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Blood Diamond: Sierra Leone During The Civil War

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Sid Pennington 10/27/2014 MGT 210 Blood Diamond The 2006 film, Blood Diamond, is set in Sierra Leone in 1999 during the civil war and tells the story of an ex-mercenary and a fisherman on the search of a rare and big diamond found while being enslaved by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels. The land of Sierra Leone has great value to many different groups of people and organizations as the natural resources of the area hold great wealth within them. With great wealth comes great power and is why this area of Africa is being extorted and robbed of its resources by outsiders, no matter the cost to the local population. Because of the oil and most importantly diamonds, corrupt governments have very little regard for the resources and its …show more content…

The RUF’s main motto is “work against the government for the people.” The RUF are armed and financed to overthrow the government of Sierra Leone. Financing becomes easily when they overran the diamond fields and are now in control of their number one export. The RUF believes that they are helping the people of Africa because they believe it’s better for RUF to take over the land rather than the government. Both the government and RUF confiscate the land from the local people by force without compensation or regard for the peoples well-being. They mine and clear cut the forest which ruins hunting, fishing, and farming grounds. Not only can the land be confiscated, but as we learn in the movie, so can people. When people can be enslaved by corrupt governments or armed rebels, it will create a free workforce and thus maximizing the profits. The profits is what cloud the ethical development of RUF. All the resources in this area are lootable resources, meaning they are of high value goods which can easily be traded or sold that then creates wealth conflicts. These wealth conflict are a result of the combined geographic, political, economic, and military factors. They weaken the governments …show more content…

He is a man that has been in the game for a long time so he has many contacts and resources throughout Africa to help him survive and carry out his smuggling operations. I believe Archer is considered a stage two self-interest driven character. All his actions and motivations are based on what is in it for him. He has very limited interest in the needs of others unless they can help or benefit him in any way. In order for him to seal a deal, double crossing someone is not beneath him. He is a great negotiator that is always making sure he gets the best deal, even in the heat of the moment. Archer said a few times throughout the movie, TIA. Meaning “This is Africa”. I feel he lived by this motto meaning in Africa, you got to do whatever you can, because anything can happen in Africa. Archer’s ethical reasoning is summarized in a statement he made to Maddy: “I am using him [Solomon], you [Maddy] are using me; that’s how that works.” Because everyone does it, he believes that the things he does are not wrong which is his basis of ethical

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