Blood Diamonds
There was a lot of government corruption and a crumbling economy in Sierra Leone. A lot of blood was shed and lives were lost. The government was mining all the diamonds and sending them to Liberia, the people of Sierra Leone were left in a state of despair. These diamonds were a natural resource of Africa and the government was stealing them. The environmental issues were violence, poverty, no human rights, no economic opportunities and desperation. These men were desperate so they formed the RUF (Revolution United Front) to overthrow the government and bring peace by any means necessary. In order for RUF to take over they needed to gain control of the people of Sierra Leone because the people did not support their cause. Somewhere along the way they turned to violence. Instead of going about it peaceful they decided to kill the people of Sierra Leone and the government militia to take over the diamond mining camps. The RUF burned people’s homes, rape the women, and took their sons to help fight their war and made the fathers work in the diamond mines. The RUF needed the diamonds to finance their war. They used the diamonds to buy guns and supplies from Colonel Coetzee. Freedom was in the hands of the people by voting; so they cut their limbs off to take away their freedom. From the time these men were young, they watched the government take their resources from them and kill anyone who tried to keep any of the diamonds. Through the years they developed a mindset that violence was the only way to gain control and get people to do what you wanted them to do. Their ethical development was shaped by violence and the actions of the government and the militia. The government exploited them; so they believed that is how you get people to conform to your way of thinking. The RUF wanted them to believe they were saving them from a master/slave relationship with the government; but in reality they were still in a master/ slave relationship with the RUF.
Danny Archer was raised and grew up in Africa; he joined the militia at the age of 19 and fought against the RUF. At some point he became a Zimbabwean gunrunner and smuggler, he was taking diamonds from the RUF and selling them for money to his contacts in Liberia, the Van De Kaaps and getting the RUF weapons from Colonel Coetzee. When he heard the captains talk of the large pink diamond that was found; he arranged for Solomon to be released from jail so he could befriend Salomon. He wanted the pink diamond Solomon had found and buried to leave Sierra Leone and pay back Colonel Coetzee the money he owed him for the diamonds he lost; he did not care about Solomon’s family. Because Danny was about “reward seeking, self-interest and his own needs, his moral development was a stage 2, adolescence, youth” (Textbook, pg. 85). Although in the end he gave the stone to Solomon after being mortally wounded.
Solomon Vandy was a citizen of Sierra Leone; he was a fisherman who sent his son to school so he could become a doctor. His family was run off by the RUF and his son was captured to become a child solider. He worked the diamond mining camps for the RUF until he was put in jail. He found one of the biggest pink diamonds ever found and he knew that it would buy freedom for his family; but he wasn’t sure how to accomplish that. When he met Danny he thought he had met a friend who would help him but he was mistaken. Solomon’s fight was to get his family back safely. Solomon’s “moral development was stage3; he was concerned about his son going to school and family” (Textbook pg. 85). Solomon was offered a lot of money for the diamond but he held out until his family was returned.
The journalist Maddy Bowen was in Sierra Leone to write a story about the Blood Diamonds. She needed to get information on how the diamonds were being smuggled and by whom. She also needed to know who the diamonds were being smuggled to; and if Van DE Kaap knew that the diamonds were blood