It's illusory.
The only reason they still have any pull is because the major players outside their control- especially Russia- are perfectly happy with the prices diamonds command.
Would you work...
The only reason they still have any pull is because the major players outside their control- especially Russia- are perfectly happy with the prices diamonds command.
Zombie_Babies
First Post
Sure you can. How many diamonds on the market, though, do you think have gone through that analysis? The way that you can gauge how many blood diamonds are coming through, though, is by the stone's recorded place of origin. In some areas diamonds are only found in rivers and the process to find them is labor intensive, low tech as hell and not efficient. Countries typically produce roughly the same amount of stones annually so when you see one of these low volume countries suddenly spiking to ten times production, well, it's a safe bet that they're taking on stones from neighboring areas that are on the no-no list. And guess what these countries do: They certify these illegal stones as legal since they're a signatory nation and the stones - technically speaking - come from them.
Like I said, it's incredibly easy to fake and incredibly difficult to prove. Too much money in it for these poor nations to stop, too.
Re: DeBeers:
They set the market cuz they buy the most stones. At one point they had just about all of the available stuff out there. Russia, though, invited some countries to showcase their mining equipment in a diamond mine. Once things were moving along swimmingly, they booted everyone that wasn't Russian out, took the equipment and stones and threatened to blow up DeBeers' spot by flooding the market with cheap stones cuz, you know, diamonds aren't really rare at all. Someone mentioned why this didn't happen.
Anyhoo, there's major diamond sales annually and the major players buy. Once they do, they hold onto the stones and release them slowly in order to maintain demand.
Oh, what is getting more rare are large diamonds. The big mines like The Kimberly (Big Hole) use huge ass gear to mine as much as possible as fast as possible. They pull diamonds out of stone by way of a massive rock crusher. This crusher, incidentally, has the power to break up the bigger gems.
sabrinathecat
Explorer
So not much chance we'll ever see another Kohinoor.
Zombie_Babies
First Post
Actually a pretty massive stone was found recently. Can't remember the name or weight but it sold or was expected to sell in the tens of millions. They're probably still there and we'll probably see 'em from time to time but yes, big operations make 'em more difficult to find ... which makes me wonder if DeBeers has a vault somewhere full of 20 carat plus stones. They obviously don't really care about losing the stuff. Maybe there's a reason.
I think it was 157ct.
As for DeBeers having a big stones vault, I'd bet you're right. Russia probably does as well.
The big mystery in precious stones is what actually happened to the stuff in the Persian (Iranian) Crown Jewels. I studied under Dr. Freed- for whom Freedite was named- who was among the last in the Western world to see them before they were (probably) sold to buy weapons during the Iran-Iraq war.
He and several other gemologists were invited in to do an appraisal of what was then considered to be the most valuable collection in the world. They couldn't do the job. His pictures, he said, didn't do it justice. He described it as a real-world version of the Ritchie Rich comic book. His words, not mine.
The collection was so staggeringly vast that they couldn't even start the job.
As for DeBeers having a big stones vault, I'd bet you're right. Russia probably does as well.
The big mystery in precious stones is what actually happened to the stuff in the Persian (Iranian) Crown Jewels. I studied under Dr. Freed- for whom Freedite was named- who was among the last in the Western world to see them before they were (probably) sold to buy weapons during the Iran-Iraq war.
He and several other gemologists were invited in to do an appraisal of what was then considered to be the most valuable collection in the world. They couldn't do the job. His pictures, he said, didn't do it justice. He described it as a real-world version of the Ritchie Rich comic book. His words, not mine.
The collection was so staggeringly vast that they couldn't even start the job.
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Zombie_Babies
First Post
Yeah, Russia has good diamonds and they learned the game from the people that know. Odds are they've got some awesome stuff secreted away, too.
I'd love to see a collection like that and it sounds like an interesting story to boot. I'm not terribly familiar with it but I think I'll have to check it out. Thanks for mentioning it, bro. Sounds like it'll be a good read.
I don't know if Dr. Freed's tales ever got told outside his classrooms. He and his colleagues were allowed to take pictures of the stuff on display- which he showed to us- but nothing from the vaults. His imagery was vivid, though- he described the first emerald vault as being stacked to its 20ft ceiling with bushel baskets of uncut stones...and how they had to kick fist-sized ones out of their way just to look into the baskets.
Zombie_Babies
First Post
Scott DeWar
Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure
Huh, was looking about and found a platinum cast of an 18th century skull encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds made in 2007. It was called "for the Love of God"
the Jester
Legend
Sure. Nothing wrong with sex, or with filming it/taking pictures. As far as acting/performing, I'd be leery for health reasons, but with the right people (e.g. amateur porn with friends), why not?
Yeah, but I'd rather not. It's one of the ultimate jobs for coming across as sleazy, whether you are or not. (Yes, even moreso than being a porn star IMHO.)
Oooh, I guess this one depends. Slinging weed or psychedelics in a situation where I was confident that I wouldn't get caught or face any repercussions? Sure, maybe. Building a meth empire? Hell no. As a rule of thumb, I'd be very uncomfortable dealing drugs that I won't have around me (you brought some pot over? no biggee; but you bring some crank or heroin into my house, and you're leaving as soon as I know about it). Not all drugs are the same.
Erm.... speaking of sleazebag jobs... but yeah, if I had to, or if I was working to better the country (or state, or city, or whatever). This is another "rather not, but reluctantly" kind of job for me.
Only if prosecuting a war I believed in; generally speaking, a defensive war (either in defense of my country, an ally or human rights in general, and that last one is almost never the real reason for a war). Otherwise, no; a soldier must fundamentally be ready to kill on command, and that's not a position I ever want to be in.
Big fat nope. I don't have a problem selling tobacco (though I find it generally distasteful), but I can't imagine taking a job where I'm working in an industry more duplicitous than politics.
Sure. Why not? I'd even flap my testes at the paparazzi.
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