Blood Diamond?? Stay home and wash your underwear…(mother hen - right as always, lol)

Last night was the screening of Blood Diamond at Mamba Point (a horrible ex-pat bar/restaurant that packs out with NGO workers, UN personnel, high commissioners and the like)…BUT it plays movies every Tuesday and is the only place to see recently released movies on a biggish screen in Freetown…So anyways, intrigued by how Hollywood had portrayed Sierra Leone in this new blockbuster starring DiCaprio….we went along..

WHY, why, WHY do I always have such high hopes for these STUPID films!!!!?? If you haven't seen Blood Diamond yet, please don't let me put you off, but please keep in mind that....

First of all, the entire film was shot in Mozambique, WHY!? Kono district (which was mispronounced all the way through the film), is home to many mining companies, so understandably these companies may not have wanted a Hollywood filmcrew wandering around, (because they have mined and exploited the landscape so much it has become dangerous for people to walk around without falling into enormous holes created by blasting), but surely they could have filmed the Freetown scenes IN Freetown?? The war is long over, there is no reason why they couldn't have filmed in country. The backdrop was unrealistic, and very un-Salonean.

The other thing that annoyed me the most is the fact that the hero of the day was Di Caprio – who plays the part of a white Zimbabwean!! Oh my days. Need I say more??? So Blood Diamonds, in short, is all about a white Zimbabwean who smuggles conflict diamonds across the border to Liberia, who ends up being a martry by dying and in the meanwhile saving poor ole Soloman, the poor Salonean man and his child soldier, Dia. Oh pleeeease, how bad can it get! Good one Hollywood – good reinforcement of people's wrong pre-conceptions – this is a film aimed at White audiences – to make them feel good; so how are Salone people supposed to feel when they watch it?? Think about it.

If you do go see it, please remember that Sierra Leone was not saved by such shady characters.

For those of you who have chosen not to see the film for whatever reason (genius), and for those of you who were intrigued like me and did see it (optimist), and well, even for those of you who liked it (?!^*@>), you may also want to check out: http://www.hostgallery.co.uk/
They've got an exhibition going, which is due to end soon, so London folks, get down there to see it (and then drop me a line to let me know if it's any good, lol)!

If you want a good read, read this: Blood Diamonds by Greg Campbell.

Also check out an NGO called Global Witness: http://www.globalwitness.org/

Hope you lot are well. Peace. X