Diamonds and war in Sierra Leone: Cultural strategies for commercial adaptation to endemic low-intensity conflict

West African trade is highly ethnicised to ensure commercial success in the face of adverse environmental conditions and lack of basic institutions. The maintenance of trust and the enforcement of contracts are, as elsewhere, key elements in the pursuit of sustainable enterprise. Building on core literature that examines both the use of ethnicity in trade and the nature of African clandestine trade, the thesis addresses the ways in which social groups construct solutions to problems that arise in high-risk settings. The work focuses on the Sierra Leone diamond industry and is organised in chapters that describe the major market players and their tactical approaches. There is particular emphasis on how these systems have changed over time, identifying the gambits used to extract diamonds. Beginning with the introduction of the 1956 Alluvial Diamond Mining Scheme, the thesis traces the emergence of Lebanese Shi'ite and Maronite competition in the Sierra Leone diamond trade, and extends through the period following the 1991 Revolutionary United Front incursion. In the face of political turmoil and virtual State collapse, industrial participants have been obliged to formulate flexible, locally-specific strategies to ensure commercial success. As diamonds have become scarcer and more dangerous to find, the sectarian Shi'ites have shown greater effectiveness in weathering adversity than their rivals. The thesis then examines the strategies of local-born players in the trade. As Kono, the principal diamond field, has become overworked, the market axis has recently shifted to the more southerly, Mende controlled, Tongo and Zimmi regions. Competition in these areas between a coalition of northern-based soldiery and youth, and the Mende-aligned kamajoisia militia, has been the cause of protracted conflict since mid-1997. Kamajoisia fighters, under social obligation to mine without the prospect of immediate pay, have succeeded in maintaining production for elite groups when investment capital has been non-existent. This militia domination has radically altered the industrial landscape. Lebanese participation has become highly condensed while militaristic multi-nationals have failed to expand to their expected potential

Diamonds and war in Sierra Leone: cultural strategies for commercial adaptation to endemic low-intensity conflict

West African trade is highly ethnicised to ensure commercial success in the face of adverse environmental conditions and lack of basic institutions. The maintenance of trust and the enforcement of contracts are, as elsewhere, key elements in the pursuit of sustainable enterprise. Building on core literature that examines both the use of ethnicity in trade and the nature of African clandestine trade, the thesis addresses the ways in which social groups construct solutions to problems that arise in high-risk settings. The work focuses on the Sierra Leone diamond industry and is organised in chapters that describe the major market players and their tactical approaches. There is particular emphasis on how these systems have changed over time, identifying the gambits used to extract diamonds. Beginning with the introduction of the 1956 Alluvial Diamond Mining Scheme, the thesis traces the emergence of Lebanese Shi'ite and Maronite competition in the Sierra Leone diamond trade, and extends through the period following the 1991 Revolutionary United Front incursion. In the face of political turmoil and virtual State collapse, industrial participants have been obliged to formulate flexible, locally-specific strategies to ensure commercial success. As diamonds have become scarcer and more dangerous to find, the sectarian Shi'ites have shown greater effectiveness in weathering adversity than their rivals. The thesis then examines the strategies of local-born players in the trade. As Kono, the principal diamond field, has become overworked, the market axis has recently shifted to the more southerly, Mende controlled, Tongo and Zimmi regions. Competition in these areas between a coalition of northern-based soldiery and youth, and the Mende-aligned kamajoisia militia, has been the cause of protracted conflict since mid-1997. Kamajoisia fighters, under social obligation to mine without the prospect of immediate pay, have succeeded in maintaining production for elite groups when investment capital has been non-existent. This militia domination has radically altered the industrial landscape. Lebanese participation has become highly condensed while militaristic multi-nationals have failed to expand to their expected potential. Threats to the present status quo remain from those excluded from both society and from legitimate access to resources. Reconstructed ideologies that address local grievances will continue to attract support as regional imbalances of wealth and poverty increase with time. Politically powerful networks of non-Mende elites will also seek to undermine diamond-related power in the south. Duplicitous in affiliation and seeking their own portion of a global market they are likely to pursue disruption at all levels, condemning Sierra Leone to a foreseeable future of sporadic violence

Violent Conflicts and Civil Strife in West Africa:Causes, Challenges and Prospects

The advent of intra-state conflicts or ‘new wars’ in West Africa has brought many of its economies to the brink of collapse, creating humanitarian casualties and concerns. For decades, countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea- Bissau were crippled by conflicts and civil strife in which violence and incessant killings were prevalent. While violent conflicts are declining in the sub-region, recent insurgencies in the Sahel region affecting the West African countries of Mali, Niger and Mauritania and low intensity conflicts surging within notably stable countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal sends alarming signals of the possible re-surfacing of internal and regional violent conflicts. These conflicts are often hinged on several factors including poverty, human rights violations, bad governance and corruption, ethnic marginalization and small arms proliferation. Although many actors including the ECOWAS, civil society and international community have been making efforts, conflicts continue to persist in the sub-region and their resolution is often protracted. This paper posits that the poor understanding of the fundamental causes of West Africa’s violent conflicts and civil strife would likely cause the sub-region to continue experiencing and suffering the brunt of these violent wars

A simple and efficient error analysis for multi-step solution of the Navier-Stokes equations

A simple error analysis is used within the context of segregated finite element solution scheme to solve incompressible fluid flow. An error indicator is defined based on the difference between a numerical solution on an original mesh and an approximated solution on a related mesh. This error indicator is based on satisfying the steady-state momentum equations. The advantages of this error indicator are, simplicity of implementation (post-processing step), ability to show regions of high and/or low error, and as the indicator approaches zero the solution approaches convergence. Two examples are chosen for solution; first, the lid-driven cavity problem, followed by the solution of flow over a backward facing step. The solutions are compared to previously published data for validation purposes. It is shown that this rather simple error estimate, when used as a re-meshing guide, can be very effective in obtaining accurate numerical solutions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Finite Element Analysis of Conjugate Heat Transfer in Axisymmetric Pipe Flows

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Bibliography: leaf 45.Not availabl

A comparative study of characteristic-based algorithms for the Maxwell Equations

Characteristic-based finite-difference and finite-volume schemes have been developed for solving the three-dimensional Maxwell equations in the time domain. A detailed eigenvector analysis for the Maxwell equations in a general curvilinear coordinate has also been completed to provide a basic framework for future finite-difference schemes. Although the basic concepts of the two algorithms are identical, the detailed formulations are vastly different for achieving split flux vectors according to the sign of the eigenvalues. A comparative study of these algorithms applied to an oscillating electric dipole is carried out to assess their relative merit for further development. In spherical coordinates, second-order windward numerical simulations of the radiating phenomenon are closely comparable in terms of accuracy and efficiency. These methods also demonstrate an ability to suppress reflected waves from the truncated boundary by a simple compatibility condition. © 1996 Academic Press, Inc

Adaptive, multi-level numerical scheme for the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations

A simple error analysis is used within the context of segregated finite element solution scheme to solve incompressible fluid flow. An error indicator is defined based on the difference between a numerical solution on an original mesh and an approximated solution on a related mesh. This error indicator is based on satisfying the steady state momentum equations. The advantages of this error indicator are: simplicity of implementation; ability to show regions of high and/or low error; and as the indicator approaches zero the solution approaches convergence. Two examples are chosen for solution; first, the lid-driven cavity problem is solved, followed by the solution of flow over a backward facing step. The solutions are compared to previously published data for validation purposes. It is shown that this rather simple error estimate, when used as a re-meshing guide, can be very effective in obtaining accurate numerical solutions

Coupling of a nonlinear finite element structural method with a navier-stokes solver

A new three-dimensional viscous aeroelastic solver is developed in the present work. A well validated full Navier-Stokes code is coupled with a nonlinear finite element plate model. Implicit coupling between the CFD and structural solvers is achieved using a subiteration approach. Computations of several benchmark static and dynamic plate problems are used to validate the finite element portion of the code. This coupled aeroelastic scheme is then applied to the problem of threedimensional panel flutter. Inviscid and viscous supersonic results match previous computations using the same aerodynamic method coupled with a finite difference structural solver. For the case of subsonic flow, multiple solutions consisting of static, upward and downward deflections of the panel are discussed. The particular solution obtained is shown to be sensitive to the cavity pressure specified underneath the panel