<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 11:15 AM, david w. millians <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:millia@panix.com">millia@panix.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im">On 1/11/2012 1:32 PM, Michael H. Warfield wrote:<br>
>> She's a geologist and knows the true value of diamonds (nearly as common as<br>
>> sand) so I'm off the hook for that :-)<br>
><br>
> No joke. If it wasn't for some crazy monopolies (DeBeers) diamonds<br>
> would be about $5 a caret.<br>
<br>
</div>Citation? I've heard this, but can't find any documentation for it. I do<br>
know that modern manufacturing methods mean that large carat stones<br>
*are* rare, and that stones like the Koh-i-noor will never happen again.<br></blockquote><div><br><br><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers</a><br><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/4575/">http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/4575/</a><br>
<a href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2001/02/19/296863/index.htm">http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2001/02/19/296863/index.htm</a><br><a href="http://are.berkeley.edu/~sberto/DeBeersDiamondIndustry.pdf">http://are.berkeley.edu/~sberto/DeBeersDiamondIndustry.pdf</a><br>
<br>The list goes on and on and on. They were essentially "outed" in early 2001 or 2002 but the defining moment of discovery was a PBS documentary in the mid to late 90s covering the DeBeers monopoly practices and the link between their diamond business and the Apartheid regime in South Africa. As the apartheid process collapsed, the rise of so called "blood diamonds" appears to have replaced the overt politics of diamond money for political subjection with diamond money for murder for hire.<br>
<br><political overtones warning> <br><br>I will not, nor will my wife, EVER purchase another diamond. She has only the engagement ring with a single stone acquired prior to our awareness of the horrid methods used by de Beers in the mining and we both agree that diamonds and the money and power they represent have too much of a history of being used to subjugate other humans into servitude, overt slavery, victims of torture, etc., that we can not with any degree of conscience support with any purchase any aspect of the De Beers family diamond business. Once the PBS appeared, De Beers countered with the advertisement campaign with the silhouettes and the music inspired by Vivaldi's "Summer" and manipulated the general American and British population of potential diamond buyers that they all but forgot what a despicable process they were supporting and diamond sales increased. My blood pressure still hits "inside a sun" limits as I think about the ignorance of the Americans who still buy diamonds and directly and indirectly support the worst abuses of humanity since Auschwitz. <br>
<br><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>-- <br>James P. Kinney III<br><br>As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to
consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as
they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the
outcome.<br>- <i><i><i><i>2011 Noam Chomsky<br><br><a href="http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/</a><br></i></i></i></i><br>