tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732322676995190327.post-70658986724287472112008-02-05T04:19:00.002+02:002008-03-31T05:20:06.296+02:00<div align="center"><a href="http://www.iansa.org/issues/images/diamonds-price.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.iansa.org/issues/images/diamonds-price.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> <em><a href="http://www.iansa.org/issues/images/diamonds-price.jpg">Photo</a>:</em> Blood glittering on a machete may play a role in creating glittering necklaces</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><div align="left">It's rubies, too. And jade. And this is just in Burma.<br /><br />I was wondering today, "I haven't heard anything about Burma since the mass protests last fall...what happened? How did it drop out of the news-o-sphere? Did things resolve well?"<br /><br />So I googled Burma and clicked on the Human Rights Watch (HRW) link and sadly, so far the abusive government has had the last say...the crackdown on the protests was effective and "hundreds of people are being arbitrarily detained," according to HRW. It is sad that when millions of Burmese gather to protest, the world cheers them on and the media boasts brave images of the monks and civilians engaged in civil disobedience...but then afterwards, when the Burmese really need us, we disengage and go about our lives as if those protests were not a life-and-death struggle but a diversion for us to enjoy until we got bored.<br /><br />Moral #1: I need to not let my knowledge of the world be determined by news cycles.<br /><br />I also found out that apparently, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_diamonds">diamonds</a> are not the only gems funding military conflict in this world. Burma is the world's largest producer of rubies, and its sales of rubies and jade help keep the oppressive military regime in power.<br /><br />So, Moral #2: don't buy jewels. Ever. (Only semi-joking).<br /><br />Since it's so hard to figure out if a gemstone is really "bloody," (i.e., helping to fund wars and dictatorships) and since companies have figured out so many ways of giving clean documentation to a tainted gemstone, the only way to avoid dirtying your hands is to avoid buying any. Or I suppose, you could buy secondhand.<br /><br />...But why buy at all? As Thomas More says in <em>Utopia</em> (gotta love this guy), "<em>The folly of men has enhanced the value of gold and silver, because of their scarcity. Whereas, on the contrary, it is their (the inhabitants of Utopia) opinion that nature, as an indulgent parent, has freely given us all the best things in great abundance, such as water and earth, but has laid up and hid from us the things that are vain and useless</em>."<br /><br />Vain and useless. Or worse, funding slaughter and suppression of freedom.</div></div>Kristinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12194078107819036706noreply@blogger.com