Blood Diamond

It's 2:11 am right now and I should probably be sleeping, but after watching this movie tonight, some things were weighing on my mind. I'm not quite sure if it's the fact that when one buys jewelry they have no idea what that rock has been through, or if it's the fact that a place that has numerous natural resources is highly indebted to the "developed" countries or if it's just that my continent is still roaming around trying to find itself.
There is so much turmoil in Africa and amidst it all, there are folks making a fortune from the resources that are supposed to benefit the indigenes of the land. It's moments like this that I think about Desmond Tutu's words: When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land. Now it seems we're forever indebted to the Europeans and Americans and have no choice but to continually export our resources unfairly to either purchase arms to kill and subdue the weaker ones or obtain money to put in our personal pockets.
The last time I felt like this was after watching Hotel Rwanda and seeing how all the fighting started because at one time one tribe was continually made to seem better than the other and the reaction was the genocide. Yet the same people who fed this conflict decided to fold their arms when it was time to step in and profer some help or assistance. Something similar happened in Nigeria with the Biafran war and yet I fear that it could happen again if the folks of the Delta region decide they want to fight for their rights to control the oil. After all, if I am lucky enough to have found myself on an oil-rich field, shouldn't I have some sort of benefit from it?
The next question I ask myself is what can be done? It's time to stop blaming the government because it is our people that are in the government. It's time to stop blaming the whites because at one time they were fighting amongst themselves (American Revolution) and somehow they have rebounded from that some years later to become partners (U.S. and U.K.). It's time to stop looking outward and begin looking inward to how we can pick up ourselves and the only way we can begin to do this is first to realize that we can effect a change. It takes smarts to defraud people, this same savvy can be somehow translated into a positive. I know on my own part I'm interested in increasing the education of my people. This will not just happen in the classrooms, but in their everyday lives and I'm talking specifically about reading. We need more libraries and then there are those who will take an active interest in moving this idea forward on four wheels. This is why I say again that I am excited about this group of young people coming together to move things forward.