let it rock your soul

This is kind of like my quote of the week. (Read the "rules" for my Quotes of the Week and you'll know that I did not hear this quote this week.) It's powerful stuff. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since I heard it!

Crystal and I watched Blood Diamond around 6 months ago. We bought it like over a year ago but didn't watch it until a few of my friends told me it was the best movie ever made! (We have a habit of buying movies & then watching them a year later...) It is a great movie overall (nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor *but not the best ever for sure) - very similar to a couple other movies we own: Hotel Rwanda and Tears of the Sun (both better than Blood Diamond). "Double Trouble" sort of = Entertaining but also teaching something and opening eyes to injustice in Africa.

The title refers to "blood diamonds", which are diamonds mined in African war zones and the profits actually finance the war and profit the warlords and the diamond companies across the world. It takes place during the Sierra Leone Civil War in the 90s when the country was torn apart by the war between government soldiers and rebel forces.

So let's just get to this quote. I actually pulled the clip off our DVD so you all could see it. The man (Solomon) is from Sierra Leone and his family is in a refugee camp... he cannot be with them. His elementary age son has been kidnapped by the rebel army and forced to become a child soldier. The woman (Mandy) is an American journalist.

It's only like 10 seconds long. just click play:

Solomon: "You are writing about what is happening here?"

Mandy : "Yes."

Solomon: "So when people in your country read it they will come help us, yes?"

Mandy: "Probably not."

Whoa.

(I'll leave you to think on that like & let it rock your soul like it did me... then I'll post the rest tomorrow.)