Hint : It ain't 500%

[Pythonfriend]

Here you go again saying things that you have seen on TV, read in a book, or saw on some site. Anybody can put anything on TV or the web(obviously) with their own twist, that's a known fact. PETA says things all the time that we know to be untrue or twisted and I think we can all agree that Animal Planet rolled a little farther down the hill with their mermaid special.

I think its great that you have a passion for so many things and you want to do your part to make the world a better place. However I think that everything should be questioned. The honest don't mind questions but the dishonest and the fact twisters do and that will be revealed when your questions can not be answered by them or their story unravels. Ask questions all the time especially when your thinking of fighting for somebody else. Don't find yourself as a pawn to further their own agenda.

As for yalls topic I bet the process works just fine when its being followed by honest folks but then rules are not made for honest folks. For as long as there have been rules and laws there have been people trying to get around them. No matter what process was put into place the dishonest diamond people are still going to be dishonest and try to find a way around them. That is life. Im not going to only buy lab created diamonds because of it.

Yes, well, i do question everything and i do my research.

Here is how the kinberley process works, as i see it: it works on a national level. nations sign up for it. the responsibility that these nations have is to ensure that the mines they have are not controlled by rebels, and that the proceeds are not going to be used for any action that intends to overthrow a government that the UN recognizes. that are the rules, if you can fulfill the rules, you are now part of the kimberley process. now when you export them, they get transported in sealed boxes and they get the right kimberley certificates. and you are only supposed to export diamonds into other nations that are also part of the kimberley process.

when it is known that there are some mines under rebel control, or that diamonds are being used with intention to overthrow a government that is recognized by the UN, nations might get kicked out.

now the interesting part is: how is it enforced? that should determine how well the system works, because the way the system is set up, if some nations are not diligent enough, the process doesnt work properly because blood diamonds can just sneak in. and its not enforced at all. what actually happens is: when a diamond is FIRST moved from one kimberley process participant nation to another participant nation, it gets the paperwork, and noone checks anything. and now the diamond is in the system, and the paperwork follows the diamond from one nation to another, to the cutter, to the wholesaler, and in the end to the jewelry store/consumer.

so what happens to blood diamonds is that they are mined in nations that are not currently part of the kimberley process, due to civil war or failed governance. then you smuggle them to a nearby nation that is part of the kimberley process, and there you have your market to turn them into cash or gold or guns. from there, if that other nation has a diamond mine to explain whats going on, it enters the kimberley process and will be sold as such in a jewelry store anywhere in the 1st world.

now if the system doesnt work and there is no oversight and its being abused, you would expect some consequences: some nations that only have a very small capacity to mine diamonds might suddenly be mining a lot. and some nations that do not have diamonds in the ground might find some, dig a hole, call it a diamond mine, and the mine would produce quite a bit. and in some nations that do produce a lot and that have real mines, some mines might get a mysterious boost in effectivity. and thats just what happens, due to a lack of oversight it happens without consequence. the smuggling into kimberley process nations is also well-documented. and as a customer, you get your certificate, which should allow you to trace it back, and if you trace it back you might end up in a third-world nation that wasnt known to have any meaningful diamond reserves or production before 1990 but that now seems to have quite a few mines that do really well.

all that doesnt touch the issue that you can run your mines with slaves and children, as long as you are not a rebel and dont want to overthrow a government recognized by the UN. if you do that, you dont even need to work around the kimberley process, its fine, you just sign up. these are not blood diamonds, the whole process is only about diamonds that put bullets into people and that generate political instability.

so, the only real way to get a clean natural diamond is to buy from a dealer who does the work that the kimberley process wont do. which is to source stones from a particular mine that is not corrupt and where the working conditions are good, then send them to a cutting facility to have them all cut, then brand it, and then make the whole thing convincing and transparent. this is difficult. 60% of the rough diamond market still has a middleman called de beers, much of the rest is controlled by others that behave in a similar way. for an individual dealer, it is not easy to control the whole thing from the mine to the cut stone.

i am not against natural diamonds, i just wish it would be more transparent. and thats not an issue with the synthetics, here for larger diamonds you just know where they were produced. synthetics have the problem that its awfully difficult to produce white diamonds that are cheaper than naturals, and with all colors there still is the problem that the maximum size is very limited. in quality and price, synthetics only dominate blue color and other rare colors, and that only under 2 carat size. white synthetics are comparable in price to natural white diamonds.