BUT IT MUST BE SAID, my initial thought after the lights came on was, “there are people living in the most unimaginable situations and here we are with our bags of popcorn and jumbo soft drinks watching a movie about it…”
I totally agree with you… and I actually wrote a blog about this as well. After watching this movie I felt so guilty that we actually buy these diamonds that people die over in Africa. In a way we are actually supporting it because if we didn’t buy the diamonds there would be no demand for them. They can tell you at a store that they are not “rough diamonds” or whatever they call them but how do you really know if it is the truth?
That is the problem, nobody knows and quite frankly, not enough people care. This movie was so enlightening and really changed how I feel about those sparkling rocks on people’s fingers. Whatever the commodity is, if its in Africa, some other country finds a way to take it.
The easiest way to take Africa’s resources is to create conflict and use money to get the supply. It is the absolute exploitation of people and resources to serve the needs of the “developed” nations.
I too saw this movie and had the same thoughts you expressed here. Now that I have been better informed, I will make sure that I never wear a diamond that I dont know where it came from. Also, I wish there was something we could do about those families and expecially the children in these situations. Now that we know about it, is anyone really going to do anything about it? Perhaps people will check to see where there diamonds are coming from (as I expressed I would) but beyond that, probably nothing.
Yup that is probably it. Our society is so self-obsessed that all we can do is check where our outrageously priced, unnecessary diamonds come from. It is absolutely ridiculous… I wonder how long it will take for us to actually do something.