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TEENAGERS serving with the RUF rebels in Sierra Leone are sneaking into Freetown to sell diamonds stolen from mines in the east of the country.

After a hazardous journey of a week or more through the bush, they arrive in the capital often with only two or three small uncut diamonds, which they sell for £20 or £30 to middlemen. Most of the teenagers are unwilling servants of the RUF, and when their cash runs out they are forced to return or face a life of begging and hunger on the streets of the capital.

Quina, a scrawny 18-year-old from near Kailahun in the far east of the country, was forcibly recruited into the RUF three years ago when rebels burnt down his house and killed most of his family. His basic training consisted of learning how to load a gun, point it and shoot. With these minimal infantry skills he spent more than two years guarding RUF-controlled diamond mines.

For the workers in the diamond mines, rewards are few. Most work for a cup or two of rice a day; some are given a small bonus on what they retrieve. If they are caught stealing, they are killed.

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SLIS Archives

I think, for instance, that a lot of people become discouraged about recycling because they're vaguely aware that there is little or no follow-through on much of their faithful organizing into different boxes.

I'm happy to say that my fingers have no diamonds on them, nor will they ever. There's a tiny saphirre and Amethyst, both from reputalble companies.

The insane thing is with the vast majority of these "big" problems, there are solutions as plain as day. Did you know that Candaian scientists have discovered a way to burn coal, but re-route the emmisions right back into the plant, producing no pollution? I realise that coal isn't a permanent answer, as it will run out, but it could be a bridge. Right now, they could convert ALL of those plants puking carcenogens into our air into clean coal. All it takes is will to do so, and neither our nor the American govenment has one ounce of it but to line their own pockets.

I'm thinking of holding a convention in the next few years. To seriously discuss these issues and come up with a plan to win office. There are enough people who care about these things, we just need to be strong and organized... perhaps even covert.

All I know is that a few times, I've had fleeting thoughts of THROWING my bike at SUVs being driven by careless people. I've got to channel that anger into something productive.

[ August 16, 2002: Message edited by: Trinitty ]

Since then, though, I'm not sure whether I did the right thing. From what I've read, de Beers supposedly only buys from their own mines and from Canada and Russia, and I know for a fact that People's Jewellers gets their diamonds from de Beers. But...but...

Well, does anyone know whether there has been any refutation of this claim that de Beers buys no blood diamonds? At first, they were apparently strongly against embargoes against conflict areas, and their argument was that there was no way of being sure that a diamond didn't originate from one of these places since they go through smuggling and middlemen and all sorts of stuff first.

Maybe they safeguard against that by only getting diamonds that they know for sure have been mined in their own mines, or from Canada and Russia. I don't know. But after reading this stuff, I'm starting to feel pretty guilty about the ring I wear. I'd hate to think that my symbol of independence and freedom and self-assurance started out in the hands of a starving slave kid in Sierra Leone.

Well, I did find this article on the internet, and from what it says, it doesn't seem like country-specific boycotts work much, since they get smuggled all over the place. I guess I shouldn't have bought the ring after all.

I wonder whether other gemstones are as shady as diamonds.

[ August 16, 2002: Message edited by: Michelle ]

By purchasing a "non-blood" diamond, you are ensuring that there will be a profitable market for all diamonds, no matter their source.

If everyone stopped purchasing diamonds, diamonds would be worthless and the blood diamond market would end.

The diamond industry is extremely vulnerable to the dramatic loss of value and authenticity that the product would suffer if it got into the mainstream that the great majority of diamonds are bogus - not in the sense that they aren't real diamonds, but in the fact that they are cut in a fashion that...*insert paragraph of indecypherable jeweller's jargon* ... and in conlusion...

I'm too lazy to find the article online - if it is online - but the information is genuine and I've clipped out the article and saved it, but it isn't here but at home filed away somewhere in flotsom's office.

Anyone who really wanted to invest some resources and get together a campaign to attack the diamond industry should take this flank manoever as theirs and hit them hard and suddenly, but then we're talking major dollars for such a large negative-ad campaign getting into the mainstream - and one necessarily washed of all leftie-partisan evidence as would require.

I'd create a 'consumer's group' advocating honesty in the marketplace and by adopting the rhetoric of that sort of 'alliance' we'd be whitewashing all obvious political allegiances to ugly corrupt terms like 'social justice' and so on, that wealthy diamond consumers would instantly sniff at.

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Blood diamonds, shmud diamonds. Girl, your diamond looks pretty bloody to me.

By purchasing a "non-blood" diamond, you are ensuring that there will be a profitable market for all diamonds, no matter their source.

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It hurts to know that the fifteen thousand dollar setting that's been making the rounds at the club is actually worth less than a tenth of the purchase price.

I heard once that if all the diamonds currently stockpilled were released to the market, diamonds would be worthless.

Put it this way, afterwards you can play the spectre of death pointing at the "salmon mousse" without any special make up effects.

I found before that if I took my ring off for work, I was never used to it being on, or off, my finger. When it was off, I was conscious of it missing and when it was on, I was conscious of it on my finger. I found that annoying, so I put it away. I think my ex has it now.

I should retrieve it and ask if I can have it converted to replace the silver amalgam fillings in my molars.

But thanks for that lovely image to carry with me to the supper table....

[ August 18, 2002: Message edited by: Zoot Capri ]

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It's just carbon.

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Rubies, emeralds etc. are just silicates. The constituents don't matter -- to the value, anyway. It's the relative rarity. Diamonds are really only a semi-precious stone because you can mine 'em in large quantities, industrially. Thus the de Beers cartel/scam to keep the value high.

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I heard once that if all the diamonds currently stockpilled were released to the market, diamonds would be worthless.

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Here's the catch - I want a diamond from a heritage set. As in, buy a diamond from an antique store - the setting the whole schmeer. I want my diamond to have a history to it.

I can't say I think too hard about where my jewellry comes from. Most, if not all, has been given to me. Oddly, it's the least expensive of the stuff I appreciate, Black Hills Gold mostly, some silver pieces and high quality paste. All except this ring from my greatgrandmother. I have no idea where it is from, but this lady collected nothing cheap. It's silver, sterling, without a mark of maker, and the stone in it is huge - oval, aqua blue black and silver. Story is it came from Australia when she was a child (that makes it over 100 now).

vanity...social conscience?

vanity...social conscience?

On Valentine's Day, when I bought my ruby and diamond ring (it was an el-cheapo, hundred buck special, nothing major), I was thinking that maybe next Valentine's Day I would buy myself a matching necklace and the year after matching earrings.

But now, I don't want it at all, and I won't be buying it, because I realize that when a completely frivolous object comes at such great expense to human life, I just can't justify it.

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Silver amalgam is mercury-silver alloy, in case you were wondering

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People were concerned about that a while back. And I think people were right to question mercury being in thier body. However, there does not yet seem to be evidence that it produces the kind of dimensia consistant with mercury poisoning.

The people most at risk would be dentists and dental assistants, who not only probably have a few such fillings themselves, but also work with the stuff day in day out.

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...embedded where, exactly?

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Now, scrabble! Tsktsktsk...

It would be merely a normal ring, only stainless steel instead of gold, for my finger.

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...embedded where, exactly

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I have some silver earings with cheap semi-precious stones that I like very much, and a large silver pendant with lapis lazuli, a few silver rings (one with sentimental value), and some titanium and surgical steel in my tongue and navel. I don't wear gold, and don't find diamonds particularly attractive. I really like colour in gemstones, that's all - they don't even have to be authentic, just purdy.

I've never been married, never been much inclined that way, but if I were, a diamond engagement ring would be wasted on me. Maybe a simple band of silver or white gold to symbolize union, maybe an inscription inside. That's about it.

I don't have any diamonds (no merit - I don't like sparkly stones) but I do have some Egyptian jewellery that was no doubt made by craftspersons who earn far less than Canadians. However, as far as I know there was no child labour involved. A friend from Medical Aid to Palestine imported them, and bought them from the producers.

The problem is, I don't think there are any clothes or shoes anywhere that can be certified as sweat-free.

I also have some earrings, Canadian native stuff that I like. Also dream catcher. Same source.

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Are you a rough diamond?
"Now you can be brilliant and flawless forever," writes Christine Tatum in the Chicago Tribune. "But you have to be cremated first." Life Gem of Elk Grove Village, Ill., has accepted its first deposits for manufactured diamonds made from carbon captured during the cremation process so that loved ones -- family members or even pets -- could be mounted into a ring, pendant or other jewellery. Jack French, a seriously ill man in Joliet, Ill., wants his cremains to be made into diamonds for his wife and five children: "This will be something that is beautiful, has value and comes right from me."

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In Northern Saskatchewan, where jobs are few and far between & where substance abuse is at inhuman levels, we have a good number of First-Nations people employed in the search for Canadian diamonds. What about them? Don't they deserve a chance for decent employment?

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Diamonds and gold I don't particularly like. To me there is a sameness.

Strange as around here one can get 'Dream Catchers' at the dollar store. I bought mine at a native store. Funny because I am not at all religious. I think the fact that it was probably made by someone who was native and believes in the uses of the 'Dream Catchers'. I certainly like the idea that my bad dreams will be slupped up by the Catchers. Sort of a magical thing.

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Jack French, a seriously ill man in Joliet, Ill., wants his cremains to be made into diamonds for his wife and five children...

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Yikes, scrabble, that's really creepy!

"Lovely pendant you have there."
"Why thank you, it's my first husband."

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In Northern Saskatchewan, where jobs are few and far between & where substance abuse is at inhuman levels, we have a good number of First-Nations people employed in the search for Canadian diamonds.

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The Northern Miner is a good source for such stuff.

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It's all well and good for the well-paid, well-fed Toronto set to turn their noses up at the blue-collar caste. Just remember, real people's livelihoods are at stake, and that a Canada outside the 416/647 area code does indeed exist. And in that Canada, not everyone can be an Art Critic for the Toronto Star.

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And this is all well and good, but the fact is the "blue-collar caste" could hope steadier and better employment were they employed in extracting and manufacturing necessities and useful items, not useless luxury items subject to the vagaries of fashion -- among, say, that very same "well-paid, well-fed Toronto set" you complain of (and incidentally, who here falls into that category?). Know anything about, oh, the history of the fur trade in this country, Wiz?

[ August 23, 2002: Message edited by: 'lance ]

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Well, I figure people shouldn't feel guilty about the diamonds they already had before they really had an understanding of the issue. You can't change what's already been done. It's whether you continue to buy them that's important.

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Hmmm, I am not so sure. I know what you mean, and I am all for not beating ourselves up over it, but if people who now know what damage diamonds can do keep their purchase/gift, it is rather like the wealth of nations now that was built on slavery, and is there not some sort of moral obligation to make reparations. I was gonna say sell the diamond and give the money to a charity, but I am not sure whether that would be the most effective. Maybe there is someone who has set up a diamond reclamation place, or something, where they are put to better use or returned to the people who have suffered to retrieve them etc...

I just am not sure, personally, that it is enough to say "well, I didn't know then what I know now."

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I just am not sure, personally, that it is enough to say "well, I didn't know then what I know now."

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Quite.

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That would be the Albert Speer defence.

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And I think if I were to throw away everything in my apartment that had passed through the hands of someone who was being oppressed or had bad working conditions, I would be walking around naked, and sitting and sleeping on the floor.

Your point is well-taken in any case - it sounds like a lame defence to me too. But you're not going to convince people of the rightness of your cause if you condemn them for stuff they did before they knew it was wrong.

I suppose I could stop wearing the ring so that I don't contribute to the fashion statement it makes (that wearing diamonds is desirable).

As for selling the ring - well, I don't really see how putting the ring back on the market for other people to buy is a way of making diamonds less desirable for others to wear, nor to stop the demand for diamonds. Seems to me I'm just putting another diamond on the market, no matter how good my intentions would be with the profit.

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you're not going to convince people of the rightness of your cause if you condemn them for stuff they did before they knew it was wrong.

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Absolutely true, but do you think you can condemn them for what they do once they know it is wrong? I am not condemning you, because I am not sure what I would do if I was in your shoes, I just had the thought, provoked by your post, that once people do know more about the history and background to things they own, there is perhaps some sort of an argument that they could (not should necessarily) do something to rectify the previous wrong. Does that make sense?

I agree, if one extends this principle to everything we own (and as most of my country's, and therefore my, wealth is built on imperialist foundations, slavery etc.), then we would all be naked and homeless (maybe that would teach the West a lesson!), but at the same time, to claim ignorance of all that has gone before is also not helpful to rectifying wrongs done before our time.

I have had a thread stewing along these lines for some days now, so watch out and feel free to contribute.

(I hope you do understand none of this is a dig at you, Michelle, just observations that occurred on reading this thread and your posts.)

That doesn't mean give up, it just means that consciously avoiding given items won't change anything. It will mean you don't have blood on your hands, which is more than enough to keep me away from diamonds etc.

The only way to change things of this nature is through regulation. Consumer activism is fine, but largely irrelevant - lower the demand for any product, the price will drop a little until the producers etc. can sell them all again. Alternatively, as in the case of Nike, their market share will drop in favour of other producers who have not yet been caught. It doesn't change the fundamental market forces - creating a race to the bottom in a fight for market share.

Markets are not going anywhere, so what we need to do is work to ensure that they are effectively, humanely and morally regulated. Not easy, but a hell of a lot easier than changing our whole culture into something it isn't.

I only harass because his eating habits helped me become vegetarian. I just found it shocking and humourous that he called it a "wagon" that he actually fell off.

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Originally posted by audra estrones:
Okay, It's late, and I'm feeling a bit impatient. I just have to ask, what does it take to make someone put aside their own sentimental attachments to things, or their craving for its flavour, and actually give a shit about the affect said product (diamonds, MacDonalds, whatever) has on the planet and its people?

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what does it take to make someone put aside their own sentimental attachments to things, or their craving for its flavour, and actually give a shit about the affect said product (diamonds, MacDonalds, whatever) has on the planet and its people?

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(Polonium-209's half-life, though, is about 100 years)

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Ok, end sidebar, but I challenge anyone to come up with a more useless gift than that.

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the government of the Northwest Territories, in order to promote one of the few industries it has, monitors and certifies diamonds produced in Canada (aka the NWT).

Canadian companies like Sirius (which actually 'brands' their diamonds with microscopic serial numbers and polar bear logos) do play up the ethics card in their advertising, but apparently being able to sleep at night with a diamond on your nightstand comes at a significantly higher price than your average blood diamonds go for.