Ever heard of blood diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds? Kanye West rapped about them in his song “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”. Leonardo DiCaprio played a mercenary who gets caught smuggling these diamonds in the movie Blood Diamond. If Hollywood has done a movie about it and it’s being mentioned in a rap song, it must be rather significant, right?
In short, a blood diamond is a diamond that was mined and taken from a war zone (usually an African country, but not always) and sold for purposes such as perpetuating child labor, state sanctioned violence and worker exploitation, to funding a war, providing payment to diamond companies throughout the world, or payment directly into a warlord’s pocket. This is why they are called blood/conflict diamonds. Plenty of people have even died over these diamonds, specifically in countries such as Angola, Liberia, Zimbabwe, and of course, Sierra Leone.
In response, former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush signed documents to stop importation of these diamonds from Sierra Leone, and the 2003 Clean Diamond Trade Act was passed. But many have argued that neither of these actions has had any effect on conflict diamond mining. Other organizations and governments in other countries are doing what they can to prohibit the production of blood diamonds. Although the practice has decreased significantly, it hasn’t stopped entirely.
So what can you do help? There are alternative diamonds you can buy—cultured and conflict free diamonds, which can even be bought online. Conflict-free diamonds are those gems which were not obtained due to human rights abuses, child labor, violence, or environmental degradation. The other option, cultured diamonds, are simply diamonds grown in a laboratory. Whiteflash.com, offers conflict-free diamonds, which are also no less real than the blood diamonds. Whiteflash also give guidance about how to differentiate between blood diamonds and certified conflict-free diamonds.
Diamonds can still be a girl’s (and guy’s) best friend. But if she’s going to be picky about the cut, color, clarity and carats, she might as well be picky about how it was obtained as well.
