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Reader comments
andrewJul 22, 2004 at 5:54PM
i like that the richest man in africa and the controlling members of De Beers has a company called "Anglo American".
SunnyJul 22, 2004 at 6:38PM
De Beers used to be the only pure monopoly in the world. Well not for long!
DanJul 22, 2004 at 8:57PM
Try reading Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic.
It's the story of the discovery of the Ekati diamond mine, in the Barren Lands of the Northwest Territories,
by Chuck Fipke.
Del ShimandleJul 23, 2004 at 9:55AM
A cartel, apparently, is NOT forever.
But really, neither is a diamond.
It's all a sham that was sold well (thank you N. W. Ayer, americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d-7.htm, now merged under Bcom3Group, ad-rag.com/967.php), and that the world (i.e. "America") bought hook line and sinker.
Some enlightening excerpts from the article "Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond" by Edward Jay Epstein
(www.theatlantic.com/issues/82feb/8202diamond1.htm)
"The diamond invention is far more than a monopoly for fixing diamond prices; it is a mechanism for converting tiny crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of wealth, power, and romance. To achieve this goal, De Beers had to control demand as well as supply. Both women and men had to be made to perceive diamonds not as marketable precious stones but as an inseparable part of courtship and married life. To stabilize the market, De Beers had to endow these stones with a sentiment that would inhibit the public from ever reselling them. The illusion had to be created that diamonds were forever -- "forever" in the sense that they should never be resold."...
Although it could do little about the state of the economy, N. W. Ayer suggested that through a well-orchestrated advertising and public-relations campaign it could have a significant impact on the "social attitudes of the public at large and thereby channel American spending toward larger and more expensive diamonds instead of "competitive luxuries."…
Epstein's book "The Diamond Invention" is online at edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/prologue.htm
essJul 23, 2004 at 1:58PM
Not to be harsh on you, Del, but I've wondered if Epstien's book was fomented by the Canadian diamond industry. Diamonds have always been considered rare and valuable. That's why people keep going into god-forsaken places, risking life and limb, going broke and dying alone in the quest for diamonds. (See Chuck's reading suggestion.)
I don't see any evidence that people are shy about reselling diamonds or value diamond heirlooms above any other jewels.
De Beers shows up in the mid 1800s, yet we have literature from prevous centuries diamonds as the ultimate in luxury and so on.
Diamonds are described as rare and precious in the King James Bible. Repeatedly.
There is a story (Apocryphal? If so, its acceptance demonstrates the notion of diamonds as swankified) that the wife of the King Ranch founder (Henrietta!) was some kind of religious nut. Her beliefs allowed her to own diamonds because they were worth something, yet she had to paint them with enamel so the lord wouldn’t smite her ass for wearing vain frippery. One wonders why she didn’t just lock these assets in a safe… Sadly, history and legend are silent on this option. Henrietta was wearing disguised diamonds before or at the time of the De Beers first mine. Does it seems likely that the people of the sparsely populated, disease-riddled, Gulf Coast would have been swayed by De Beers PR before or in the first years of De Beersness?
I am almost certain – but too work-pressed to Google – that there are a 1st century Greek text celebrating the value of trading with India for rare goods like fine silk, pearls, and diamonds. While silk and pearls can be cultured and have lost some of their allure, one notices that stories about methods of “manufacturing” diamonds are greeted with enthusiasm. Even when the diamonds promised by the technology are merely industrial.
The idea of a diamond as "the" stone for an engagement ring actually emerges a few centuries before the De Beers people pimped it into the standard it is in America today – a marketing effort that was helped along by an emerging middle class.
I am completely willing to hate De Beers for exploiting workers, for an appalling environmental record, and for leading the charge in the paradigm for gross and overblown weddings that led directly to “Bridezilla,” but it's simply silly to suggest that diamonds are easy to find and were not valued until after the Civil War.
In other news, FARK had a link about the latest world's largest diamond being dug up with a shovel. (Check FARK.com) As I understand it, his could not happen in an out and out De Beers mine where the giant machines grind up anything over X carats while destroying the earth, various crawling things and useful microbes, and wrecking the water table.
Del ShimandleAug 06, 2004 at 1:21PM
But ess, no one would argue that diamonds and other precious stone have been highly valued throughout history because of their beauty, and all the more because of their rarity. One of Epstein's points, though, is that "rarity" is now a factor controlled by DeBeers, a control that they have used to corner the market, to inflate value, and cultivate a perception that would create desire. For me, the points that Epstein makes were about issues bigger than the Diamond Industry: There's something specious about the way advertising and marketing industries do what they do (with any product, not merely diamonds.) Why stretch the truth (read: lie) or "masage the market" (read: manipulate) to sell something? (I.e. "Diamonds are forever." or "Be like Mik, Drink Gatorade!")Answer: Because it works! Along with that goes "Because we can." Not many complain, or long and loud enough about the seemier side of these industries... But I'm rambling. This is all stuff that will only go so far in any forum. Money does make the world go round, after all. Or so they say. BTW, ess, do you work for http://www.siriusdiamonds.com then?
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.