Hollywood has been very interested in Africa lately. One movie that really stands out in my opinion is Blood Diamond. It doesn’t hurt either that the film has brought tons of attention to the issue of conflict diamonds.
The story takes place during the civil war in the mid 90s in Sierra Leone. The war has ended, but the problems of diamond miners haven’t. Lydia Polgreen shows us today in the New York Times that it’s not only war that makes diamonds dirty. Striking quote from a Sierra Leonean diamond dealer:
“If you are working for an exporter, he will dictate the price,” he said. “To me that is indirect slavery.”
But he has no qualms about demanding precisely that arrangement from those below him on the diamond food chain. The mine owners and workers he bankrolls must sell only to him.
“For the miners, it is different,” he argued. A digger, “he depends on you. He doesn’t know the value so you as the dealer have to tell him.”
See the whole story here.
