Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World's Most Precious Stones in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Jan 17, 2012 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, crime, science, 2012-around-the-world, ultimate-reading-list, political, history

The subtitle to this one is "tracing the deadly path of the world's most precious stones." The author is a journalist and much of what he reports is first hand based on interviews from everyone involved in this illicit part of the diamond industry from miners to the middlemen to smugglers to spokesmen for the De Beers diamond cartel. The "blood diamonds" of the title are also known as "conflict diamonds" because they are diamonds mined in Africa by forced labor and then sold to fund insurgencies The subtitle to this one is "tracing the deadly path of the world's most precious stones." The author is a journalist and much of what he reports is first hand based on interviews from everyone involved in this illicit part of the diamond industry from miners to the middlemen to smugglers to spokesmen for the De Beers diamond cartel. The "blood diamonds" of the title are also known as "conflict diamonds" because they are diamonds mined in Africa by forced labor and then sold to fund insurgencies. Diamonds that are then smuggled to the West where they make up five percent of the market and wind up on many a finger as engagement rings.

The book primarily focuses upon how blood diamonds destroyed Sierra Leone, a "tiny corner of West Africa." Bordering on Liberia, where many of the diamonds wind up before being smuggled West, like Liberia, Sierra Leone was founded by freed North American slaves. Many of the middlemen are Lebanese, the "largest cutting and polishing centers in the world are in Bombay and Surat India," 80 percent of the blood diamonds wind up in America and the diamonds not only financed misery in Africa, but played a major role in money laundering for Al Queda. So this story has a wide international scope beyond that of a small nation of five million.

The book claimed blood diamonds were responsible for the "death of some 3.7 million people in various African war zones and displaced another 6 million." Campbell opens the book by telling the story of Ismael Dalramy, who had both hands chopped off by members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) who were fighting for control of the Sierra Leone diamond mines; their "signature war crime was amputation." It was a brutal but arresting way to begin the book. A lot of this story is convoluted and complex, and the statistics of the misery involved so staggering I think it was important to anchor it in this kind of individual experience.

There are a lot of intertwined stories in this book. For instance, the story of Executive Outcomes, a private army hired at one point by the President Strasser of Sierra Leone that seemed to be making progress in stopping the slaughter--but Strasser cancelled their contract under international pressure against "mercenaries" and instead the fight was taken up by the Nigerian-led ECOMOG troops. "It appeared the developed countries were willing to put Sierra Leone's rescue in the hands of a less effective security force--one that was prone to flagrant corruption, bribery, savagery, and a disdain for human rights--just because it was quasi-governmental." The result was a "human rights disaster" that led to more slaughter. The book also tells the story of Cecil Rhodes and the company he founded--the powerful De Beers corporation which at the time of publication controlled 65 percent of the diamond market.

At the time of the book's publication, the civil war had been declared over, and Sierra Leone had successfully completed elections. It was good to later look into what happened to Sierra Leone and find out it seems to have developed into a functioning democracy. But what you take away from the book about blood diamonds is more problematical. It seems there's no way of getting at the problem from the supply side. The diamond industry has considered several ways, but the bottom line is that there's no way to know the source of a diamond--and our experience with the War on Drugs shows just how impossible it is to control smuggling and illegal trade. At the same time, calling for a boycott of diamonds--trying to tackle it from the demand side--would hurt Africa more than it would help. According to Campbell, the legitimate diamond industry has been a boon to the economic growth of Namibia, South Africa and Botswana--and could be for the recovering Sierra Leone. In fact, Campbell hoped De Beers will take part--he claimed that it had a good record educating and training workers--something that's badly needed. For Campbell, the only solution to the quandary of "conflict diamonds" is to end the conflicts themselves--and with it the raison d'etre of blood diamonds.

I thought it an interesting book, and I did learn quite a bit about Western Africa and the diamond industry, although the book misses being a standout. Something about the structure didn't flow well, and I didn't feel I ended the book with much insight into what drives the conflicts in Africa that drives the conflict diamonds. And I've seen the stories of Executive Orders and De Beers done more compellingly elsewhere. ...more

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