Saturday a young woman visiting our store asked me if I knew about the ‘Kimberly Process’. I replied that I did and went on to demonstrate that we require all who supply diamonds to us to adhere to it. Yet, in a way, it was an odd question, one I hadn’t heard for a few years.
Established in 2003 between diamond producing countries, diamond consuming countries, companies that process diamonds to bring them to market - as well as non-governmental human rights organizations, the goal of the Kimberly Process is to bar ‘conflict diamonds’ from the market. It was engendered by vicious civil wars in Sierra Leone and Angola in which some of the warring factions had enslaved civilians to gather largely alluvial diamonds they then sold to finance military operations. Though both wars had come to an end in 2002 and with their end much of the world’s concerns had subsided, the Kimberly Process institutionalized a mechanism for dealing with the problem of conflict diamonds in the future. For this reason the 2006 release of the film ‘Blood Diamond’, and an ensuing public concern over conflict diamonds, came as a bit of a bewildering shock to the diamond business. It was, of course, the public’s failure to understand that the film was historical in context that had engendered their alarm. Fortunately for the diamond business, as the film disappeared from circulation the public’s anachronistic concern for conflict diamonds had subsided so completely that the young woman’s question caught me by surprise. As a result, however, I felt compelled to look into its current state.
In large measure, and despite the currently unsettled state of both Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, it still seems to be working. In point of fact, however, a new issue has arisen, that of re-defining ‘conflict diamonds’. At present the Kimberly Process defines them as diamonds, produced by whatever means, used to finance rebellions against sitting governments and bans such gems from trade. The demand for a redefinition stems from a protest of human rights abuses made by artisinal miners against the Government of Zimbabwe. Shamiso Mitsi, speaking for the artisinal miners, pointedly declared in June that he stands for expanding the term ‘blood diamond’ to include diamonds that sitting governments mine using the coerced labor of their citizens. Global Witness, a non-governmental watchdog group, has already resigned from the Kimberly Process over Zimbabwe’s human rights abuses; and at the June intercessional planning meeting of the Kimberly Process western European governments, with the government of the United States, were united in supporting the re-definition of ‘conflict diamonds’ to cover all diamonds mined in a fashion abusive of human rights. Understandably, the government of Zimbabwe lead other African and some Asian nations in resisting this change in definition. As the meeting’s purpose had been to lay the groundwork for the plenary session of the Kimberly Process scheduled for November, any decision on a redefinition of the term ‘conflict diamond’ will have to wait until then, and even then might not take place. Tafadzwa Musarara, chairman of ‘Resources Exploitation Watch’, another non-governmental organization, speaking after the close of the June Kimberly Process meeting, said he felt only the United Nations could change the definition of ‘blood diamonds’. While this may leave you a bit skeptical of the ability of the diamond business to guard its virtue, I must point out that unlike much of the much larger world of international trade, the attempt is real and it is being made. Take oil for example, or cocoa.
About 8% of our annual oil consumption comes from Venezuela; and the government is above criticism. Just ask Marianela Sånchez. When, this last May, she criticized prison conditions in Venezuela, a couple of government goons kidnapped and threatened her husband; but since we like Venezuela’s oil we say little. Or cocoa. By Nestle’s own 2008 audit, 89% of Cote d’Ivorie’s children are employed in harvesting cocoa; but child labor or not, our sweettooths will not be denied. The moral of these stories? It’s hard to be virtuous in our connected world economy; but the diamond business is seriously trying - and it should.
The moral imperative for the diamond business having a ‘clean act’ is, of course, connected to the importance of a diamond as a statement of love. It speaks love; and that voice makes its ethics important. So feel good about buying a diamond to do the talking for you; and unless you’re an expert, come see us so we can guide you to a beautiful diamond - an eloquent voice to speak your love. Check us out on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com, then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment. We’ll never let you down because we care. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers, not a common jeweler.
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