“Honey, I hate diamonds !!” It was woman’s voice. I was sure about that.
At least, this is what I heard in the dark movie theatre just before the movie was on its way to end. I couldn’t believe my ears but I definitely had to.‘Blood Diamond’. Whoever has watched this movie may have partially understood what I am talking about right now. I always wondered why diamonds are women’s best friend. I really couldn’t get a satisfying answer from women. Perhaps, I believe it’s a big coup. It reminds me of the story of an elephant which was tied to chain when it was young and when it grew up, even though it was tied to a rope, it never tried to escape. It was made to believe that it could never escape. Similarly, all of us, while we are growing up are fed with some thoughts, which we follow without questioning. I guess, ‘The way to girl’s heart is through diamond and gold’; ‘Diamonds are her best friends’ are one of those thoughts. This is passed on from generations to generations. The biggest lie.
The truth is that, “The world’s trade in diamonds is a cartelized, multi-billion dollar industry that has damaging human rights, environmental and legal repercussions that have worldwide impact and effect. The issues have so far eluded a legal solution and are an example of the limits of international law. “– according to an American University in Washington DC.
Have you ever pondered on, how this precious rock or metal on your body makes it way?The government makes more out of mining these rocks than vegetation, so thereby they devastate the land by digging and disturbing the entire eco system.
After mining for long time, the area is abandoned, unsuitable to do anything on this land.
Water gets collected in these areas leading to severe health hazards.
The large group of people who inhabited these places has lost their way of living. So what do they do? They are forced to be miners. Now, if you think they earn a lot, think again because you are so wrong.
Many third world countries have seen serious human rights violations since 1991 when the civil war erupted. Around 50,000 plus people have been killed and over million people have been displaced till date. The human rights violations related to diamond mining and trading is unimaginable. Slavery, Child labor, Sexual slavery, massive genocide to remove people who can’t work on these mines or people who protest.
United Nation had tried interfering in diamond trading since long time with little success. The diamond companies claim that they have taken adequate measures to counter these ill effects and they are clean. However, the truth is far from reality.Can we understand the simple fact that, the prices can be controlled by regulating the supply? Large safe and secure storage areas are created to store all these diamonds so that the demand is million times more than the supply, thereby increasing the cost of this rock to millions of dollar.
I believe Africa is one of the richest continents in this world, considering the natural recourses available. They are self adequate. But just look what the world has given them? They have been exploited and allowed to kill themselves. Every other day, there is a rebel group coming up conquering the village, killing the people and forcing them into mining. The money is used to buy arms to topple the existing government. The world just sits and watches.
There are many NGO’s working in this part of the world. However, this is just not enough. If the world wants them to really develop then, they got to teach them to fish. Don’t give them fish and ask them to dig diamonds for you.The worth of one precious diamond could surely be around 13 million. This 13 million if it was used in the right way, it could save the entire town in Africa. But no, everyone wants to be the part of this major coup. So the money goes into the big pockets of diamond trader. They do tell the world that, a part of this money is used for good things in Africa, but that part of money starts with a decimal point followed by n number of zeroes and a number. This is nothing.
I don’t want to judge people here nor do I want to make a request. However, there is one thing that I want to say,
“The rock that shines’s on your finger or neck, could easily be the collection of glitter’s lost from millions of people’s eye.”
I could only imagine the smile on this lucky guy’s face (at least for that moment). The smile of pride, looking into her eye. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it.
It’s time to start, “THINKING”. “THINKING FAR & DEEP”
“NOW”
