Last post cont: pics and songs

Some images and ads associated with diamonds:

I found this online and I hope that it is a spoof ad. It demonstrates some real irony. Some people really do get limbs chopped off in the process of mining diamonds. 

An interesting spoof ad:

A behind the scenes look at where many diamonds actually come from:

Notice the contrast between these two music videos about diamonds:

"Diamonds are Forever" by Shirley Bassey

Kanye West's music video "Diamonds from Sierra Leone"

Diamonds and the color red=both symbols of love...just not when they are put together.

Glamour. Wealth. Status. Prestige. Romance. These are all words that come to mind when most people think of the word 'diamond'. I always used to think of diamonds in that way as well. Diamonds are beautiful symbols of love, status, wealth, fame, ect. That is the stereotype that we receive about diamonds growing up. You see celebrities wearing lots of "bling", your mom wearing a diamond ring, queens wearing diamond and jewel encrusted crowns. You are bombarded with advertisements portraying men giving diamonds to their girlfriends/wives and told that the perfect way to show someone you love them is to buy them a diamond. "Every kiss begins with Kay". "A diamond is forever". Girls, we know we’ve all dreamt of our dream guy giving us a diamond. The fact is that the advertising of the diamond market has become embedded into our culture and we grow up with the view of diamonds being glamorous, as portrayed in Shirley Bassey’s song, “Diamonds are Forever”. My view changed, however, when I learned about “conflict diamonds”. This new discovery added words like blood, war, death and child soldiers to come to mind when I think of diamonds. It certainly is a different outlook. It saddens me to think that wars are being funded and many civilians are being killed because wealthy Americans buy conflict diamonds without a second thought. So many people have no idea what is going on in Africa and where their diamonds come from. Luckily, various aspects of the media, such as the film Blood Diamond and Kanye West’s song “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”, have tried to communicate the issue to the ignorant public. Although it helps to have popular artists and actors back the issue, the media can only do so much. I think that the popular media was helpful in raising awareness about the issue, but there are still a lot of people who haven’t seen the movie or heard Kanye’s song. I know I probably wouldn’t have seen Blood Diamond or listened to the lyrics of “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” if I had not already been aware of the issue. The practice of counter-storytelling, therefore, can only be effective to a certain extent. It can help raise awareness of the issue and it can even motivate people because there is actually one thing we can do about it. We can make sure that if we buy diamonds, they are not from conflict areas. Hopefully the movie and song helped people to begin monitoring the diamonds they buy. Although I still think diamonds are beautiful and glamorous, I will still remember the pain and strife it takes to mine many diamonds and I will never buy I diamond unless I am sure it is not a blood diamond.

 

How can it be?

How can it be that there are still 300,000 child soldiers in the world today? How can it be that this is still an issue, even though it has been exposed through books, movies and songs, among other media? How can it be that it is not yet stopped? Throughout reading Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, and seeing Blood Diamond, I can not help but continuously wonder how such atrocities could be committed against men and especially children for so long without being stopped. Both the rebels and the government employed children as soldiers to help their cause. Not only did children have to witness war and brutal killing, but often they had to become a part of it. Children as young as 10 had to learn how to kill people, sometimes even their own families! I cannot understand it! The rebels and government used similar strategies in first capturing the children, then gaining their trust, and finally manipulating them into situations where they feel they need to help their cause and kill the enemy. I think this is absolutely horrible, and although it is difficult to stop insurgent rebels from using child soldiers, I strongly believe that it should be illegal for children to fight in wars. Since a person technically becomes an adult at age 18, I think that 18 should be the age that someone is old enough to fight in wars. I think that by this age, most people are mature enough to understand the situations around them and what they would be fighting for. But, basically, the use of child soldiers needs to stop. It has serious consequences for the rest of these children's lives. These children become scarred for life and have to go through serious therapy to be normal again. We saw in the film Blood Diamond, that Solomon's son had been brainwashed into almost killing his own father. It is very difficult to stop the use of child soldiers since the areas of conflict of which they are in use are usually very remote. Yet I believe that it can and should be done. It will take brave and committed people. I think the UN has tried to help with this, but I feel that they need to press harder and I feel that international peacekeeping organizations like the UN and non-profit organizations need to set laws against the use and move into areas of conflict and try to stop it by regulating foreign governments and assisting these governments in law regulation and enforcement. Hopefully, someday the issue of child soldiers will be stopped. We in the U.S. often feel so sheltered from these types of situations and so helpless in being able to help them. Sometimes all we can do is rant about them and simply wonder, 'How can it be?'

About Me

Hi, I'm Courtney.

I'm a college freshman at Purdue University and absolutely loving it so far! My major is Business Management and I haven't decided on a minor yet. I have absolutely no idea what I want to do after college, but I figure hey, that's what I'm here for, right? I grew up living in Illinois, not far from Chicago and then moved to Indiana a few years ago (yay in-state tuition!). My favorite colors are purple, pink and blue and my favorite foods are anything chocolate (I'm a junkie) and corn casserole (random, but soo good). I like a lot of different kind of music: hip-hop, pop, alternative, rap, light rock...but I hate country! I have a ton of favorite movies but a few of my favorite are How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Miss Congeniality, Mean Girls, Pirates of the Caribbean and John Tucker Must Die. Just in case you can't tell, I'm a chick flicks kind of girl. My hobbies are dancing, singing, shopping, watching movies, hanging out with friends...you know, the usual. I’m definitely a huge Boiler fan and I love going to football games! I never missed a single game this season and I stayed till the end of every one. I haven’t been doing as well with basketball games (oops!) but the ones I’ve been to so far have been super fun!