Posted on 01/06/2007 7:44:37 PM PST by blam
Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend
By Chris Hastings, Stephanie Plentl and Beth Jones, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:29am GMT 07/01/2007
Diamonds have been synonymous with Hollywood glamour since Marilyn Monroe declared them to be a girl's best friend in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. But now a new generation of Hollywood stars is shunning the stones as a new film exposes the darker side of the international diamond trade.
Blood Diamond tells the story of forced-labour diamond mines
For the first time in the 79-year history of the Oscars, certain kinds of diamond will be absent from the annual prize-giving ceremony. Normally the awards, which will take place on February 25, are awash with sparkling stones, with some stars even choosing to wear them on their shoes.
But now many of the biggest names in Hollywood are asking agents and diamond experts to ensure they are not photographed wearing illicit diamonds.
The backlash against the stones has led to diamonds being dubbed the "new fur", as stars increasingly try to make sure that they are not wearing anything that might be regarded as unethical.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly, the stars of Blood Diamond, as well as Kayne West, the rap artist, the models Iman and Erin O'Connor – the face of Marks and Spencer – are leading the backlash. Blood Diamond, part of which was filmed in London's Hatton Garden diamond district, is set in civil war-ravaged Sierra Leone and tells the story of forced-labour diamond mining companies.
The success of the film, which has already opened in America and comes to UK cinemas at the end of the month, has led to an upsurge in demand for so-called conflict-free diamonds, which carry a certificate of confirmation that their trade is not connected with war, civil strife or human rights abuses.
Gaia Geddes, the jewellery editor at Harper's Bazaar, said: "You have the Oscars and Baftas coming up, and that's when the stars wear very big rocks. This year there will be a lot of focus on conflict-free diamonds and a lot of people will take a stand, just like they did with fur."
Connelly, 36, who plays a journalist in the movie, made a point of wearing "conflict-free" diamonds to the film's American premiere last month.
"I think what I got out of the film is a desire to be a more ethnical consumer," she said. "I did some research and there are companies like Bulgari, like Tiffany, that are striving to be clean and accountable and that provide written guarantees that their diamonds are conflict-free.
Iman pulled out of her contract as the face of De Beers
"No one is saying boycott diamonds but [buyers] can be pro-active and go to their jewellers and say, 'Can you show me a certificate? Can you give me a verifiable warranty that these diamonds are conflict-free?'"
Jane Fonda, the double Oscar-winning actress and friend of the film's producer, Paula Weinstein, has also revealed how she has made sure she only wears conflict-free diamonds.
African tribes in conflict with the diamond industry are actively targeting the world's celebrities in a bid to win them over. Last year, Bushmen in the Kalahari in dispute with De Beers wrote an open letter in Variety to DiCaprio, seeking his support.
Eileen Kelly, the manager of Abiba, a jeweller in Hatton Garden, said: "Recently we have had more and more customers come into the shop because of publicity about the film and ask where the diamonds have come from. We can say that we do not sell conflict diamonds. For the past year we have quite clearly printed on our receipts that our diamonds are conflict-free."
The campaign against the diamond trade had been building up even before the release of Blood Diamond. In 2004 Iman, who is married to the singer David Bowie, pulled out of her contract as the face of De Beers in protest at what she claimed was the company's eviction of tribespeople from their land in Botswana. In 2005, the actress Julie Christie joined a protest outside the Natural History Museum in support of the same tribesmen.
De Beers denies all the allegations levied against it in connection with diamonds. The company declined to comment last night, but a spokesman for the World Diamond Council, the representative body of the diamond industry, said: "We don't have any issue with the film. The important thing is that the movie is based in the past, in 1999, and the situation now is that the vast majority of conflict is over.
"The diamond industry contributes over $8 million (about £4.5 million) per year to local African economies, which helps to build schools, hospitals and provide employment."
I always thought that gold was a better investment.
Edward Jay Epstein wrote a great story on the dia,ond biz about 12 years ago in Atlantic. Couldn't find with a quick google, but more effort might produce a copy.
What an idiot this author is. Diamonds are more popular than ever.
Saw the same thing, actually since they started the two diamond mines in Canada, and the ability to make them for industrial purposes, the world is awash in diamond. However, the world government needs to make "debeers" pay for the upkeep of all of those poor maimed people.
Cecil John Rhodes, PC (July 5, 1853 – March 26, 1902[1]) was a British-born South African businessman, mining magnate, and politician. He was the founder of the diamond company De Beers, which today controls 60% of the world's diamonds and at one time controlled 90% of the world's diamonds. He was also the coloniser of the state of Rhodesia, which was named after him. Rhodesia (later Northern and Southern Rhodesia) eventually became Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Dr. Szell says the diamond market is not safe ...
Artificial diamonds have been around for a number years. But they have been tiny things, used for industrial purposes (grinding, scratching, etc.). More recently, the high thermal conductivity of diamond has motivated research into making diamonds big enough to use in microchips. There has been progess.
This is from a 2003 article in Wired:
Aron Weingarten brings the yellow diamond up to the stainless steel jeweler's loupe he holds against his eye. We are in Antwerp, Belgium, in Weingarten's marbled and gilded living room on the edge of the city's gem district, the center of the diamond universe. Nearly 80 percent of the world's rough and polished diamonds move through the hands of Belgian gem traders like Weingarten, a dealer who wears the thick beard and black suit of the Hasidim.Good. Another example of creative destruction."This is very rare stone," he says, almost to himself, in thickly accented English. "Yellow diamonds of this color are very hard to find. It is probably worth 10, maybe 15 thousand dollars."
"I have two more exactly like it in my pocket," I tell him.
He puts the diamond down and looks at me seriously for the first time. I place the other two stones on the table. They are all the same color and size. To find three nearly identical yellow diamonds is like flipping a coin 10,000 times and never seeing tails.
"These are cubic zirconium?" Weingarten says without much hope.
"No, they're real," I tell him. "But they were made by a machine in Florida for less than a hundred dollars."
Weingarten shifts uncomfortably in his chair and stares at the glittering gems on his dining room table. "Unless they can be detected," he says, "these stones will bankrupt the industry."
I read about conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone years ago. It shouldn't come as a great surprise that it took a movie to enlighten those intellectual giants in Hollywood. I guess the literacy rate must be a few points off the median...
I volunteer to take any diamonds in their jerewlry box that they no longer want!!!!
You're probably right. The price won't drop because a few Hollywood types try to feign being noble.
As for the anniversary gift, I'm on a five year renewal contract with my wife. Every five years, I get her something really nice to get her to put up with me for five more years.
Diamonds are a carefully controlled sellers' market. In the usual jewelry sizes around a carat or two they are a cheap and common commodity, worth maybe 5% what you have to pay retail. Don't ever waste your energy trying to sell one on the open market. It's basically worthless.
Well now the are on to diamonds. I guess the global warming caused by man just aint gettin it done.Any bets as to what is next?
I wear a Casio watch ($130, of which about $40 was for a titanium band). Its face is a solar cell, so it has neither stem to wind nor batteries to change. Every morning it tunes into WWVB and sets itself. Keeps perfect time. The only time I have to push its buttons is to change the zone offset when I travel (daylight saving adjustment is automatic). The Japanese have forgotten more about horology than the Swiss know.
I like diamonds and other gems, but my favorite stone is opal in its various forms, especially boulder opals and fire opals. I especially like rings with a nice-sized opal and a much-smaller diamond (or other stone) to set it off.
Diamonds are an endangered species, because they can now be manufactured. Very soon, "artifical" diamonds will be indistinguishable from natural ones. It is absurd for anyone to pay good money for any diamond. However, Gold may never be replicated. Alchemists have been trying for centuries, to no avail.
Yeah, if those idiotic celebs are now too good to wear diamonds, well, I'll join those other folks here who are willing to relieve them of the burden of diamond ownership. ;)
I think I'm acquiring a taste for diamonds.
If Hollywoodies are against 'em...
The number is far smaller than that -- and the wars involved have been over for 10 years. This is pure Marxist class warfare propaganda. Look beneath the surface and you find Oxfam, Friends of the Earth, Amnesty International, Global Witness and several other Left-wing NGOs plus the Hollywood elite trying to stir up trouble.
The Princess Syndrome, where wimmin want to bedeck themselves in jewelry, is set into their minds at an early age. It's hard to fight conditioning like that.
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