I just watched a great documentary last night. "Bling'd: Blood, Diamonds, & Hip Hop"
This film featured some hip hop artist taking a trip to Sierra Leone to see first hand the results of civil wars that have been funded by the selling of "blood diamonds." Included in the trip were Raekwon of the Wu Tang Clan, Paul Wall, and Tego Calderon. Other artist contributed commentary on why diamonds seem to be so important to the hip hop community.
The artist travel to Freetown to visit diamond mines and see the conditions miners are forced to work in. They also travel to an amputee camp to visit the victims of the long civil war. The film is very disturbing and you can tell that the artist had a hard time dealing with what they were witnessing. Raekwon had to be talked into getting off the bus and spending time with the amputees.
There were so many issues that were touched in this documentary you could probably dedicate 10 blogs to address each one full time. But I will try to address a few of them here.
It is incredible that with all of the diamonds available in the country that none of the miners had any idea how to polish or cut a diamond. In fact, they looked amazed when they saw the jewelry of the rap artist. It seemed like they had never seen the end product of their hard labor. My immediate response was saying to myself, that is the key. These Africans need to be trained how to cut and polish their own diamonds so they can get more money for the stones that they find. Basically cutting out the middle man. Of course this isn't in the best interest of many people in the diamond industry so it will take a lot to make this happen. Reminds you of slavery in the Americas when the slave master didn't want the slaves to learn how to read. Now, they don't want them to learn how to cut and polish stones.
The second issue that came up was the hip hip mogul Russel Simmons. A few of months ago Russel Simmons did a media tour repeatedly stating that the diamond industry is fair. Posting his trip to Africa on youtube.com ( I will post a clip Soon),he often shared how diamond manufacturers were investing their profits back into Africa. But he never visited Sierra Leone or even addressed the issues face there. He was happy to stay in South Africa and Botswana. Even stating that he was considering opening his own diamond company whose profits would go into economic development. After watching this documentary, it really makes you to start to question his motives at the time. When he first made these statements on how good the diamonds industry was, many detractors stated that he was being used as a pawn to distract people form the uproar that would be caused by the movie "Blood Diamonds" that was being released. At the time, I gave him the benefit of the doubt that his intentions were pure. Now, the only question is was Mr. Simmons a willing participant in this media manipulation, or was he simply ignorant to the realities of the situation.
When visiting the VH1 page regarding this film they suggest you support the people of Sierra Leone by donating to the Bombai Bling Foundation. If you click on the link, you are taken to a page that is under construction that isn't scheduled to be completed until May 2007. No information is given of what this foundation does, but I will be following it and be posting updates. There is so much more that can be written and I most likely will in the near future. I would definitely recommend you see this film. It is a real eye opener.
This film featured some hip hop artist taking a trip to Sierra Leone to see first hand the results of civil wars that have been funded by the selling of "blood diamonds." Included in the trip were Raekwon of the Wu Tang Clan, Paul Wall, and Tego Calderon. Other artist contributed commentary on why diamonds seem to be so important to the hip hop community.
The artist travel to Freetown to visit diamond mines and see the conditions miners are forced to work in. They also travel to an amputee camp to visit the victims of the long civil war. The film is very disturbing and you can tell that the artist had a hard time dealing with what they were witnessing. Raekwon had to be talked into getting off the bus and spending time with the amputees.
There were so many issues that were touched in this documentary you could probably dedicate 10 blogs to address each one full time. But I will try to address a few of them here.
It is incredible that with all of the diamonds available in the country that none of the miners had any idea how to polish or cut a diamond. In fact, they looked amazed when they saw the jewelry of the rap artist. It seemed like they had never seen the end product of their hard labor. My immediate response was saying to myself, that is the key. These Africans need to be trained how to cut and polish their own diamonds so they can get more money for the stones that they find. Basically cutting out the middle man. Of course this isn't in the best interest of many people in the diamond industry so it will take a lot to make this happen. Reminds you of slavery in the Americas when the slave master didn't want the slaves to learn how to read. Now, they don't want them to learn how to cut and polish stones.
The second issue that came up was the hip hip mogul Russel Simmons. A few of months ago Russel Simmons did a media tour repeatedly stating that the diamond industry is fair. Posting his trip to Africa on youtube.com ( I will post a clip Soon),he often shared how diamond manufacturers were investing their profits back into Africa. But he never visited Sierra Leone or even addressed the issues face there. He was happy to stay in South Africa and Botswana. Even stating that he was considering opening his own diamond company whose profits would go into economic development. After watching this documentary, it really makes you to start to question his motives at the time. When he first made these statements on how good the diamonds industry was, many detractors stated that he was being used as a pawn to distract people form the uproar that would be caused by the movie "Blood Diamonds" that was being released. At the time, I gave him the benefit of the doubt that his intentions were pure. Now, the only question is was Mr. Simmons a willing participant in this media manipulation, or was he simply ignorant to the realities of the situation.
When visiting the VH1 page regarding this film they suggest you support the people of Sierra Leone by donating to the Bombai Bling Foundation. If you click on the link, you are taken to a page that is under construction that isn't scheduled to be completed until May 2007. No information is given of what this foundation does, but I will be following it and be posting updates. There is so much more that can be written and I most likely will in the near future. I would definitely recommend you see this film. It is a real eye opener.
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