African Wars

Well, I orignially couldn't get a hold of my brother on the phone this summer because he was dead, but the reason I called him was to see if he would help me move to Norman. Obviously he didn't help me move to norman so I was planning on moving everything by myself and having my lil' sister help me with the heavy stuff. When I was moving on a hot day in the Southwestern part of the United States a guy from Nigeria began helping me move, his name is Wale. So, Wale is the first friend I made. While I was moving Wale called up his friend Tim to help also, so it didn't take that long to move.

This weekend Wale invited me over for dinner and we had some good discussions. He received a MBA, and an MS in accounting and international business. So Wale's a smart guy. He started talking about wars in Africa and the reasons why people don't have any food. One of the things he told me is that in many places diamonds are the currency for weapons. If you want a gun, you can't buy it unless you have diamonds to pay for the gun. Why are diamonds so valuable, because the western culture wants them so badly. DeBeers owns 90% of the diamonnds in the WORLD, that's right 90%. So the price of diamonds are artificially inflated. Emeralds are technically more valuable than diamonds, but diamonds sell for the same price as rubies because DeBeers controls so much of the market and can increase the price of diamonds by lowering the supply. So somehow, DeBeers has convinced Westerners that diamonds are the only appropriate stone for an engagement ring.

According to Wale this is one of the most unethical things that consumers can do. Every diamond purchased encourages the wars in Africa. So now I have come to the conclusion that when I decide to propose, (I have inherited some diamonds) the main stone on the engagement ring will be a ruby or emerald. My question is, if it's a $5,000 to $7,000 ring, what difference does it make if it's a diamond or emerald?