The Globalization of Culture and Communication - Term Paper Example

Critical Term Paper: Blood Diamond COCU 144: The Globalization of Culture and Communication December 01, The processes of modern globalization are rather controversial. A lot of vivid discussion arises in the modern world and it concerns the advantages and disadvantages of the globalization processes. The countries of the Third World are often targets for the powerful countries, because of diamonds, which can be found there. The conflict diamonds are the crucial theme of the movie. The director of the movie “Blood Diamond” intends to capture attention of the society to the events happening in African countries, where diamonds are changed for the illegal arms. There is a violent trade of conflict diamonds and the society should be aware of the matter. Zwick explored this theme and found out impressive facts from the lives of people, who were dealing with the diamonds trade. This is a life risk occupation and The main character of this film is played by Leonardo DiCaprio with pain and with all his soul. The process of diamond trade is rather challenging and the world economies are greatly concerned about the issue. People around the world are crazy about buying diamonds for their anniversaries and weddings. The mines in Africa, Canada and Russia are being gradually devastating. It is a multi-billion-dollar business. Africa shares 65% of diamond production. People are greatly concerned about so-called conflict diamonds1. Different conflicts occurred in the result of conflict diamonds trade the African continent. At the global level there was made an attempt to implement “the Kimberley Process — a certification procedure for diamonds in partnership with the industry and some NGOs — without which countries cannot legally import or export diamonds”2. Blood diamonds are often referred to the stones, which are easily converted into weapons, cash and drugs. The NGO Global Witness, located in, was the initiator of the world’s campaign against this terrible problem3. Conflict diamonds, as a rule, are mined from alluvial deposits of diamonds, where they were carried in the result of erosion. Starting from 1998 the problem of conflict diamonds was considered by the UN and it was forbidden to traffic in Angolan diamonds if not in compliance with an officially sanctioned Certificate of Origin scheme4. The Kimberley Process Scheme (KPCS) was initially developed for the prevention of financial violence. The dominance of the DeBeers Group refers to the movie directly. The company complained about the hidden criticism of their campaign and the involvement of conflict diamond industry in general. The members of the company appealed for the director in order to claim in the beginning of the film that the story is fiction, though the director refused doing so. The film should not appeal for the world’s society to reduce conflict diamonds buying from Africa. The main problem of conflict diamonds is a political problem in its essence and the politics is directed on attenuation of the conflicts. African conflicts are often connected with the problem of illegal diamonds trade ant it cannot be denied that a huge number of illegal diamonds is sold at the global arena, which are mined in war zones of Africa. DeBeers is on the verge of boycott and many organizations appeal for decrease of its power level. Global Witness appeals for further implementation of the Kimberley Process and reform of the self-regulation trend in the diamond industry. Thus, they claim that diamonds are "positive forces for development"5. There is an evident discussion of the global issues in the movie and there is an opportunity to halt the global diamond trade and decrease profits of sub-Saharan Africa’s advanced and profitable industries. Still, at the local level the viewers would be concerned about their engagement rings for sure. Globally, the film appeals for the ultimate buyers of diamonds, such as United States and Europe. The effects of their huge amounts of buying cause a negative impact on the African countries. There is a need for ultimate buyers to consider pros and cons of their strategies, to refer to the economic, social and environmental issues. There are a growing number of warlord activities on the African continent. Moreover, this industry is rather controversial, because people, who are working in this industry have a low compensation and working under dreadful conditions. Thus, there is a need to work at relevant conditions for work in this industry and to look for new ways of diamonds extraction and manufacturing. The environment would benefit more if new options for the industry are found. The film shows that civil war in Sierra Leone is financed through the conflict diamonds sells. The actions of the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) was focused on captured diamonds mines and further sell of conflict stones enabled a long-term war to be continued6. There is the main conflict of the diamond industry: glam and death are interconnected; the beauty of Tiffani’s diamonds, in reality, depicts numerous deaths of innocent civilians. Actually, the modern buyers of diamonds do not even think, whether their diamond is worth a shipload of Kalashnikovs. Such kind of indifferent attitude is rather scaring, because the modern global society should interact in economically sound, socially and environmentally favorable conditions. What is more scaring is the fact that more than 50% of African population is under 15 and small boys are running with Kalashnikovs7. The almighty of the world assist this tendency, because they change diamonds for guns. A diamond is a beauty stone, which price is too high and it reaches a human life price. It means that in the globalized world different trade is possible, no matter what is sold and what is bought. The interaction between Archy and Vandy represents a hostile struggle for life. There is an invisible line between a desire to get money and to deal in safe business. This film is a kind of awareness campaign for the developed countries and the necessity to stop them in their profits increase actions. Therefore, the film attracts attention of the society to global issues of the Kimberley certification and diamond procedures of the world. There is an emotional background of the story and in order to correlate the described events with the reality, it is necessary to consider historical conflicts in the field of conflict diamonds mining and sell. Nowadays, there is a great change in the industry of diamonds sell. There is only 1% of conflict diamonds left8. Nevertheless, it is claimed that the movie creates a perfect environment for discussion. The process of globalization is shown from a negative side: “Like a bride, Africa endowed with diamonds and oil is being wooed by the West and China as never before. But the peoples intrinsic value soar above these commodities though they were treated as such during the slave trade era”9.The consumers have an opportunity to delve into the process of diamonds mining. Moreover, it should be claimed that internal conflicts of Sierra Leone would potentially disappear if no Europeans were present in their lands. References: 1. Alden, Andrew. “Conflict Diamonds”, accessed December 01, 2011, http://geology.about.com/cs/conflict_minerals/a/aa020203a.htm 2. “Blood Diamonds: the facts” (2007), accessed December 01, 2011, http://globalab.wordpress.com/2007/01/25/blood-diamonds-the-facts/ 3. Hordern, N. “Diamonds: Rings on Your Fingers or Blood on Your Hands?” New African 462 (May 2007) 136+. 4. “The Globalist | Diamonds and Globalization”, accessed December 01, 2011, http://www.theglobalist.com/.../sample2.htm Read More