The Tainted Company

I came across this article on CNNmoney.com and it made me furious for several reasons. It dished a little more dirt on the diamond giant De Beers, adding to the distain I’m beginning to hold for the company. Here’s a snippet of what the article said about De Beers and its diamond-trading practices:

“For generations De Beers bought diamonds from virtually any supplier without asking many questions about their provenance. That policy, critics charge, helped fuel bloody conflicts in Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where millions have died in civil wars fought largely over diamonds and other mineral resources… More recently the company has drawn fire for allegedly driving Botswanan Bushmen off their ancestral homelands in the Kalahari Desert to make way for future diamond mining.”

I understand that De Beers isn’t single handedly fueling the conflict diamond industry. And I also take into account the opinions that I’ve heard from some people that fighting De Beers isn’t going to stop the killing in Africa. However, saying that we can’t hold De Beers, as well as all other diamond traders and retailers, responsible for ensuring that the diamonds consumers buy are conflict free is simply irresponsible as well as crass. Ignoring the FACT that buying dirty diamonds and not certifying to the consumers that a company’s diamonds are conflict free is to ignore the fact that people’s lives are being ripped apart and snuffed out. Granted De Beers has claimed to clean up their act and that they sell only conflict free diamonds, but that doesn’t change the fact that they have a dark history rooted deep in the finance of blood diamonds. Not to mention their attitude on the matter makes me wonder if the company has a soul.

Resource: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2006/04/01/8373093/index.htm

P.S. I received a suggestion that I should include ways in which consumers can certify that the diamonds they buy are conflict free....I will be addressing that as thoroughly as possible in upcoming blogs. Thanks!!