This reminds me of a joke I heard a (scarily) long time ago: "You bring De Beers, let's have apartheid."
Apart from their unparalleled success in protecting an artificially scarce market for so many years, did you know that De Beers were the early geniuses in product placement? Diamonds didn't use to be such a big deal. The romantic association of diamonds with love and commitment (primarily for women) was a marketing invention of De Beers. One way they did it was by paying to insert scenes involving diamonds into Hollywood movies (in the 1940s, IIRC), such as the heroine's friends telling her: "He gave you a ring without a diamond? The cad!" Diamonds started popping up in climactic scenes of reconciliation and inevitable marriage proposals.
I can't remember how I know this... it might have been in an old episode of This American Life. The other thing that surprised me was that they were a British company, not a South African one.
I have to say, anything bad happening to De Beers is music to my ears. As you've mentioned they run a cartel to sell worthless rocks at huge markups to irrational consumers, but my real problem comes from the toll their actions take on human lives in third world countries. The human rights violations of the diamond industry are unparalleled.
I'd recommend everyone read up on "blood diamonds" or "conflict diamonds" as well as the diamond market in general before ever purchasing a diamond for jewelry.
Diamonds are superb materials and are used every day in industrial processes all over the world. None of these are gem quality nor does anybody give a rat's arse about their diamond paste or diamond cutting wheel being pretty.
I'd recommend everyone read up on "blood diamonds" or "conflict diamonds" as well as the diamond market in general before ever purchasing a diamond for jewelry.
Why is it so inaccurate? "Coltan is a metal that conducts heat unusually brilliantly." compare to wikipedia: "Coltan is the colloquial African name for columbite - tantalite, a metallic ore from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted." Also in wikipedia: "The United States Geological Survey reports in its 2006 yearbook that the Democratic Republic of the Congo produces a little less than 1% of the world's tantalum." - so this implying of guilt for everyone buying electronics is rather silly.
He trades truth for rhetorics undermining all the sympathy I might have.
Another simply awful British company on the back foot at the moment over human rights violations due to the mining of a precious mineral is Vedanta. They bought a mountain and planned to demolish it in the search for Bauxite, despite the fact it is the ancestral home and most sacred place for the Dongria Kondh tribe. Luckily Survival International have been on the case from the start and this Monday a rep from the DK will be arriving in London to protest at Vedanta's AGM.
Apart from their unparalleled success in protecting an artificially scarce market for so many years, did you know that De Beers were the early geniuses in product placement? Diamonds didn't use to be such a big deal. The romantic association of diamonds with love and commitment (primarily for women) was a marketing invention of De Beers. One way they did it was by paying to insert scenes involving diamonds into Hollywood movies (in the 1940s, IIRC), such as the heroine's friends telling her: "He gave you a ring without a diamond? The cad!" Diamonds started popping up in climactic scenes of reconciliation and inevitable marriage proposals.
I can't remember how I know this... it might have been in an old episode of This American Life. The other thing that surprised me was that they were a British company, not a South African one.