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Title: A brilliant reminder of what forever looks like... [PIC]
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Published: Jul 5, 2009
Author: unknown
Post Date: 2009-07-05 04:34:17 by wudidiz
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#6. To: wudidiz (#0)
HOW TWO MONTHS' SALARY LASTS A LIFETIME IN REALLY EVIL SHIT: The diamond engagement ring tradition could be the greatest PR scam ever invented. It is ingrained in society that everyone from the stockbroker to the janitor has to shell out thousands to the diamond industry if he wants to marry his woman. After all. It's "how you can make two months' salary last forever," right? Eighty years ago, your great grandparents didn't do this when they got married. They gave each other big wooden boxes and simple things like promise rings and hope chests. The allure of diamonds is part of a huge, century-long conspiracy by the diamond industry, namely giant De Beers, which controls stockpiles and sets the price of stones, which aren't the rarest in nature, even though they're the most expensive. Janine Roberts has made a career out of following this seedy business and exposing the oftentimes disgusting lengths it goes to maintain control over the diamond's worth. She recently took a few moments to share some thoughts from her most recent book, Glitter & Greed: The Secret World of the Diamond Cartel. BT: When did this whole diamond engagement ring thing start? JR: Diamonds became engagement stones around the end of the recession. Ernest Oppenheimer, who was in control of De Beers in the 1930s, was shutting down diamond mines to control supply and keep the price of diamonds high. He sent his son Harry to New York to meet with advertisers, because he realized that he couldn't have diamonds being bought up just by rich people. They needed something that would appeal to everyone. Well, everyone has to get engaged. So they spent a million pounds a year (about $1.7 million) to establish the diamond engagement ring as a sacrament -- a spiritual thing. "Diamonds are forever." They invented that and advertised it at every high school at the time. They got Paramount Studios involved by having the female stars wearing diamonds and by creating diamonds films. Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" and such. That advertising campaign created the myth. It was quite different in old times. Diamonds in India, for example, were worn for many years mostly by men. Their hardness was a symbol of fertility. They had to create a new story about diamonds for the woman. BT: The diamond industry, especially De Beers, which now controls a vast majority of the rough diamonds being sent off for polishing, will do whatever it takes to control the supply of diamonds and keep the prices up, according to your book. What other egregious examples are there of price fixing? JR: De Beers always says they don't restrict supplies. But I've talked to sources, and researched industry books, and I found De Beers records with Ernest Oppenheimer quoted as saying they have bought out farms rich in diamonds and hid them. One farm was in Arkansas. In about 1910 a pig farmer in Arkansas, about 120 miles south of Little Rock, was cleaning out the swill when he found some diamonds. He couldn't believe they could actually be diamonds, but hesent them to Tiffany's, who reported back that they really were. This farmer found a diamond pipe in Arkansas. He hired a couple of companies to help him mine the top 40 feet or so to raise money for proper equipment to set up a full production mine. They sent stones to Tiffany by the tens of thousands. Good quality gems. Geologists came in from a mine manager of a De Beers mine in South Africa and also reported that this was a highly commercial deposit. There are plenty of records that this was so. After about 20 years of work on the deposit, the owner of the mine went to New York to meet with Ernest Oppenheimer, who was a very big seller through Anglo American, a De Beers rival at the time. I have a copy of a cable sent from that meeting by the mine owner to a manger back in Arkansas. The Arkansas mine owner said that Oppenheimer has extraordinary ideas about mining, to shut down the activity, hide all the paperwork and "I'll explain when I get back." Henry Ford was using industrial stones from Arkansas for his assembly line. Ford offered to pay premium price for them. That was refused. He asked the owner to name his price for the whole operation. To his amazement, he refused to sell it and instead shut it down. The allegation is that the mine owner went off to get a lucrative job with De Beers. BT: And this is legal? JR: The Justice Department believes it was a conspiracy to control supply. The U.S. is the biggest market for diamonds in the world. Due to the Sherman Act's ban on international price fixing, diamond cartels couldn't control that mine in Arkansas, which appeared to be so rich that it could destroy part of the controlled market for diamonds. If the U.S. was independent of Africa, that would be disastrous. So it stopped being a mine, and it is now a tourist attraction. For $4 you get a pair of boots and a spade, and you can dig a hole -- no deeper than four feet -- and take home what you can fill a bucket with by nighttime. If you see it, it looks like people picking mushrooms or strawberries -- crawling, looking for stones on the surface. The deposit was so rich that you can still find them there. People actually dig up around 300 a year.
Crater of Diamonds State Park Arkansas, The Natural State, is blessed with an abundance of geological wonders. Crater of Diamonds State Park, the only diamond-producing site in the world open to the public, stands out as a unique geological "gem" for you to explore and enjoy. Here, you are invited to prospect in the park's diamond search area, a 37-acre plowed field that is the eroded surface of an ancient volcanic pipe that 95 million years ago, brought to the surface the diamonds and some of the semi-precious stones lucky visitors find here today. Diamonds of all colors of the rainbow can be found here at Crater of Diamonds, but the three most common colors unearthed by park visitors are white, brown and yellow. Crater of Diamonds State Park is a rockhound's delight since, along with diamonds, more than 40 types of rocks and minerals can found here, too. These rocks and minerals include lamproite, amethyst, banded agate, jasper, peridot, garnet, quartz, calcite, barite and hematite. In 1906, John Huddleston, the local farmer who owned this property then, found the first diamonds near Murfreesboro, Arkansas, and started the diamond mining rush. According to the history of Crater of Diamonds State Park, after a series of ill-fated diamond mining ventures, followed by tourist attractions, the diamond mine site became an Arkansas state park in 1972. Within the park boundary, many remnants of old mining ventures remain, including the Mine Shaft Building, the Guard House, mining plant foundations, old mining equipment and smaller artifacts. Nowhere else is North American diamond mining history as evident or as well preserved as here. Along with the diamond search area, the park has hundreds of acres of natural forest featuring a diversity of flora and fauna and offering visitors interesting things to do. Arkansas's natural and cultural diversity -- the geology, history, plants and animals -- makes Crater of Diamonds State Park a unique Arkansas attraction unlike any other in the world. You are invited to visit this one-of-a-kind attraction and experience the thrill of digging for diamonds in the rough. Our park staff will identify your finds for you. And unlike other diamond mines, our park has a policy of "finders keepers." Any diamonds, semi-precious stones, rocks or minerals you unearth are yours to keep, regardless of their value. To find more attractions near Crater of Diamonds State Park, please visit our attractions, lodging and dining page on the Arkansas Dept. of Parks and Tourism website. Latest Recorded Finds Date of Find Home State of Visitor Color Weight
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#10. To: X-15, tom007 (#6)
6/30/2009 Florida White 0ct. 58pt.
6/29/2009 Illinois White 0ct. 6pt.
6/29/2009 Illinois White 0ct. 3pt.
6/28/2009 Arkansas Yellow 0ct. 14pt.
6/28/2009 Arkansas White 0ct. 19pt.
6/27/2009 Arkansas Yellow 0ct. 10pt.
6/27/2009 Illinois White 0ct. 14pt.
6/27/2009 Arkansas White 0ct. 20pt.
6/27/2009 Arkansas Yellow 0ct. 42pt.
6/26/2009 Arkansas White 0ct. 6pt.
6/25/2009 Tennessee White 0ct. 7pt.
6/25/2009 Illinois Yellow 0ct. 4pt.
6/24/2009 Arkansas White 0ct. 14pt.
6/23/2009 Arkansas Brown 0ct. 3pt.
6/23/2009 Arkansas White 0ct. 11pt.
6/23/2009 North Carolina White 0ct. 93pt.
6/22/2009 Texas White 0ct. 46pt.
6/22/2009 Arkansas White 0ct. 4pt.
6/22/2009 Arkansas White 0ct. 10pt.
6/21/2009 Florida Yellow 0ct. 13pt.
6/21/2009 Arkansas White 0ct. 4pt.
6/21/2009 Texas Brown 1ct. 27pt.
6/20/2009 Arkansas White 0ct. 2pt.
6/20/2009 Arkansas White 0ct. 3pt.
6/20/2009 Arkansas Brown 0ct. 8pt.
6/20/2009 Florida Brown 0ct. 3pt.
6/20/2009 Florida White 0ct. 3pt.
6/20/2009 Florida White 0ct. 24pt.
6/20/2009 Florida White 0ct. 32pt.
6/20/2009 Pennsylvania White 0ct. 17pt.
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