In our previous content, we talked about the negative effects of cocoa workers in Africa and the massacre of nature in order to produce chocolate. However, cocoa trees and labor are not the only things exploited in Africa.
Let’s take a look at the bloody and dark story of the diamond, which is the most important material of diamond rings, one of the indispensable gifts of many special days.
Contrary to what might be expected, man is not in Africa with diamonds; He met in India.
Derived from the Greek words “adamas”, Arabic and Persian “almas” and French “diamant”, the word means “unchangeable, unbreakable”. Although diamond is a word of Greek origin, contrary to what is expected, it is a mineral of Indian origin because hundreds of years ago, the first diamonds on earth were mined in India and Brazil.
Diamond, which is originally a relative of the element carbon, changes over time and turns into diamond. It was discovered by the French chemist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, who is also known as the father of modern chemistry, that diamond, whose use as an ornament dates back to 2000 BC, is a pure form of carbon.
Although the homeland of the diamond is known as India, there are so many diamonds that you can trip and fall on the African soil.
According to the current reserve information, it is known that the most diamond mines are in Canada, Australia, Russia and Africa. In fact, there are so many diamond reserves in Africa that you can trip on a diamond instead of a banana peel while walking on the road.
With the emergence of Africa as a diamond reserve paradise, the first modern diamond quarry in the world was opened in the Republic of South Africa, an African state, as you can imagine, in 1860. For Africans, who could not lead a comfortable life before the diamond, even more trouble will arise with the diamond.
There are many criteria that determine the value of the diamond, although this information becomes useless when you go to the jeweler, let’s not mention it.
Before we move on to the dark side of the diamond, maybe we should not have mentioned the last detail that we should know about the diamond. You may have heard of the term “carat”, which is an unusual and never used unit of measurement used by jewelers to express the size of a solitaire diamond or other types of jewellery.
Derived from the Arabic word “karat”, which originally meant carob bean, the carat is used as the universal diamond measurement unit. We can say that 1 carat is equal to 200 milligrams.
If we look at the factors that determine the value of the diamond; the larger it is in one piece, the more valuable the price per carat. So the diamond has no fixed value. Likewise, factors such as the color of the diamond, the workmanship and light transmission rates are other features that determine the value of the diamond.
For years, the world ate the grapes of Africa and did not ask about its vineyard. Fortunately, now the vineyard is just as important as the grape!
According to the latest shared data, approximately 26 thousand kilograms of diamonds are mined worldwide every year. A very high proportion of these diamonds are obtained from African lands, as you can imagine. You may have heard that Africa has a mixed political structure and that even the meaning of peace and tranquility is not known in some places. But how is the control of a precious metal like diamond in such a geography?
Whether you call it claims or undocumented facts; It is stated that underdevelopment, civil war or wars between states, especially in diamond-rich African countries, are financed by western diamond companies.
It is a fact that has been stated many times that these giant companies directly or indirectly support civil wars, provide arms support to both organizations fighting each other, or finance groups that rebel against the state and buy diamonds in the region at a much lower price than they are worth. However, this inhuman evil plan met with the reaction of the world, albeit late.
Who knows, maybe blood diamonds give color to the red-colored soil that is abundantly seen in Africa!
With the protocol, which was initiated by the United Nations (UN) in 2003 and also called the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme / KPCS, the diamond market, which drew a reaction in the world, is being tried to be purified from dirty hands, so to speak.
KPCS basically divides diamonds into battle diamonds and non-combat diamonds. of a diamond; It is the most important issue that the diamond revenues are not transferred to a terrorist organization or a certain gang, and not to be purchased from an officially recognized state, not from groups captured as a result of war, civil war or any social event.
However, although the UN states that the rate of war diamonds (also called dirty or blood diamonds) in the market has decreased to 3% thanks to KPCS, many independent organizations have turned war diamonds into official diamonds through corruption and devious ways, and therefore war diamonds that the rate is so low.
We have many reasons not to prefer blood diamonds, but some giant companies are still chasing blood diamonds to make more profit.
First of all, in the most general terms, we can say that blood diamonds are stolen diamonds because these are diamonds that are mined without government approval or despite the government, and their income is completely transferred to illegal organizations. These organizations are; they employ local people at gunpoint, commit gang rape and massacres, cut off the arms of those who refuse to work to prevent them from voting, and force children into their organizations by arming them.
Especially during the 1991-2002 Sierra Leone Civil War, when illegal diamonds were released in abundance; children were drafted into the military, there were cases of mass rape of women in villages, the arms of men who refused to participate in the war and refused to work in the mines were cut off, and many other inhumane incidents took place. We guess that all these experiences are a valid reason not to prefer illegal diamonds.
Since it is much easier to manipulate the market with blood diamonds, clean diamonds are also sold for more than they are worth.
While blood diamonds are often turned into legal diamonds by bribery and devious means; These diamonds, which cannot be tracked, are hidden by giant companies, thus increasing the market for diamonds. Companies that make enough profits thanks to the diamonds hidden in the supply-demand balance, then put these diamonds on the market. If diamonds are released prematurely, there will be a loss of value as there will be more diamonds in the market.
The Blood Diamond movie had a greater success than KPSC in terms of getting people to know about blood diamonds.
Many movie critics observe the effect of movies on human life as the common aspect of quality movies. Almost all of the quality productions are films that have directly affected people’s lives by somehow jumping off the big screen and into real life. Undoubtedly, after the release of the movie Blood Diamond, it was one of the most important factors in the increase of the struggle against blood diamond.
To better understand the story of illegal diamonds, we recommend that you watch the 2006 movie Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly.
Bonus: A few more little details about diamonds you should know, even if they don’t work for you at jewelers:
Diamonds, which are used as a symbol of engagement and marriage as an old tradition, are actually 3.5 billion years old. The distance of such an old mine to us is about 250 km from the ground, but sometimes even at a depth of 800 km, diamonds can be encountered.
Although it is known as a material that conducts heat very well, diamonds can never conduct electricity under normal conditions. For this reason, they are also known as a very strong insulator. Finally, it has been observed that some planets in space are much richer in diamonds than our world, some cold stars, also called white dwarf planets, can be composed almost entirely of diamonds, and diamonds are found in some meteorites.
What do you guys think about blood diamonds?
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