The History Channel: Blood Diamonds
Documentary, 2007
Diamonds are symbols of wealth, elegance, and love around the world. But in several African nations, they have been a means to power, a reason to terrorize millions of innocent civilians, and may have even helped finance some of the world's most brutal terrorists. The human cost of the illicit global diamond trade is examined in this provocative documentary, Blood Diamonds.
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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah February 2007
By now, nearly every habitual news watcher knows that child soldiers are used as human pawns in dozens of conflicts around the world. The figures are staggering: As many as 300,000 children are currently fighting in wars. Behind these distressing figures, of course, are real-life children, some as young as 8 years old. Journalistic reconstructions can take us only so far into the lives of these boys; we had to wait for this firsthand account by Sierra Leone-native Ishmael Beah to truly understand this ghastly, life-shattering practice. Beah was only 13 when he was handed an AK-47 and sent off to the killing fields. This is a bracing memoir about a survivor in a world gone mad.
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Blood Diamond
Director: Edward Zwick Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou, Jimi Mistry December 2006
An ex-mercenary turned smuggler (Leonard DiCaprio). A Mende fisherman (Djimon Hounsou). Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed across the alternately beautiful and ravaged countryside. Directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai), this urgent, intensely moving adventure shapes gripping human stories and heart-pounding action into a modern epic of profound impact.
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The Heartless Stone: A Journey through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire
by Tom Zoellner May 2006
In 2000, Tom Zoellner purchased a diamond engagement ring and proposed. His girlfriend said, "Yes" and then, suddenly, walked out of his life, making Tom the owner of a used engagement ring. Instead of hitting the self-help shelves of his local bookstore, he hit the road travelling to diamond mines in Africa, Canada, India, Brazil, and Russia to discover the true worth of this shining gem. He travelled to Japan to understand how diamonds were linked with engagements and delved into the history of our own American romance with the diamond ring. He gained entry to De Beers, the London diamond merchants. He visited shopping mall jewellers with starry-eyed couples. Through all of his travels, he searched for an answer to the question: "How has one stone created empires, ruined lives, inspired lust, and emptied wallets throughout history?" A diamond version of Susan Orleans's The Orchid Thief, Tom Zoellner's The Heartless Stone is a journey to the cold heart of the world's most unyielding gem.
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National Geographic: Diamonds of War - Africa's Blood Diamonds
Host: Dominic Cunningham-Reid 2003
They are symbols of affection widely thought to be as pure as love itself�and the vast majority are legal stones that are mined, exported, and sold in the clear light of day. But for years, some diamonds have been sold illegally�with devastating results linking to war, blood, and brutality. In the diamond�rich West African nation of Sierra Leone, rebels have used the precious gems to bankroll a violent 10 year insurrection, leaving a terrorized population and a ravaged landscape in its wake. Join National Geographic from Europe to Africa to uncover the truth about the dark side of the diamond trade.
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Blood Diamonds: Tracing The Deadly Path Of The World's Most Precious Stones
by Greg Campbell September 2002
Including graphic descriptions of brutal violence, journalist Greg Campbell traces the global trail of diamond smuggling from Sierra Leone. He explains how diamond smuggling works and how diamond industry policies instituted by the De Beers cartel in the 1880s have contributed to a savage rebel war that has effectively destroyed Sierra Leone and its people. Campbell also examines blood diamond buyers and sellers which may include known terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda.
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Diamond: The History of a Cold-Blooded Love Affair
by Matthew Hart August 2002
Hart tells the story of the diamond industry like a good whodunit. The intention is both to inform and to entertain, and the commodity ensures a history rife with drama. Readers learn all aspects of the trade, the geology of the stones, the mining systems employed, the history of De Beers, and the new competition De Beers faces from the diamond pipes of the Northwest Territories and the Arctic.
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Cry Freetown
Original Documentary Footage: Sorious Samura Director: Ron McCullagh February 2000
Sorious Samura's Cry Freetown has become a phenomenon. A brutal portrayal of what happened in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone in January 1999, the film has succeeded in making the horror of this country's civil war a matter of international outrage. Sorious Samura shot the film at great risk for his own life, keenly aware of the fact that the strong images he recorded were the only thing that could shake the world from its indifference to the plight of his countrymen, women, and children.
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