It Will Cost You Everything
Civil war rages for control of the diamond fields.
Thousands have died and millions have become refugees.
None of whom has ever seen a diamond.
The government wants you to vote, okay?
They gonna tell you say, 'the future is in your hands.'
We now the future.
So we take your hands.
No more hands, no more voting.
Spread the word, The Revolutionary United Front is coming.
~Captain Poison
[in the government prison]
Captain Poison: Hey, what did you do with it?
I'm talking to you, you hear me?
Where the diamond? The pink one.
I saw you take it.
Solomon: You're mad. I do not know you.
Captain Poison: Liar!
I saw it with my own eyes.
This big, biggest I have ever seen.
My brothers... I go give $1000 to the man who cuts the diamond out of this bastard.
Solomon: You the craze!
Where is the diamond?! Where is the diamond?! [strip his cloth]
Do you see a diamond?
You devils have taken my family, my home!
I done lost everything!
Here, look! What is left?! What is left?!
If there is a diamond, you are the one who has taken it!
Danny: Don't tell me you're here to make a difference.
Maddie: And you're here to make a buck?
Danny: I'm here for lack of a better idea.
Maddie: That's a shame.
Danny: Not really.
Peace Corps types only stay around long enough to realize they're not helping anyone.
Governments only wants to stay in power until they've stolen enough to go into exile somewhere else.
And the rebels, they're not sure they want to take over.
Otherwise, they'd have to govern this mess.
But, TIA.
Maddie: What's TIA?
Danny: This Is Africa.
Maddie: So, which one are you?
Smuggler?
Danny: Am I?
Maddie: Somehow you don't strike me as the UNICEF type.
Danny: How about soldier of fortune?
Or is that too much of a cliche?
Maddie: Diamonds?
Danny: If I told you I was a missionary?
Maddie: For Van De Kaap?
Danny: Better watch that type of talk, Miss Bowen.
In America, it's bling-bling, but out here, it's bling-bang.
I wouldn't want you getting in any trouble.
Maddie: How much trouble do you think I would get into for talking about blood diamonds?
Danny: You're a journalist.
Maddie: That's right.
Danny: Piss off!
Maddie: For 5 years, this country has reported almost no diamond exports,
while Liberia, right next door, has exported 2 billion dollars' worth.
Very odd, considering that Liberia has no diamonds to speak of.
Danny: I'm shocked.
Maddie: Van De Kaap denies trading blood diamonds, but admits it's impossible to tell where a diamond comes from unless their smuggler gets caught.
Danny: What do you want from me?
Maddie: You know all about Van De Kaap.
Help me out. Off the record.
Danny: Well, off the record, I like to get kissed before I get fucked.
Your parents are weak.
They're the farmers, they're the fishermen.
They've done nothing but suck the blood from this country.
But you are the heroes who will save this nation.
You are not children anymore, you're a man.
No one has ever given you respect, but with this in your hand [hold the gun], they go fear you.
If you do not get the respect you deserve, you will take it by shedding their blood.
~RUF Trainer
Danny: So what's new, M'Ed?
M'Ed: Fucking RUF.
Tried to hit the government building across the street.
Shit, man, half the people be soldiers today, RUF tomorrow.
Danny: Might be time to get your family out, huh?
M'Ed: And go where?
Just fire up the chopper and fly away like you people?
This my country, man.
We here long before you came, long after you gone.
Maddie: Is it possible that you don't care how many people die because of the deals you do?
Danny: People here kill each other as a way of life.
It's always been like that.
Maddie: So you can just watch it and go about your day?
Danny: Maybe we should all just write about it, then.
Danny: You sell blood diamonds too.
Maddie: Really? Tell me, how is that?
Danny: Who do you think buys the stone that I bring out?
Dreamy American girls who all want a storybook wedding and a big, shiny rock,
just like the ones in the advertisements of your politically-correct magazines.
So, please, don't come here and make judgements on me, all right?
I provide a service.
The world wants what we have, and they want it cheap.
We're in business together, so get over yourself, darling.
Maddie: Okay, just to clarify, not all American girls want a storybook wedding
just like not all Africans kill each other as a way of life.
And yeah, it's a shit, shit world, but you know what?
Good things are done every day, just, apparently, not by you.
Danny: Come on, look, you've got access to UN databases.
You can track his family for him.
Maddie: Why?
This whole country's at war.
Why should I help just one person?
I can't believe I just said that.
Danny: Do you know that Solomon thinks his son's gonna be a doctor one day?
Maybe his baby dies in that camp.
Maybe his daughter gets raped.
Who knows, maybe both.
Do you realize that diamond is the only chance he has of getting his family out?
Maddie: You don't give a rat's ass about his family.
Danny: Do you understand that?
Danny: After I smuggle the stones across the border,
local buyers get them to a middleman in Monrovia.
Maddie: Go on.
Danny: He pays off Customs and then certifies that the diamonds were mined in Liberia.
That way, they can be legally exported.
Once they've reached the buyers in Antwerp,
diamonds are brought to the sorting tables, no more questions are asked.
By the time they get to India, the dirty stones are mixed with the clean stones from all over the world
and then they become like any other diamonds.
Maddie: And Van De Kaap knows about all this?
Danny: Yeah.
When I get to London, I meet with Simmons.
Supply and demand.
You control the supply and you keep the demand high.
Now, there's an underground vault where they put all the stones they buy up to keep off the market, so they can keep the price high.
If rebels wanna flood the market with a billion dollars' worth of rough a company like Van De Kaap,
who says that they're rare, can't afford to let that happen.
Especially when they're telling some poor sod he's supposed to shell out 3 months' salary for an engagement ring.
Technically speaking, they're not financing the war, but creating a situation where it pays to keep it going.
Maddie: And where's my proof?
Danny, show her the book: Names, dates and numbered accounts.
You publish one word of this story before I give them the stone, I'm dead.
After I give it to them, then, I leave this continent forever.
Maddie: If you don't come out with the diamond?
Danny: Then write whatever you want.
I'm already dead.
Benjamin: I have known most of the rebels since they were children.
The local commander is still afraid I will come after him with my ruler.
Danny: So you think because your intentions are good, they'll spare you, huh?
Benjamin: My heart always told me that people are inherently good.
My experience suggests otherwise.
What about you, Mr. Archer?
In your long career as a journalist would you say that people are mostly good?
Danny: No. I'd say they're just people.
Benjamin: Exactly.
It is what they do that makes them good or bad.
A moment of love, even in a bad man can give meaning to a life.
None of us knows which path will lead us to God.
My Mom was raped and shot
and Dad was decapitated and hung from a hook in the barn.
I was 9.
Sometimes I wonder, will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other?
Then I look around and I realize, God left this place a long time ago.
~Danny Archer
Solomon: You are how old?
Danny: Me? I'm 31.
Solomon: And you have no wife?
Danny: No.
Solomon: No children?
Danny: No.
Solomon: And no home?
Danny: No.
Solomon: But you have money, yes?
Danny: Yeah, some.
Solomon: But not enough?
Danny: No.
Solomon: If you get this diamond, you will have enough money, yes?
Danny: Yes.
Solomon: Then you will get a wife and children?
Danny: Probably not, no.
Solomon: I am confused.
Danny: That makes 2 of us, my bru.
My grandfather told many stories of war.
How the Mende fought the Temne.
Or how 2 tribes would fight when somebody had stolen a woman.
I understand white people want our diamonds, yes?
But how can my own people do this to each other?
~Solomon Vandy
Solomon: You are going to kill me anyway.
Captain Poison: I do not need to kill you, Solomon Vandy.
If you do not bring me the diamond, I will find the rest of your family.
Just as I have found your son.
I will rape your wife in front of your eyes, slit her throat,
and I will keep your daughters for myself.
You think I am a devil, but only because I have lived in hell.
I want to get out.
You will help me.
I know they made you do bad things, but you are not a bad boy.
I am your father who loves you.
And you will come home with me and be my son again.
~Solomon Vandy
Maddie: You tell me where you are.
Danny: I'm looking at an incredible view right now.
I wish you were here, Maddie.
Maddie: Okay, then I'm coming to be with you.
You just tell me where you are.
Danny: I don't think so.
Maddie: Are you still in Kono?
Because I can get someone there to help you.
Danny: Maddie, you find someplace safe for the boy, all right?
And keep him out of sight.
And get Solomon to London.
He's bringing something with him.
But he's gonna need your help.
Maddie: Why aren't you bringing it yourself?
Danny: I'm saying it's a real story now.
And you can write the hell out of it.
I'm really happy I met you, you know that?
Maddie: Yeah... I'm really happy I met you too.
And I wish I could be there with you.
Danny: That's all right. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.
In January 2003, 40 nations signed 'The Kimberley Process',
an effort to stem the flow of conflict diamonds.
But illegal diamonds are still finding their way to market.
It is up to the consumer to insist that a diamond is conflict-free.
Sierra Leone is at peace.
There are still 200,000 child soldiers in Africa.
*****
Civil war rages for control of the diamond fields.
Thousands have died and millions have become refugees.
None of whom has ever seen a diamond.
The government wants you to vote, okay?
They gonna tell you say, 'the future is in your hands.'
We now the future.
So we take your hands.
No more hands, no more voting.
Spread the word, The Revolutionary United Front is coming.
~Captain Poison
[in the government prison]
Captain Poison: Hey, what did you do with it?
I'm talking to you, you hear me?
Where the diamond? The pink one.
I saw you take it.
Solomon: You're mad. I do not know you.
Captain Poison: Liar!
I saw it with my own eyes.
This big, biggest I have ever seen.
My brothers... I go give $1000 to the man who cuts the diamond out of this bastard.
Solomon: You the craze!
Where is the diamond?! Where is the diamond?! [strip his cloth]
Do you see a diamond?
You devils have taken my family, my home!
I done lost everything!
Here, look! What is left?! What is left?!
If there is a diamond, you are the one who has taken it!
Danny: Don't tell me you're here to make a difference.
Maddie: And you're here to make a buck?
Danny: I'm here for lack of a better idea.
Maddie: That's a shame.
Danny: Not really.
Peace Corps types only stay around long enough to realize they're not helping anyone.
Governments only wants to stay in power until they've stolen enough to go into exile somewhere else.
And the rebels, they're not sure they want to take over.
Otherwise, they'd have to govern this mess.
But, TIA.
Maddie: What's TIA?
Danny: This Is Africa.
Maddie: So, which one are you?
Smuggler?
Danny: Am I?
Maddie: Somehow you don't strike me as the UNICEF type.
Danny: How about soldier of fortune?
Or is that too much of a cliche?
Maddie: Diamonds?
Danny: If I told you I was a missionary?
Maddie: For Van De Kaap?
Danny: Better watch that type of talk, Miss Bowen.
In America, it's bling-bling, but out here, it's bling-bang.
I wouldn't want you getting in any trouble.
Maddie: How much trouble do you think I would get into for talking about blood diamonds?
Danny: You're a journalist.
Maddie: That's right.
Danny: Piss off!
Maddie: For 5 years, this country has reported almost no diamond exports,
while Liberia, right next door, has exported 2 billion dollars' worth.
Very odd, considering that Liberia has no diamonds to speak of.
Danny: I'm shocked.
Maddie: Van De Kaap denies trading blood diamonds, but admits it's impossible to tell where a diamond comes from unless their smuggler gets caught.
Danny: What do you want from me?
Maddie: You know all about Van De Kaap.
Help me out. Off the record.
Danny: Well, off the record, I like to get kissed before I get fucked.
Your parents are weak.
They're the farmers, they're the fishermen.
They've done nothing but suck the blood from this country.
But you are the heroes who will save this nation.
You are not children anymore, you're a man.
No one has ever given you respect, but with this in your hand [hold the gun], they go fear you.
If you do not get the respect you deserve, you will take it by shedding their blood.
~RUF Trainer
Danny: So what's new, M'Ed?
M'Ed: Fucking RUF.
Tried to hit the government building across the street.
Shit, man, half the people be soldiers today, RUF tomorrow.
Danny: Might be time to get your family out, huh?
M'Ed: And go where?
Just fire up the chopper and fly away like you people?
This my country, man.
We here long before you came, long after you gone.
Maddie: Is it possible that you don't care how many people die because of the deals you do?
Danny: People here kill each other as a way of life.
It's always been like that.
Maddie: So you can just watch it and go about your day?
Danny: Maybe we should all just write about it, then.
Danny: You sell blood diamonds too.
Maddie: Really? Tell me, how is that?
Danny: Who do you think buys the stone that I bring out?
Dreamy American girls who all want a storybook wedding and a big, shiny rock,
just like the ones in the advertisements of your politically-correct magazines.
So, please, don't come here and make judgements on me, all right?
I provide a service.
The world wants what we have, and they want it cheap.
We're in business together, so get over yourself, darling.
Maddie: Okay, just to clarify, not all American girls want a storybook wedding
just like not all Africans kill each other as a way of life.
And yeah, it's a shit, shit world, but you know what?
Good things are done every day, just, apparently, not by you.
Danny: Come on, look, you've got access to UN databases.
You can track his family for him.
Maddie: Why?
This whole country's at war.
Why should I help just one person?
I can't believe I just said that.
Danny: Do you know that Solomon thinks his son's gonna be a doctor one day?
Maybe his baby dies in that camp.
Maybe his daughter gets raped.
Who knows, maybe both.
Do you realize that diamond is the only chance he has of getting his family out?
Maddie: You don't give a rat's ass about his family.
Danny: Do you understand that?
Danny: After I smuggle the stones across the border,
local buyers get them to a middleman in Monrovia.
Maddie: Go on.
Danny: He pays off Customs and then certifies that the diamonds were mined in Liberia.
That way, they can be legally exported.
Once they've reached the buyers in Antwerp,
diamonds are brought to the sorting tables, no more questions are asked.
By the time they get to India, the dirty stones are mixed with the clean stones from all over the world
and then they become like any other diamonds.
Maddie: And Van De Kaap knows about all this?
Danny: Yeah.
When I get to London, I meet with Simmons.
Supply and demand.
You control the supply and you keep the demand high.
Now, there's an underground vault where they put all the stones they buy up to keep off the market, so they can keep the price high.
If rebels wanna flood the market with a billion dollars' worth of rough a company like Van De Kaap,
who says that they're rare, can't afford to let that happen.
Especially when they're telling some poor sod he's supposed to shell out 3 months' salary for an engagement ring.
Technically speaking, they're not financing the war, but creating a situation where it pays to keep it going.
Maddie: And where's my proof?
Danny, show her the book: Names, dates and numbered accounts.
You publish one word of this story before I give them the stone, I'm dead.
After I give it to them, then, I leave this continent forever.
Maddie: If you don't come out with the diamond?
Danny: Then write whatever you want.
I'm already dead.
Benjamin: I have known most of the rebels since they were children.
The local commander is still afraid I will come after him with my ruler.
Danny: So you think because your intentions are good, they'll spare you, huh?
Benjamin: My heart always told me that people are inherently good.
My experience suggests otherwise.
What about you, Mr. Archer?
In your long career as a journalist would you say that people are mostly good?
Danny: No. I'd say they're just people.
Benjamin: Exactly.
It is what they do that makes them good or bad.
A moment of love, even in a bad man can give meaning to a life.
None of us knows which path will lead us to God.
My Mom was raped and shot
and Dad was decapitated and hung from a hook in the barn.
I was 9.
Sometimes I wonder, will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other?
Then I look around and I realize, God left this place a long time ago.
~Danny Archer
Solomon: You are how old?
Danny: Me? I'm 31.
Solomon: And you have no wife?
Danny: No.
Solomon: No children?
Danny: No.
Solomon: And no home?
Danny: No.
Solomon: But you have money, yes?
Danny: Yeah, some.
Solomon: But not enough?
Danny: No.
Solomon: If you get this diamond, you will have enough money, yes?
Danny: Yes.
Solomon: Then you will get a wife and children?
Danny: Probably not, no.
Solomon: I am confused.
Danny: That makes 2 of us, my bru.
My grandfather told many stories of war.
How the Mende fought the Temne.
Or how 2 tribes would fight when somebody had stolen a woman.
I understand white people want our diamonds, yes?
But how can my own people do this to each other?
~Solomon Vandy
Solomon: You are going to kill me anyway.
Captain Poison: I do not need to kill you, Solomon Vandy.
If you do not bring me the diamond, I will find the rest of your family.
Just as I have found your son.
I will rape your wife in front of your eyes, slit her throat,
and I will keep your daughters for myself.
You think I am a devil, but only because I have lived in hell.
I want to get out.
You will help me.
I know they made you do bad things, but you are not a bad boy.
I am your father who loves you.
And you will come home with me and be my son again.
~Solomon Vandy
Maddie: You tell me where you are.
Danny: I'm looking at an incredible view right now.
I wish you were here, Maddie.
Maddie: Okay, then I'm coming to be with you.
You just tell me where you are.
Danny: I don't think so.
Maddie: Are you still in Kono?
Because I can get someone there to help you.
Danny: Maddie, you find someplace safe for the boy, all right?
And keep him out of sight.
And get Solomon to London.
He's bringing something with him.
But he's gonna need your help.
Maddie: Why aren't you bringing it yourself?
Danny: I'm saying it's a real story now.
And you can write the hell out of it.
I'm really happy I met you, you know that?
Maddie: Yeah... I'm really happy I met you too.
And I wish I could be there with you.
Danny: That's all right. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.
In January 2003, 40 nations signed 'The Kimberley Process',
an effort to stem the flow of conflict diamonds.
But illegal diamonds are still finding their way to market.
It is up to the consumer to insist that a diamond is conflict-free.
Sierra Leone is at peace.
There are still 200,000 child soldiers in Africa.
*****