10 Reasons You SHould NEver Accept a Diamond Ring from Anyone

[Alex+R 0]

Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even If They Really Want to Give You One (2/14/02)

By Liz Stanton, CPE Staff Economist

1. You've Been Psychologically Conditioned To Want a Diamond

The diamond engagement ring is a 63-year-old invention of N.W.Ayer advertising agency. The De Beers diamond cartel contracted N.W.Ayer to create a demand for what are, essentially, useless hunks of rock.

2. Diamonds are Priced Well Above Their Value

The De Beers cartel has systematically held diamond prices at levels far greater than their abundance would generate under anything even remotely resembling perfect competition. All diamonds not already under its control are bought by the cartel, and then the De Beers cartel carefully managed world diamond supply in order to keep prices steadily high.

3. Diamonds Have No Resale or Investment Value

Any diamond that you buy or receive will indeed be yours forever: De Beers’ advertising deliberately brain-washed women not to sell; the steady price is a tool to prevent speculation in diamonds; and no dealer will buy a diamond from you. You can only sell it at a diamond purchasing center or a pawn shop where you will receive a tiny fraction of its original "value."

4. Diamond Miners are Disproportionately Exposed to HIV/AIDS

Many diamond mining camps enforce all-male, no-family rules. Men contract HIV/AIDS from camp sex-workers, while women married to miners have no access to employment, no income outside of their husbands and no bargaining power for negotiating safe sex, and thus are at extremely high risk of contracting HIV.

5. Open-Pit Diamond Mines Pose Environmental Threats

Diamond mines are open pits where salts, heavy minerals, organisms, oil, and chemicals from mining equipment freely leach into ground-water, endangering people in nearby mining camps and villages, as well as downstream plants and animals.

6. Diamond Mine-Owners Violate Indigenous People's Rights

Diamond mines in Australia, Canada, India and many countries in Africa are situated on lands traditionally associated with indigenous peoples. Many of these communities have been displaced, while others remain, often at great cost to their health, livelihoods and traditional cultures.

7. Slave Laborers Cut and Polish Diamonds

More than one-half of the world's diamonds are processed in India where many of the cutters and polishers are bonded child laborers. Bonded children work to pay off the debts of their relatives, often unsuccessfully. When they reach adulthood their debt is passed on to their younger siblings or to their own children.

8. Conflict Diamonds Fund Civil Wars in Africa

There is no reliable way to insure that your diamond was not mined or stolen by government or rebel military forces in order to finance civil conflict. Conflict diamonds are traded either for guns or for cash to pay and feed soldiers.

9. Diamond Wars are Fought Using Child Warriors

Many diamond producing governments and rebel forces use children as soldiers, laborers in military camps, and sex slaves. Child soldiers are given drugs to overcome their fear and reluctance to participate in atrocities.

10. Small Arms Trade is Intimately Related to Diamond Smuggling

Illicit diamonds inflame the clandestine trade of small arms. There are 500 million small arms in the world today which are used to kill 500,000 people annually, the vast majority of whom are non-combatants.

[Jenn! 918]

No diamond here!

[mRx 16]

now if we can just convince women that a diamond is not her best friend.

[Alex+R 0]

now if we can just convince women that a diamond is not her best friend.

LOL when Marilyn said that she was operating under the false assumption that diamonds had resale value.

[TracyLuis 0]

Sorry...I'm not gonna turn down any diamond if it's offered! Come on....

[Arazia 0]

My diamond ring is a family heirloom.

And even if everyone stopped buying diamonds for jewelry, they'd still be mined for industrial purposes.

[Alex+R 0]

Sorry...I'm not gonna turn down any diamond if it's offered! Come on....

Because of #1!!!

My diamond ring is a family heirloom.

And even if everyone stopped buying diamonds for jewelry, they'd still be mined for industrial purposes.

They can easily be grown synthetically for industry.

[Savanphil 3]

4. Diamond Miners are Disproportionately Exposed to HIV/AIDS

Many diamond mining camps enforce all-male, no-family rules. Men contract HIV/AIDS from camp sex-workers, while women married to miners have no access to employment, no income outside of their husbands and no bargaining power for negotiating safe sex, and thus are at extremely high risk of contracting HIV.

Dang

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

now if we can just convince women that a diamond is not her best friend.

LOL when Marilyn said that she was operating under the false assumption that diamonds had resale value.

The price of diamonds is artificial. (I know you know)

"In 1994, De Beers was charged by the United States Justice Department with antitrust violations for conspiring to fix prices for industrial diamonds. On 14 July 2004 De Beers pleaded guilty to the charges and paid a $10-million fine. The plea has enabled De Beers to trade directly in the United States diamond market after years of acting through intermediaries."

[Arazia 0]

They can easily be grown synthetically for industry.

I'll agree with that. Although I'm not sure (as I'm by far not an expert) which costs more... mining them in slave-labor conditions or producing them synthetically.

Still, people are like racoons. They want shiney stuff, and whomever has the most shinies gets to be top fluffball.

Then again, I've never been a big jewelry nut... my ring is one of the only pieces of 'real' jewelry I have (other than one gold necklace and a string of pearls from my sweet-sixteen I've never worn).

[ceriserose 1]

They can easily be grown synthetically for industry.

I'll agree with that. Although I'm not sure (as I'm by far not an expert) which costs more... mining them in slave-labor conditions or producing them synthetically.

Still, people are like racoons. They want shiney stuff, and whomever has the most shinies gets to be top fluffball.

Then again, I've never been a big jewelry nut... my ring is one of the only pieces of 'real' jewelry I have (other than one gold necklace and a string of pearls from my sweet-sixteen I've never worn).

Oooh Shiny!

[Caladan 19]

We talked about this alot, but C.'s been brainwashed, and I think people underestimate the pressure there is on a guy to provide a diamond. (I mean, I'm marrying a FOREIGNER, to the dismay of my parents. No diamond to them would just mean he's cheap.)

Our compromise was to go with a Canadian-mined & certified diamond. Still not great, as it plays into the cultural expectation, but it wasn't mined by slave labor or financing a genocide.

[Alex+R 0]

We talked about this alot, but C.'s been brainwashed, and I think people underestimate the pressure there is on a guy to provide a diamond. (I mean, I'm marrying a FOREIGNER, to the dismay of my parents. No diamond to them would just mean he's cheap.)

Our compromise was to go with a Canadian-mined & certified diamond. Still not great, as it plays into the cultural expectation, but it wasn't mined by slave labor or financing a genocide.

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for the situation. Canadian diamonds might hurt you in the pocketbook, but you don't have to wonder if they went somewhere bloody (unless there are blood diamond wars in Canada, LOL)

[Caladan 19]

Outside of the hockey games, not so much.

[almaty 19]

They can easily be grown synthetically for industry.

I'll agree with that. Although I'm not sure (as I'm by far not an expert) which costs more... mining them in slave-labor conditions or producing them synthetically.

Still, people are like racoons. They want shiney stuff, and whomever has the most shinies gets to be top fluffball.

Then again, I've never been a big jewelry nut... my ring is one of the only pieces of 'real' jewelry I have (other than one gold necklace and a string of pearls from my sweet-sixteen I've never worn).

Oooh Shiny!

i think that is the Crow, that likes shiny stuff...raccoons near me, like dog food