by Satanus 45 Replies latest jw friends
Watching the history channel on all the effort, expense and equipment that goes into mining them, cutting and polishing them, the above question occured to me. So, except for industrial uses, what is it about them? I mean, as far as looking at them, glass worth less than a nickel can look the same. Please explain.
S
I think it is. De Beers has the monopoly, so they can set the prices. They are not in short supply so there is really no good reason for them to be so expensive.
I wear a fake diamond, (wedding ring) set in platinum, and people oooo and ahhh over it all the time. I don't care so I tell them it is fake. No way I would spend that kind of money for a rock.
Diamonds have never held much interest for me anyway. Gold, yes, but that has real value.
Diamonds mean nothing to me. I can't tell the difference between a diamond and a piece of glass, and neither can anyone I know.
W
Diamonds are not only completely worthless, anyone buying or selling them has their hands covered in blood.
Don't buy DeBeer's and other's marketing bullshit- buy emeralds, sapphires, rubies, and other precious stones instead.
Or, buy synthetic diamonds like Moissanite.
Put an end to the murder and greed- boycott diamonds. Or, share in the bloodguilt and be a gullible consumer- your choice.
BA- Anyone who buys or sells diamonds is a sucker and bloodguilty, or at least naive.
PS- After you research it, if you still buy diamonds, there's no way you can not be blood guilty:
Want an easy way to save 3+ months’ salary?Don’t buy a diamond engagement ring.If your fiancée, friends and family scream hellfire, calmly explain:
It’s just marketing. The whole “A Diamond is Forever” and the idea of a diamond engagement ring is not an ancient tradition to be revered and followed.It is Sprite’s “Obey Your Thirst.”It is Nike’s “Just Do It.”It is Gary Dahl’s “Pet Rock.”Not only did De Beers understand it had to control supply (buying up and closing down any diamond mine discovered), they had to control demand.They had to make it sentimental.And Americans were the perfect suckers.They targeted the US specifically for our marketability.This campaign is less than 70 years old yet has become so ingrained in our culture that the diamond engagement ring has become the ultimate symbol of how much the relationship, the girl, and love itself is worth.
Diamonds aren’t rare. Fine, using marketing tactics can’t be blamed since that’s part of the game of capitalism. But another part of the game is competition.It’s all well and good if marketers can convince consumers to buy them instead of the competition based on a nice slogan, but the competition should be there to protect the consumer. All gems are valued based on their rarity (as are most things in life).But diamonds are abundant.De Beers has a huge vault where they keep most of the world’s supply of diamonds.If it ever got released into the market, the way it would be if they weren’t a monopoly, diamonds would be worth nothing.It’s literally a pretty rock.
Diamonds have no resale value. The reason a “diamond is forever” is because you’re basically stuck with it.You’ll never be able to resell it except to a pawn shop. Even a jeweler (the few who would be willing to buy it) would offer a fraction of what you paid.
Synthetic diamonds will flood the market. Synthetic or “cultured” diamonds are already being made and within the next few years, will be efficiently made for the mass market.These are real diamonds.They are made in a machine that replicates the environmental forces that make diamonds.The only difference is that they’re better.They have less flaws. And they cost a fraction of the going rate.Want a 2-carat pink diamond?That’ll be a few thousand dollars.
Moissanite looks just like a diamond. Jewelers had to upgrade their equipment to detect Moissanite from diamonds when it came into the market.It’s undetectable with the naked eye.And it’s actually more brilliant. A 1-carat ring is under $1000.
Who is the ring for, anyway? Seriously. As The Dilettante so poignantly put it, “For women, comparing jewelry is our phallic posturing contest: look at how big MY dic….er, I mean, diamond is.”It’s fun to show off for about 30 seconds.After that there is little to show for the debt incurred for the shiny piece of rock.That money could have gone into furniture, an amazing trip (or many nice ones), your future kids’ college funds!!
Are these reasons still not enough? Watch Blood Diamond.It is high time Hollywood dared to broach the subject of diamonds, especially when they had a hand in marketing it to the public in the first place.Blood Diamond, is an explicit example of the blood and war that has spanned the entire history of the De Beers’ diamond cartel.The story of Sierra Leone isn’t an isolated event, nor is the conflict over just because the movie says there’s peace in Sierra Leone now.
What are conflict/blood diamonds? Conflict/blood diamonds are used by rebel groups to fuel conflict and civil wars, and by terrorist groups to finance their activities.
The Kimberley Process is just PR. It’s an agreement that is supposed to prevent conflict diamonds from getting into the market but ended up being more of a PR stunt since it’s based on a system of self-policing.The UN reported in October 2006 that due to poor enforcement of the Kimberley Process, $23 million of conflict diamonds from Cote d’lvoire alone entered the legitimate market. Sure De Beers won’t buy diamonds coming out of Cote d’lvoire, but they’ll turn a blind eye to the smuggling of diamonds from there through Ghana and Mali where they are certified as being conflict-free.
Percentage in the market. During the height of the diamond conflict in the 1990s, the diamond industry reported that no more than 4% of the diamonds in the market were conflict diamonds, when in reality it has been shown to be closer to 15% .
Asking for conflict-free certificates is not enough. In April 2006 after a scathing report by Partnership Africa Canada about activities in Brazil, an internal review showed that 49 of 147 Kimberley Process certificates were fraudulent.Besides these fraudulent certificates, real certificates could still be issued if conflict diamonds were smuggled and mixed with legally traded ones before being certified.
Children in India are cutting and polishing the diamonds. Children in India can become “bonded” – forced to work to pay off the debts of their family.These children end up working in the diamond factories.
Children in conflict zones are being used as soldiers. The images in Blood Diamond with child soldiers are very real.They are drugged and brainwashed to handle the manslaughter they are forced to do.
Jennifer Connelly says in the movie Blood Diamond, “People back home would not buy a diamond if they knew it cost someone their hand.”Now you know.
http://www.wisebread.com/the-greatest-story-ever-sold-is-a-fantasy-covered-in-blood
http://www.nyinquirer.com/nyinquirer/dirty_diamond_district/index.html
http://www.ryanbyrd.net/rambleon/?p=343
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1498850&displaytype=printable
http://www.explananda.com/archives/001581.html
Additional Reources:
Have you ever tried to sell a diamond - Article from The Atlantic Monthly that chronicles the DeBeers marketing campaign
The New Diamond Age - Article from Wired magazine about the cultured diamond startups
Blood From Stones - LA Weekly
Diamonds? Not This Girl's Best Friend - Isabella On-Line Publication
Put a Stop to Blood Diamonds - Send a letter to the administration
The Truth About Diamonds - A Global Witness Report
The Kimberley Process At Risk - A Global Witness Report
Killing Kimberley? Conflict Diamonds and Paper Tigers - Partnership Africa Canada
The Kimberley Process update, November 13, 2006 - Global Witness
Conflict Diamonds Fact Sheet - Global Witness and Amnesty International
Blood Diamond/Clean Bracelet - Help raise awareness
The Diamond Invention
A History of the International Diamond Cartel
10 reasons why you should never accept a diamond ring - The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy
Diamonds Suck! A personal essay on the virtures of Moissanite...
Child Slave Labor in India
There is a retired Russian millitary officer in Florida that can now make articficial diamonds that you can't tell the difference from real ones even with diamond testers. He also has the patent on the only type of tester that can tell the difference.
I like many of the gemstones that have color and character and find diamonds very boring. Lightning Ridge black opals, tourmalines, star saphires and blue agates are a few of my favorites. Fortunately my wife also is not a big diamond fan either.
Lightning Ridge opal
Thanks BA I actually have a lot of those articles saved on my laptop already. I did a term paper many years ago in college about conflict diamonds. If more people knew about that topic.....but even if they did, would they care? I saw so many girls my age demanding a $20,000.00 engagement ring at that time from their boyfriends, like nothing. I later on worked in the Diamond District in NYC and saw those same rings sold back to the jewelers for maybe less than $500. A real ripoff it is. The Diamond market in NYC by the way finances black market arms deals to certain unsavory nations in the Middle East and North Africa, and sex trades in Eastern Europe....but that's a whole other topic for another day.
Great post BA - my sentiments exactly, although I've never had that much data at hand to support those sentiments.
Clam -
DeBeer's has an almost worldwide monopoly on diamonds. They buy up all the available diamonds and have huge rooms where they are stashed. Billions of dollars worth. I saw a documentary @10 years ago about this. They only allow a certain number of diamonds on the market each year to keep the prices artifically high. I have refused to buy real diamonds for that reason and have seen and bought very beautiful CZ diamonds forincredibly cheap prices compared to the price of real diamonds. They are just as pretty, and in some cases the CZ's are much prettier than the cheaper real diamonds.
Looks like Sauron is going to jump out of that ugly ring
I'm not one for wearing much jewellery. I have a few nice pieces and don't really care for anything more.
I've always prefered stones other than diamonds (especially sapphires - they are my favourites).
BB
