After reading two disturbing articles today in reaction to Blood Diamond I’ve decided to elaborate a bit on my own knowledge of blood diamonds as well as tell my own story and why I refuse to buy diamonds. But first the articles. Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly wrote a review of Blood Diamond whose main point of contention was that the film was a “term paper disguised as entertainment.” I know she works at Entertainment Weekly, but COME ON! I for one appreciate it when the films I go to see have a point, or speak to a larger issue in our world, or move me to change the way I live. If all we want out of movies is entertainment then we’re living in a self-imprisoned tyranny of shallow consumerism. And it’s those people that need to see movies like Blood Diamond the most!
Article two is from Parija B. Kavilanz of CNN Money.com. Parija points out that jewelers are sweating Blood Diamond because it’s the holiday season and this is when they do most of their business. The movie is “a concern” for Diamond cartels like DeBeers, etc. What makes me sick about this is it’s the movie that is the concern, not the conflict diamonds! If DeBeers had even a shred of integrity they would be pushing hard for strengthening the Kimberly process, or sending some of their billions to victims of DeBeers business partners. That and not this movie, should be thier PR concern.
Okay, so here the story of why I didn’t buy a diamond.
Reason One: Violence
My sophomore year of college a girl name Jenn Tracy sent out an email to a list I was on about blood diamonds. I was listening. I quickly found out that people in Sierra Leone were being mutilated by soldiers from a militia called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). These militant revolutionaries were waging a war against the government of Sierra Leone as well as the civilians. They funded their violence by capturing diamond mines and enslaving locals to work in them. As a way of instilling fear in the slaves the RUF would randomly amputate the limbs of the people they captured, leaving behind tens of thousands of amputees. De Beers among other companies knew that this was happening and didn’t do anything to stop it. (Guardian Article)
Reason Two: The Deceptive and Manipulative Diamond Business
The diamond business itself became increasingly sickening to me as I began to study it more and more. Diamonds as jewelry and as an engagement ring is a relatively new thing. Diamonds are useful for ONE thing, as blades in industrial machines. In the late 1800’s when the first diamond “mines” were discovered in Africa the diamond a once rare stone was now about to boom, and diamond business was in big trouble. Prices of diamonds used as blades would drop and diamonds used as jewelry depended on the notion that they are rare (and since the 1900’s they’ve been anything but). Enter DeBeers. They invented the myth that diamonds symbolize love and launched a huge advertising blitz to move these diamonds they were raking in. A little less than a century later and Americans have bought the myth that diamonds are forever, are rare, symbolize love, are expensive, and that every engaged woman is entitled to such a stone.
It is the diamond business itself that sickens me to the point of never wanting to buy a diamond even if it was proved the diamond was clean. Even after assuring me that a child had not lost a limb for the diamond I’m looking at there would still be the incredibly evil system of the diamond industry itself that has relentlessly deceived and manipulated its customers.
(The full text of Jay Epstein’s book The Diamond Invention is avaliable online)
So when I asked Kara to marry me, I was ready with an Emerald.
More resources…
Also check out this interview with screenplay writer Charles Leavitt.
Wow, Charlie. The time invested in this speaks to your conviction. Thanks for explaining so clearly. I think this would be accessible for many people.
You rock. Not like a diamond is a rock. But like metal.
Thanks for posting this. This is also why Tiana and I went with other stones as well.
i concur with it all, C-parpar. i wish i’d known earlier.
What would you suggest to conscientous people who have already received diamonds, though, maybe not just as engagement stones, maybe earrings from grandparents as a graduation gift or something like that? How does one receive a genuine, yet ‘tainted’ gift?
i feel like i have blood on my hands, and Josh and i could exchange my diamond for something conflict-free, but i feel like the money is spent/damage done. ??? i have the luxury of having the giftgiver (Josh) be like-minded, but how do we respond when that’s not the case?
That’s awesome. I totally agree.
And, I might add that as a woman I have never really understood the big deal behind receiving one… my mom had an emerald engagement ring too, and I always thought it was more beautiful and symbolic(it’s her birth stone) than most of the others I saw around…
but that is totally not even the point behind bloodguilt and the twisted consumerism involved… just a side note i thought i would add…
thanks man! i love your insights…
Hey Kallie,
Good questions. I know some anti-diamond friends who ended up going with a grandparent’s diamond engagement ring because it was an heirloom. I can understand that, but maybe for those who have that decision to make in the future it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start a “new” tradition, or take the ring itself and put a new stone in it, so that you still have the “ring” your grandmother wore but now you’ve made it a little more your own by putting a new stone in it.
As far as gifts, I think that all has to do with your relationship with the giver. If I was really close with the person and the relationship was strong I would take the opportunity to talk to the giver about blood-diamonds, I think they’d honestly be glad I did. If it was someone I didn’t know that well (or an In-law I was trying to impress maybe) I might let it slide and just not wear it. Personally one of the reasons Kara and I have talked about as a reason to not even go the cubic-zerconia (sp?) route is because it fuels the “diamond lust” and excitement. So even if it was given as a gift I wouldn’t wear it (or want Kara to) because I would feel like I/she would be advertizing diamonds. I realize that might be offensive to the giver, but Kara and I are blunt enough to do such things, I don’t know that such confrontation is really for everyone, but it’s got to be for more people.
“If all we want out of movies is entertainment then we’re living in a self-imprisoned tyranny of shallow consumerism.” Uh. No. Movies have a right to be shallow, and even persons that watch movies for such reasons alone are not in self-imprisoned blah blah blah blah…consumerism. Honestly, how on earth can you make such a silly claim. Why should movies be elevated to being mediums of morality or ethical vessels? Are people that play Super Mario Bros for 2 hours a week imprisoned in shallow consumerism? If anyone is imprisoned in shallow consumerism its people that watch movies like Blood Diamond and need the entertainment of watching people be shot and bludgeoned and exploited and afterwards go home to the suburbs and thought it was worth spending 8 bucks on a movie. Oh man, my thought just kicked your thought’s ass!
anonymous,
I qualified my statement by using the word “all.” If ALL we want out of movies is entertainment…
What frustrated me so much is that the reviewer seemed afronted by the notion that the movie would be anything OTHER THAN entertainment. She did not want to be challenged or prodded at all but only entertained. I for one think that film can be an amazing medium for morality and for narratives which challenge our ethics. I enjoyed Talledega Nights as much as the next guy, but seriously if that’s all there is, if that’s the best we’ve got, what a tragedy. So I stick by my statement. Movies should be about MORE than just entertainment, they should challenge us, change us, tell stories that force us to re-narratve our own lives.
wow.
thank you so much for writing this. I’m not new to hearing about “Invisible Children” or things of the sort, but this Blood Diamond issue is completely new to me. I agree with you whole heartedly on the issue.
i really doubt that i would of heard about this if it wasn’t for the movie. and now i’ve been going mad trying to find out more about it.
thank you thank you.
Hi
I’m a secular humanist – okay, maybe a “Valentinian Christian,” if those still existed after being wiped out by the Church in the 4th C. C.E. (see Pagels’ _Beyond Belief_ for a crucial history) – but you just won me as a subscriber. You’re an example of the type of Christian I wish there were more of in America and the world.
Keep up the good works.
This is a mess u c how these kids are treated just to get diamonds it is a mess and us americans we dont even consider what everyone else is going through it is a shame thats why i try not to associate myself with diamonds to much they cause alot of havrick though not 4 us but 4 those kids in africa and all the other places that have to digg 4 diamonds and go threw all that labor 4 what nothin at all but a dirty diamond that they get no part of.