Blood Diamonds, Blood Gemstones
by Richard W. Wise 2006
The much feared, long anticipated movie Blood Diamond opened
December 8th and has succeeded in resurrecting the debate about the
use of diamonds to finance armed conflict in Africa. Numerous media
outlets have done features on conflict diamonds and the industry is
nervously chewing its fingernails waiting to see o what extent the
negative fallout will impact Christmas sales.
Blood Diamond is a fairly well crafted action-adventure flick set in
the West African country of Sierra Leone and features Leonardo
DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Housoun. DiCaprio plays the
cynical diamond smuggler, Connelly an idealistic but tough-minded
reporter with azure eyes to die for and Housoun the part of Solomon
Vandy, a simple fishermen who, along with his son Dia, is forced into
slavery in the diamond fields; Soloman finds a big rock and the
action begins. DiCaprio wants the diamond, Connelly a story and the
fisherman wants to retrieve his son who has been turned into a child
soldier.
Some reviewers have had difficulty seeing the good looking DiCaprio
in a tough-guy role. I have no such difficulty. DiCaprio doesn’t
overplay it. He displays just the right combination of
punky-arrogance and fits the part well. As for Connelly’s character,
a lonely expat’s dream, I met my dream one night years ago in Kowloon
and will never forget the night.
The locales fairly reek of authenticity. Speaking as one who has
been there, I can say that the film suceeds in capturing the real
look and feel of real gem workings and the back-alley hubbub of
boom-town commerce as it exists today in many places, not only in
Africa but in Southeast Asia and South America as well. For a look a
the real thing see my Ruby Boomtown:
http://www.colored-stone.com/stories/jul06/madagascar1.cfm
Although Blood or conflict diamonds have been a front burner issue
for several years, diamonds are not the only gemstone or the only
commodity used to exploit and enslave our fellow man. If you drink
Florida orange juice, eatin Burmese sugar, buy Chinese products, wear
Egyptian cotton or eat chocolate, according to the 2002 issue of
National Geographic, you may be funding human misery.
The U. S. currently imposes economic embargos on goods made in a
number of nations, North Korea, Iran, Burma, in an attempt to
economically throttle these malignant and repressive dictatorships.
Does it do any good? Those who advocate the use of economic sanctions
point to the experience in South Africa where a worldwide boycott,
that somehow did not inclued diamonds, contributed to the fall of the
white minority regime and the end of Apartheid. Others are not so
sure!
Take Burma, a country that I have visited several times. The Burmese
army has insinuated itself into and exerts a degree of control over
all alspects of gem production from mining to cutting to
distribution. Syndicates in which the generals are full partners,
control all the larger mines in Mogok, the old ruby producing area of
Upper Burma. If you are involved in large scale mining in Burma, you
are in business with the army. However, much of the mining and more
than half of the gemstones are produced by small-scale Mom and Pop
opoerations that fly beneath the government’s radar. A sucessful
boycott may hurt the bad guys but it will also have a devastating
effect on small business as well. The General’s may have to cut back
on their caviar ration but the little guy may literally starve.
“While Burma’s gem mines are nominally under the control of the
military, the very nature of gem mining means that the lion’s share
of production is smuggled out by freebooters. Funds from these
smuggled goods sustain both odinary miners a.nd traders, as well as
rebel armies fighting against the Burmese military.” Richard Hughes
“Legal” gems are auctioned every year at the government-sponsored
emporium. At the event held this October over a thousand merchants
from twelve countries attended the event. Myanmar started to hold
these gem shows in 1964 and since then the government has grossed 600
million dollars.
Part of the reason why the anti-aparthieid boycott suceeded in South
Africa was that the boycott embarrassed the white power structure.
White South Africans are culturally European and were shamed by their
European and American cousins. These same countries were also South
Africa’s main trading partners. Burma’s main trading partners are
India and China and the generals have demonstrated that they simply
don’t care what Europe and America thinks.
Richard