Blood Diamonds Are Forever

An incredible movie came out this weekend called "Blood Diamonds" with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Dijmon Hounsou. The film calls to attention the terrible atrocities committed in Africa over conflict diamonds and the world that consumes them. Most people who buy diamond jewelry have no idea where those precious stones come from, especially the ten to fifteen percent that are 'blood diamonds'.

Although I already knew most of what the movie brought up in regards to the Sierra Leone conflict and how the world ignores the situation, the graphic portrayal is hard not to shake it's viewers to the core.

DiCaprio himself was astonished by the realities behind the film. A recent Chicago Sun-Times article interviewed the star and asked about the impact filming the movie had on him:

He just can't help it. After five months spent in Africa shooting "Blood Diamond," superstar Leonardo DiCaprio can't forget the images of the people he saw.

"These are people who suffer and you're not human if it doesn't move you," DiCaprio says. "Then you come back to your own home in the United States with many things on your mind. Most of all you realize that we live a very nice life here."

Q. Did you know about the diamond trade in Africa before you did "Blood Diamonds"?

A. "I was like anyone else. I had heard whispers of it, but until I got there and until I read the script and started to do the research, I didn't really quite understand the immense impact these diamonds had had on certainly Sierra Leone and other places in Africa. I certainly had heard the Kanye West song, for example. I had heard bits of all of this in conversation, but it really wasn't until I got to Africa and heard the firsthand accounts and started to read the books and learned about it all that I really realized what was going on, what had happened."

I heard a few people in the theater say that they were going to do more research as it seems to be new information for many Americans that are saturated with 'Diamonds are Forever' messages. Unfortunately for me I left with a sad, cynical feeling. Plenty of people already know that thousands of Africans die needlessly everyday across the continent. The problem is people in the 'western world' are desensitized to the tragedies. Unless people are compelled to try and make a difference today, the reality of conflict diamonds will just be heaped on to the image that Africa is a mess and then slowly forgotten. I seriously doubt many women who have been taught from childhood to desire a two or three carat stone will go without it when their to be husband pops the big question. Of course there are exceptions to that rule and some that already dismiss the need for the sparkly stones. Yet the jewelry business has nothing to fear from people who see the movie.

I hate to leave the post on a somber note, so get informed and most importantly as a consumer you have the power not to buy the stones. Diamonds are forever only because De Beers and other diamond companies try to make you believe that.