Do you ever have any ethical concerns about diamonds?

[Laila619]

I know we all love our diamonds and sparklies here, but do you ever have any worries about not knowing for sure if your stones are conflict free diamonds? I honestly was pretty ignorant and clueless about blood diamonds before I got engaged. I've since read all about the Kimberley process and that it's just not that reliable unfortunately. It definitely nags at me sometimes that I won't ever know for sure if my stone was ethically mined or not. What about you?

 

[kenny]

Sometimes, but I'll bet if you could follow half the products in your home, every step, all the way back to their raw materials being extracted from the earth you'd witness zillions of . . . umh . . . ethical concerns.

Many human beings just suck.
Everything humans do is an opportunity for misbehavior.

Diamonds are an easy, emotional, and juicy target for the media to pick on.
The more eyeballs they get the more advertising they can sell.

 

[Circe]

Sometimes, but I'll bet if you could follow half the products in your home, every step, all the way back to their raw materials being extracted from the earth you'd witness zillions of . . . ethical concerns.

Diamonds are an easy, emotional, and juicy target for the media to pick on.
The more eyeballs they get the more advertising they can sell.

This, very much - I also worry about my clothes, my electronics, and the food on my shelves. My solution is to try hard to research my purchases, and, in the problem areas, donate to the relevant charities.

I will say, though, my major diamond purchases? Vintage or from dealers I know I can trust when they tell me they're Russian goods. It's mostly my melee pieces that sometimes give me a twinge ....

 

[Laila619]

Very good point, Kenny.

 

[Maisie]

I know we all love our diamonds and sparklies here, but do you ever have any worries about not knowing for sure if your stones are conflict free diamonds? I honestly was pretty ignorant and clueless about blood diamonds before I got engaged. I've since read all about the Kimberley process and that it's just not that reliable unfortunately. It definitely nags at me sometimes that I won't ever know for sure if my stone was ethically mined or not. What about you?

Its really weird you bringing this up because I was thinking the very same thing yesterday! I am having major issues with buying a diamond. I'm thinking I might not as I can't be 100% sure it will be ethically mined. I never considered it when I was buying diamonds before. Now, i'm not so sure I want to take the chance... not that I would ever know.

 

[Maisie]

Sometimes, but I'll bet if you could follow half the products in your home, every step, all the way back to their raw materials being extracted from the earth you'd witness zillions of . . . ethical concerns.

Diamonds are an easy, emotional, and juicy target for the media to pick on.
The more eyeballs they get the more advertising they can sell.

This, very much - I also worry about my clothes, my electronics, and the food on my shelves. My solution is to try hard to research my purchases, and, in the problem areas, donate to the relevant charities.

I will say, though, my major diamond purchases? Vintage or from dealers I know I can trust when they tell me they're Russian goods. It's mostly my melee pieces that sometimes give me a twinge ....

Are vintage or antique diamonds safe to buy if someone is worried about blood diamonds or unethical diamonds? Weren't they mined before the Kimberly Process was set up?

 

[lulu]

Yes. Not only about the source, but about the money. I think about all the good I could do with the money.

 

[Laila619]

Yes. Not only about the source, but about the money. I think about all the good I could do with the money.

Another good point.

I felt too weird wearing a $12k stone so eventually, I sold it. PS sacrilege I know.

 

[Circe]

Sometimes, but I'll bet if you could follow half the products in your home, every step, all the way back to their raw materials being extracted from the earth you'd witness zillions of . . . ethical concerns.

Diamonds are an easy, emotional, and juicy target for the media to pick on.
The more eyeballs they get the more advertising they can sell.

This, very much - I also worry about my clothes, my electronics, and the food on my shelves. My solution is to try hard to research my purchases, and, in the problem areas, donate to the relevant charities.

I will say, though, my major diamond purchases? Vintage or from dealers I know I can trust when they tell me they're Russian goods. It's mostly my melee pieces that sometimes give me a twinge ....

Are vintage or antique diamonds safe to buy if someone is worried about blood diamonds or unethical diamonds? Weren't they mined before the Kimberly Process was set up?

Yep ... but I'm more worried about the practical, contemporary repercussions than the "karma" of the stone. I don't want to encourage or fund further ill deeds. Stones which are 100 years old are a case of "what's done is done," at least in my head.

 

[Pandora II]

What about the gold in the setting? That can be just as murky if not more so.

Antique diamonds are exactly the same.

I see it a bit like an ocelot coat - the ocelot died whether the coat is brand-new or whether it belonged to great-great-aunt Mary. Does the fact that the ocelot would have been long dead naturally cancel out the 'fur' issues that one might have about an ocelot which would still be running around if it hadn't been turned into a coat last year?

Personally I don't stress too much. If I did then I could opt for a Canadian diamond set in Fair-Trade gold and my conscience would feel happy.

 

[Dancing Fire]

if we worry about conflict this conflict that,etc....

oil....our cars wouldn''t be running.
clothes....we all be running around naked.
lumbers....no house to live in.

 

[distracts]

No. Coltan mining also offers huge ethical concerns, and you don't see anyone at all worried that the coltan in their cellphones, laptops, tvs, and other electronic devices has been used to fund wars/been the cause of bloody, violent deaths. Many items that come from resource-rich countries offer similar concerns, and the similar though maybe not as serious concerns about labor exploitation. I recently read a book, Tomatoland, that details how many tomato-pickers in Florida are slave-labor - held against their will, beaten, watched to make sure they don't leave, have all their "pay" confiscated to pay their "living expenses," etc. Have you ever worried about your tomatoes before? If I worried about sourcing untainted goods for everything I purchased, I would barely ever find anything it was acceptable to buy. A much better thing to do is work with groups attempting to improve conditions in places that have been affected by these concerns, either directly or by donating.

 

[MissStepcut]

Oil for fuel and coal mining is far far worse from a human rights and environmental perspective. But it's a lot easier to pick on rich people with flashy jewelry than on all the people who don't want to pay for more expensive electricity or use/pay to install public transportation.

 

[Bella_mezzo]

Yes, but I worry more about the metals used in cell phones/laptops and construction as well as oil...it makes me sad/sick/overwhelmed/angry that almost everything that we use is at the severe expense of other people who were mistreated and taken advantage of in the name of profit and capitalism...I feel better about buying second hand for financial and ethical reasons (I feel like time and multiple uses can mitigate the negative impact somewhat--but that's mostly in my head .)

So, I try to buy local, vintage, and/or second hand when possible, but sometimes Target and Walmart (and occasionally diamonds) win...

 

[maplefemme]

Sometimes, but I'll bet if you could follow half the products in your home, every step, all the way back to their raw materials being extracted from the earth you'd witness zillions of . . . ethical concerns.

Diamonds are an easy, emotional, and juicy target for the media to pick on.
The more eyeballs they get the more advertising they can sell.

This, very much - I also worry about my clothes, my electronics, and the food on my shelves. My solution is to try hard to research my purchases, and, in the problem areas, donate to the relevant charities.

I will say, though, my major diamond purchases? Vintage or from dealers I know I can trust when they tell me they're Russian goods. It's mostly my melee pieces that sometimes give me a twinge ....

Are vintage or antique diamonds safe to buy if someone is worried about blood diamonds or unethical diamonds? Weren't they mined before the Kimberly Process was set up?

Yep ... but I'm more worried about the practical, contemporary repercussions than the "karma" of the stone. I don't want to encourage or fund further ill deeds. Stones which are 100 years old are a case of "what's done is done," at least in my head.

I agree with Kenny and you make a great point, Circe, I purchased a number of articles and journals written in the mid and late 1800's by people who travelled to Africa and purchased lots to mine and workers to mine them. They are very detailed and completely fascinating, I wish I could share them with PSers... One stating that they tossed away a 100ct+ stone because it was "too cape in color"

 

[jewelerman]

There is more then one place to get diamonds for the market and it seems that most shoppers are not aware that Canadian diamonds and diamonds from Australia are a large part of what you see on the market in America, and the process/restrictions/laws/checks and balances put into place to keep blood diamonds off the market world wide is significantly helping to eliminate this problem.I'm not saying that its completely gone, but its not like it used to be before we became aware. I remember when jewelers were picketed after the movie Blood Diamond came out and I was surprised that these people didn't know that more diamonds on the American Market are from Canadian sources then the so called blood diamond sources and that the diamond industries started cracking down long before the movie created the negative backlash with the general public.If we banned every precious metal or stone involved in the unethical treatment of people or animals we would never wear any jewelry period. There will always be unethical people involved in the process of mining and the creation of the jewelry we wear just like in other businesses.We have to pick our battles were it does the most good whether it be banning ivory because of the elephant ivory pouches in Africa or the use of child labor in cutting gems in India.

 

[MissStepcut]

Alright I don't want to get into this too terribly much because I am supposed to be writing a paper right now (on this topic, actually) rather than posting on the internet about it, BUT:

Canadian diamonds, ethically sources diamonds, KP diamonds... those are some highly ineffective tools.

1) A Canadian diamond still strains the market for fungible goods, so it's really 6 of one, half dozen of the other when it comes to KP-certified stones.

2) KP has merely forced "blood diamonds" to be sold at a discount on the black market. What, you think they're not going to find a way to sell their highly valuable natural resources? Of course they will, and they are, to the entities that are willing to ignore KP. So, in that sense, all KP has done is give certain unethical diamond buyers a good deal on diamonds since it becomes more of a buyer's market as KP signatories aren't competing with them on the buyer side.

But at the end of the day, I don't think any of this is a terribly compelling reason to stop buying diamonds. It's the old, "guns don't kill people, people kill people" argument. Bad people in bad places need revenue to finance bad acts. Diamonds have been one of those sources. Even if we had effectively taken away that revenue stream (which we haven't) that's only one small piece of the puzzle. IMO it's not even one of the more important ones.