Many citizens, especially those who live in the oil rich delta area, regularly protest (both violently and non- leniently) against foreign oil companies and the Nigerian government to illustrate their frustration with a lack of fair wealth distribution. The violence in Nigeria has caused a one quarter loss in daily production. United States hold control on oil exportation in Arab Countries and as such the export of the oil to Nigeria is in conflicting policies of the Nigerian government. The demand for oil in other countries motivates the oil companies to occupy more land of the people.
It then results to the people protesting against large oil companies and other conflict in Nigeria/ 2. What can the Nigerian government, oil companies, the international community, and civil society do to ensure more transparency of oil revenues and more wealth distribution of oil profits? To me, the Nigerian government is the one that has the most responsibility. It is only with their consent that anyone else can do anything to ensure that Nigerian oil helps everyone in that country. The oil companies have to make contracts with the Nigerian government to be allowed access to the oil.
Thus, they must do what the government says. The international community and civil society could rye to put pressure on Nigeria, but as long as we need their oil, their government can pretty much do what it wants. 3. What can consumers do to encourage both oil companies and governments to respect human rights and improve quality of life for Nigerian citizens? Letter writing to the company, to senators and representatives in the United States, and to foreign governments could be one way of how the consumers will promote human rights.
Using social networking and information technology could also be another way to create a real and virtual community of supporters. This could also result into staging demonstrations and protests, as well as boycotts that, if publicized, might bring attention to the fact that the pursuit of economic interests must not come at the cost of human rights and basic sustenance of life issues. 4. What are some ways that Nigerian could non-violently protest against the practices of the large oil companies? Nigerian could perform strikes so that oil companies would understand their point.
They could also gather outside their parliament peacefully, invite UN to visit, get international media to show different practices of the oil companies, upload videos on the internet to promote it, write an article about the oil companies and have it published on the newspaper. 5. Do oil companies such as Royal Dutch/Shell, Chevron, and Agape have a responsibility to the economic welfare of Nigerian citizens? If so, what are the responsibilities? People and organizations need to be responsible for the citizens. The oil companies should have to pay the Nigerian for the land.
The money may help support the Nigerian who may not be able to farm on the lands that oil companies occupied. It would provide economic support to their families. This would give some profits from the oil companies to the Nigerian citizens and they might be less likely to protest against the oil companies because they are getting compensation. 6. What are some sustainable development ideas for Nigerian affected negatively by oil extraction and exportation? Each Nigerian family could be paid by the oil company every month as rent for their land.
Secondly, oil companies should minimize the land or the area that they use. Also, Enlarge should get new government officials who have not been corrupted yet. And they should create an organization or council to govern Nigeria and replace the corrupt government CONFLICT DIAMONDS: IVORY COAST 1 . How does the diamond industry affect the conflict in Cote Divorce? Conflict diamonds are the back ups for the armed conflict and civil war in Cote Divorce. Both the rebel forces and the government of ivory coast are exploiting natural resources to fund their sustained military campaigns.
The national government is using proceeds from the sale of cocoa, the nation’s primary export, to fund the army, while rebel forces in the North are smuggling diamonds in exchange for money and supplies. A significant volume of conflict diamonds room rebel held areas in Cote divorce are entering the legitimate diamond trade. 2. What provisions do you think would make the Kimberley Process more Increasing the government’s oversight of the diamond industry and effective? Strengthening government enforcement policies is one of the things that I think would make the Kimberley Process more effective.
Also, I think that different countries should work proactively with law enforcement agencies to expose those individuals and companies that are breaking the law. 3. How could governments better enforce the Kimberley Process? The governments need to set up specific groups of people to watch and enforce all of its regulations throughout the excavation and trade of diamonds. If there is conflict they need to stop it with military assistance if necessary. If there is child labor they must stop that also. Also, a country can inspect the imports and exports of another country so that the monitoring can be more impartial and unbiased. . Should diamond industries be self-regulating? Yes, the system of self-regulation requires that all sectors of the diamond industry implement a system of written warranties and a code of conduct to keep inflict diamonds out of the legitimate diamond trade and to support the Kimberley Process. 5. What do you think the diamond industry should do to ensure that all diamonds are conflict free? They should develop a comprehensive, dubitable system to track diamonds from mine to point of sale. They should enforce laws to expose individuals that are causing conflicts.
Diamond industry must ensure that all diamond shipments be imported/exported in a secure manner accompanied by a government certificate stating that the diamonds are conflict free. 6. What steps do you think activists and consumers can take to ensure that Consumers should request a detailed information from jeweler about their conflict diamond policy and sourcing practices. This will put pressure on the diamond industry to put in place transparent, responsible supply chains and send a strong message to the trade that conflict diamonds will not be tolerated.
Also, consumers should boycott diamonds altogether, so there is no market for stones. This would make the diamond industry to respond to the consumer’s concerns 7. How could the diamond industry play a positive role in Cote divorce and other diamond producing nations? Diamond industry should do a better job of inspecting for conflict diamonds. They should abolish the trade of conflict diamonds, so that the diamond trade is still very profitable, but now also ethically correct. This increases a country’s stability and wealth as a whole. Diamond industry can create sizeable benefits to the economy in countries where they are sourced.
In these countries, diamonds have contributed to funding impressive economic growth and stability. Kimberley Process a) Describe in your own words what the Kimberley Process is and what its objectives are. The Kimberley Process an international diamond certification system established in 2003. It focuses exclusively on stopping the trade in conflict diamonds – defined by the Kimberley Process as diamonds that finance rebel movements seeking to overthrow national governments. The process was set up to ensure that diamond purchases were not financing violence by rebel movements and their allies seeking to undermine legitimate governments. ) Explain completely why some countries and the diamond industry decided to take part in it. A key motivation for some countries and the diamond industry to take part in his process was the recognition that the blood diamond issue could seriously damage the diamond industry’s integrity and undermine consumer confidence if not addressed. African producing countries were particularly concerned about consumer perceptions of African diamonds and how this could affect their ability to compete with diamonds from Russia, Canada and other countries.
They wanted to ensure that consumers could buy diamonds originating in any country and be confident that they were conflict-free. C) Explain why the Kimberley Process is seen by many as being a failure. Be Descriptive. Blood diamonds still exist and are entering the legitimate trade, despite the Kimberley Process. Although the scheme makes it more difficult for diamonds from rebel held areas to reach international markets, there are still significant weaknesses in the scheme that undermine its effectiveness and allow the trade in blood diamonds to continue.
A United Nations group of experts on Ivory Coast has recently found that poor controls are allowing significant volumes of conflict diamonds to enter the legitimate trade through Ghana, where they are being certified as conflict free, and through Mali. Many other diamond producing countries have weak government diamond controls that cannot guarantee the diamonds they export are conflict-free. D) Summarize what needs to be done to make it more successful in the future. To make the Kimberley Process more successful, its participants should strengthen government controls.
The Kimberley Process should require a set of specific controls to be implemented in every participant’s territory. Controls over the trade in diamonds in every country should underpin the Kimberley Process and ensure traceability from mine to export. Another thing that needs to be done s to increase government oversight of the diamond industry. As the industry has failed to police itself effectively, the Kimberley Process must step in and require the industry to set up dubitable systems to tackle blood diamonds at all points across the diamond pipeline.
To increase the transparency and openness of the Kimberley Process, the scheme should publish detailed statistical data on diamond production and trade. Statistical data is an important way to detect anomalies in the diamond trade that could indicate blood diamond trading The last thing that needs to be one is to finance the scheme. Greater and sustained resources are needed to better coordinate and strengthen implementation of the Kimberley Process. Blood Diamond a) How does Blood Diamond demonstrate challenges or difficulties to the achievement of sustainable prosperity for all?
The movie demonstrates achieving sustainable prosperity in a way that it destroys the people. In the movie, the diamond company’s motivation is greed and power. All they care is about the diamonds and the money, they didn’t even think about what happens to the people that do all the work to get the diamonds. People get their hands cut-off, some are forced to work on the mines, and some are lucky enough to take refuge. Danny Archer symbolizes power in the movie. The economy depends on his actions in the circulation of conflict diamonds.
Though the power represented by Danny is not of the positive one, but rather of the negative one. It is the power to abuse the people in order to gain something and leave them with nothing. Challenges and difficulties are tribal warfare, commercial exploitation, the brutal conscription and indoctrination of boy soldiers, the indifference of the West to a blighted intention. These are the conflicts that greedy people doesn’t know about when they are trying to live a satisfying life.
This proves that we can’t make the world prosperous without destroying it. B) How does Blood Diamond demonstrate progress toward the achievement of sustainable prosperity for all? The progress toward achieving sustainable prosperity is seen at the end of the movie when countries set up the Kimberley Process to prevent the trade in diamonds that fund conflict. This was supposed to make people aware about blood diamonds. Unfortunately, the Kimberley Process is easily evaded by amend smugglers that is why it is seen as a failure by many people. ) Explain in detail who you believe is most responsible for the conflict of diamond issues in countries like Sierra Leone, and explain what those responsible must do in order to stop these issues. In my opinion, I think that the one who is the most responsible for the conflict diamond is the industry. They are centered in greed and are the ones who actually are taking advantage of people. The world organizations and governments need to step in and monitor the industry because they have the power to do so. You need power to do anything.
