Zimbabwe’s Conflict Diamonds Still Sparkle In The Kimberly Compliant Jewelry Sector!
A Fairjewelry.org Editorial by Marc Choyt, Publisher.
Now we can add Zim to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Ivory Coast.
An article from The Standard, one of Zimbabwe’s leading newspapers, calls for a embargo of Zim’s diamonds, which are contaminating the world’s diamond supply chain. It states flat out that the “Kimberly Process (KP) fails In Zimbabwe.”
Such a cry will only fall on deaf ears. KP is a regulatory process. KP depends upon stable governments that can enforce its mandates. Some governments who have signed on to the treaty are massively corrupt and unstable, making enforcement impossible or spotty at best.
KP and its abstract mandates have little meaning on the ground where small scale artisan miners (ASM) struggle for survival. Do you really think some diamond digger out in the bush cares about selling his diamond through some authorized KP channel? Of course not. He will sell it where he can get the best price, which is generally on the black market.
The ASM sector is chaotic and often bares most of the blame for conflict diamonds. That’s a mistake.
Small scale miners do what they need to do in order to feed themselves. They often live in conditions that are unimaginably difficult. Last fall, I read reports of how, in the newly discovered rich diamond fields of Zimbabwe, diggers were being massacred by governmental forces. Yet, just a few weeks after the helicopters left and the bodies were cleared away, the diggers were back to their boom town.
Why? Because even with the risk, diamonds are perceived to be the best option out there by many small scale miners. This is the case in other nations as well, where I’ve read reports of miners who live in abject poverty digging out a meager living, such as this one from the NY Times: Diamonds Move From Blood To Sweat To Tears
The million diamond question in the dark deep shadows is what about those ASM diamonds that are smuggled outside of Kimberly that are not funding regional conflicts, but rather, are the best option for a small scale miner to feed his family. If I could get my hands on these diamonds and not be thrown in jail, would they be ethical to buy and sell?
Are those diamonds more ethical than the KP diamonds from the same country which are sold at a lower price to members of a government sponsored cartel to the disadvantage of the small scale miner?
What about Canadian diamonds as the ethical choice, where we discount the environmental damage to North America’s last Serengeti and ignore the fact that a worker in a day there can earn what an artisan digger in Africa might take home in a year?
How easy it is to entertain the marketing of the moral high ground while comfortably sipping a cappuccino. Those who are selling jewelry want simplicity and ease, a black and white scenario so we can readily put the minds of our customers at ease. Instead, what we have, in the selling of diamonds, is a lot of gray area. We should not mistake the tenuous connections between moral certitudes and ultimate truth because they are based upon personal values.
In a way, these issues, rooted in the plight of the ASM sector, are not where we should be placing our attention if we are serious about eliminating blood diamonds. The diamond sector does not have the resources to conduct nation building. However, it is not powerless either. The question really is, how do these diamonds make it to the cutting factories of Mumbai, Antwerp and Ramat Gan? Who is receiving these conflict diamonds and where are they selling them?
Alas, we will never know the answer to such questions because every diamond dealer and jeweler in the world is honest, far more honest than those atrocious small scale minors. Indeed, every one in the jewelry sector is 100% Kimberly Compliant!
See the links below.
~ Marc Choyt, Publisher, fairjewelry.org.
Call For Embargo On Zim Diamonds
Zimbabwe’s Blood Diamonds; World Diamond Regulators Flounder
