The issue of diamonds in Africa is inseparable from the issue of child soldiers.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Over the years, the diamond industry has had a devastating impact in countries such as Sierra Leone, Angola and the Congo, where profits from the sale of diamonds have been used to fund brutal wars, with disastrous effects on local communities.
Diamonds are a key component in the campaign to make poverty history.
I hope more people will ask diamond companies to continue changing the way they do business in Africa.
I grew up in a home where diamonds were the subject.
It is my firm belief that action on the issues that matter for Africa must emerge from within Africa itself.
Diamonds are forever, my youth is not.
It's a failure of national vision when you regard children as weapons, and talents as materials you can mine, assay, and fabricate for profit and defense.
Diamonds are intrinsically worthless, except for the deep psychological need they fill.
Whenever I speak at the United Nations, UNICEF or elsewhere to raise awareness of the continual and rampant recruitment of children in wars around the world, I come to realize that I still do not fully understand how I could have possibly survived the civil war in my country, Sierra Leone.
Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.