I Need Help With Information On The Diamond Wars.

[jayfish]

I am trying to show my wife the evil behind the diamond trade. Since I am at work I don't have a lot of time to weed through all the junk returned by search engines. I took a look at the Amnesty International Information and it is not explicit enough to put a dent in her opinion. After getting her to stop shopping at Wal-Mart (she still sneaks once in a while)and telling her we are no longer going to be buying Levi jeans, this is the reply I got after I told her not to expect any diamonds in the foreseeable future. "pretty soon we are just going to have to live in a box." I need some hard info on this before she thinks I've gone truly mad.

Thanks In Advance

Jay

[La_Serpiente]

1. I'm not an expert on it

I'm not an expert on it, but a friend told me one day that large Diamond companies like DeBeers were part of the infamous diamond trade. I know a couple years ago, there was a large diamond trading summit and they put forth policies that would prevent the illegal diamond trade.

I know that DeBeers destroys like an overwhelming majority of their diamonds every year to keep the price of diamonds inflated.

And someone connected Diamonds and Terrorism to me once, but I have no clue.

[criticalmass]

2. Yes, I've gone right off diamonds myself

since I learned about this.

Resources on Sierra Leone and conflict diamonds

African diamonds nourish war, starve the people

Campaign to Eliminate Conflict Diamonds

Conflict Diamonds: Sanctions and War

Diamonds: A rebels best friend

It Ain't de Diamonds, its de Beers

That should get you started.

ON EDIT: Forgot this one:

Officials Mum on Pat Robertson Diamond Probe

[Blue_Chill]

9. Buy diamonds made in america!

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=

[LoneStarLiberal]

3. Look Up Anything on Sierra Leone's and Angola's Civil Wars

Find just about anything regarding the civil wars in Sierra Leone (amputating arms as punishment and child soldiers, for example) and Angola (a close 2nd behind Cambodia in being the most mined (as in land mines) nation on Earth...2.3 land mines for every human foot and leg in the country (that figure is a few years old)).

Both of those civil wars were fueled in a major way by revenue from war diamonds.

[Zuni]

6. Cambodia is not the most mined country

Afghanistan is. Since 9/11, the US Army Corps of Eingineers have defused tens, if not hundreds of thousands of landmines there, but they have only put a dent in the total number of landmines, old shells, unexploded ordnance. There are soviet landmines which are easier to defuse and then there are homemade landmines and booby traps made by mujahideen which are very hard to detect and disarm.



Cambodia was the most heavily bombed country on earth in 1973, with the US bombers dropping 500,000 tons of bombs in 1973 (Feb-Aug) alone--source Sideshow by William Shawcross

[newyawker99]

8. Congrats Zuni!! 800 posts

:toast:

[catzies]

4. There's still estate and vintage jewelry. Just don't buy new.

It's not a perfect solution as the diamonds may still be bloody, just diluted. :shrug:

[Blue_Chill]

10. Buy new diamonds. The kind that aren't mined at all.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=

[Zuni]

5. Read about Sierra Leone

One of the reasons the President of liberia, Charles taylor was indicted was because of his role in blood diamond smuggling for the very,very brutal sierra leone rebels.(because there were sanctions on the rebels but not on Liberia)
A lot of conflicts in Africa involve Diamonds, but that is the one that comes to mind. The Congo and Angola also have problems with blood diamonds.

[jayfish]

7. Thanks To Everyone Who Replied.

Now I just need to wrap it all up in a nice little package.

Jay