Blood Diamonds

This week's issue of TIME Magazine had a well written article about Blood Diamonds.  It is titled "Cursed Stones," and was written by Alex Perry.  Before I recycle the issue, I wanted to make sure to share some of the startling statistics and facts it taught me:

To Americans, diamonds mean marriage and wealth.  To many in the world, however, they mean pain and death."'Here it means beatings, shootings and trying to get something just to survive,'" one man from Mutare, Zimbabwe told Perry.   "There are 1.3 million informal miners in the world --who work for $1 a day or less, according to Global Witness."

The regulatory organization created to monitor diamond mining and exporting is known as the "Kimberley Process."  "Ian Smillie, who helped found Kimberley and has two decades' work in diamond regulation, estimates that Congo, next year's Kimberley chair, does not know the origins of 40% of the diamonds it certifies." 

Other countries are shunning Kimberley oversight altogether.  "Venezuela has filed no statistics on diamond output since 2005 and in 2008 suspended its Kimberley membership and, it claimed, production."

The Kimberley Process itself is far from perfect, as even it's authors admit.  "Kimberley says nothing about gems sold by criminals or repressive governments or those whose production involved human-rights abuses or poor working conditions --which are rife in the industry."

Alternative organizations are trying to make sure smuggled stones stay off of the market:  "The U.S.-based Rapaport Diamond Trading Network....says it will expel any member dealing in Zimbabwean gems, explaining that 'there is no assurance that diamonds with [Kimberley] certification are free of human-rights violations."

Until the Kimberley Process broadens, "to include criminals, governments and human rights," I encourage folks to seek out alternative certifications to the Kimberley Process when diamond shopping, even if it does cost more.  For example, De Beer's has developed a way for consumers to know the exact origins of their stone.  Called "The Forevermark, it, "imprints each gemstone with a microscopic number that indicates where and how it was produced. 

Newer groups, like the "Diamond Development Initiative," are taking it a step further, and trying to make sure the countries producing the stones actually benefit. Seeing the sad face on the malnourished miner in the picture on page 51 makes me applaud this effort above all others mentioned in the article.

Overall, the article was both depressing, because of the suffering it discussed, but also inspiring, because of the changes being implemented to try to correct these atrocities.  Humans have been making and wearing jewelry since the time of cavemen, and I don't think that is going to change anytime soon.  But the more humanitarian we can make the trade process, the better,