For decades there has been a tenet, that no wedding is completewithout a diamond bejeweled ring. Women worshippers of the De Beers evocative tagline 'A diamond is forever', dream of owning the precious rock all their lives.For some, it is meant to render eternity to the conjugal bond, and for others it simply adds to the amusement of bride's mother and friends. Diamond companies have gone to the extent of labelling the stone as ' a girl's best friend'. Such persuasive marketing has also created a hype about the rarity of the diamonds. Whereas, infact they are found in abundance at their mining regions. By controlling the supply of diamonds, the industry has adeptly managed to create a situation of excessive demand in the market. This has lead to the sharp rise in their prices and a manifold profit to the industry. Clever marketing and the 'priceless' propoganda has convinced the consumer to pay an exorbitant amount for a stone with nearly no re-sale value.
Under the veil of a diamond's 4C's - namely cut, color, clarity and carat weight; the fifth C -denoting 'conflict' has been overshadowed. Unfortunately, they share an inverse relationship. The better the 4Cs, the bigger is the conflict behind them. This introduces us to the tale of 'Conflict Diamonds', also called as 'Blood diamonds' or 'War diamonds'. These terms are used to refer to diamonds mined in the war zones. Such stones are smuggled and sold to finance an insurgency, warlord's activities etc, usually in Africa.Trade of these illicit stones has fuelled decades of devastation in conflict contries like Angola, Sierra Leonne, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, The Republic of Congo etc. It has consequently lead to the rise of human rights violations,war crimes and the problem of child soldiers in these areas.
Although UN had identified 'conflict diamond' issue in 1998, the Diamond industry came forward to design the ' Kimberley Process Certification Scheme'. This process imposses extensive requirements on it's member nations to enable them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as ' conflict free'. Inspite of inducing certain degree of transperancy in trade, the achilles heel of the process lies in the fact that it merely depends on administrative controls and mutual agreements of trust to certify diamonds. No scientific procedure has been deviced yet to identify the origin of the diamonds. Hence, 'conflict diamonds' worth millions of dollars continue to flood the world market. By inducing a nominal reduction in the prices, customers are often lured to buy uncertified rough diamonds in a bulk. Today, of all the diamonds that appear in the world market, not all can be labelled as 'conflict free' with certainty.
The problem of 'blood diamonds' will continue to persist until a fool proof tracking sysytem and certification process is developed. Realizing this, thousands of people around the globe have pledged to boycott the purchase of diamonds untila concrete solution is found. People are now opting for alternate gem stones or synthetically produced diamonds.
Ultimately, it is a choice that the consumer has to make. One can either choose to care, to be a human and to live beyond material attractions; or one can choose not to care altogether. But, the truth is that even though for some, a diamond may be 'Bling!Bling!', for others it still continues to be 'Bang!Bang!'.
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