Re: remember your mom by getting drunk... yeah, not the best marketing campaign...sotheMay 11 2006, 06:04:41 UTC
Well, the story is far too long and complex to be told here. But in short, whenever a valuable commodity is discovered in Africa by Non-Africans, the Native people are forced off their land... and are then often forced to work in horrid and dangerous conditions to retrieve the precious commodity. Gold and Diamonds are the worst examples of this in Africa. But other things, like Tee Tree Oil have similar "bad human rights records".
Back in the 50s 60s, DeBeers used prison Labor to mine its diamonds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers and the prisons were often full of people put there for no real crime.
And while Apartheid is now outlawed in South Africa, the conditions for the miners have not improved a whole lot, as this recent article describes.
Now, while gold mines are the worst offenders, Diamond mines are still engaged in the kind of policies this recent article talks about
And that's what going on in the Legal mines. Things are a thousand times worse in the countries which are under the control of rebels, and export "Blood Diamonds" to fund their activities.
And of course, the whole thing is so very very tragic, because Diamonds, except for industrial applications, have no real value! Its all just a big add campaign! http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond
So, thats the real short version. What the "real story" is, is of course much bigger and more complex... but that's a little slice of it anyway.
Back in the 50s 60s, DeBeers used prison Labor to mine its diamonds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers
and the prisons were often full of people put there for no real crime.
And while Apartheid is now outlawed in South Africa, the conditions for the miners have not improved a whole lot, as this recent article describes.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200605050489.html
Now, while gold mines are the worst offenders, Diamond mines are still engaged in the kind of policies this recent article talks about
And that's what going on in the Legal mines. Things are a thousand times worse in the countries which are under the control of rebels, and export "Blood Diamonds" to fund their activities.
And of course, the whole thing is so very very tragic, because Diamonds, except for industrial applications, have no real value! Its all just a big add campaign!
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/198202/diamond
So, thats the real short version. What the "real story" is, is of course much bigger and more complex... but that's a little slice of it anyway.
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