MisFiT City Forum
MisFiT Discussions => MisFiT Lounge => Topic started by: misfitguy on October 26, 2007, 06:28:02 AM
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I am including a link to a photo story concerning the mining, polishing and sales of diamonds. Anybody that purchases a diamond today should be required to watch this. The infamous "Blood Diamonds" of deBeers first brought to the front a story of hardship and tragedy. Diamonds, in my mind, became sullied after this and this story I am linking to shows us that little has been done to help the people that are mining and processing these gemstones. Gemstones...that is all they are. A gimcrack...A pretty-pretty. Nothing more than that. Well, I suggest you take a few minutes and watch this presentation.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15842546/0 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15842546/0)
Please comment,
Mick
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I think the whole idea of "jewelry" is pretty much dumb.
Useless items.
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Yeah,me too. The story, though, is about the human misery that prevails in the diamond industry. The price of diamonds is falsely held high because the market is controlled by only a few. People pay huge amounts for little more than a carbon bauble. In the mean time, the amount of human misery and suffering that it takes to get a diamond to the market is horrendous. If you didn't look at the link, please do.
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In the mean time, the amount of human misery and suffering that it takes to get a diamond to the market is horrendous.
Yeah, but thats the sick part about it.. People probably like the idea that people died for their "luxury" item. Sort of how rich people find the idea of having illegals "nanny" and clean their houses puts them on a pedestal above others, cause they don't wash their own clothes... Some poor illegal is doing it for 3 bucks an hour to send the money back home, and in the employer's mind, they probably justify it by thinking "hey, i'm helping a poor family!"
The art of self justification is one skill society has mastered. Just absolve any personal responsibility with poor excuses and the conscious is cleared!
People still wear furs, and leather. I feel like these are pretty much on the same scale, just one involves animals and teh other involves poor people in Africa (animals to most)... I wear leather, but in reality, i'd rather wear hemp shoes ;)
Of course, social stigmas are all in the wrong places. Harvesting plants = boring, harvesting people/animals = luxury! Why is that? Me thinks its psychological like i described above. I wish i had an all encompassing term for that, i'm sure there is one..
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Just released:
Gem Diamonds, a London-listed mining firm, said on Sunday it had recovered a 478 carat diamond from its mine in Lesotho: the 20th-largest rough diamond ever found.
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That would be far bigger than the 105 carat round-cut Koh-i-Noor diamond seized by Britain from India in the 19th century and now part of the Crown Jewels.
It would still only be a fraction of the size, however, of the Cullinan diamond discovered in 1905, which was 3,106 carats when recovered and yielded a teardrop shaped diamond of 530 carats: the Great Star of Africa.
[...]
I wonder how many loaves of bread were paid to the finder of that multimillion dollar diamond. 8O
:)7
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I think the whole idea of "jewelry" is pretty much dumb.
Useless items.
I have never in my life needed to cut glass. To me diamonds are just rocks, rocks that cut well.
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I reviewed the link Mick gave to see if it was still active - which it is - and I was reminded of the horrible treatment of the miners and the the unbelievable corruptness of the diamond market.
I have no interest in diamonds.
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Just Me
Sass