They Won't Leave in the Night: Diamonds Are ForNEVER!

[SFA437]

Any time there is vast amounts of money to be made in areas of the world nobody essentially cares about, abuse will occur.

Whether it is Columbians being forced by FARC to mine emeralds or Africans being forced to mine diamonds- the outcome is essentially identical.

As I have said, I've been to West Africa a few times. Makes Iraq look like a cakewalk. The level of daily violence is ASTOUNDING- to the point of cannibalism of live people somewhat commonplace.

A lot of that is fueled by quests for power and control, which is financed with diamonds. A couple of ridiculously wealthy Afrikkaners and Russians insist on telling us diamonds have value. There are still places you can scoop them out of the sand bare handed (if you could gain access without the field security shootin your ass).

Now there are alternatives and REAL diamonds are being grown in labs. Why bother with mined stones when you can get the same stone for 1/3 the price. Isn't that why we buy reps?

I started with reps because I don't want to beat the hell out of my gens in the sandbox. Then I thought- well these are so close- I can get 95% of the look for 1/10th the price! With diamonds you can get 100% of the look for 1/3 the price. Sounds like a deal to me!

[Posh]

It's good to see the post is not only helping people look fantastic but also getting good conversation started about the state of many Third World countries and their means of supporting their real and pseudo-governments. I was speaking specifically about diamonds and sub-Saharan Africa, but as far as other mined gems go in other countries, conditions and abuses are the similar and sometimes worse.

And Mason, the diamond industry is notoriously secretive and has all the transparency of a block of obsidian. There is a practice called "diamond laundering" that makes sure that diamonds from any country's conflict zones or with a very shady provenance, can appear to come from other places, including Canada.

So-called Canadian diamonds are what a lot of people are looking for but most diamonds still come from either the diamond stockpile in London (millions of carats here) which in turn came from Africa, stones that are from far grislier times than even these. Canada's output is not exactly what it at first appears. It's like when the OPEC nations say they have X number of barrels in the 1980s and somehow this numbers rises in the new millennium when it is known that, geologically, numbers of barrels are down all over the world. Canadian diamonds didn't all of sudden supplant African stones. It seems that way because the cartel wants it to seem that way. African stones still account for the lion's share of the market.

If you can't be sure, pass. Like I said and SFA agreed, you have non-mined options now so why bother.