Conflict Diamonds

Melanie Solarez
Mr. Jolly
ENG-102
29 April 2007

Diamonds: the price of beauty

I received an assignment to write about a problem happening in the 21st century. I began to brainstorm and thought of quite a few things, none of them intrigued me enough to write about them. I started to get frustrated and so I looked down at my paper and as I did my eyes caught a glimpse of my diamond ring. Then, it hit me….I wanted to write about “blood diamonds,” also known as conflict diamonds. For those that do not know, “the term conflict diamond refers to diamonds that are illegally traded to finance civil unrest” (Rhule 2). Civil wars have been occurring in many parts of Africa for generations and the main funding for them is the illegal sale of diamonds. Rebels have forced people, even children, to mine for diamonds and if they were in any way disobedient or thought about thievery, they would either be executed or, more commonly, have their hands cut off. Once western nations started to recognize what was going on they quickly began to try to devise a plan, along with the United Nations. In the year 2000, many politicians came up with something called The Kimberly Process. But The Kimberly Process was not officially launched until January 2003.
The Kimberly Process is a private certification system that tries to govern the import and export of diamonds between countries. This process requires that the diamond exporters seal their diamonds in a tamperproof container and that it must have a document that states that they were not mined in a war zone (Zoellner). Although this is a good idea, it is not nearly as effective as expected. One reason is because once the diamonds reach another exporting country, those stones can be mixed with those other diamonds and there is no one that would be able to tell the difference. With this going on you can be certain that these diamonds are finding there ways to many American jewelers and into malls all over the United States. The participants of The Kimberly Process finally acknowledged its loopholes and decided to do something about it. In November 2006 at The Kimberly Process review meeting 71 nations, non-governmental organizations, and the World Diamond Council, came to agreement on several important measures designed to help strengthen The Kimberly Process. These included:
• Adopting 46 new recommendations to help strengthen The Kimberly Process.
• Publishing of global diamond statistics to track diamond movements.
• Setting up a working group to review the issues and solutions associated with informal alluvial mining.
• Addressing the serious issues in Ghana.
• Providing customs offices with the information and identification methods for the geographic origin of rough diamonds.
• Providing technical assistance for the government of previously war-torn countries.
Also, they accepted New Zealand and Bangladesh into the Kimberly approved countries which brought the total number of nations that are participating to 71. These are all extremely good methods that the nations involved in The Kimberly Process came up with, yet they are still not quite enough; the best way to make a problem cease is to make everyone aware of it.
Although some people knew what was going on, mainstream society didn’t until the recent Warner Brother film entitled Blood Diamond. This movie opened up people’s eyes about what is going on, and the human price other people have to pay when someone buys a diamond ring. I think the introduction of this movie took the first step to what needs to happen; because they know that some people are dying from trying to mine diamonds, I hope that buyers will start questioning where their jewelry actually comes from.
With this being said, the proposal that I am suggesting to help solve this problem is to not only follow the protocol of The Kimberly Process, but to make people more aware of the problem that exists and give the average person the opportunity to help eliminate the problem.
In order to prevent conflict diamond, as customers, we need to ask about the diamond’s certificate of origin and authenticity. This will enable customers to be able to choose between the stores that are unable to give proof of origin and those that are; in a sense boycotting the stores that cannot. Many people say they feel a little awkward or even silly asking these questions, but I say, just think of all the people that have lost their families, their hands, and their lives over diamonds. You may be able to save someone because you asked a few extra questions and got proof from where your diamond actually came.
Now one must take into consideration that diamonds are parts of Africa’s, such as Sierra Leone’s, main source of revenue. Since this is the case, it would be harmful to boycott diamonds all together due to the fact that it would severely damage Africa’s economy. This proposal could also help strengthen the value of diamonds that are being sold from Africa because they will have to follow a certain protocol making them not as abundant as they were before.
This plan is completely feasible and it just calls for a little more dedication and caring into what we, as consumers, purchase. . It involves everyone from the rich to the average person because anyone can ask a question without any regard to their social status. This solution can actually solve the problem because it can disable a store’s revenue if they do not have proof that their stones are conflict-free. Why would you want to buy a ring from a jeweler that does not care where his or her stones came from; this just shows their lack of dignity and character. When a man buys their future wife a diamond engagement ring to show their love and appreciation they should ask a couple questions to make sure that the stone is pure and not tainted by the loss of an innocent person’s life.
With all this being said, we need to realize that although people do not suffer when they buy a diamond, many people suffered in the mining process. By not asking questions, we are contributing to their torment, and ultimately their demise.