A Quarter of All Diamonds In Stores Are Blood Diamonds, and Nobody Can Tell Which Ones They Are
LatestI don’t know about you but I barely made it through Blood Diamond. The 2006 Leo-helmed torture-porn about diamond runners during the Sierra Leone Civil War really fucked me up. After sobbing through most of the movie, I cursed my greedy western brethren, and vowed to never, ever wear a conflict diamond. However, in the back of my head I thought, “Of course, when I finally trick someone into marrying me, he better get me that good conflict-free rock!” Hey, I’m a child of 90s rom-coms, how else am I to supposed to know someone truly l-u-vs me?
Lucky for me, the film ends with an introduction of the Kimberley Process, a certification scheme that aims to curb the blood diamond trade by providing certificates for all diamonds. “How wonderful!” I remember thinking. “Now I can get that rock, post a million photos to Myspace to prove someone loves me IN YOUR FACE, and then let myself go — pass the Ben & Jerry’s and let’s burn all my razors!”
Well, life isn’t that good, and as we now know, rom-coms are (delightful) horse shit, and so is the Kimberley Process.
The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme — which basically provides a sort-of passport for your diamond, letting the purchaser know the diamond’s country of origin, the country of import, value, and total carats of each diamond shipment, and serial number — is rife with seemingly insurmountable flaws. Unfortunately, according to a new recent piece in Foreign Policy, they’re about as easy to fake as an old driver’s license, rendering the process relatively useless — or at least, woefully lacking in credibility. Which sucks, because it’s become nearly impossible to tell the origins of any new diamonds on the market. In an email to me, author Jason Miklian said that “about 25% of all diamonds now in the stores are blood diamonds, and nobody can tell the difference.” Not good.