A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND
You don't have to be too old to remember when women wore fur coats made with real, animal furs. That era departed rather swiftly when public opinion was swayed in favor of elimination of fur coats because of animal cruelty concerns.
We haven't stopped eating hamburger or chicken salad sandwiches yet, and there is no indication that we are about to give up our enjoyment of seafoods and other eatables which result in the death of creatures.
Nor, has leather been banned. It has been replaced by artificial materials which do as well at less cost, but the making of leather is not forbidden. Except for specialty markets, it is just not as profitable as it was at one time.
Thus far I haven't found a any favorite food products which come up to that taste like the realthjing.Try what they might soy shows.
It seems logical that the next item to go in to oblivion will be the diamond - that symbol of love and romance, that icon of the rich. It is fated to be discontinued as a result of cruelty to humans, oddly enough. The catalyst of this new campaign to forbid the use of diamonds, has gained new impetus from the war and strife in Sierra Leone, Africa, and other such areas. It has grown to such an extent that De Beers, the world's major diamond merchant, has started a PR campaign to improve it's public image.
The situation has existed before - in the Congo, in Angola and other hot spots, but never to the extent that came be in Sierra Leone. The rebel group there, called Revolutionary Union Federation (RUF) a small Muslim-oriented group of malcontents, captured the area in which diamond mining has long been the major occupation. That was in 1991 and since then the group has grown in number and in wealth from the sale of diamonds, smuggled through Liberia and other obliging neighbor nations, to the Antwerp Diamond market. The continuing war is financed by diamond mining in this manner.
The RUF has been particularly cruel in treatment of natives in the mining area. Amputation seems to be the prevailing mode of punishment for even the slightest opposition. Photos of young girls with stubs where hands used to be are becoming all too common.
Several important points must be considered when we think about outlawing diamonds.
First, diamonds have no intrinsic value. They are plentiful and value is maintained solely by market control tactics. Second, one company - De Beers, Antwerpt, Belgium, controls two-thirds of the world's diamond trade. Third, in Sierra Leone, in 1991, remember, the RUF group has become aggressively prominent in disruptive world affairs through their abuse of humans in regard to this traffic in gems. They have become "notoriously brutal" and have gone too far. A logical comparison migh tbe with the cocaine ooeratives in Colombia andtheinteractionof politicalandmilitry stgructgures.
Watch for such a change. Diamonds may well be "a girl's best friend" but there will be thlse who will insist that:“Diamonds must go!"
A.L.M. June 2, 2003 [c549wds]
