Set in 1999 Sierra Leone, Blood Diamond is a movie of adventure, pain, and hurt. The film chronicles the story of a mercenary, a man who seeks diamonds to sell illegally to foreign investors and a fisherman, whose family is stolen by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel army and whose only hope of survival and reunion is finding the diamond he discovered in the mines. Danny Archer, the white man from Rhodesia, manages to free Solomon Vandy from the prison where they are both imprisoned and promises to restore his family to him in exchange for the diamond. Maddy Bowen, a journalist who Danny meets, takes the two on a UN helicopter and they find Solomon’s family in a UN refugee camp in Guinea. They discover, however, that Solomon’s son, Dia, has been kidnapped by the RUF and forced to become a child soldier. The two travel to the place where Solomon left the diamond, only to find his son working at the same diamond mine. A scuffle ensues the following day and Dia is reunited with his father. Danny, who has been shot in the conflict, sends Solomon and Dia to London on his plane and dies alone on a mountainside in Sierra Leone. Maddy aids Solomon in receiving payment for his diamond and being reunited with his family before she exposes the scandals involved in acquiring illegal diamonds. As a result, “The Kimberley Process” is signed by 40 countries in 2003. This document agreed that these countries would make illicit diamond trade illegal in their country.
The civil war in Sierra Leone was fought between the government troops and the rebel soldiers associated with the RUF. These soldiers used guerilla warfare to enter villages, rape women, murder the villagers, and burn them to the ground. The children from these villages were brainwashed and forced to become child soldiers. The men were often shipped to the diamond mines and forced to excavate the diamonds sold illegally by the RUF to purchase weapons to continue the war. The government soldiers in Sierra Leone were just as brutal in their warfare. The conflict between the two forces resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Millions of people were displaced from their homes and forced into UN refugee camps with little more than the clothing on their backs. These people lost their homes and their livelihoods. Fortunately, the civil war in Sierra Leone ended in 2002.

However, there are still 200,000 child soldiers in Africa. Just as the western world refused to acknowledge the war in Sierra Leone and Liberia, they currently are ignoring the crisis in the Sudan. Films such as Invisible Children have exposed the tragedy and terror of the children in Africa who hide from the rebel forces attempting to capture them and force them into service. Americans may hide behind their homes and careers, believing they can send a check every year to feel better about what they have done, but in reality they continually support these wars, and the funding behind them, with the purchases they make each and every day.

Poverty is a problem throughout both developing countries and the developed world. No global citizen has yet to find a satisfactory answer to the question of how to eliminate worldwide poverty. However, much research has been conducted regarding the various effects and variables that affect those around the world who live below the poverty. Many of the major differences between those individuals who live in poverty is found in their location. Those who live in rural areas have far different experiences compared to those who live in urban areas regarding their poverty.
By examining a few aspects of poverty, both in an urban and rural setting, the differences in the two are exposed. One of the greatest differences exists in the form of education. People living in an urban area often have the opportunity to acquire an education which exceeds that available to those in rural areas. Even though inner-city schools, where many poor students attend school, are inadequately funded, they do offer an alternative to the same lifestyle of those who cannot receive an education. Inner-city schools are often crowded and have far too many students in proportion to the number of available teachers. However, an education is an essential tool in breaking the cycle of poverty which so many living below the poverty line wish to escape.
In rural areas, an education is a luxury which few, if any, people living below the poverty line have the opportunity to acquire. An education is, just as it is in urban areas, essential to escaping the cycle of poverty. However, in rural areas there are few to no schools. If there are schools they are normally found in one room and students from grades one to twelve are taught in the same classroom. These teachers are often unable to teach more than the basics of an education to even the brightest students. Because an education is so unavailable in rural areas, the literacy rates in these areas are seldom above 30%. This inability to receive an education makes it near to impossible for those living below the poverty line to move above their current station in life.
Another such issue which differs between the two geographical locations is unemployment. In rural areas, there may be options in where a poor individual chooses to take employment. These places may be jobs which at least permit them to feed their families, and few even earn enough to cover rent in public housing. The problem with unemployment is that when jobs open up in urban areas, those living in rural areas flock to the city. Those who already inhabit the city are then forced to work for low wages because there are many available employees to take their jobs if they perform unsatisfactorily. Furthermore, those people who flock to the city for these employment opportunities often become the inhabitants of the public housing and aid created for the urban poor.
Unemployment in rural areas cannot truly even be considered a problem. If an individual loses their job in a rural area, they often must choose to relocate or their family will starve. Job opportunities for those below the poverty line in rural areas are few and far between. These jobs are inadequate to cover the meager costs of living. However, many rural poor are believers that any job is better than no job. For those who cannot find employment in rural areas, the other option is to farm. Yet, if a family has a farm they are often forced into growing illegal drugs on it by drug lords in these developing countries. This issue creates even more problems: often a family is harmed physically and their safety is compromised. Once a family has been captured by the drug lord their hope for escape is slim. The problem of unemployment is, in reality, much greater in rural areas than the uneducated actually comprehend.
Unemployment and education are two major problems which face the poor of developing and developed countries. Though many political scientists have studied their effects on countries, and their effect on the taxpayer, the answer is still the same: no one has an answer. No individual has created a plan which sufficiently diminishes the effect of poverty for the nearly one billion people in this world who live below their respective poverty line.

Throughout the world various problems plague the women of developing countries. One of these problems, virginity testing, is becoming increasingly detrimental to the wellbeing and development of gender equality in Turkey. This problem has its background in social and religious norms which span centuries in this region of the world and have created similar problems in nearly every other developing country as well. In Turkey, the issue of virginity testing has created hostile reactions and a movement to abolish this discrimination.
Muslim culture values virginity above all other virtues for an unwedded woman to possess (Webster Univ). Social reasons for virginity testing include verification of sexual intercourse between minors, certification intercourse took place prior to divorce, suspicions of immoral sexual behavior, forced marriage because of failed virginity exams, and certification of virginity before marriage (Webster Univ). Turkish law states husbands are the head of the family, and as such, women throughout the state are submissive to their fathers and/or husbands in all areas of life. Virginity is of the utmost importance for a new bride. It is even symbolized by the wearing of a red ribbon as a belt on their wedding day (Webster Univ).
Women are often subjected to these examinations forcefully. Canan Arin, an attorney in Istanbul, says this is done because, “This is a way for men to control women. Why do men want women to be untouched? It is a matter of power” (HRW). In Turkey the presumption of law is that “female virginity is a legitimate interest of the family, the community, and, ultimately, the state” (HRW). Forcible exams are justifiable and are seen as “overriding the individual rights of women to bodily integrity, privacy, and equality before the law” (HRW).
The problem arises due to the notion that a woman’s virginity represents her family’s honor. A young woman is expected to remain a virgin or a “girl” until she marries (HRW). If an unmarried woman is even believed to not be a virgin she has compromised her family’s honor and reputation (HRW). If a woman damages her honor, or that of her family, she has virtually ruined her possibility of becoming married. Ironically, in Turkey both male and female honor are based on the idea of only female chastity. Turkish law even reduces the punishment for murder if it is committed, “against a newly born child with the purpose of protecting the dignity and reputation of the offender or his wife, mother, daughter, grandchild, adopted daughter or sister” (HRW). This application of different standards on men and women has adversely affected the ability to accomplish gender equality in a developing nation such as Turkey.
There does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, however. A recent survey of 118 physicians in Turkey indicated 68% believed virginity examinations were inappropriate if sexual assault is not involved. 93% said they believed these exams were psychologically traumatic for their patients and 58% reported these patients undergo the exams against their will. Yet 45% of these same physicians conducted these exams for social reasons (Webster Univ). There is no doubt that virginity examinations constitute cruel and inhuman treatments. They are in violation of the guarantee of freedom from discrimination in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, all of which have been ratified by Turkey and therefore constitute law (Webster Univ). The Turkish Constitution even guarantees women’s right to privacy, yet these exams are performed on women applying for governmental jobs.
The most horrific part of these exams is the toll they take on women. Victims say they were forced to undress and undergo these exams (HRW). This is both degrading and intimidating because of the physical violation and the consequences involved with resistance. Nightmarish stories are told by women of Turkey who are actively engaged in outlawing virginity exams. One such woman was raped in her early teens. She told her family of the crime and when she failed to pass a virginity exam she was denied food and beaten for damaging her family’s honor (HRW). In 1992 two high school students committed suicide after school officials forced them to submit to virginity exams. In May 1992 a girl ran away from home after refusing to have an exam. She was found dead several days later and her father had the exam performed on his dead daughter (HRW). There are women groups combating the force involved with these exams. In Ankara these groups held a press conference where they denounced the practice of forcibly examining women and some government officials have joined their fight.
There are many solutions, the most obvious being to abolish the practice of these exams in Turkey. This abolishment would enforce strict penalties on men still performing these derogatory exams on women. Before this can be done, however, there must be a change in the mindset of the people of the nation. Education is the key to changing opinions with an issue such as this one and it is quite evident there is no movement to educate the people on the bias of these examinations. Until the people of Turkey are willing to change their opinions there is virtually no hope that this practice will end. However, the religious and social behaviors of centuries are slow to change. For now the outlook for abolishment of virginity exams is bleak and the problem is widely ignored by the rest of the world.

Reflections on Hotel Rwanda
The ethnic conflict in Rwanda finds it roots in several events caused by developed countries-the same as those of many of other developing countries. The Belgians ruled Rwanda for several decades. During this time they supported the Hutu’s, one of the groups in Rwanda. The other group, the Tutsi’s, were oppressed during this time and a sense of distrust and hatred naturally arose between the two. Upon the decision to grant Rwanda its independence, Belgium supported and helped place in power a Tutsi. This betrayal sparked even more hatred between the two groups. This problem had not been resolved before the time the United Nations peace resolution failed and the genocide began.

The onslaught of the genocide was thrust into the world’s eyes by the media. Though millions of people were watching the suffering of millions on their televisions the world’s greatest powers did not respond to urges to involve themselves in a resolution. The United Nations peacekeeping troops were ordered to not fire their weapons, but rather were forced to watch nearly a million Tutsi’s and Hutu moderates slaughtered. The failure to respond to this genocide was a disgraceful action by the world. Though I certainly understand that they were hesitant to involve their militaries in world affairs, these powers had a responsibility for the welfare of people who could not protect themselves. It would certainly not have been too much for these powers to send troops to end this conflict. In fact, in my opinion, it was essential and it is a shame it did not happen. The leaders of countries like America, France, and England will forever have to know they chose to not cease the murders of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

I cannot begin to describe my reaction to this film. The suffering of these people makes me ashamed of the many blessings I have in my own life. Hearing of and reading about a genocide cannot compare to seeing a visual recreation of it. The idea that people could be, and were, murdered because of a difference in their skin color and “nose length” is preposterous and hard for people of the Western world to comprehend. This example of genocide should serve to awaken the West to the differences in cultures. The people of Rwanda are not as developed, educated, or prepared for the ideals we hold dear. Rather, ethnic conflict is a result of Western involvement in the parts of the world which they did not understand. It is vital that the West play a role in mending these tears between peoples of different ethnicities. Because we chose not to naturally separate the land based on the territories of these many ethnic groups, we are responsible for the modern conflicts we failed to foresee. The mistakes made in Rwanda must serve as a reminder of the requirements of helping to aid in resolving future conflict and saving the lives of many innocent people.

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