This image is of a black woman’s hand with a huge diamond ring on her ring finger, but there is no arm attached, because her hand was cut off at the wrist. The cut is not a clean cut, but one sloppily done by the blade of a monster. Diamonds are seen as a sign of wealth, especially in marriage, the more diamonds on a ring, the better; or so people think, but only because no one knows the roots of these diamonds. The text says, “For every hand taken in marriage, another hand is taken away. To secure that their enslaved workers wouldn’t steal them, conflict diamond Guerillas would cut off one of their hands. Beauty isn’t worth death.” This image is geared towards diamond consumers, because no one is told where these diamonds came from, and who the people were who got the diamonds. Most people don’t know that children are forced into these so called jobs in Africa , where a diamond Guerilla is the boss of this business, and they force children to search for diamonds because they are small enough to fit into the small spaces where the diamonds lie. Diamond consumers are wearing these diamonds, not knowing the consequences these children had to suffer. Their hand is cut off with the blade of the diamond Guerilla to ensure that diamonds are not stolen while they are searching for them because if one of the children gets a diamond, they could be free from this slavery. The first text, “For every hand taken in marriage, another hand is taken away” is italicized, to signify elegance and beauty, like a diamond. Italicized words are associated with the text found a wedding invitation, it looks beautiful and elegant, but with this text, the meanings behind these elegant strokes are ones of pure evil, loss of innocence, and hopelessness. The text is also ironic, because when one gets married, it is said that their hand is being taken fro marriage, but the meaning behind it is that although their hand is being taken by the one they love, a child’s hand is being taken for the happiness of this newly wed couple. This PSA is meant to reach out to the uneducated civilians on this horrific and saddening war. The bloody, severed hand, with the diamond ring is an extremely powerful tactic, where it causes the audience to connect on a personal level, because this PSA is assuming that their audience either owns diamonds, or knows of someone who does, and they are here to educate. It says how beauty is not worth death, because by purchasing diamonds, that is supporting these diamond Guerillas. Buying diamonds gets them money, and as long as people keep buying, children will continue dying. This PSA is meant to encourage people to stop buying diamonds, because although they are beautiful, a child is dying over in Africa for you. The hand is that of a black woman, where the hand looks aged and by the color of the finger nails, it appears that this could be the hand of someone who works with dirt. This is a direct relation to the severed hands of the child slaves in Africa , but on the hand is that diamond ring, from the diamonds they had to scavenge for, and lose their hand for. In the bottom corner is a small black image of Africa, where an upside down red triangle sits in the bulge of Africa . This could resemble the location of where this blood diamond, guerilla warfare is taking place. The colors are all so dark, because dark colors are associated with death and terror, but the red of the blood is eye piercing, so vibrant, as if the hand was just freshly severed from the arm of an innocent child. And the diamond ring stands out, with its glistening colors, because diamonds have the connotation of beauty, but from knowledge and words of this PSA, the audience will no longer see beauty, but ugliness, because the roots of these diamonds are truly ugly.
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