diamonds are not this girl's best friend
I like diamonds as much as the next person: there's something about the way they sparkle that's unlike anything else I've ever seen. It's like wearing a star. As is often the case, however, beauty sometimes comes at a terrible price.
The diamond trade has never been a peaceful one, owing both to the environmental havoc caused by mining and to the tragic suffering experienced by populations who were virtually enslaved from the nineteenth century (if not earlier) to yank rocks out of the ground. In modern times, however, diamonds mined in Africa are often used to fuel bloody civil wars. Sierra Leone, Congo, Angola, and Liberia in particular continue to suffer from conflict fueled by diamond blood money: in these areas, the diamond trade is largely controlled by rebel groups that do not hesitate to attack, mutilate, and kill civilian populations.
Seven years ago, a number of South African countries with legitimate diamond trades banded together to establish a process to help take conflict diamonds out of the global marketplace. This initiative, known as the Kimberly Process, is designed to document and track diamonds upon entering a country that particpates in the process, with the the objective of establishing proof that the diamonds did not originate from areas where gemstones are used to fund war.
Not all countries participate in the Kimberly Process, so there's no guarantee that the diamonds you see at any given store originate from countries with legitimate diamond mining operations. There are ways to help determine a diamond's origin, though. The easiest is to simply refuse to buy a diamond of unknown provenance. Diamonds that are well-documented through the Kimberly Process (and by documentation, I don't mean a GIA valuation) have a much greater likelihood of being clean than diamonds that don't carry documentation of origin. In addition, Canada has established a voluntary code of conduct for diamonds originating in its mines. This code includes stringent requirements for documenting and tracing origin and actual markings on the stones themeselves to identify the diamond as being from a Canadian mine. This code is voluntary, so again, not all Canadian retailers participate. Nevertheless, finding a Canadian marking on your stone is a strong indicator that no one was murdered for it.
Setting aside trade initiatives, stop and think for a moment about the ads you see for diamonds: engagement rings, anniversary rings, necklaces, earrings, and now the newest entry into the marketplace, the "right-hand ring" for women who want the ring but don't have and may not want the fiance to go with it. Who sponsors those ad campaigns? Many, if not most, come from DeBeers, the largest diamond cartel in the world.
DeBeers is out to make money. Why let a corporation dictate acceptable ways of declaring love, prosperity, or whatever else diamonds are meant to represent? If diamonds are truly, honestly your thing, or if you're really entranced with the importance placed on them by tradition and DeBeers, then that's great: buy lots of clean diamonds! On the other hand, if your interest in diamonds is less an interest in the diamonds themselves than blind fulfilment of perceived social expectations, well, that's something else altogether, and there's room to question that. Why should people buy diamonds as an emblem of love simply because we've been conditioned to think that that's what we're supposed to do? Bringing it a little closer to home, how valid are what is perceived as society's expectations in the context of your own priorities, values, and personal financial goals?
If you want to ask these kinds of questions, diamonds are a good place to start.
