In 1997, On the western coast of South Africa, there was a diamond mine. It was called Alexkor. Diamonds were mined here. This particular year, many pigeons were spotted around it. The people working at this mine were excited to see these pigeons because it could be a way to steal diamonds.
The thing is that, back then, the west coast of South Africa was known as the Forbidden Zone. A common man could not go to this area. People who worked in such mines lived in the houses provided by the mining companies. Sent their children to the schools ran by these companies. And they were completely forbidden to leave the mines. X-ray machines were installed here. People were searched repeatedly. These workers were given constipation relief medicines with food, to prevent them from smuggling the diamonds by swallowing them. The miners who died working here were buried there in the mines, so that the diamonds could not be smuggled using the dead bodies. Coming back to the pigeons, when the miners saw these pigeons flying around them, they started catching them, they raised them and trained them so that they could tie diamonds to their feet or their body, and send them home. But these miners didn't know that these pigeons were actually snitches. The police had already trained these pigeons on the orders of the mining companies so that they could catch those who were trying to smuggle diamonds from the mines. The miners had only a short while to train these pigeons, but the police had trained them over a long time. These pigeons remembered their police training, so they would take the diamonds to the police. As a result, the police arrested more than 100 miners. After this, in the River Orange, human body parts started turning up. Some miners were burnt alive. The police had reported only 70 arrests in their official records. The diamond mining companies were so powerful here that they were doing everything to protect their empire. In 1998, it was declared illegal to raise pigeons. Also, another rule was imposed that if you own a weapon and you don't shoot down a pigeon as soon as you see it, you will be punished. All this was being done because diamonds were considered to be very precious. Even today, it is believed so. Many people give diamond rings on their weddings and engagements. It is said that'Diamonds are Forever.' A symbol of an unbreakable, eternal love. Once a person manages to save a little money, he wants to buy a diamond ring. Diamond rings have become a status symbol in our society. But how will it feel if I tell you that diamonds are not precious?
Millions of people around the world have been fooled by a single company, by promoting a lie. A company whose diamond mining has destroyed many African countries due to civil wars. Millions of African children were pushed into forced labour. They traded weapons in exchange for diamonds.
The history of diamonds is older than the Koh-i-noor. But let's begin ourstory from the 1860s, with the turning point in this industry. Two settlers reached South Africa, Johannes and Diederik De Beer. Diamonds wereunearthed on their farm. They began mining for diamonds here and later sold their mine to a businessman, Cecil Rhodes. He was a British businessman, one of the richest men of his time. Apart from De Beers, when other people found diamond mines in South Africa, Cecil contacted each and every one of them and gradually, bought all the diamond mines. In 1888, he founded the company De Beers and by the 1900s, he had taken over the global diamond production to such an extent that 90% of the world's diamond production was done by his company, De Beers. This company was a monopoly. Before this, diamonds were found either in India, or in South America, and were seen as luxury items. But when, a large number of diamonds were discovered in Africa, their supply increased at once. This company realised the danger that if diamonds were sold easily everywhere, then they won't beseen as luxury items. Diamonds would lose their value. Then came World War I, and the Great Depression of 1929. Because of this, people faced a shortage of funds. They couldn't even afford to buy food for their families. Diamonds were a far thought. The demand for diamonds started decreasing. If something is available in higher supply, but its demand decreases, then what will happen to its price?
This is taught in economics at school, and it is also a matter of common sense. The price will fall. De Beers found a solution to this problem. Since they had a monopoly on the world's diamond industry, they deliberately stopped the supply of diamonds. They created an artificial shortage. To show that there were fewer diamonds in the market than people believed to be. The new diamonds that were being mined at their diamond mines, were safely stored at a place. They weren't sold in the market, creating an artificial shortage. This was how they controlled the supply. On the other hand, to increase the demand, in 1938, De Beers contacted an advertising agency, NWIR. Their goal was to advertise diamonds in such a way that people would start believing that if they are going to propose or get married, they will have to buy a diamond ring. In 1947, this advertising agency launched its ad campaign, A Diamond is Forever. People were told to spend their 2 months' salary to buy a diamond and that it will always be with them. As a symbol of their love. It was turned into a psychological necessity. Celebrities were given diamonds to make it seem more valuable. And year by year, people's behaviour towards diamonds began changing. Till date, it is considered one of the most successful ad campaigns in the world. People were told that if their love is permanent, then they need to prove it with something indestructible. An emotional attachment was created with diamond engagement rings. Diamonds were linked withe conomic success and social status, to target males too. They ran magazine ads, to showcase celebrities and their diamond engagement rings. In 1938, in a memo, De Beers'owner Harry Oppenheimer said that there were very few scenes in films which shows selecting or buying engagement rings for women. He wrote that they need to contact the writers and directors to arrange for such scenes. Can you fully understand the impact of the long-term planning here?
Diamonds were shown prominently in movies and songs. In the 1953 film gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the iconic actress Marilyn sang the song called Diamonds Are A girl's Best Friend. In the 1950s, at events like the Academy Awards, celebrities were given diamond jewellery. It wasn't like these celebrities were buying diamonds themselves. This company was giving them diamonds for free, to wear at important events. That way their diamonds would be promoted, their value would increase, and they would beseen as status symbols. In 1947, Queen Elizabeth of Britain went to the De Beers mine in South Africa herself, and the company gave hera 6-carat diamond as a gift. Stories about the diamonds Koh-i-noor and hope were helping flame people's interest. How huge wasthe impact of all this can be understood by these shocking numbers. In 1940, only 10% of the brides in America got diamond rings in their engagement. But by 1990, this number was at 90%. More than 90% of the brides started getting diamond rings on their engagement. After America, De Beers did something similar in Japan. There was no place for engagement rings in Japanese culture. Rings weren't exchanged on engagement. But in the 1960s, De Beers took the help of advertising agency J. Walter Thompson ran large-scale ads in Japan presenting diamond rings as a symbol of westernism and prosperity. And what happened?
In 1966, only 1% of Japanese women got a diamond ring during their wedding. But by 1981, this number had reached 60%. Later, this reached 90%, and Japan became the second largest consumer market for diamonds. In the midst of all this, De Beers kept its control over the supply chain. From Russia to Australia, wherever a new diamond mine was unearthed, De Beers would pay the government's and buy it, to maintain control. In 1956, Soviet Union geologists found a large diamondfield in the Siberian Tundra. After this, De Beersoffered the Soviet Union to buy all the diamonds at a guaranteed price. They paid this country$25 million every year. And when the Soviet Union was breaking apart in 1990, De Beers offered $1 billion to the new government for the Siberian diamonds. This would help you understand, the extent to which this company was willing to go to control the global supply of diamonds. Even today, De Beers has the largest stock pile of unpolished diamonds. The stability of the global diamond industry is based on the fact that De Beers has created and is maintaining an artificial shortage of diamonds.
In many African countries, at many places, there were hugereserves of diamonds. Because of this, diamonds fuelled the civil war on the entire African continent and became the reason for thousands of deaths. Take Congo for example. In 1960, this country was liberated from Belgium. The civil war began after its liberation, and it later became a proxy war between the US and the Soviet Union. Congo had many diamonds. And rebel groups and foreign soldiers occupied hundreds of diamond mines. To fund their wars, these people started selling diamonds to buy weapons. Every year, hundreds of people were killed here but no one was punished. Another example is Angola. Their guerrilla leader,Jonas Savimbi's rebel army, sold around 500,000 carats of diamonds every year and with this money, they bought weapons like AK-47s and grenades. Savimbi's organisation, Union for the Total independence of Angola, was supported by America which was fighting against the Soviet union supported Socialist government. This organisation took over most of the diamond mines in the country, and forced the farmers there to find diamonds as slave labourers. It was the same situation in Sierra Leone. Rebels sold diamonds to buy weapons and ammunition. The diamond trade helped flame the 1990s' civil war. This war is infamous for its brutality. By this time, it was clear that diamonds were funding the civil wars in African countries. Warlords got money for their wars from the sale of diamonds. That's why they were called Blood Diamonds. In other parts of the world, you ought diamonds to show your love, while on the other hand, in these war zones, rebels, militias, and warlords got financial help with this money. Many businessmen from western countries started giving weapons to warlords and rebels directly in exchange for diamonds. It was a straightforward exchange offer. In the 1990s, in exchange for the diamond mining rights, the Belgian businessman Serge Muller bought Romanian weapons for the Sierra Leone's president Valentine's trasfer and his people. After which, he came to beknown as Mr Blood Diamond. In these countries, children were treated even worse. Children were forced into child labour. Especially during the war, because the children were so small that they could get into deep tunnels using ropes, and dig for diamonds. During the 10-year long civil war in Sierra Leone, thousands of children were kidnapped and forced to work in mines. In 2006, Leonardo dicaprio 's Hollywood film Blood Diamond shed light on this. This film obviously helped create awareness among people, when they found out the dark truth hiding behind the shiny gems. When they pay to buy their diamond engagement ring, where does that money actually go?
But to avoid the loss due to this film, De Beers promoted it by giving diamond jewellery to major Hollywood stars. During the Golden Globes Awards, stars like Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez wore diamond rings. These celebrities were being paid to promote this. But there was a demand to boycott diamonds among the masses. Even before the release of this film, many media organisations had published news about it. Finally, the truth about the blood diamonds was reaching people. That's why in 2000, in the south African city Kimberly, the world's biggest diamond producers and buyers held a meeting. In 2003, this diamond industry along with 54 countries introduced the Kimberley Process for certification of diamonds. So that it can be ensured that these diamonds weren't sourced from areas of ongoing war. According to this, every diamond consignment would bear the name of the originating country. If countries could not prove that their diamond is 'conflict-free,' would be suspended from international diamond trade. The Kimberley process aimed to stop blood diamonds from entering the global market. But in reality, there were somany loopholes in this process that no one could stop blood diamonds from reaching the markets. For example, when the diamonds from Central African Republic were banned, they were smuggled to Congo and received Kimberly process Certificates there. They were then sold inthe international markets. A major problem with these rules was the way 'conflict' was defined. As per the United Nations, conflict or blood diamonds are those that originate from such territories where groups rebelling against internationally recognised government's are in control. This meant that the Kimberley process, considers only those diamonds as blood diamonds which were funding the rebels. But even if the government's were violating human rights, the diamonds wouldn't need to be banned. This was quite widespread in Africa. Young children were forced to work, the workers were paid meagre salary, the conditions in which they worked, their working hours, it was all very torturous. When people working inthe diamond mines died, often no one outside the mines would be informed about it. For example, in Zimbabwe, many human rights violations were documented. In 2008, Zimbabwe's army captured a large mine and killed morethan 200 workers. But this wasn't considered as a violation of the Kimberly Process because this wasn't done by some rebels it was done by the government. In the Marange Diamond fields in Eastern Zimbabwe, forced labour and torture was a common practice. In 2011, a BBC investigation found two torture camps. In the main camp, Diamond Base,workers were subjected to sexual violence. The workers who were freed from the camp reported that they were whipped 40 times in the morning rings, afternoons, and evenings. At time dogs would've released upon them, leading to serious injuries and even deaths. This diamond mine was run by a company connected to Zimbabwe 's former President Robert Mugabe. The Zimbabwe an police and army were the ones controlling these torture camps. In 2009, to take overthe diamond fields, government soldiers killed more than 200 people, and raped local women. Even after this, Zimbabwe an diamonds weren't banned as perthe Kimberly process.
Most of the people who buy diamonds don't know about these things. And the things that people know about diamonds, are also often lies. Many people believe that buying diamonds is a good investment. This is a complete lie. The stand-alone investment value of diamonds is almost zero. People always place it higher than gold in the hierarchy. With bronze at the bottom, the silver, gold, and finally diamond. And people often think that since gold has such a high value and gold's price is always on the rise, then diamonds wouIn many African countries, at many places, there were hugereserves of diamonds. Because of this, diamonds fuelled the civil war on the entire African continent and became the reason for thousands of deathsldoffer better value. But this is true for gold because the gold shortage isn't artificial. It is not an artificial shortage created by a company. This is why gold is supposed to be a good investment. Because gold's price keeps rising with time. But once you buy diamonds, then it is almost impossible to sell them at the same price. When you buy gold or shares, you have an idea about the returns you'll get when you sell them. But it is not the same for diamonds, because there is no unified market for diamonds where you can sell them easily. In 1970, a British magazine bought some diamonds and tried to sell them in 1978. They didn't get any offer price even close to the price they bought it at 8 years ago. Similarly, a rich woman bought a diamond ring from Tiffany& Co. in New York for $100,000. But she found not buyers while trying to resell it. I'd like to mention that, it's not like natural diamonds cannot hold their value, there are some rare natural diamonds. such as Pink Diamonds, Yellow diamonds, or diamonds bigger than 4 carats. These diamonds are collected by collectors, and they hold their value to a large extent. Even in India, when you go to sell diamonds, most jewellers won't give you money in return. Instead, they give you exchange options. On top of that, they'd mention technical things like cut, clarity,colour, and certification, to reduce the diamond's resale value. In India, banks give loans on gold, but not on diamonds. Because it is difficult to sell them. And now, from a scientific perspective, if you look at a diamond.
what is a diamond?
It is a material made of carbon bonds. and what kind of an element is carbon?
An element that is found everywhere. So, in a fire, diamonds turn into carbon dioxide, and evaporate. While on the other hand, even if gold is set aflame or melted, it remains as gold. Because it is arare earth element. Not only that, pure goldis also a noble element. That is, it doesn't take part in chemical reactions quite easily. That's why the maintenance costs of gold jewellery is quite low. Whereas diamonds need regular inspection and cleaning. The carbon bonds that make up graphite, the material that is in your pencils, those same carbon bonds make up diamond. The only difference is how the bonds are arranged. Diamonds are formed when there is a lot of heat and pressure on the carbon atoms. Only then the strong bonds of these carbon atoms are formed, which are layered and accumulated to form a diamond. Naturally, this happens only100 miles below the ground. But since this isn't a complicated process, we can replicate this process in a lab. If we put the same levels of heat and pressure on carbon in a laboratory, diamonds can be created then and there. Such diamonds are called artificial diamonds or lab-grown diamonds.In the 1950s, General Electric pioneered the first successful attempt to create such diamonds.Initially, these lab-grown diamonds were suitable only for industrial use.But as the years passed,with innovation and technological improvement,today it is possible to make high-quality,jewellery-grade diamonds in a lab,identical to the ones found naturally under the ground.Today, it is almost impossible to spot any differences between a lab-grown diamond and a natural diamond.It offers the same shape,size, colour, clarity, and shine.The only difference is that making these lab-grown diamonds is 10 times cheaper than mining natural diamonds.Making them is more environmentally-friendly because when carbon emissions are compared,only 0.028 gram of carbon is released per carat while producing lab-grown diamonds.Whereas, the mining ofa similar natural diamond,would have emitted 100,000times more carbon emissions.Additionally, they don't cause civil war, human rights exploitation,or exploitation of children in Africa.This is the reason behind the rising popularity of lab-grown diamonds over the past few years.Between 2020 and 2023,the price of natural diamonds fell by 59%and now there's a chance of a further 40% decline.If you want to buy diamonds,go for lab-grown diamonds.Buy them from a trusted source.
Today, even a company like De Beers is forced to reduce the price on their diamonds,because lab-grown diamonds are effectively tearing down its monopoly.Over the last few years, they had to slash the prices by nearly 40%,reducing their profits by 60%.In 2020, in terms of overall diamond sales,lab-grown diamonds had a 2.4% share.But by 2023,this reached 9.3%.In the diamond export from India,the share of lab-grown diamonds increased from 1%,to 9% by June 2023.But I believe that we need to keep spreading awareness.So that we can bring an end to diamond mining.This company which fooled people allaround the world for the last 70-80 years,it's truth should bein front of the public.
Thank you.....
Comments
Post a Comment