An in-depth look at the diamond trade by John Helmer (johnhelmer.net)

submitted 8 months ago by Dessa@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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I've only skimmed this so far (It's meaty), but it looks like it really touches on a lot of topics important to the left right now:

The diamond trade is run mosty by pro-apartheid forces Israel and the DeBeers family from South Africa
Russia has a ton of diamond reserves, but is struggling to break in due to sanctions and the dirtiest sort of competition
A lot of diamonds come out of the Congo, which is notorious for their brutal slavery in mining
The entire business has been hated for a long time by the left.

If anti-"Israeli" sentiment can be leveraged against thr Diamond industry in general, this could move things forward in a number of places. Is there an opportunity here to cause this terrible industry some trouble right now?

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[-] ReadFanon@hexbear.net 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Haven't read the article because I'm lazy and I'm already based and conflict-mineralpilled on the subject so apologies if I'm already repeating what's mentioned in the article but when key figures of the Kimberly Process certification walk away from it (including one of the founders) and call it a bunch of bullshit (literally, in the words of Martin Rapoport) then the only conflict-free diamonds are the synthetic ones.

A decent article on the issue:

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/diamonds-blood-kimberley-process-mines-ethical

While we're on the topic of precious gems, don't think that Swarovski should ever be considered as an ethical alternative to diamonds because they only deserve consideration for where they rank in your shitlist: