T.I.A… Right, M’ed? T.I.A. What’s T.I.A.?

Fair question. However, before I answer, let me give you the fuller context.

The titular line is from a 2006 film: Blood Diamond. It is fiction. Yet there are some kernels of truth to its social message. Moreover, the director tries to appeal to the broader consumer worldwide base – especially in America – that purchasing that big, shiny rock engagement ring – that requires on average three months salary – comes with a steeper cost. Blood or ‘conflict’ diamonds in all their marketing glitz belie a tragic story that stretches far and wide beyond the satisfied consumer’s grasp. Truth is this: so many African countries export these gems with little regard for their own peoples.

The price

Many workers wind up maimed, even dead. That is the price for their working the mines usually controlled by an outside foreign entity. In re, transnational corporations’ sole motive is profit driven – at any human cost – given that the owners answer to no one.

Well, that was the case until the international community got involved. During Sierra Leone’s 1990’s civil war, rebels from the Revolutionary United Front seized much of the mining operations as well as the capital Freetown. That event forced the existing government into exile. It was also a clarion call to market regulators and foreign governments: That they must now recognize the exploitation of the workers, both economically and in terms of human sacrifice. The gem market’s appetite for illicit export diamonds went unchecked for decades all the while the major players cleverly hid this cost. That had to stop.

Kimberly Process

The result was that the Kimberly Process was enacted in 2000. Participants whether governments, administrations, and market participants all agreed and thereby set out the framework for essentially banning rough diamonds via conflict zones from ever reaching the consumer market.

That is where T.I.A. fits in the film. Danny Archer, an ex Rhodie mercenary now diamond smuggler poses the rhetorical question to a native bartender, M’ed – No, not Dmitry – to make his nihilist point. Not familiar with the meme, intrepid American journalist, Maddy Bowen, who is trying to get proof on the nature and source of those controlling the ‘blood diamond’ trade, asks for clarification. “What’s T.I.A.?”

Archer, who cannot contain his cynicism, acquaints her with reality. “This is Africa!”

There is a real case to be made here, that T.I.A. is not exclusive to blood diamonds or Africa.

Consider the present days. Not many folk would disagree that the world right now is undergoing tumultuous upheaval. Each day the news cycle is even more troubling than yesterday’s events.

Russia’s 2022 Special Military Operation in the Ukraine comes to mind. Now in its eighth month, the stakes could not be higher. A peace negotiation, despite Russia’s willingness to sit down with Kiev’s junta ‘leadership’, increasingly seems unlikely. That ship already sailed in March; right after NATO dispatched their lackey and soon to be deposed, disgraced UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in a surprise visit to Kiev.

His – Actually, NATO’s as well as America’s – message: No peace negotiations with the Kremlin.

None!

 Clear enough.

The stage was now set. Enter the nuclear option. That was not at Moscow’s behest; rather, the nuke threat originated in Washington, DC. Cloaked in secrecy, War hawks in the Pentagon, at C.I.A headquarters in Langley Virginia, as well as in the State Department decided to up the ante. Russia was and is still America’s biggest existential threat.

The Kremlin had to respond. Someone in President Putin’s inner circle of advisors could just as easily posit a similar meme. “T.I.A… Right Med? T.I.A!”

This time though, Dmitry Medvedev would not question, “What’s T.I.A?”

Everyone there knew. “This is Armageddon.”

It is apropos; I quote another gem of a Blood Diamond meme. Danny Archer chastises Maddy Bowen for her inquisitive journalistic nature. “In America… It is bling-bling. Out here… It is Bling-Bang. I would not want you getting in trouble asking about blood diamonds.”

Tell a lie. Most anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of world affairs knows the truth. America – the ruling cabal – is not about bling-bling. Not at all. That ilk though is committed to Bling-Bang!

Just look at all seven continents. Name even one where their powder burned fingers are not behind regime change covert ops to satisfy their goals: More hegemony by the exceptional people. Nothing less.

Montresor