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

An editorial perspective by Marc Choyt, Publisher, fairjewelry.org. Interests in support of True North Gems and Greenlandic Bureau of Mining and Petroleum (BMP) are attempting to control public discourse by distorting the truth on the Greenland ruby on Wikipedia. Their claims belittle the efforts of the Greenlandic Inuit to uphold the rights of small scale