...if that girl wants to contribute to murder, human rights violations, children at war, slavery, unsafe working conditions, and continued economic disparity in 3rd-world nations. Sounds harsh, I know, but they're not my words. There's plenty of information out there on this:
http://www.fguide.org/Bulletin/conflictdiamonds.htm
http://wghfilms.com/bling.htm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/diamonds/index.do
I'm not suggesting that anyone trade in the diamonds they already have. That's just crazy talk. But I am asking that you consider seriously if another diamond, or a bigger diamond, is something you really need in your life, and if having that thing is really worth the kinds of horrible things that happen to bring those diamonds to this country. I think it's time that we as Americans, and especially those of us who are Christians, use our fiscal clout to speak about our expectations for the standards of living for all of God's children.
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I have only read a little bit of this, and sadly I have not done much past research even though I know we've talked about it, I'm interested in reading these more. And, I don't believe in up grading diamonds anyways, as you well know. If its not the ring he gave you, its not your engagement ring (in my opinion).
ReplyDeleteAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
ReplyDeleteCongratulaations on posting this AWESOMENESS!!!!!
I mean, diamonds are bad, Bad, BAD!! It's, uh, a very serious issue, bloody diamonds.
i heard a whole NPR show on this a few months ago. It really blew me away. I had heard about bloody diamonds before, but i didn't know that is well near impossible to prove that a diamond does not have "blood" on it. He guy who wrote the book on this was saying that its about 90 percent of them. Yikes. This makes me HATE corporations like DeBeers and such that CREATE the demand with slogans like A DIAMOND IS FOREVER, they ARE A GALS BEST FRIEND, and that YOU NEED TO SPEND 2 MONTHS SALARY ON A DIAMOND!! Its all a huge conspiracy that WORKED. So well it scares me. I had serious guilt about owning a diamond after I heard this. I don't think i would sell it back because it was a gift from my man and has tons of sentimental value. However, if i had to do it all over again, i may have hinted about another type of ring or something.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone should feel guilty about the diamond they already own. But I do want to encourage people to question their thoughts and beliefs about the meaning and tradition surrounding diamonds and especially whether having that 3-stone anniversary band is really so important in light of the truth about the diamond industry.
ReplyDeleteActually, the whole "engagement ring tradition" was not such a tradition until deBeers started promoting it in an effort to increase diamond sales. It's actually a genius marketing campaign that resulted in this dark situation we now have. You can read about this on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engagement_ring.
Similar to Sweetest Day and other so-called "Hallmark holidays," our culture's expectations for material representation of one's affections have actually been generated, steered, and fueled by giant cogs of the Marketing Machine. And that's what I want people to question.
Well, I know a man can't love me unless he drops huge amounts of cash on me. Not "can't" as in he doesn't have the ability to love me, but can't as in: I won't let him love me unless he does this.
ReplyDeleteKanye West also tried to raise some awareness about this with his "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" video, which you can watch if you go to kanyewest.com. It's in the upper right corner of the page.
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