The Truth About Diamonds...

And no!  I'm not talking about Nicole Richie's captivating teeni bopper novel.
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Diamonds are the hardest naturally forming material on Earth, renowned for their beauty, strength, and durability. They have been known and hoarded by humans for thousands of years, and their names from the Greek word for invincible.

Diamonds come from deep within the Earth’s crust, formed there by the incredible pressure and relatively manageable temperatures. They form beneath the continental crust, from pure carbon. This carbon may either come from exclusively non-organic sources, organic sources, or a blend of the two. Diamonds formed from inorganic carbon are called harzburgitic diamonds, while those formed from some amount of organic carbon are called eclogitic diamonds.

For many centuries India was the world’s top source of diamonds, but eventually these sources were mostly depleted. In the modern world, nearly half of all diamonds mined come from mines in southern and central Africa. The bulk of these mines are owned and operated by various companies of the De Beers Group, which is responsible for more than 40% of diamonds by value worldwide, and has held a virtual stranglehold on the world diamond market since its formation in the 1860s. Large-scale mines also exist in Brazil, Australia, Siberia, and parts of Canada. Once mined, these diamonds travel the world to be cut and polished to create the beautiful gems we are all familiar with. Most cutting takes place in a few areas of the world, most notably New York, Antwerp, and Tel Aviv.

For more info on the creation of the invincibles check out this website. 

The following bits of information are taken from an article on the African People’s Solidarity Committee website written By Penny Hess, Chair.

Most of us blithely take for granted the resources available to us in our daily lives. We don’t give much thought to the brutality and suffering it takes to extract those resources for our use at the expense of the people to whom they belong.

Even as the U.S. war against the Iraqi people rages on, we continue to mindlessly pump gas into our cars without thinking of the deadly violence in the Middle East being waged so that the American people can continue to use all the oil we want.

The same holds true for diamonds, the glittering rocks of crystallized carbon worn by millions.

Long revered as rare, benign gems symbolizing the ideals of beauty and everlasting love, diamonds are the desired gift for engagements, anniversaries, graduations, or simply as an expression of love. Diamonds are thought to be the makings of heirlooms, something to pass down from generation to generation with ever appreciating value.

These myths about the diamond trade, however, couldn’t be further from the truth. This is a look into the reality of diamonds and the real price of this seemingly innocent stone for millions of African people and others who live on the other end of the equation.

Perhaps these facts about the diamond trade can help open our eyes to the deeper reality of an entire social system built on violence, slavery, genocide and the degradation of others in order to create a generous lifestyle for us, the white people.

The story of diamonds is just one of them.

How could we have been/are SO blind to what is going on!  According to The Washington Post (there is a lot of good info on here, please read it!) there are 5 myths to why this is so:

1. Diamonds are rare.
2. We've solved the problem of "blood diamonds."
3. Diamonds have long been symbols of love and marriage.
4. People will always buy diamonds.
5. The famous Four C's are the best markers for determining a diamond's value.

 You're going to have to read the descriptions as to why they are in fact MYTHS. We are soo blind! Ahh!
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Diamonds, the ads say, are forever. Whether or not that's the case, diamond jewelry is a powerful symbol of status and love, and a $72 billion-a-year retail business worldwide. Diamonds can also be a key source of funding for violent conflicts in Africa. A series of wars bankrolled by "blood diamonds" in the 1990s prompted the United Nations to pressure De Beers and other jewelry industry giants to set up a program known as the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme to track the origins of each stone and assure customers that their diamonds are free of the stains of war and misery. But late last month, a four-day Kimberly Process meeting in Tel Aviv foundered over the question of whether to approve the export of diamonds from the Marange fields of Zimbabwe, where torture and murder go unpunished and profits fund the repressive party of President Robert Mugabe.

How did these glittering shards of compressed carbon become such a profitable business in the first place? The answer, it turns out, is complicated -- and many of the things we believe about diamonds aren't exactly true.

It is crazy to think that this still goes on today.  It is amazing the lengths we would go and how much suffering we would inflict upon a people for our own selfish purposes.  Man!  We have such a capacity for evil!  It is supposed to symbolize love and yet the whole thing is completely ironic.  I had NO idea that this was the story of diamonds, who would have thought?