I saw Blood Diamond last week. There was Leo DiCap looking sorta buff, putting on a good "Rhodesian white man" accent and acting really well as bad-businessman-turns- good-guy-who-accepts-fate. The protagonist alongside was Djimon Hounsou, the local black man who'd been through a whole load of shit. Jennifer Connelly was a reporter asking too much too soon. The film underscores two main points - 1. man is greedy and evil, and 2.Africa is so screwed up.
Contextual elaboration - Corrupt governments do nothing for their people. They take bribes, amass illegitimate wealth and suck up to powerful MNCs and richer nations for more donations (to their personal bank accounts). They oil the machines of their economy with the blood of locals who oppose them. They reward their low-ranking minions with booze, women, some money, rap music and TV while they, the higherups, plan their escape from "God forsaken Africa". To make the lives of government officials a living hell, here come the revolutionaries. Revolution takes one person with a noble idea that appeals to the down trodden who intently listen and swear to blindly follow (usually into shit so abysmally deep it marinates their soul and devolutes their conscience). The revolutionary leader soon attains demi-god status and craves the booze, women, money, rap music and TV the government dishes out to its lowly cronies. Greedy, greedy, where's the high and mighty cause now? He (no gender bias intended) sends his brainwashed slaves armed with guns and machetes to get these things for him while butchering anyone who stands in their way. Along the way, they recruit new followers or force locals to join their cause or face some measure of pain/torture/mutilation/humiliation/blackmail - a necessary evil for the sake of revolution. Attacking the poor, uneducated and defenceless, the revolutionaries gain territory. Initially an insignificant insect swirling around the head of an ineffective government, the little bother festers into menacing, irksome swarm worthy of military intervention. Inept and apathetic, the military often resort to less-than-just means of extracting information, punishing clueless locals for their apparent misplaced allegiance, instilling fear for and for not taking a stand. Notice the similarities in public policy between government and anti-government.
Then somebody found diamonds.
Diamonds sold to hungry western buyers means money in the pockets of either government official or revolutionary leaders. So everyone went looking. One brilliant rock would be worth a year's work on a farm. Unfortunately for Tom, Dick and Harry, the government usually sold land rights to large mining companies to dig up the vast backyard. It would be doubly unfortunate for Tom, Dick and Harry if Mr. Revolution came around to their corner of their neighbourhood - soon they'd be slaves, wading through mud in search of diamonds if they were deemed worth alive than dead. Usually the money from diamonds is used for arms purchases (for both sides), agitating the balance in the tug of civil war. The diamonds are cut, polished and placed into beautiful, expensive arrangements for soon-to-be newlyweds and other rich folk to look glam in.
So who are the greedy ones in this sorry picture? The government types, the revolutionary types, the local folk seeking a better life, the diamond traders and buyers, the newlyweds and rich folk. Everyone. Greed makes the world go around, but local circumstances force us to behave differently. A discovery of a diamond to a villager in a third world country is tantamount to proof of God, and of course money to hopefully escape misery. It's probably a just stroke of luck to lucky you and me, not life or death.
But beware, misery loves company (ya ya). Though shall not covet thy neighbour's wife, or his diamond stash (ya ya).
Buy conflict-free diamonds. It could mean that all those things I wrote about need not happen. They still will lah, just don't try to be part of it.
Apart from money and greed, information is a key component that makes the world spin. I just finished reading Freakonomics, an enlightening book on the strange roots of events of around us. The book helps one see beyond conventional causes and standard solutions, that data can be used in many, many ways. There was great mention of information asymmetry in the book - how a group of people can exploit others with the secret knowledge or information they have. Like how real estate owners can influence buyers or sellers to part with or accept values that could have been more advantageous to either party. Divulging such information can then lead to symmetry, and of course, the scorn of many as the case may be. 
