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| 4/3 |
| 2006/12/12-17 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Men] UID:45439 Activity:nil |
12/12 So what are DeBeers and Tiffany's gonna do to debunk the
untrue story of Blood Diamonds?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/12/12/diamonds.koinange/index.html
\_ They will bombard the media with ads that claim that their
diamonds are clean. Voila! They've cleared up all misconceptions
AND increased their visibility.
\_ Tiffany, conflict-free since 2002
http://csua.org/u/hos (cbsnews.com) |
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| www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/12/12/diamonds.koinange/index.html Most Popular Blood diamonds: Miners risk lives for chance at riches By Jeff Koinange CNN Adjust font size: Decrease font Decrease font Enlarge font Enlarge font MBUJI-MAYI, Democratic Republic of the Congo (CNN) -- At a bend in a tributary of the mighty Congo River, dirt-poor villagers feverishly pan for the shiny stones that have proved as elusive as they are rare -- diamonds. Hundreds stake their claims here hoping to strike it rich in this, the fourth-largest diamond-producing country in the world. Officials say that last year, diamond exports from the Congo grew to $2 billion, nearly one-fifth of the country's gross domestic product. But what these villagers don't know -- or hardly care about -- is the fact these are some of the precious stones that have, according to experts, indirectly fueled some of Africa's dirtiest wars from Sierra Leone to Liberia and from Angola to Congo. They're known as conflict diamonds or, more bluntly, blood diamonds. And in this corner of the Congo, men and boys constantly mine, hoping to find a way out of poverty. To get to Congo's diamond district, visitors fly to Mbuji-Mayi at the center of this vast nation, then drive for about 90 minutes on dirt roads until they arrive at Dipumba. Once a village, the entire landscape is now pockmarked with holes the size of water wells, holes that a man can barely squeeze into. But squeeze they do, and villagers like 40-year old Jean Pierre Mbenga and his five-man team arrive at daybreak. Their tools are simple -- an old pick, a simple rope, a torn sack. They don't have shoes, gloves, hard hats or flashlights. The mine shafts are deep, dark, cold and very dangerous. Accidents are frequent and many miners have been buried alive in these pits. He has a wife and eight hungry children at home, including a two-week-old son. "All we do is work from morning to evening and most of the time we come up empty. Work is hard to come by and many are tired of fighting in the various militias that roam these badlands. But to them it just seems that the poor seem poorer than ever. Mbenga, who's been digging for diamonds for more than two decades, says he once dug up a one-carat stone that he sold for $500. He thought he had finally struck it rich, but by the time he divided the earnings among his team and paid the man who leased the land where he digs, he had less than $50 left. "That's the life of a miner here," he says, "We work and work until our hands bleed and all we end up with is peanuts." "Anyone," he says, "just as long as they have the money." Legitimate diamond sellers and activists have argued to change the system for the past decade. They want to curtail the illicit sale of diamonds to unscrupulous middlemen and, in some cases, militia warlords who use the diamonds in exchange for arms to fuel Africa's endemic civil wars. It happened in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, where as many as 200,000 people were reportedly killed and many others had their limbs hacked off by rebels determined to take control of the country's rich diamond deposits. Sierra Leone is the setting for the new movie "Blood Diamond." Leonardo DiCaprio plays a crooked Zimbabwean ex-mercenary who searches for a rare pink diamond. In the Congo, a country that has seen its fair share of civil wars and where corruption and mismanagement are rife, it's hardly conceivable that diamond sales can be fully monitored, when lawlessness and a frontier mentality are prevalent in cities like Mbuji-Mayi. Most of Congo's diamonds are exported through a state-run company, but in a country that was overrun by one dictator after another for more than 40 years, experts say that getting diamonds out of the Congo illegally has been an-all-too-common occurrence. That has fueled war, coups and more war, leaving many Congolese poor and desperate. On this day, Mbenga finds nothing and on his way home he buys his family the only thing he can -- a tiny loaf of bread. He knows he has to go back down into the shaft first thing tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. He is determined to find wealth down there no matter the cost, human and otherwise, or how long it takes. Iran's president: Israel to be 'wiped out' Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday told delegates at an international conference questioning the Holocaust that Israel's days were numbered. |
| csua.org/u/hos -> www.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/07/style_living/main2239883.shtml Enlarge The UN has passed a resolution backing the Kimberley Process, aimed at preventing "conflict diamonds" from funding warfare. Sales of so-called conflict diamonds have helped finance wars that killed millions in Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia over the past several decades, and efforts to address the problem have been made within the diamond industry. But human rights groups are now taking the issue straight to consumers, and with Friday's release of Warner Bros. Pictures' new film "Blood Diamond," diamond retailers are preparing to face more scrutiny than ever before. Enlarge Leonardo DiCaprio, left, and Djimon Hounsou get caught up in a struggle over a priceless gem in "Blood Diamond." And during the all-important holiday season, when at least half of annual jewelry sales are recorded, retailers want their customers to feel they can shop guilt-free. They are being assisted in this effort by a $15 million marketing campaign launched ahead of the holidays by the World Diamond Council, which wants potential diamond buyers to understand the movie's premise takes place prior to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which was enacted by governments, non-governmental organizations and the industry in 2002 to track diamonds from mine to jewelry display case, certifying each stone's origin. The film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly, takes place during the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The movie premiered this week in Los Angeles, and opens nationwide on Dec. org to disseminate information, and provided retailers with training pamphlets on the topic. Sternblitz says customers can find information outlining Zale's policy on conflict-free diamonds on its Web site. "This is something that hasn't been new to us," Sternblitz says. "Since the Kimberley Process in 2002, we've required all suppliers to warranty to us that diamonds are coming from conflict-free areas." also says it buys diamonds from legitimate miners and doesn't purchase diamonds for cash or in circumstances where the source of the diamond is questionable. Smaller retailers are aware of the growing interest, too. "At least one customer a day asks us about it," said Jennie Fiske, who manages The Clay Pot, a Brooklyn, NY-based jewelry retailer. Fiske says she's been aware of the issue since 2000 and reassures customers that it's highly unlikely they are getting a conflict gem, since her suppliers buy diamonds through legitimate sources. For customers who want to know where their gems come from, The Clay Pot also offers guaranteed conflict-free diamonds from Canada. The diamonds are mined, cut and polished in Canada's Northwest Territories and are certified by the Northwest Territories Government Monitoring and Certification program, which tracks each diamond from the mining stage to the final cutting process. "There's been an increasing popularity for them," Fiske said, noting that sales of the Canadian stones make up about 20 percent of total diamond purchases. Despite their notorious reputation, less than one percent of the world's diamonds are conflict diamonds, says the World Diamond Council. Still, some human rights organizations assert there needs to be more regulation in the US, which accounts for more than half of global diamond jewelry retail sales, according to British rights group Global Witness. A 2004 survey of diamond jewelers conducted by Amnesty International and Global Witness showed only 11 percent of stores visited in the US said they had a policy on conflict diamonds, and 67 percent were unwilling to discuss whether they had a system of guarantees in place. Charmian Gooch, executive director of Global Witness, said the Kimberley Process needs more work. "There's no proper oversight and no clear way to know how the industry is controlling it across the board." Amy O'Meara, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International, suggests consumers take an active role in the process by asking jewelers where their diamonds come from, since even the smaller percentages of illegal diamonds need to be eliminated. "Ask to see a written guarantee that its suppliers are conflict-free," O'Meara said. "No amount of human suffering is acceptable to turn a profit." |
| cbsnews.com -> www.cbsnews.com/sections/home/main100.shtml John Kerry quarreled aggressively over the war in Iraq, jobs, education, health care, the environment, cheaper drugs and tort reform at a town-hall debate in St. Payday lenders offer tempting short-term loans for a fee, due on payday. But as Sharyl Attkisson reports, what a growing n umber of military borrowers don't foresee is how fast those loans and fe es add up. It's the story of a man named Brady, and the endi ng was not happy. Continuing a trend of voting out young competitors who pose a physical threat, the Lopevi tribe gave FBI agent Brady Finta the boot after losing a battle of wits to the women. |