December 11, 2007
Here’s a fundamental question for the diamond industry. To what lengths will it go to source its product? Even though demand far outweighs supply and the gap between the two is set to grow, will the diamond industry, in its quest for new raw material, plunder one of the world’s largest and most varied ecosystems and trample on the rights and lives of indigenous people in the process? Greed and corruption seem to be doing just that in Brazil right now.
No matter how hard the industry tries, diamonds seem to be inextricably linked with death and the darkest, most repulsive side of human beings. All the hard work that the global industry did in getting together to work on stemming the flow of conflict diamonds could well be undone if stories like this hit the headlines over Christmas.
A representative of the United Nations and three others have been taken hostage by the Cinta Larga indigenous people. At the root of the hostage-taking is, of course diamond mining. Three years ago, 29 illegal miners were massacred on the reservation and the case against the killers is still in court, mired in confusion and controversy over who has jurisdiction over the indigenous people and their reservations.
Some say Brazil is the world’s largest untapped source of diamonds. It hasn’t been tapped for two good reasons. First, prospecting and mining would have to take place in the Amazon forest, resulting in the damage and destruction of large tracts of the single largest carbon dioxide absorbing system in the world and an ecosystem that is home to countless known as well as yet undiscovered species. Secondly, these areas have been set aside as reservations for the indigenous people of Amazonia.
The law says you can’t mine there but the indigenous people say illegal miners are being let in while they, the original inhabitants of the area, are being harassed by the police and their movements restricted. Whatever the truth of the matter, I don’t think you would want to make a Christmas gift of something that comes from both environmental damage and human violence and misery.
I did mention once before that Sony and Apple never have to deal with issues like this. While some of the big names like Tiffany, Bulgari, Harry Winston and Cartier announced a boycott of gemstones from Burma, an action which almost halved what the Burmese military junta thought they would get at the government-controlled gemstone auctions it organised recently,there were enough buyers to ensure sales of $150 million.
Stuff like this doesn’t exactly inspire consumers and now that it’s Christmas time…
Dec. 12 Update
