Dear Juliet, Dan and All Readers,
With all due respect, Juliet, you said "I won’t go into what I
personally feel about De Beers because that’s a whole other issue"
and I would like to know what you and others base your personal
feelings on.
Now, please let me make one thing very clear, I am not opening a
thread for everyone to flood Hunaman with postings filled with
negative opinions. That is destructive, not constructive! Orchidians
seem more than wise enough to appreciate that!
I am asking for the facts any opinions are based on, please, and
where these facts were obtained - such as personal interaction with
De Beers, a book or article you read, something you saw on
television, etc. I’m curious how opinions of De Beers form since
there never seems to be a shortage of them.
Dan, how do you KNOW the book you read told the TRUTH about De Beers
history, as you claimed? Is it not the case that people write
biographies, documentaries and all sorts of supposed TRUE STORIES
that are exaggerated, embellished and even flat outright anything but
the truth? Don’t people generally have motives for writing books such
as getting it published, earning a living, revenge against
ex-employers or ex-spouses or ex-anything, or occasionally,
self-promotion?
Let’s not forget all the wonderful press jewelers get! How often do
we see a POSITIVE story? Are we all nothing but
shady-emerald-fillers, stone-switchers, 300%-margin-makers,
incompetent-stone-identifiers, quality-overstaters…catch my drift?!
Of course not! But guess what, there’s plenty of people who won’t
enter a jewelry store without their guards up a mile high - and
plenty more who won’t walk in the door at all - because they read
such things and believe they apply FAR more often than they do!!!
So what if De Beers wants to get into the US! What are you, or anyone
else, afraid of?! Surely we’re all smart enough to realize they’re
not going to harm the market - the Oppenheimers have PROTECTED the
market for 70 years. And unless you do not sell diamonds, period,
have they not brought consumers into your shop, year after year, to
the tune of $170 MILLION in advertising campaigns which you were
never requested or required to invest a nickel in?
Nor have you been asked to assist in the academic researching,
technological developments, lab experimentations or related efforts
that keep us all in business. Are you aware of the work they
undertake so we can identify the exponentially growing list of
treatments and synthetics confidently? Can you imagine the costs to
operate these things? Or what it would cost us if they didn’t do
these things?
Did you know that Ekati diamonds are being sold directly to consumers
online already? And they’re not giving them away, if you catch my
drift there too. I think most retailers wouldn’t object after seeing
their prices. They certainly aren’t causing the downfall of other
businesses!
Why shouldn’t a mining company move into retail? Should you be
restricted to JUST retail?
Why would sightholders WANT to fight De Beers? Wouldn’t De Beers only
shoot themselves in the foot by hurting their sightholders?
I’m not familiar with Mr. Harry Oppenheimer’s tax records but I am
familiar with the outstanding asset he was to South Africa and can
direct you to sources to read the hows & whys for yourself. (He was
not pro-aparthied, by the way, and sources confirming that are also
available for those interested.)
I’d be happy to provide more detail and/or reference sources to any
respectful request, on or off of these threads. I do not work for De
Beers (but I would), I do, however, do my homework and don’t mind
passing fact findings along.
Sadly, I think the real problem in our industry is that we’re so used
to cutting each others’ throats that we don’t see how we’re hurting
ourselves at the same time. I actually read this just two days ago,
“To the average male who may be out shopping for an engagement ring,
the real danger is in buying from a shop or chain at the retail
level…” Is it the truth? No, it’s nonsense, obviously. Who wrote
it? A jeweler. Why? To cut the throats of traditional retailers
competing (and likely succeeding) with his e-commerce business. The
result? He’s undermined confidence in our trade by creating doubt.
But he’s also undermined his own credibility and created doubt, in at
least my mind, that he comprehends this!
If we weren’t so busy knocking each other, we might see the value of
De Beers strategy - supporting each other for a greater collective
benefit. And that doesn’t mean giving up the right to make a profit!
Perhaps we will all learn something through a mature, rational
discussion of issues.
Respectfully,
Jeanette K