Blood Diamond

I watched a very dramatic and sad documentary reportage on the Vanguard [url=http://current.com/]Current TV [/url] which made me cry. For few days I was not able to eat, and I felt pain in my body. Then, I decided to do something about it. There is a famous Iranian Poem by [u]Sa’adi[/u], (Bani Adam Azaye Yek Digarand....) which says:[translation] [b] Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one essence and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, Other members uneasy will remain. If you have no sympathy for human pain, The name of human you cannot retain.[/b] Before their discovery in 1930, the former British Colony was just a dumping-ground for freed slaves. The legal and illegal trade in diamonds has shaped the history of the nation and its people. Every significant twist in the story of modern day Sierra Leone can be seen through the lens of its diamonds. They formed a social class which hardly integrated with the indigenous people. After Independence in 1961 successive governments were dominated by a small political elite who exclusively profited from the lucrative trade in diamonds. Little of this national income trickled down to benefit the rest of the population In relation to diamond trading, blood diamond (also called a converted diamond, conflict diamond, hot diamond, or a war diamond) refers to a diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, invading army's war efforts, or a warlord's activity, usually in Africa where around two-thirds of the world's diamonds are produced. From 1989 to 2001 Liberia was engaged in a civil war. In 2000, the UN accused Liberian president Charles G. Taylor of supporting the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) insurgency in neighboring Sierra Leone with weapons and training in exchange for diamonds. In 2001 the UN applied sanctions on the Liberian diamond trade. In August 2003 Taylor stepped down as president, and after being exiled to Nigeria, now faces trial in The Hague. On July 21, 2006 he pleaded not guilty to crimes against humanity and war crimes. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_diamond[/url] [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/kombizz/5074080393/]Blood Diamond[/url]