Within the last two years, a large diamond field has been discovered in Zimbabwe. A shocking article from the Guardian (December 11th) describes a recent massacre of small scale artisan diamond miners. Helicopter gun ships and police with dogs. Bodies piled up and the typical cancerous boom and bust culture developed around this discovery. Once

In 1981, in a small Tibetan village in the Himalayas of northern Nepal, I sat quivering in front of Wong Chu, a shamanic practitioner of the ancient Bonpo sect of Tibet. With his drums, bells, fire and chanting, he called in the local spirits on behalf of a sick villager while I watched silently in

Vukani-Ubuntu is one of the most important examples of beneficiation through fair trade jewelry manufacturing in the world. Widely supported by government and corporations, the project trains South African villagers fully into the commercial jewelry production, from fabrication and production to business skills. Managed by my friend, the dynamic and magnificent Demos Takoulas, this project