AFRICA: BLOOD DIAMONS

Blood Diamonds, also known as “Conflict Diamonds” are stones that are produced in areas controlled by rebel forces that are opposed to internationally recognized governments. The rebels sell these diamonds, and the money is used to purchase arms or to fund their military actions. Blood Diamonds are often produced through the forced labor of men, women and children. They are also stolen during shipment or seized by attacking the mining operations of legitimate producers. These attacks can be on the scale of a large military operation. The stones are then smuggled into the international diamond trade and sold as legitimate gems. These diamonds are often the main source of funding for the rebels, however, arms merchants, smugglers and dishonest diamond traders enable their actions. Enormous amounts of money are at stake and bribes, threats, torture, and murder are modes of operation. This is why the term "blood diamonds" is used.
The flow of Conflict Diamonds has originated mainly from Sierra Leone, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Ivory Coast. The United Nations and other groups are working to block the entry of conflict diamonds into the worldwide diamond trade. Their approach has been to develop a government certification procedure known as the “Kimberly Process”. This procedure requires each nation to certify that all rough diamond exports are produced through legitimate mining and sales activity. All rough diamonds exported from these nations are to be accompanied by certificates. These certificates state that the diamonds were produced, sold and exported through legitimate channels. The certification process accounts for all rough diamonds, through every step of their movement, from mine to retail sale. Retail customers buying a cut diamond are encouraged to insist upon a sales receipt that documents that their diamond originated from a conflict free source.
Some cases of this conflict were:

Angola
Angola, colony of Portugal, gained independence on November 11, 1975. Although independent, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) fought in civil war from 1974 to 2001. Between 1992 and 1998, in violation of the 1991 Bicesse Accords, UNITA sold diamonds to to finance its war with the government. The UN recognized the role that diamonds played in funding the UNITA rebels, and in 1998, passed United Nations Security Council Resolution 1173 and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1176, banning the purchase of conflict diamonds from Angola.

Liberia
From 1989 to 2001 Liberia was engaged in a civil war. In 2000, the UN accused Liberian president Charles G. Taylor of supporting the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) insurgency in neighboring Sierra Leone with weapons and training in exchange for diamonds. In 2001 the UN applied sanctions on the Liberian diamond trade. In August 2003 Taylor stepped down as president, and after being exiled to Nigeria, now faces trial in The Hague.
Liberia today is at peace and is attempting to construct a legitimate diamond mining industry. The UN has lifted sanctions and Liberia is now a member of the Kimberley Process

Sierra Leone
In July 1999, following over eight years of civil conflict, negotiations between the Government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front led to the signing of the Lome Peace Agreement under which the parties agreed to the cessation of hostilities, disarmament of all combatants and the formation of a government of national unity. The United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) helped facilitate the negotiations. In resolution 1270 of 22 October 1999, the Security Council established the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) to help create the conditions in which the parties could implement the Agreement.

http://geology.com/articles/blood-diamonds.shtml

http://www.amnestyusa.org/business-and-human-rights/conflict-diamonds/page.do?id=1051176

http://www.un.org/peace/africa/Diamond.html

1. What is Ubuntu? How was it applied to support the merging process of the two companies? (3 examples).

The Ubuntu is a philosophical thought system which embodies the beliefs, values, and behaviors of a large majority of the South African population. Ubuntu can be defined as humaneness, a pervasive spirit of caring and community, harmony and hospitality, respect and responsiveness that individuals and groups display for one another. 3 examples of how ubuntu supports the merging process are:

1. Holding periodically company-sponsored events and ceremonies, in order to break the psychological impasse created by supervisors that discourage conversation and other forms of socializing in the work place. Ubuntu have an extremely rich repertoire of rituals and attending forms of music and singing, dance, and the eloquent verbal expressions of praise singers.

2. Time, in the ubuntu context, is reflected as a unifying and integrating construct that emphasizes interdependence, shared heritage, regularity, and congruity. Furthermore, time is not experienced only in the present; it also heals past experiences and allows for reflection.

3. In the ubuntu context, the emphasis is on social well-being rather than on technical rationality. The objective is to optimize efficiency rather than to maximize it, and that allows higher priority for peaceful and harmonious relationships. In this context, an optimized solution is one that leads to the most favored outcome by a much wider group of stakeholders in the long run. In the short run, this will yield lower efficiencies than the maximized solution.'' Attempts to maximize efficiency often incur the cost of fractured relationships, and social disruption can have unintended consequences.

Mangaliso, Mzamo. 2003. Building competitive advantage from Ubuntu. In Thomas, David Clinton, editor, Readings and cases in International Management: A cross-cultural perspective.