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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm editor Key and This Gibson, joined by staff writer

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Speaker 1: Jane McGrath. Hey, there can Jane. How many girls do

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Speaker 1: you think are hoping to get a diamond ring for Christmas? Oh?

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Speaker 1: I know a few, dude, they're expecting it. Yeah. I

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Speaker 1: think it's kind of sad to propose at Christmas time

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Speaker 1: because then you know, it's it's not really its own occasion,

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Speaker 1: and if anything you could go wrong, God forbid, you know,

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Speaker 1: you would always associate that with Christmas, and the guys

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Speaker 1: will always remember that way, it makes it easier for them.

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Speaker 1: Or you know what sports is when people propose with

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Speaker 1: puppies and they put the diamond on the puppies collar.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you don't like that it's coming. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: guess I'm really sorry. If any of you were planning

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Speaker 1: on doing it that way, I would recommend a horse

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Speaker 1: drawn carriage sort of proposal. I think that'd be sweet,

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Speaker 1: a little interest sleigh ride. But all that aside. Um,

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Speaker 1: when you get past the glitz and glamour and the

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Speaker 1: excitement of diamonds, it's actually a pretty sortid business, or

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Speaker 1: at least it has a has a pretty sortied history.

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Speaker 1: And not just the diamond but gold mines and platinum minds.

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Speaker 1: And you think about the destruction of the environment and

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Speaker 1: then the manual labor that goes into it, it's sort

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Speaker 1: of a sad story. So we're here today to burst

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Speaker 1: everyone's bubble about diamonds. And I'm sorry we have to

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Speaker 1: do this because they are beautiful, but um, it's interesting

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Speaker 1: to go back about the history of diamonds, especially in Africa.

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Speaker 1: If you look like a map of where diamond minds are,

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Speaker 1: they're mostly centered in Africa, and that's where the bulk

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Speaker 1: of these minds are. And they first found these, uh,

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Speaker 1: these diamonds in Africa about the eighteen sixties, and it's

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Speaker 1: really been causing problems for Africa ever since. Like all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, uh. The British Empire was pretty interested

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Speaker 1: in them and really wanted control, and it caused a

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Speaker 1: lot of strife. Thing called the Bower Wars were partly

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Speaker 1: fueled by a diamond control. But as far flung as

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Speaker 1: diamonds maybe across Africa and other parts of the world too.

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Speaker 1: There's one company in particular that holds a monopoly on them,

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Speaker 1: that's right. And that's two Beers, which you probably heard

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Speaker 1: about because they um launched this massive advertising campaign that

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Speaker 1: is forever, that's right, and it's really done wonders for

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Speaker 1: diamonds in general. It's made them seem so precious and

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Speaker 1: so desirable UM and De Beers has actually started by

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Speaker 1: UM one guy really involved in the British Empire named

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Speaker 1: Cecil Rhodes if you've ever heard of him in history

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Speaker 1: UM and since then the Beers has had sort of

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Speaker 1: a monopoly on on the industry. And De Beers actually

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Speaker 1: controls about six of the diamonds today. And like we

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Speaker 1: were saying, they have this really strong marking campaign about

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Speaker 1: diamonds being forever and the idea that diamonds are precious

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Speaker 1: and rare. And while it's certainly true that they may

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Speaker 1: be precious gems, they're not the only precious gems out there.

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Speaker 1: It's just that they've craft at this idea that diamonds

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Speaker 1: are at the gem that connote eternity and true love

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Speaker 1: and lasting love. And so it's appropriate for someone to

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Speaker 1: give someone else a die amend as a token of

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Speaker 1: a promise. And that's why diamonds can be so expensive

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Speaker 1: and so valuable because we're under the impression that they're

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Speaker 1: very hard to get, you know, you have to sacrifice

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Speaker 1: cut or color, clarity or carrot, and that much at

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Speaker 1: least just true. You know, it's very hard to find

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Speaker 1: a perfect diamond. But the idea that there's so few

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Speaker 1: in the market is completely untrue. It's just that de

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Speaker 1: Beer's release as a certain amount per year, and then

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Speaker 1: you know, they circulate and those get bought out again.

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Speaker 1: So it's sort of the cycle of diamonds being constantly

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Speaker 1: traded and bought and repurposed and reset. That's right, and

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Speaker 1: their value and this desirability that has created this value

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Speaker 1: has actually fueled some kind of nasty things that have

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Speaker 1: gone on in Africa ever since that it was that

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Speaker 1: they were found there. Um and mostly throughout the twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: there were violent uprisings that came about in certain African

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Speaker 1: areas and countries where rebels very violent considering uh, well

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Speaker 1: you and at least considers them uh, challenging governments that

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Speaker 1: are very legitimate and should not be violently overthrown. And

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Speaker 1: so these revolutionaries, particularly in Sierra Leone in the early nineties,

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Speaker 1: actually these revolutionaries UH started terrorizing villagers and UH they

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Speaker 1: took control of the Diamond minds during this time so

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Speaker 1: that they could fuel their their uprisings. And they did

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Speaker 1: this very systematically, moving from Diamond village to Diamond village,

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Speaker 1: and they would force everyone to work for them and

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Speaker 1: to relinquish control of the mind to their rebel groups.

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Speaker 1: And they did this at the expense of of killing

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Speaker 1: people or of cutting off their limbs. And some people

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Speaker 1: are so frightened that they simply abandoned their towns. So

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Speaker 1: by the time this was all over, we had about

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Speaker 1: twenty thousand bodily mutilations that took place, about seventy five

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Speaker 1: thousand murders, and nearly two million people who had fled

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Speaker 1: and were displaced. And we shouldn't mention that in two

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Speaker 1: thousand two the violence in Sierra Leone came to an end.

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Speaker 1: That's right, and not all play have been completely eradicated

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Speaker 1: of this this so called blood diamond stuff going on UM.

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Speaker 1: And we should also note that overall, they think this

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Speaker 1: blood diamond controversy caused the death of about four million

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Speaker 1: people in all. It's unbelievable. And again it's not just

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Speaker 1: Sierra Leone, but nations like Angola and Liberia, the Ivory

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Speaker 1: Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Right, and then

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Speaker 1: last one you mentioned is still having problems for days.

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Speaker 1: It certainly is. And essentially, when these rebel groups have

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Speaker 1: the money to fund their wars and their uprisings, almost

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Speaker 1: anything is possible. And that's the scary thing about blood

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Speaker 1: diamonds or conflict diamonds is that the end result is

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Speaker 1: so scintillating and so precious a gift that a lot

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Speaker 1: of people don't think about the origins of the stone.

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Speaker 1: And it's really really important that if you're giving or

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Speaker 1: receiving a diamond, you question its origins. And the United

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Speaker 1: Nations is making us a little bit easier on us

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Speaker 1: today because they developed an two thousand two, the Kimberley

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Speaker 1: Process Certification Scheme, and this is a way of regulating

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Speaker 1: diamonds to make sure that they're not conflict diamonds. That's right,

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Speaker 1: And this was a really good solution because maybe if

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Speaker 1: after hearing this, you could think, oh, well, I don't

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Speaker 1: want to buy diamonds anymore. I'm gonna tell my fiance

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Speaker 1: or I'm not gonna buy my fiance a diamond because

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Speaker 1: this might have been the origin of it, and that

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Speaker 1: actually causes problems in itself. If we just boycotted diamonds

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Speaker 1: and cut them off, um Cold Turkey, this would actually

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Speaker 1: cripple a lot of African economies that that really rely

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Speaker 1: on it, and it would cause the loss of jobs

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Speaker 1: and everything like that. And some some countries, I should say,

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Speaker 1: like Botswana for instance, in the past years or so,

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Speaker 1: has actually been been able to flip its economy around

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Speaker 1: and and prosper from the one of the poorest to

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Speaker 1: one of the more rich countries, all from legitimate diamond trade.

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Speaker 1: And you should know too that there's about ten million

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Speaker 1: people worldwide who is subsessed off revenue created by diamonds,

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Speaker 1: legal diamonds, and also a lot of the money that

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Speaker 1: comes from legitimate diamond trade goes to combat HIV and eight.

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Speaker 1: So again, like Jane was saying, that's a really important point.

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Speaker 1: We don't want to stop Cold Turkey supporting the diamond industry,

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Speaker 1: and there are people out there who are working really

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Speaker 1: hard to make sure that they are legitimate. And there's

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Speaker 1: a couple of things that you can do too, even

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Speaker 1: if you're not assured by the percentage point eight, which

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Speaker 1: is the magic number of diamonds that are now conflict

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Speaker 1: free in the market. What you should do when you're

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Speaker 1: buying one is asked the purveyor what's your policy on

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Speaker 1: blood diamonds? Or where did yours get imported from? And

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Speaker 1: you can even ask for a certificate from a diamond supplier.

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Speaker 1: And if that still has you a little bit nervous,

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Speaker 1: consider buying a diamond from Australian Canada. That's true, that

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Speaker 1: would be pretty sure fire that it's that's not a

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Speaker 1: blood diamond. There there are loopholes in the Kimberly processes

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Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier, the process that helps secure that you're

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Speaker 1: not buying a blood diamond. Um Sometimes critics that we

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Speaker 1: say that uh smugglers can launder the diamonds through legitimate

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Speaker 1: Kimberly process abiding countries and pass them all his legitimate

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Speaker 1: from then on, and so those cause some problems, but overall,

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Speaker 1: at least the diamond industry wants you to believe that

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Speaker 1: that mostly the problem has been solved. So despite the

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Speaker 1: bloody history of diamonds, and despite the United Nations and

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Speaker 1: de Beers coming out and saying that dimeons are safe now,

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Speaker 1: there's still plenty of stuff in the media that you

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Speaker 1: may have seen lately or not so long ago about

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Speaker 1: blood diamonds. And I think one of the most famous

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Speaker 1: pieces of cinema relating to the problem was Blood Diamonds.

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Speaker 1: That's right, and that's a Leonardo DiCaprio movie. If you

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Speaker 1: remember that coming out so pretty much, if you're a humanitarian, environmentalist,

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Speaker 1: or um, a fourteen year old girl, you probably saw this.

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Speaker 1: And it portrays the fighting and the conflict and Sierra

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Speaker 1: Leone and um the revolutionary United Front that was responsible

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Speaker 1: for so many deaths, and it's following the path of

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Speaker 1: this one incredibly priceless diamonds. It goes through certain channels.

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Speaker 1: And I actually didn't see the movie. I'm basing this

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Speaker 1: on what I've read about it. But when it came out,

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Speaker 1: you know, obviously it was sort of a historical film

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Speaker 1: because we know that the fighting in Sierra Leone how subsided.

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Speaker 1: But I think people saw it as a really present

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Speaker 1: and contemporary concern, like they were seeing it for the

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Speaker 1: first time, so they thought it was it was still

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Speaker 1: a problem, right, and uh, the jewelry industry got very outset,

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Speaker 1: or the diamond industry, i should say, and they were

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Speaker 1: trying to you know, markt to death. The idea that

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Speaker 1: ninety nine point eight percent of the diamonds today or

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Speaker 1: conflict free, and whether or not you choose to believe

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Speaker 1: that or whether or not it's actually true, we do

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Speaker 1: know that is recently, it's two thousand six, about twenty

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Speaker 1: three million dollars worth of diamonds were smuggled into the

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Speaker 1: legitimate diamond trade. So yeah, the stud actually stuck with

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Speaker 1: me a little bit. I'm just you know, I'm still

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Speaker 1: on edge because I think that they can do all

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Speaker 1: the right things, but until they implement new parts of

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Speaker 1: the Kimberly uh, the Kimberly process, it's not ever going

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Speaker 1: to be safe. And they're talking about having laser engravings

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Speaker 1: and laser signatures on the stone so that you know

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Speaker 1: it's been certified, and then also having all the diamonds

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Speaker 1: produced from start to finish within this same country. And

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Speaker 1: that's something else that we should mention too, is you know,

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Speaker 1: you can find a rough diamond in Africa, you can

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Speaker 1: have it certified. All can be well and good, and

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Speaker 1: you know it gets its Chinberly certificate, etcetera, etcetera. But

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Speaker 1: then when it's time to you know, shape it and

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Speaker 1: put the facets in it. A lot of these companies

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Speaker 1: are saying it off to India. Of the world's diamonds

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Speaker 1: go to India, and that's where small children have to

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Speaker 1: carve the facets because they have the most nimble fingers

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Speaker 1: and the clearest eyesight. So it's like a sweatshops sort

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Speaker 1: of situations because you know, they're carving these tiny facets

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Speaker 1: all day long, they get repetitive motion injury, they strain

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Speaker 1: their eyes, and where is they inhaled diamond dust. It's

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Speaker 1: just sort of a mass that is terrifying. Yeah, And

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Speaker 1: also another alternative that they've been kind of tweaking with

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Speaker 1: or trying to perfect, the idea of manufactured diamonds, like

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Speaker 1: the idea of making a diamond in a laboratory basically,

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Speaker 1: and um, they haven't. I mean, they've been able to

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Speaker 1: create diamonds, but they don't. They're not really up to

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Speaker 1: par with the if you've ever heard of the four

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Speaker 1: seas of diamonds, which happen to be clarity, color, cut,

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Speaker 1: and carrot, they're not quite jewel standard the ones that

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Speaker 1: they make in the web. So, um, maybe we'll see

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Speaker 1: if they ever perfect that and if that ever helps

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Speaker 1: the industry maybe eradicates the process of blood diamonds and

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Speaker 1: they're getting closer. I think that now it's really hard

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Speaker 1: for a jeweler to tell the difference between a lawed

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Speaker 1: manufactured diamond and a natural one. I know that lab

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Speaker 1: manufactured ones typically don't come in sizes over one carrot.

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Speaker 1: But it's so funny because now since there's such difficulty

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Speaker 1: and telling the difference between natural and manufactured ones, there

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Speaker 1: are machines that jewelers can buy that help them identify

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Speaker 1: which are natural, which are fake, and guests who created

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Speaker 1: the machine the machine. So again, a lot of these

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Speaker 1: are going to be um used in industries that need

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Speaker 1: really hard tipped cutting tools and um or even for

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Speaker 1: the military or army or whoever needs you know, because

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Speaker 1: obviously diamond real the hardest material on earth to man,

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Speaker 1: and and if that's not going to work for you

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Speaker 1: can always go with cubics, raconia, or one of my

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Speaker 1: favorite things, the life jem I think, because it's so wild,

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Speaker 1: you can take carbon from someone's cremated remains here and

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Speaker 1: they can make a diamond out of your loved one

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Speaker 1: or even your deceased about beloved pats you would want

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Speaker 1: to do that. I'm not saying I would love to

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Speaker 1: do I think it's a really cool idea, cool ideas

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Speaker 1: or I think in the neighborhood of like three dollars,

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Speaker 1: they can make a diamond for you. But it has

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Speaker 1: no history. So if you're a person who loves history

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Speaker 1: and loves knowing that your ring started, as you know,

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Speaker 1: a mineral somewhere in the earth and always dug up

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Speaker 1: and polished and spun and created, then there you go. Now,

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Speaker 1: if you want to learn more about diamonds and the

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Speaker 1: African diamond trade, be sure to check out the articles

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Speaker 1: on how stuff works dot com for more on this

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Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot com Let us know what you think. Send an

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Speaker 1: email to podcast and how Stuff. We're that car