In the lead-up to Valentine’s Dayfeliz2025pg, people across the world rush to buy diamond engagement rings. By now, most will know that in the past, many diamonds were mined in African war zones where rebel groups used the proceeds to fund their violent insurgencies. To assuage any guilt that may taint the romantic gesture, the diamond industry tells us that today, 99 percent of diamonds are now conflict-free.
It’s true there has been progress. A generation ago, as much as 15 percent of global diamond production was believed to be linked to conflict. But in 2003, thanks to public pressure and awareness campaigns by organizations like Global Witness, a certificate system known as the Kimberley Process was born. Backed by a United Nations resolution, the system allowed for rigorous tracking that is supposed to keep so-called blood diamonds from being sold in global markets.
The reality is that there’s still virtually no way of knowing whether a diamond is connected to some kind of atrocity. The system is riddled with problems: Monitoring is lax, enforcement is nearly nonexistent, and the definitions of “conflict” are so narrow that they exclude the many other forms of violence and abuse that plague the trade. Some of the system’s own architects have abandoned it. Without genuine change, consumers may decide that the only ethical stones are those that haven’t been mined at all.
The price of a diamond — unlike, say, that of cobalt, another mineral linked to human rights abuses — has little to do with its utility, though diamonds do have some uses. These crystals of carbon, which form naturally in the heat and pressure of the earth’s mantle,66br Cassinos ao Vivo Brasil are among the tightest configurations of atoms in the known universe. Their hardness is ideal for rock-coring drills, and their conductivity allows them to dissipate heat in electronics. Because industrial-grade stones are typically small, aesthetically flawed and relatively common, most sell for a pittance.
Storytelling has always been essential to the creation of a diamond’s financial worth. De Beers, the international diamond giant, is as much a marketing operation as a mining company. In the late 1930s, it hired a New York advertising agency to promote the idea that “a diamond is forever” and that a diamond engagement ring is the truest expression of love. The campaign worked so well that the idea came to seem like an ancient tradition to consumers.
When the story of blood diamonds emerged, it was something no would-be fiancée wanted to hear. This may help to explain why the industry, through an organization called the World Diamond Council, eagerly participated in the creation of the Kimberley Process. Under the system, rough diamonds may be exported only with certification that they did not finance antigovernment rebels in any country. A database maintained by participating countries and industry groups tracks imports and exports to prevent undeclared diamonds from one country from being falsely declared as legal in another. At first, it all seemed to work: Within a few years, conflict diamonds had plunged to just 1 percent of global production.
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If Mr. McDonnell buckles, two other Republican senators in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature who have also not yet committed to changing Nebraska’s system are likely to follow his lead, according to a number of Republicans and Democrats involved in the discussions going on at the State Capitol.
They engaged in gerrymandering that ensured the party a near-lock on the state legislature and lopsided control of the state’s House delegation in Congress. They paved the way for a conservative state Supreme Court that upheld a strict voter ID law. And after gaining a veto-proof majority last year, they banned most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
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