Diamonds Are Not Danja's Best Friend
http://360.yahoo.com/danjaruznegress
Check that one for daily blogs...
I have been doing a lot of thinking about diamonds lately. Mind ya business.... Anyway, something that has been a major issue for me for a large part of my adult life is the issue of "conflict" or "blood" diamonds. These terms refer to diamonds that come to the open market via the black market at the cost of human life. This refers to the use of diamonds as wealth that funds civil wars and "conflicts" in wartorn regions of Africa. This term refers to the "blood" shed by Africans caught in the diamond trade, often forced to work in slave conditions to mine diamonds, or victims of mutilation and slaughter by rebel forces seeking to monopolize the black market diamond trade in these regions.
It has always been my position, since first learning about this, that I cannot, in any good conscience, wear diamonds. There is NO way to guarantee that any diamond purchased is NOT a blood diamond. Though there have been certain programs put into place to try and regulate or prevent engagement with black market diamond smugglers, there are many countries and companies who do not implement the program, thus making it very possible for smuggled blood diamonds to end up on the fingers of an unsuspecting woman who has agreed to marry a very nervous man.
My answer has been, Just Dont Wear Diamonds. This way, I wont ever have to feel like I am somehow contributing to the civil wars, the turmoil, the mutliations and deaths, the spread of AIDS [via prostitutes who visit mining camps to keep the virtual slaves "happy"], or any other unspeakable act that comes from the acquisition of diamonds.
Unfortunately, people arent as responsive to this. Because the diamond trade is so vast, and because half of the world's diamond's are purchased by Americans, the media does very little to cover this issue. Whats worse is that people who KNOW about this, STILL continue to purchase diamonds without knowing the source of the diamonds. People still want to "bling bling" and be "iced" out, even if it is at the expense of some kid in Africa who died from breathing too much of the exhaust and dust in the caves, or if it means that someone in Sierra Leone caught wearing diamonds has her hand chopped off as a penalty for the crime.
Why? Because, in the end, people are generally apathetic to all things Africa. The worst of the apathetic lot are Black Americans. There is a higher percentage of non-Black people doing work against Conflict Diamonds and AIDS in Africa than there are of Black Americans. Why is this? Cuz we don't give a rat's ass about Africans and their struggles. We dont give a rat's ass about things going on here at home, so why on earth would we care about some damn Africans? We are far more concerned with buying goods from Italian fashion houses, buying expensive cars from German and Japanese car makers, and bling-blinging with the best of them [white folks].
For one moment, think about it this way. During slavery, two of the major crops slaves worked on were cotton and tobacco. Imagine all of the white people who purchased cotton and tobacco products KNOWING that they came from slave labor. Without the demand for these products, slave labor would have never reached the level of "necessity" that it did. Imagine if people decided they were going to boycott cotton and tobacco? This would have put a major dent in the livelihood of the slaveowners, who might have been forced to release their slaves, since it would have been more expensive to keep them. But what happened? Nothing. People were apathetic and didnt care about the fact that Blacks were suffering as slaves, starving, being tortured, being killed, etc just to tend to the cotton and tobacco crops. Surely, you see the similarities??
There was a recent conversation on my friend's blog about engagement rings. I have to say I was very much disgusted with the mentality of many of the posters-- initially. Then I had to check myself and realize that the average person is socialized by media and influenced by what other people do and say. How can I expect people to think differently when most of us do not live in societies that allow for individualism? How can I expect people to look beyond the bling of a diamond ring and think about something other than how big the rock on their finger is or how much it cost? This is America, after all, and we are descendants of slaves, who, in this country, have been doing very little more than try to be White. I know that catches many of you by surprise, but stop it already. We, as a people, wish we were White, or at the very least, wish we had everything they have and wish we could be everything they are. Stop acting like we arent. WE spend all of our energy trying to be on their level instead of creating our own levels, our own standards [of beauty and success and intelligence]. They made us this way.
Because of this, we hear whats going on with the diamonds and we dismiss it, because it is far more important that our men spend at least 2 month's salary on a diamond ring that we can show off to people and make them envious. We dismiss the stories of people being mutilated and killed over diamonds because our most popular entertainers do very little more than talk about how much "ice" they rock. "Bling-bling" is even in the dictionary for crying out loud!!!
Diamond signify wealth. The bigger the diamond, the wealthier one appears to be. But is appearing to be wealthy so important, that we can turn blind eyes to the tragedies that beget these diamonds? They say 1 in every 10 diamonds is acquired via conflict or in a conflicted region. 10% of all diamonds... When you go shopping for a diamond, and you try on 10 different rings, one of them contains a diamond that could have beem smuggled from Sierra Leone or Angola.
This is not going to affect the majority of you, I know this for a fact. We are a very ignorant, selfish people. We think about ourselves, we think about getting ahead, we think about impressing others [specifically white people], we are focused on the superficial things in life. I remember in school, a good friend of mine received an engagement ring that was a pearl and people had the nerve to say it wasn't a real engagement ring, because it wasnt a diamond.
How posioned we are!! How superficial!! How dare we have the audacity to challenge the authentic nature of someone's engagement ring because it isnt a diamond? Because society tells us to do this. We are saturated with the idea that an engagement is only ring if a ring is involved, and that ring MUST be a diamond. We are so happy when we get diamonds as gifts because we know how expensive they are. Don't lie. We are happy because someone spent all that money on us.
Anyway, I posted some BBC links and other information on conflict diamonds. If you have time, read one or two of them. If you would rather not know so that you dont feel guilty wearing your diamond, I respect that. Sometimes it is easier to be ignorant, as ignorance is bliss. But for those of you who wish to know more, research. Make a change. Stand up for something important to your people globally. Do your part. Change the way you think about things; stop being sheep! Set your own trend and follow your own mind.
**For the record, there are some companies who go out of their way to verify and certify that their diamonds do NOT come from conflicted areas. Remember 9 out 10 diamonds are conflict free. If you REALLY need to have a diamond, make sure you do the research and demand the verification from your jeweler. It might take a long time, but in the end it is worth it.**
http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/diamonds.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/06/14/eveningnews/main296716.shtml
http://geology.about.com/cs/conflict_minerals/a/aa020203a.htm
posted by MBT4679 at 11/14/2005 02:52:00 PM
1 Comments:
i think i read that post about the whole engagement ring thing. don't remember whose blog it was. however, i was disgusted by the comments in there for some of the same reasons you have here in this post.
SUPERFICIAL.
KEEPING UP WITH THE MAN.
**ughhhhh**
so... what will your engagement ring be?
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