Friday, June 27, 2008

Diamonds are forever. So is scoliosis.

Recently one of my Fraternity sisters got engaged. The very next day she posted the requisite picture of the engagement ring.

Also, the box that it came in had a light in the top so that you can see the shiny shiny diamond inside. Nice touch. Because I'm sure if he hadn't included that light she'd have said no. He'd have gone down on one knee and opened the box, and she'd look down and say "It's night time. I can't see the shiny. My answer is no."

Really though, they're a sweet couple and I wish them the best. They've been together for awhile and they're moving on with their lives together. Awesome.

This whole thing (in addition to this article) just sort of reminds my of my own stance on diamonds.
No. I've never seen Blood Diamond. I intend to eventually. I've felt this way since my World History teacher sophomore year of high school talked about why she doesn't wear her diamond ring.

Many of them are "blood diamonds" and almost all of them are mined by children. Think about that every time you look at your rock. Children.

The cheapest way to get diamonds out of the earth is strip-mining which is terrible for the environment. The processing requires the use of resources (especially water) that would be better served growing crops, or pretty much anything else.

DeBeers is a cartel that set the demand and artificially set the prices. They control all the mines and they have warehouses full of diamonds that they carefully monitor. Carbon is the most common element, so it stands to reason that diamonds are extremely common. They're extremely overpriced rocks.

In addition to all this, it is now possible to grow diamonds in a lab. Perfect diamonds, in any color you want. Of course DeBeers is on top of that because of course lab-grown diamonds mean that you appreciate and love that woman less because your feeling is as artificial as they are. Yeah.

So let me say this: if you love me, if you really, really love me, then you'll either buy me a lab-grown diamond or use the diamond earring my grandmother left me and set it into a ring. Either way, it would be more meaningful to me.

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