Sunday, October 22, 2006

Diamond CSR, or not...

NPR's piece on the up coming movie "Blood Diamond" reminded me of a recent website created by the diamond industry, Diamond Facts. I admit it is poorly named, particularly since the "facts" are "sourced from" the likes of De Beers Group and the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council. Why don't they attribute a fact to its direct source?

What I appreciate about the Diamond Facts website is that it does help people understand some of the issues at stake. It doesn't mean consumers should be any less vigilant and I certainly question some of their sourced facts from the diamond industry. But at least one can learn about the Kimberly process. I do think the companies are in a tough spot as they working in extremely difficult political environments.

But why didn't Diamond Facts have a link to Global Witness?

Read this gripping story on Diamonds, children and witchcraft and if you think Diamond Facts might need a slight change in it's presentation. Also another BBC story from the Central African Republic.

4 comments:

albeo said...

Interestingly, not only there is no link to Global Witness, but also no link to the Kimberley Process' official website, which - in turn - makes no mention in its links page to Diamond Facts.

There clearly is a lot of dialogue and good faith running between all these worthy initiatives...

Pavlusha34 said...

Ah, but I still see progress, even if you think me a sell out, and I did read another WWF-led publication yesterday that also quoted what I initially thought was the impossible 99%.

steetoa said...

Some consider the Kimberley Process a bit on the bogus side. According to their certifications, the Central African Republic exports around 2 million carats worth of diamonds a year while the mines in that country are probably only capable of producing 500,000 carats max a year. Check out The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire (Zoellner). It's a great read.

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