Brandon+-+ASID+-+SP13


 * Identify the Character: He was a politician in Liberia and he traded weapons to the rebels in the Sierra Leone civil war in exchange for blood diamonds. He was supplying the rebels weapons to help them get an advantage in the civil war for blood diamonds because the rebels were controlling the diamond mines in Sierra Leone. **


 * The country which the character represents: In Sierra Leone the civil war has broken the country into two parts and the rebels had the side that most of the diamond mines were located on so they decided to take the advantage of the mines and traded with a neighboring country to get more weapons to help them in the fight. The diamonds that they were mining were illegal and were not supposed to be mined but they were rebelling so it didn’t really matter. After the civil war the country was left broken and beaten. At the place where the mines were there was no roads and sign of life anywhere. **


 * Characters previous occupation: Charles Taylor worked in the government in Liberia and was removed for embezzlement in 1984. Then he went to Libya and led a resistance group back to Liberia to take over the government and he gained control of most of Liberia and eventually got elected to office in 1997 when he decided to help the rebels in Sierra Leone in exchange for blood diamonds and then was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for helping them and resigned from office in 2003, a year after the civil war in Sierra Leone ended. **


 * 3 references that reflect characters ideas: Three different people or organizations that can support Charles Taylor is Jonas Savimbi because he gives the diamonds for things and Charles supplied weapons for the blood diamonds. Another organization is the RUF in Sierra Leone because Charles actually did supply them with weapons for blood diamonds. A final organization that can support Charles is the NPFL because they were the people that Charles led when he took over Liberia and became president. **


 * How does your character measure against these four benchmarks? **


 * Safety and Rule of Law: Charles Taylor was a man who wanted power and he gathered a group of people to take over the government in Liberia and when he gained control of most of the country he became president. He didn’t really care about safety and just ran the country bad because he aided in child soldiers and caused the deaths and displacement of many citizens in Sierra Leone. **


 * Participation and Human Rights: Charles won the election fairly but I feel like it shouldn’t have been him that won because he was a bad president and was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. But he did give everyone their rights and was fair about running the country but just got too greedy and helped kill a ton of people. **


 * Sustainable Economic Opportunity: Again he was pretty good when he was running the country and making everything right but he just made a bad decision and it came back to bite him in the end. He made the country work fine its just he wasn’t the right man for the position because he was too greedy. **


 * Human Development: Charles did not have any problems with any of these things and he did an ok job at keeping the country stable and did not cause any big problems in that section. **

** Works Cited  **
 * "Charles G. Taylor." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. **
 * "Revolutionary United Front." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. **
 * ** "Sierra Leone Civil War." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.  ** **