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Blood Diamond - Ethical Analysis
Blood Diamond - Ethical Analysis
Sheran Dunlas
BLOOD DIAMOND
1. What are the Ethical issues in the movie Blood Diamond?
There are many ethical issues involved in the movie; among them, the following four
are the ones that have been highlighted the most.
Conflict Diamond (Blood Diamond):
The title of the movie itself illustrates the first ethical issue; blood diamond or in other
words, conflict diamonds which are rough and uncut stones used by rebel and
terrorists to finance their act of terrorism and war. The movie is based on this
scenario where diamonds are smuggled from Africa and illegally sold to high-end
businessmen of other countries in order to fund the war in Africa. This act leads to so
many unethical and illegal behaviours.
Child soldier & Child Labour:
This is a very serious issue, where many children are kidnapped by the rebels
(example; R.U.F.) and made into soldiers and labours. In order to make them soldiers
who obey them, the adult rebels manipulate them by poisoning their minds with
praise, drugging them and torturing them. Whereas child labours are made through
implying fear on their minds. For example, the chief of the rebel cuts off the hands of
a kid in order make them fear him. Such acts are inhuman and barbaric.
Slavery and torture:
As you can see in the movie, in order to mine the diamonds out, the rebels use slaves.
They raid villages and capture men, women and children to work as their slaves. More
over those innocent people are treated like disposable objects. They kill whoever tries
to act on his/her free will, making them unable to run or defend themselves.
Corrupted Government Superiors:
The movie also highlights the ethical issue of corrupted officers who use their power
for money. The character Colonel Coetzee is shown to be a superior military officer
who himself is associated in trading illegal diamond misusing his power. Also his
ruthless behaviour shows that he is willing to use all his power in any means to get
profit.
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2. When Maddy Bowen accuses Danny Archer of helping to prolong the conflict
in Sierra Leone by his smuggling activities, Archer says that the American
appetite for inexpensive diamond jewellery is just as much to blame. How
should responsibility be allocated? Explain
What Danny Archer trying to say is that, the reason why he is involved in such
activity is because many consumers prefer to buy the diamonds at cheaper price and in
order to meet the consumer requests, without suffering any loss and making high
profit. Importing diamonds in ethical and legal manner will increase the cost whereas
it will increase the price of the end product. Hence the retailers involve in unethical
practises to bring in diamonds. Such practises involves in hiring smugglers to smuggle
diamonds at a cheaper price.
The below diagram is a short brief about the process of this scenario;
Consumers
consumers have a high preference for diamonds but they
want them at cheaper price.
Retailers or Suppliers
Rebels or Terrorists
in order to gain money to fund their acts, they enslave men
and women to mine diamonds out without incurring costs.
Where this acts leads to many unethical behaviors.
But the ultimate responsibility must be the suppliers for they are the ones who follow
these practises. It is the nature of all consumers to request quality products at cheaper
price. If the suppliers could follow ethical codes and stop them from involving in such
acts will avoid many ethical issues.
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5. Write a page long answer in relation to Child Labour and Child Soldiers in the
illegal trades.
Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that strips away the
children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attending school, and that
are mentally or morally dangerous and harmful. Child soldier is also a form of child
labour where the children are used in armed forces to be part of wars and rebels.
In many countries which were in war and are in war, children are used as labours and
soldiers. Thousands and thousands of innocent young girls and boys are forced to
participate in the wars that were caused by adults. As participation in these wars, these
children are robbed away from their future and life.
As shown in the movie, many children are manipulated and drugged by adults to
participate in a war which they have no involvement in. some children are used to
mine for diamonds by implementing fear on their young and innocent hearts. Such
cruel acts are taken form in many different countries for illegal trades. Some children
are used in production of heroines, smuggling of drugs and many more illegal
activities.
As an end result, many children die in conflicts and those who survive loses
themselves. Just like Dia Vendy who loses himself and points a gun at his own
father, many children get addicted to much immoral behaviour and forget who they
really were. These cruel fate, are all because of the illegal trades conducted by power
and money hungry men who do not care about the value of another human being.
The future lies in the hands of the young generations but those hands are tainted in
blood either by holding a weapon to kill or a tool to work. Many organizations have
merged in order to stop such fate being imposed and young children and protecting
them. But as long as there are people who conduct immoral and unethical activities,
there will be thousands of children losing their lives.
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Sheran Dunlas
Reference
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consumer responsibilities | Ministry of Trade and Industry. 2014. [ONLINE]
Available at: http://www.mti.gov.bw/content/consumer-responsibilities.
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Ethical Issue Analyis--Blood Diamond Analysis. 2010. [ONLINE] Available
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