Blood Diamonds

The documentary follows the bloody past of the blood diamond, otherwise known as the traffic and conflict diamonds. These diamonds are nicknamed blood diamonds due to the amount of people murdered and innocent blood shed over groups wanting to get their hands on these rocks. The documentary shows us just how horrifying these beautiful gems, the symbols of wealth and love, are obtained. Many people, of any age, out in the hot sun, forced to work and dig just to find a few diamonds buried deep in the earth. Men, women, and even children were all forced at gunpoint by rebels to dig; dig until they found a sufficient amount of the stones these evil groups so desperately sought. The innocent people forced to dig even had to destroy the floors to their homes in search of diamonds as the rebels left no stone unturned.

According to the documentary, diamonds were not only used as funding for wars and terrorist groups, but they were also used to buy weapons and basically fueled wars and fights with in many African countries. Just one single scoop or handful of these sparkling beauties could fund an entire terrorist organization with their extremely high value. As the movie states: these groups knew that whoever controlled the diamonds could control the war. But the problem with diamonds doesn’t only reside in Africa, however. We are told about how these stones are used in evading taxes and laundering money all over the world. Because of the diamonds small size, they are extremely easy to smuggle into any country world-wide, which is a crime taken part in daily just so the smugglers carrying the valuable cargo can make a hefty amount of