All that glitters is not gold

Quel prix pour ces diamants? Loosely translated, it means “‘What price for those diamonds?”

Personally I never really bought the reasoning that women needed polished stones to increase their attractiveness or, as some would say, bring out one’s “inner beauty”. As we become increasingly aware of the existence of conflict diamonds, and more recently blood rubies, there is all the more reason to choose one carefully if you do decide to splurge unnecessarily purchase one. (Hint: Make sure it’s KPCS-certified)
From a UN site,

Conflict diamonds are diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council.

I highly recommend anyone who hasn’t watched the movie Blood Diamond to do so, as it provides a clearer and darker insight to the controversy surrounding each and every stone that comes out from conflict zones (mostly but not limited to Angola and Sierra Leone). The scenes that struck me most were those of brain-washed children, aptly termed “Child Soldiers”, trained in arms and ready to kill for the RUF. To “facilitate” and accustom the kids with brutal senseless killings, the senior soldiers would rub cocaine on any open wounds to send them into a wild, mad frenzy.

Not too long ago light was shed on the trade of “blood rubies”, which fundamentally is similar to conflict diamonds, except it appears in a different form, but is still traded and sold to fund and keep a particular dominant party in power.

I came across this blog and somehow I don’t find it particularly difficult to believe what s/he said could well possibly be true :

Have you ever seen or heard about those who are working in the Jade and Ruby mines. They have to work manually in the Malaria infested Jungles of Burma under Military watchdogs to make sure that no precious Gems were stolen.

Mudslide in these Mines are very common, and once mudslide occurred it became permanent tomb for the workers. Death due to Cerebral Malaria, Diarrhoea, dysentery is very common as there were no proper health care facilities for the workers.

Alcoholism , Gambling and Drug addiction is very common in these mines as the owners of the Mines created the environment for the exhausted workers to enjoy with Alcohol, Drugs and prostitutes at night. This methods serve for the benifit of the owners of the Mines.The workers will need more advanced money from their bosses who also sells drugs and run the gambling dens in remote Jungles of Burma.

HIV/ AIDs among the workers are also very high due to sharing of needle while using drugs and also due to unsafe sex.

Those who survived the hard-work of Gems Mines bring back HIV to their spouses. That is the one of the reasons that Burma is now epidemic with HIV/ AIDS and Malaria .

Malaria, mudslides, alcohol/drug abuse, AIDS, a perpetuating bourgeoisie-proletariat relationship and shiny pretty red stones that women can’t help but fall in love with : We now have all the ingredients of the next Hollywood blockbuster!

Realistically though, I fear the majority of males (me included) would still have to rely on shiny rocks, at some point in time, to overcome the final frontier of winning that special someone’s heart…

Edit : Found this on PostSecret !