Movie "Blood Diamond"

Went and watched “Blood Diamond” yesterday. It made me think how fortunate we are here and not in 3rd World countries like Africa. Hard to imagine, but yes, this is actually happening… not in the history where it happened twenty or thirty years ago… or a century ago…… but it is happening NOW like ten years ago kind of a thing….

Think of the child soldiers where their childhood consists of holding a rifle and killing anybody who disagrees with them… the fear of being killed anytime, anywhere or limbs being chopped up if the leader does not like what you do…. In our life here, we just get away with a scolding or worse probably a beating from parents or teachers followed by being grounded for a while or being forbidden to do your favorite things for a while. In comparison, the differences are a world apart. Totally different…..

Sometimes, we just know these things are happening… that this is just out there. However, it does not really seem real. It’s just a piece of news on the paper, TV, radio and magazines… but this movie really had me…Made me more acutely aware of reality… the bloody brutality the civil war, the use and training of the child soldiers…

Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of the chaos and civil war that enveloped 1990s Sierra Leone, "Blood Diamond" is the story of Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), an ex-mercenary from Zimbabwe, and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a Mende fisherman. Both men are African, but their histories and their circumstances are as different as any can be until their fates become joined in a common quest to recover a rare pink diamond, the kind of stone that can transform a life...or end it.
Solomon, who has been taken from his family and forced to work in the diamond fields, finds the extraordinary gem and hides it at great risk, knowing if he is discovered, he will be killed instantly. But he also knows the diamond could not only provide the means to save his wife and daughters from a life as refugees but also help rescue his son, Dia, from an even worse fate as a child soldier.
Archer, who has made his living trading diamonds for arms, learns of Solomon's hidden stone while in prison for smuggling. He knows a diamond like this is a once-in-a-lifetime find—valuable enough to be his ticket out of Africa and away from the cycle of violence and corruption in which he has been a willing player.
Enter Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an idealistic American journalist who is in Sierra Leone to uncover the truth behind conflict diamonds, exposing the complicity of diamond industry leaders who have chosen profits over principles. Maddy seeks out Archer as a source for her article, but soon finds it is he who needs her even more.
With Maddy's help, Archer and Solomon embark on a dangerous trek through rebel territory. Archer needs Solomon to find and recover the valuable pink diamond, but Solomon seeks something far more precious...his son.

http://blooddiamondmovie.warnerbros.com/