Ethical Issues

The man gets down on one knee, grabs hold of the girl's hand and she covers her mouth as she is overtaken by emotions. The man pulls out a tiny box and opens it up to show off the sparkling diamond engagement ring before asking the question, "Will You Marry Me?" 

The classic love story which peaks when the man asks for the woman's hand in marriage. They are officially engaged once he props a diamond ring on her finger. 

However, there is another side to this story that never gets covered in the media. It is the dark side of the diamond, where if the public knew about the horrors and atrocities that take place to produce this mineral - perhaps we would re-think the way we celebrate "love." 

Diamonds are timeless, beautiful, symbols of love. They are the world's most precious gems. Or as the popular slogan of the cartels has simply claimed, "A Diamond is Forever." 

But the astronomical prices paid to the jeweler to possess these beautiful gems, is nothing compared to the ultimate price paid to mine the diamond in another world away. 
The sale of diamonds from these rebel groups funded civil wars in a number of African nations by exchanging diamonds for weapons. As these horrendous acts were carried out for decades, the West turned a blind eye to the blood diamonds they were flossing on their fingers and showing off to their friends and family. Civil wars were being fought in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. More than four million lost their lives, many more displaced, and hundreds of thousands suffered varying level of war crimes including intentional mutilation/amputation and rape. All of these wars were funded by the same currency - diamonds. While the "blood diamonds" found their way into the global market in the 1990s, it wasn't until the mid-2000s that people started becoming aware of the blood that was being shed in producing diamonds. Since then the industry - like all industries that expose cheap labor in under-developed countries - put up a few cover-up operations that put up the illusions that their products come from non-conflict areas. However, even the "non-conflict" diamonds come from one of the most corrupt industries in the history of the world. This industry has developed one of the greatest marketing schemes in the world that have us believing that love is synonymous with diamonds and getting the world to turn their heads to the crimes against humanity being carried out to bring us the gems that we need to express love.