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Sunday, March 25, 2007
Worth it?
From The New York Times:
Diamond mining in Sierra Leone is no longer the bloody affair made infamous by the nation’s decade-long civil war, in which diamonds played a starring role.
The conflict — begun by rebels who claimed to be ridding the mines of foreign control — killed 50,000 people, forced millions to flee their homes, destroyed the country’s economy and shocked the world with its images of amputated limbs and drug-addled boy soldiers.
An international regulatory system created after the war has prevented diamonds from fueling conflicts and financing terrorist networks. Even so, diamond mining in Sierra Leone remains a grim business that brings the government far too little revenue to right the devastated country, yet feeds off the desperation of some of the world’s poorest people. “The process is more to sanitize the industry from the market side rather than the supply side,” said John Kanu, a policy adviser to the Integrated Diamond Management Program, a United States-backed effort to improve the government’s handling of diamond money. “To make it so people could go to buy a diamond ring and to say, ‘Yes, because of this system, there are no longer any blood diamonds. So my love, and my conscience, can sleep easily.’
Full story here.
Posted by Will at March 25, 2007 11:52 AM in In the News
Comments
The real key is to expand the market share of synthetic diamonds. They already dominate the market for yellow diamonds (rare in nature, but the easiest color to make) because they can seriously undercut the cost of natural ones. With a little more progress, and consumer acceptance in the face of DeBeers claims that synthetics aren't "real", industrial scale diamond mining could be a thing of the past. (If they want to keep a few mines for tourists to play in, like the on in Arkansas, that's fine.)
Posted by: Alan Cisar ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.anthroblogs.org/nomadicthoughts/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 25, 2007 10:30 PM
Hi Al! Thanks for the comment. I wish I could say more about the issue instead of just posting a link, but I am just now starting to become interested in the African diamond trade since seeing the film Blood Diamond (I know, a Hollywood movie...). I would agree that synthetic diamonds would help the situation, but you're right, DeBeers and other major corporations will make it hard for consumers to accept the fact that human lives and suffering is not worth what is essentially a rock. As long as DeBeers and others control the market and the flow of diamonds, they will be able to have great influence on the flow of information as well.
Posted by: Will at March 25, 2007 10:49 PM