After the civil war‚ which ended in 2002‚ Sierra Leone has been plagued with malnutrition‚ poverty and hunger‚ which further threatened peace and security in the region for many years. In a report by the UNDP Development Index (2007)‚ about 70 percent of Sierra Leone’s population in 2004 was below the poverty line with 52 percent living on less than US$1 per day. 24 percent of the population could not afford minimum daily calorific requirements. In 2008‚ Sierra Leone was faced with the issue of rising
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Diamonds are Forever (from Sierra Leone)‚ Kanye West The famous song “Diamonds are Forever (from Sierra Leone)” is not only a good song that is sung by a legendary music artist‚ Kanye West‚ but it is a hidden message political song that is directly talking about the precious blood diamonds from the southern countries of the continent Africa. When someone hears the two words “blood diamond‚” most would probably assume that the diamonds are from Africa and that there are many people who die trying
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Beah starts his child life unaffected by what would soon become of his home‚ Sierra Leone. However‚ he is soon confronted by the terrors of war due to the rebel soldiers taking over the relatively peaceful country. Beah is soon forced to flee from his town with a few of his best friends and other acquaintances he encounters along
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Ishmael Beah was born on November 23‚ 1980‚ in Mogbwemo‚ Sierra Leone. In his critically acclaimed memoir‚ “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”‚ Beah bases his survival from abduction and terrorism on his recollections as an unwilling child soldier for the Sierra Leone Armed Services during Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war. They were fighting the Revolutionary United Front or RUF‚ also known as the rebels. Ishmael describes his circumstances in simple to understand language. He is also quite
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with African Heads of State‚ Taylor left office after rebel forces had come close to entering the Liberian capital‚ Monrovia. He was granted political asylum in Nigeria. In March 2006‚ Taylor was transferred to the custody of the Special Court for Sierra Leone where he now faces trial. Taylor stole or diverted nearly $100 million of Liberia’s funds while in power according to government records investigated by the U.N. Taylor used the money to buy houses‚ cars‚ and illegal weapons while fighting
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understanding the moral and ethical dilemma of illegal “conflict diamonds” being stolen and smuggled by Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) there is an unethical and immoral business dilemma he must deal with through other characters he encounters during the Sierra Leone Civil War of 1999. Another character‚ Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou)‚ is a native of the region that has been captured and forced into slavery as a diamond miner/laborer that invariably comes into contact with Archer after he discovers a large
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A Long Way Gone Survival is a skill everyone’s born with but not many have to test it. In the memoir of Ishmael Beah‚ A Long Way Gone‚ he travels across the Sierra Leone bush to get away from the Revolutionary United Front(RUF) that is attacking his home village. Melissa Fay Greene from the Elle Magazine writes‚ “No outsider could have written this book‚ and it’s hard to imagine that many insiders could do so with such acute vision‚ stark language‚ and tenderness. It is a heartrending achievement
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matter-of-fact tone‚ he does use several devices to illustrate the theme of loss of innocence: use of flashbacks‚ symbolism‚ and nature motifs. Beah states plainly that his induction into the Sierra Leone military at the age of 13 was the end of his childhood. Although the violent pursuit of rebels across Sierra Leone traumatized Beah‚ it is not until he is turned into a killer that he believes himself to have lost his innocence. At this point‚ Beah stops utilizing flashbacks to his childhood‚ clearly
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Child Soldiers In over 18 countries in the world‚ child soldiers and utilized and direct participants of war. These children‚ are denied a real childhood or any real life other then the destruction and death that surrounds them‚ an estimated 200‚000 to 300‚000 children are serving as soldiers for rebel groups and the government in wars that are going on in the world today. All of these children‚ from a young age participate in modern warfare. They hold AK-47s and M-16s on the front lines of these
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her to a man to rape her. That’s just awful! I’m so happy that she was able to get away and now living without having to worry about having to do that again. As a teen in a war-ravaged country Sierra Leone‚ Ishmael Beah was brainwashed‚ drugged and forced to kill. Ishmaels family was killed in the Sierra civil war from 1991-2002. During this period after Ishmael’s
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